Etsy bills are always due on the 15th of the month, but today, November 14, many Etsy sellers were surprised to discover their accounts are marked as having “overdue” bills one day before they were even due.
The alert states:
Alert! You have overdue fees.
The problem was reported in the bugs forum here.
Etsy did not acknowledge that marking bills overdue before they are due is a bug, but RD did state:
RevolvingDork says:
There is no mention of “late fees” on the site, anywhere.There are, however, lateness penalties. For more on those, see here: http://www.etsy.com/billing_how_billing_works.php
The link he posted states:
If the 15th passes and your Amount Due has not been met (or exceeded), we will send you an alert, and you will see a notice when you log into your Etsy account. If your account becomes 2 months overdue, your ability to list new items will be automatically suspended. After 3 months, your account will be suspended entirely until it is brought back up to date.
The 15th has not passed, in fact has not even started yet, even in the Eastern time zone. But people are seeing the “overdue alert” when they log in.
For more information about billing and overdue penalties, please see this article
http://etsynews.com/500/etsy-changes-policy-about-overdue-bills-unannounced/
The policy has changed three times in the past 6 weeks.
policy on Oct 5, 2007 :
Starting in January of 2008, accounts with fees that are 3 months overdue will not be able to list new items, and having fees 4 months overdue (or greater) will lead to account suspension.
policy on NOV 3, 2007 :
If your account is between 31 and 60 days overdue, your ability to list new items will be suspended automatically and you will receive an email to let you know that your account is overdue. If your account becomes more than 60 days overdue, your account may be suspended.
policy on Nov 14, 2007:
If your account becomes 2 months overdue, your ability to list new items will be automatically suspended. After 3 months, your account will be suspended entirely…
UPDATE by Soap:
According to Chris,
[I]t is the 15th now, so unpaid bills are now due . . . .
The moment it becomes the 15th, bills are considered to be overdue.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I’m kind of amazed that Etsy refuses to refer to GMT for all sorts of important things (presumably because it’s so ‘foreign’ - and despite the fact that it would be enormously helpful to the vast number of people on the planet who have no concept of US EST!), yet they’re using it for something as critical as billing without even telling anyone up front!
And this combined with bills being overdue the moment they are due … oh the insanity.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I didn’t see it until after the other thread too, but the timestamps seem to exonerate him of repeating the mistake after being admonished.
But this has happened before.
http://etsynews.com/318/admin-divulges-sellers-personal-financial-information-in-the-fora/
November 15th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I did not see it until after the other thread was locked. Perhaps someone bumped it up, was back at the top of the forum when I saw it.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
He posted that before the other thread, and before getting corrected by users in the other thread.
RD Posted in the thread you linked to at 12:50 pm, November 15 2007 EST
RD posted the calling out in the other thread (the locked one) at 12:54 pm, November 15 2007 EST
that thread was locked and Stella’s apology posted at 1:56 pm, November 15 2007 EST
Now I do agree that BOTH of his posts are totally out of line, but he didn’t “do it again” after being scolded and after Stella apologized. Hopefully he will actually learn from this, but I am not having much optimism there since he never has in the past. :-(
Perhaps if he made his OWN apologies when he screws up, they would *appear* more sincere? I really feel bad for Stella because any time any staff screws up, she has to make the public or private apology! And she almost never screws up herself. It’s not really fair to her.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I cannot believe that RD posted someones private information on another thread!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5321357
Especially after the response he got the first time. I thought it was tacky that he let Stella apologize for him in the other thread. Apparently it meant nothing since he did it again. Which is why he never apologized himself I would guess.
Not cool.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
and since the majority of Etsy sellers live west of GMT, their bills will actually become overdue on the 14th, their time. I am in California and my bills were marked “overdue” at 4 PM on the 14th.