Etsy admin, Emily Bidwell chimed in here on a forum discussion about the realities of blocking unwanted buyers on Etsy.
emilybidwell says:
REFUSING SERVICE
The seller may refuse service to anyone for any reason. No questions asked. The seller is expected to cancel the sale and refund the buyer if they paid.
BLOCK BUYER
To block a buyer, please send them an Etsy Conversation. Explain to them in an appropriate way that you cannot offer them your services. If they continue to buy from you, Etsy will consider this harassment, and may suspend the account. Contact abuse [!at] etsy.com if this happens.
FEEDBACK
Feedback is an important community resource. It is a record of not only your performance, but of both parties account of a transaction. We understand that feedback is not always perfect, but in order to preserve the integrity of the system, we consider it permanent. It is the right and duty of each member to leave feedback to the best of their ability. We encourage everyone to leave feedback that is professional, accurate and fair. Ideally, the feedback should be an account of the product, the transaction and the service. If you have a problem with the feedback you received, we ask that you settle the dispute via the Kiss and Make Up feature. If you cannot Kiss and Make up, you may present your case to us at abuse [!at] etsy.com.
Posted at 11:38 am, November 9 2007 EST
Also, on page 40 of the same thread, Emily confirms that Etsy will remove negative or neutral feedbacks left by rejected buyers.
emilybidwell says: If the buyer leaves a negative feedback as a result of the seller cancelling their order, will Etsy remove that negative? (Or remove a neutral?)
………………
We would definitely look into this, as it would likely qualify for removal.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:18 am
What I have seen happening in cases like this is that well meaning people from Community, Marketing or Support at Etsy are trying to solve problems that really need to be solved by the Engineering and Product departments.
November 12th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I think they would need a few octogenarians on the staff to balance out the army of 20-somethings and raise the average to 39…
I think “allegedly” is even better word choice than “apparently”, because it is “apparent” to me that shenanigans are afoot or that someone flunked statistics 101.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
on reflection i think “apparently” should be substituted for “evidently” in my post
i was gobsmacked at Anda’s remark in the age thread - i think 29 is a much more representative guesstimate, unless they have some really ancient (and I’m talking dinosaurs of ooh 35, 40y) employees working waaaaay behind scenes
in the nature of full disclosure, i am a fully burnt-out has-been of 42
November 12th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
I have to challenge the accuracy of that statement.
http://www.etsy.com/about.php
The photos of the staff show people mostly in their late 20’s, a few in early 30’s.
There are only 2 or 3 who could be over 39, so there is no possible way that 39 is the average.
I think Anda was “joking” when she said that, or perhaps it was a typo and she meant 29. I would believe 29.
There was a similar “typo” in a press article about RevolvingDork, which stated he was 34. He was actually 24 at the time. That was the newspaper’s responsibility though.
I think instead of inflating their ages to appear more mature or experienced, perhaps adjusting their behavior would accomplish the same goal.