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 23rd, 2008 at 7:28 am
It seems like etsy has spun out of control to the point of no return, and right now I want to know how what measures they have adopted to grapple with these issues at hand. I’ve seen thaidreams being harassed in the forums and while the comments about the U.S that she made weren’t exactly fly every country has it’s problems and while the flaws of America are being pointed out by her, so are that of other Asian countries by others. The Asian countries have been picked on mercilessly about how it is a region where there are factories and mass produced goods all around — and well, what are genuine artists from thailand, singapore, hongkong and japan suppose to feel about such callous comments? Some people I’ve spoken to do not subscribe to the ‘race cards’ and accume thaidreams of using it all the time but seriously, do these people see half the things written on the forums sometimes? I find it terribly absurd that forum disputes are not terminated before anger rears its ugly head and feelings get hurt. It’s like admin secretly revels in the melodrama and commotion it causes, before finally getting bored and decides to close the thread.
I suppose all this talk makes people defensive and trigger happy with their words. And while this is an issue that etsians need to work on, ETSY as a corporation has outstanding problems like this one. Admin needs to clarify candidly what exactly went through their minds when they decided to close the stores of thaidreams and prettycupcake. They need to quantify why shops have been closed so randomly, overly fluffy reasons involve $3.50 transactions and forum harassment with the victims being one of the sellers. This miasma of fear and uncertainty only serves to deter future buyers and sellers, and Etsy can spend billions on advertising which will still come to naught if they don’t try to keep their existing users.
I think etsy is a worlds apart from ebay and I love etsy for that but I really think they need to start getting their act together.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 am
Poompat Says:
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:09 am
It would be easier to support Thaidreams if she hasn’t been making anti-American comments on the forums (even in threads not related to her defending her store) since she showed up on Etsy. It’s offensive to me and my family who made the choice to live here. Things aren’t perfect here, but they aren’t perfect in Thailand either.
- Thank you for bringing up this point. This is partly what rubbed me the wrong way when I saw the race card being pulled yet again. I found it ridiculously hypocritical, considering the fact that Thaidreams has taken more than a few cheap shots at Americans in the forum in the past. Things that had me shaking my head in disbelief, to be honest. Yet Thaidreams comes back now with: well, these things happened and they just happened to be American”. Uh, well more than a few resellers on Etsy just happened to be Thai! Come on.
I have been to Thailand and one of my best friends has spent the past 10 years living there. He was a highly successful male model (all over Asia) who went on to open three highly successful jewelry stores- one in Thailand, one on China, and one in Japan. He can now retire at the ripe old age of 25, is he so chooses. He loves it there and doesn’t plan on returning to the states. I know first hand the stunningly beautiful handmade work that comes from these countries. I also know that a whole lot of mass produced goods (yes, some of questionable quality) flows out of there very freely. I was not trying to inflame, but state my personal views on the topic and what I know and see firsthand.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 am
http://en.dawanda.com/shop/heyprettycupcake
Yay, lol
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:51 am
I’d hope that buyers and sellers from the US can get used to doing things in Euros to some degree. For many of us not in the US, buying (and selling) in a currency which is not our local currency seems like a pretty normal thing to do - and it’s really not that scary.
Also the Euro is a far more stable currency than the USD has been for a while now, which makes life easier as you can more easily keep track of what the exchange rate is and for sellers it means you don’t have to keep upping prices!
But, yes, Paypal will always rip you off when it comes to exchanging currency - and there is no way around it, unfortunately. So you do need to factor that in to your pricing.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:42 am
“When selling things on DaWanda you need to enter your bank details at the latest after your first sales. Until then these fields are optional.”
I don’t have a bank account, surprisingly, I just use paypal. Has this been a problem for anyone?
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:33 am
closedshop, I’ve heard love.li doesn’t have many sales?
But if it was me and you have time, I would open a shop on Dawanda, ecrater, bigcartel and love.li and anywhere else you can think of - even Ebay! If you have a huge internet presence you can’t fail to be successful IMO.
Just sit down and spend your next week setting up shops and posting in their forums and all the time keep thinking “F*ck you etsy, f*ck you etsy, f*ck you etsy” …… that’s what we’ve been doing LOL. My mom always says “Success is the best payback”.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 am
closedshop, you convert from US to EUR and then list your prices in EUR. Then when it sells, it automatically gets converted to US in Paypal. Just MAKE SURE you add a little extra to what you would normally charge on Etsy - (we add about 40 cents) because PayPal seems to charge a higher fee for EURO conversions.
Also you can put in your listings the approximate US dollar price (we haven’t yet but that’s what we’re going to be adding this week). That way American buyers will have an idea what the cost will be without having to convert.
Great thing about Dawanda though is listing items is soooo easy, and they have templates so you can list something similar and don’t have to type in all the information again like you had to on Etsy’s stupid system.
Seriously I think Dawanda is going to be huge and those who get in on the beginning could really do great!
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 am
Has anyone tried lov.li?
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
Thank you Thaidreams, thats really nice of you..
I will have to look into dawanda some more. My kind of products are a real good seller anywhere, I am willing to try out new things.
Would I have to convert from US to EUR and then would it be in my paypal as EUR? I have never dealt with international payments before.
Anything is better than Etsy I suppose :D
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 am
Closedshop, 500 items on etsy was $100, so the $20 is cheap :) I think it’s 10 free items for the free shop, but yes you’re correct that wouldn’t work for you.
dawanda is completely free listings with a 5% commission if you sell, which is waaaay cheaper than what we were paying on Etsy. You DO have to list in Euros but you can go to http://www.xe.com to convert into US dollars and in our 7 sales, 6 of them to Americans I think (?) nobody has had any problems with the Euro issue.
Good luck with it and contact me if you have any questions or problems about set up. Also visit their forums, the people on there are really nice!