Today Etsynews has learned of two successful Etsy shops that were deleted under seemingly strange circumstances. This is complete account deletion- the shop is a brick wall. It’s not the same as being muted in the forums. Etsy has warned users with bills over 3 months overdue that their shops will be deleted, but neither of these cases seems to be related to overdue bills. Both sellers have received emails from Etsy which state the reasons for their stores being closed, and they are not bill-related.
All of the information we have about these two cases comes from the sellers. Bear in mind that there are two sides to every story, but Etsy will never discuss the cases in public so we will never hear both sides. Certain facts can be verified using google’s cached pages and posts in public forums.
The first deletion we learned of was Thaidreams.
This is a cached page of her shop on January 12, 2008.
As of January 12, she had 100% positive feedback and had made 466 sales.
She wrote about Etsy closing her shop in her blog here, and she posted the email that Etsy sent her in her blog here.
The reason allegedly given was “a history of conflicts”.
The second deleted shop is still trying to get reinstated, so I cannot publish the shop name.
(update, January 22: Closedshop has posted her full story on page 14 of the comments on this article, and has revealed her shops to be heyprettycupcake and thepromoshop)
They did create a second account “closedshop” to post in the forums about their situation, and Etsy has since deleted that account as well. They (originally) did not publicly reveal their main shop name and UEN will not reveal it either, but I have verified by cached google pages that the shop had 100% positive feedback on January 16, two days ago.
This is their forum post.
They have multiple posts in the thread giving their version of events.
Other sellers in that thread (aorta, automaton, magicjelly) described having similar treatment from Etsy. (shops closed without warning for one lost package)
aorta says:
youstink, a buyer never got something so they filed a report to etsy. i never found out till my shop was closed- brick wall. i talked to admin who explained they send out 3 emails before they close a shop, but i never got those emails so i was shut down.
the admin i talked to did quickly reinstate my shop though.
magicjelly says:
Haven’t read the whole thread yet, but just wanted to add that this exact same thing happened to me last year - a former feature seller with 100% positive feedback, just like Aorta.I phoned NY & my shop was immediately reinstated. I was assured it was human error & that steps would be taken that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again.
Both closedshop’s buyer and magicjelly’s buyer were told by Etsy to file cybercrime reports with the FBI.
The thread was locked with this admonishment:
RobWhite says:
We can’t discuss specific situations between Etsy admin and members of the Etsy community.For clarification, sellers who have bills that are 2 months overview will not be able to list, relist or renew items in their shops. Sellers who have bills that are 3 months overdue may be suspended. You can find that information in the Storque here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/billing-alert-a-reminder-about-the-new-policy-for-the-new-ye/858/ , which is also referenced in the most recent post about overdue bills here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/cant-post-new-listings-overdue-etsy-bill/1038/
We also ask that you do not make alternate accounts on Etsy for the sole purpose of posting in the Forums and/or chat rooms. The best and most expedient way to handle this situation is to contact Abuse at abuse (!at) etsy dot com.
Robwhite later in another thread explained he posted the overdue bill information to answer some general questions from the thread, but NOT to imply that the OP had been deleted for having overdue bills. (which would be a violation of their privacy if that was the case and he had discussed it in public)
previous UEN coverage of shop/account deletions
http://etsynews.com/73/unwarrantedaccidental-shop-suspensions-sellers-be-warned/
http://etsynews.com/75/another-case-of-erroneous-shop-suspension/
http://etsynews.com/80/how-does-admin-handle-shop-suspensions/
http://etsynews.com/312/etsy-says-no-double-billing-has-occurred/?cp=5
(see comments, not main article)
other users who have had shops deleted without warning, although most have been eventually reinstated:
moxierings
walkonthemoon
ScrapScrap
magicjelly
aorta/automaton
retroattic
thepromoshop
heyprettycupcake
Lesliejewelry
update, January 22:
Closedshop has posted her full story here:
Please note again, that this is the seller’s version of events, and UEN does not guarantee the accuracy of comments.
http://etsynews.com/?p=584&cp=14#comments
She has revealed her shop names: heyprettycupcake and thepromoshop. (both accounts are deleted/closed)
Etsy will not be reinstating either shop.
Update January 31:
another case of sudden shop closure: Lesliejewelry
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5444820
That shop has been reopened
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
hahahaha - in my post 128, I meant to say “we have been welcomed with open ARMS by Dawanda” and not ‘open army’. Don’t think they had guns??? :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
closedshop, soooooo sorry you have had no satisfaction from Etsy. We got no response to our email asking why we had been kicked off either.
Don’t worry - open a shop on Dawanda, they are FABULOUS, and look at bigcartel.com. FREE shops and NO COMMISSIONS. We’ve had 4 sales on Dawanda in 3 days and Dawanda admin are unbelievable! Plus listing on Dawanda is EASY and the only thing you pay on Dawanda are fees, so NO listing fees.
I predict Dawanda will be HUGE soon, and Etsy will have died a strangled death. And me, I’ll be happy ringing the death nell :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Beequeen Says:
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Re: Thaidreams shop. I know that the ousting wasn’t due to questionable merchandise (although alot of people, both buyers and sellers, found the items suspect),but to say that it is partially due to racism is reeeeeally stretching it, don’t you think? They could have come from ANYWHERE. Many people came to that conclusion, not because they are in Asia,but because there were a couple of other resllers on etsy (now gone) who had some of the same stuff (or what certainly looked like the same stuff). The same stuff that is all over the internet and on ebay. And it wasn’t just the pants, although that is what is always brought up. It is the bags,the embroidered scarves, and some of the other goods.
————
Beequeen, HUH????
First of all, we don’t sell ‘embroidered scarves’. I’ve made 2 scarves in the whole time we’ve been on Etsy - they were batik scarves where I used batik fabric, cut the scarf to size and handsewed the silk fringe on it. And our customers who bought them loved them! And bags? I make elephant bags, which my family has made for YEARS (we have a shop at a local market here) and reversible bags, every bag is different, no bag uses the same fabric or design. And EVERY customer that has bought one of my bags has loved it.
And for you to say ‘buyers’ found the items suspect? We had a higher percentage of feedback from our buyers than most people did on Etsy (About 70% left positive feedback, the rest didn’t leave anything). We have a much higher percentage of feedback than sellers like the black apple. We’ve had NO negative feedbacks in almost a year on Etsy, with almost 500 things sold.
This again goes back to the pure ignorance of so many Westerners about Asian culture. My family has been in business for almost 40 years, starting with my grandmother and aunt. My mother used to make clothes before we moved to the US. My sister has been sewing and helping my grandmother with her shop since she was 10 years old. EVERYTHING we make is handmade by us. We decided to make Thai fisherman pants because they sell well. We use a much heavier fabric than is used on the cheap ones at the markets, (the cheap ones are usually fake ‘rayon’ and they die after 3 washes). We French seam every seam, we serge the seams on the pants where we use fabric that frays. We had HUNDREDS of feedback, many from people who sew themselves, saying “There is NO way these pants are mass-produced”.
We’ve had customers who have bought 10 pairs of pants, because they’ve loved them so much. We have one customer in the Netherlands who cannot get enough of our pants and was so happy today when he found us on Dawanda.
Yet we’ve had stupid people on Etsy say, “why don’t you make these pants using flower fabrics if you’re not resellers?” Because we’ve done this in the past and they DON’T SELL. Most people want plain Thai fisherman pants not flowered fabrics or stripes.
And this is what is so annoying! All these people spouting off about our products have never bought one, refuse to listen to what our buyers are saying, in feedback and make their ‘resellers’ claim based on nothing more than we live in Thailand.
I’ve even hand painted 3 pairs of pants with gold buddhas, and that made no difference to the ‘reseller’ idiots either.
Honestly, GET A CLUE! Resellers don’t have such amazing feedback (even from etsy admin who bought our pants), resellers don’t offer incredible customer service, RESELLERS DON’T ALTER THE LENGTH OF THE PANTS THEY MAKE!
Why is this so difficult to understand? I feel like I”m talking to some people sometimes who must have the mental IQ of an imbecile. Either that, or they’ve never left the US and have been so brainwashed with the ’sweatshops in Asia’ propoganda that the US government is always pushing out, that they’ll never listen to reason.
Anyway, whatever, I”m not responding to stupid statements anymore. We have hundreds of happy customers, we love making the things we do, we’ve been welcome with open army by Dawanda. So Etsy can go f*ck themselves! :)
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Closedshop, I’m horrified. They clearly seem to be punishing you for speaking publicly, not to mention attempting to cow anyone else into silence who experiences the same thing.
Stella also had this to say in Buttonempire’s thread:
stellaloella says:
If a seller has publicly posted policies about returns,
refunds, etc. then YES, Etsy will honor those personal shop
policies. However, we will ask to confirm that the item was
sent — which is why I mentioned proof of shipping. (This
is to protect everyone from fraud, not to punish sellers in
any way.)
I wonder if she knows she’s fibbing. It sucks to be the messenger.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
closedshop, I’m so sorry to hear that this has happened - the fact of it happening in error didn’t surprise me at all, but the fact that it’s been made permanent is shocking. Have they given you any additional reasons for ‘refusing service’ apart from non-delivery of that one item? I can’t help but wonder if you’ve been penalised further for speaking up, even though you’ve done it anonymously :(
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
closedshop, that is unconscionable. Truly.
There is an ongoing thread in Help that asks the very pointed question of whether a shop can be closed based on non-delivery of an item. http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5429569
Here is a compound admin quote, from page two:
Obviously, what admin says and what admin does are two entirely different things. (Evidence of what dingo was talking about on the previous page).
Unbelievable.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
“closedshop’s real shop is still closed too, btw. I just checked and hit a brick wall.”
It’s closed for good.. They are “refusing” service to me after something I am trying to clear up and doing the responsible thing as a shop owner. I won’t be back to Etsy.
I am going to focus on promoting my own shop, not Etsy.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Here’s something you may all find amusing: the automated answer system at Bell Telephone Canada goes by the name “Emily”. A cold, compassionless, faceless automaton that repeats herself, doesn’t answer the questions you ask, and who you frequently want to punch in the face.
http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bc/2003/01/16/69697.html
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
closedshop’s real shop is still closed too, btw. I just checked and hit a brick wall.
January 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
When you constantly ignore customer service and treat your customers like morons, it doesn’t matter how ‘cool’ your site is……because people will get fed up and move on to other companies that treat them with respect.
For me, I find the total lack of respect for Etsy members (as a whole) to be quite telling in how inexperienced Admin actually are. Sure, there are some who are consistently thoughtful and sincere in their forum postings or email responses but there are others who are loose canons, who treat it like a game. As someone who has worked in customer service for years, it is the most puzzling and arrogant approach to customer relations I have ever witnessed.