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 6:05 pm
There are plenty of other collaboration shops, some of which are featured sellers or spotlighted on the Storque, so I think it must be allowed. If it wasn’t allowed, then she should have been told that was the reason for banning her. I think after seeing the cached feedback score on thepromoshop, that was the real reason for the banning. I am still confused why they didn’t tell her that right off the bat, it might have avoided some of this confusion. I think that Etsy telling her they were banning her over the one bad transaction on heyprettycupcake is partly what led to this sense of injustice. Now that we see the feedback on the other shop it makes a bit more sense, although IMO it’s still pretty heartless.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
To the people questioning my time on Etsy: Hey Pretty Cupcake started off as a consignment shop. Strictly consigning on heyprettycupcake.com. Later down the road, I thought that starting up a collaboration would be fun for not only myself, but artists as well. I started selling the collaborations on heyprettycupcake.com but wasn’t getting enough exposure so after a long thought and talking to my collaborators, we opened up an Etsy.
That is when we had 2 sections of Hey Pretty Cupcake. The .com was a consignment shop and the Etsy was a collaboration station.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I just thought it was interesting side note. Clearly unrelated to what happened here, but for me at least, makes me question things. It’s very hard to separate out all the issues.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
rita: from looking at the google cached page of heyprettycupcake, I recognize several of the artists featured in her products. I’m guessing she had a collaboration with them, like photoglassworks, where she would put their art into her products (buttons, bottle openers, etc.). I can’t speak for the rest of her stock as google cache only shows the first page :-/
there is also a http://www.heyprettycupcake.com which functions as a consignment store. So I’m thinking that the etsy store was legit, while the personal site was consignment.
Completely irrelevant to the snafu at hand, but worth mentioning.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 am
I’m going to say something that will probably make people mad BUT, it doesn’t appear to me that cupcake really belongs on Etsy. As far as I can tell, they are a consignment shop.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=178875580
When i look at stores like this, i wonder how they ever ended up on etsy to begin with. While i understand that that situation should not have happened as it did. Clearly, Etsy should not have closed their shop in the fashion that they did. I’m not sure why one would not take a couple minutes to put items in edit mode if a family member was ill. It seems to me that while Etsy made many mistakes, I also see that cupcake made some mistakes as well.
as far as ThaiDreams, i have to be honest, consistently fighting with people is a bad business choice, and this is part of why. I have no doubt that Thai feels like she has been attacked. I’ve read enough of her forum posts to see where she looks aggressive and not very pleasant. This should have resulted in a forum muting, not closing of her store.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Maggie, why would they give us a Vacation Mode button…it doesn’t involve Flash!
(and yes, it would be such a handy function to have)
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
what they also need is an 800 customer service number.
Relatives might not know how to edit your shop announcement, make your items inactive, etc.
But some could call 800- Etsy and explain what is going on, let customer service make any necessary adjustments.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Closedshop’s story just underscores the need for etsy to have one button vacation option for stores. It is not so hard when you have a ton of planning time to put all your items into edit and put up new banners and avatars to make announcements prominent. But for example last week I went to the ER and ended up staying the week in the hospital and getting major surgery. There was really no way for me to talk my husband through the process of putting my shop on vacation, especially considering he was also taking care of me and the kids.
Etsy wants us to communicate with customers, but they do not really give us the means to do so.
Also, it shows that all a competitor has to do to get rid of you is buy an item, then claim they never recieved the item.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:28 am
Vanessa- along with Dawanda, you should also use ecrater, shopify, or zen cart- as a shopping cart for your US customers. Linking it from your blog, website, etc.
eCrater is free, you can use paypal or google checkout. Same with shopify. I think some people in the US will be reluctant to shop in Euros. Just my opinion.
And just to reinterate, another point.
Etsy has stated that they discuss things privately with sellers. .
They have also stated in the forums, that they might ban/mute people, and the people banned/muted will not be aware for what infraction the banning/muting is for.
Discussing things privately with sellers would be fine. Slamming the door on them, without an explanation, or appeal process, isn’t so fine.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
closedshop, YAY!!!!! You have a Dawanda shop, I’m sooo happy for you :)
And no, we haven’t entered bank account info yet. And we’ve had 8 sales there (1 more sale today for a total of 5 sales in 3 days :)…..I think somebody on the forums asked that question and Dawanda’s response was something like ‘don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out’ :) But I think PayPal may have been mentioned as an option too? We can’t do bank account info because it’s too expensive to transfer from Thailand to Europe, but we can do a credit card attached to a bank account so we’re hoping that’s how we’ll pay. So far Dawanda seems really laidback about it, so we are being too LOL.