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 24th, 2008 at 4:45 am
With all the talk of Etsy not knowing or adhering to their own rules nor spelling them out, I had to die of laughter when I saw this thread.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5431990&page=1
Admin Starts Thread recommending a violation of the Do’s & Don’ts
Sellers Revolt
Oops, Admin Closes Thread
I so LOL’d
January 24th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Oh ok JB :)
I emailed them the other day about how I am doing the right thing and why I couldn’t be reinstated. I got an email back from “Emily” today, saying something that didn’t even ANSWER my question. I don’t think “she” even read the email.
It said that it is being shut down because I am the owner of both the shops. Which I never stated I wasn’t or even asked about that in the email.
January 24th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Closedshop I totally understand, the point I was trying to make is that they didn’t shut you down for the one bad transaction on heyprettycupcake, which is what their first email said, and which caused some of the confusion. It looks like they are taking both shops down just because you owned them both, not for anything you did or didn’t do with heyprettycupcake.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:18 am
The majority of the negatives were for LACK OF COMMUNICATION, which is a given. I was packing, moving, making sure I didn’t forget anything. My computer was the first thing to be packed up.
I stated that I will be back in JANUARY and people were leaving negatives in the middle of December, a week after I had said I was moving. Of course I couldn’t communicate, hence the reason I put up an announcement.
I don’t think that should even be a case now. They shut me down, I am taking care of my customers and they still won’t reinstate me and I don’t even care about The Promo Shop, I don’t want that one reinstated, that is the one I was having problems with!
As I have said 100 times before, I have been ripped off for a lot of money on Etsy. I have convo’ed the seller many times, contacted Etsy AND paypal, never got a refund or a sorry, but they are still a seller.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:01 am
For sellers, 92% is pretty low. People on Etsy are so afraid to give negatives that I rarely see high volume sellers with feedback below 99%. When you have hundreds of sales, one or two negatives will not drop your percentage below 100% because it is rounded off. So 100% really doesn’t mean 100%, it doesn’t mean you have never had a negative. There are lots of sellers with a 100% rating who do still have a few negatives.
(low volume sellers are a different story because a single bad feedback can knock you down to 80 or whatever) I have seen buyer-only feedback go as low as 60% without Etsy taking any disciplinary measures, but there is a different standard for buyers than for sellers. (and that’s another issue, why are CHRONIC non-paying buyers allowed to keep “buying”?)
But with as many sales as thepromoshop had, they needed over 20 negatives to reach that 92% rating. All of the negatives were recent, and some were really vitriolic.. If each of those people also made a complaint to Etsy, then yeah, I think it definitely could be grounds for Etsy taking action.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:38 am
by the way, as someone who sells elsewhere, i’ve certainly seen worse. HOWEVER, most of the other sites i’ve looked at kick people after about 3 strikes.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:37 am
did you read the feedback? it’s one non-delivery after another.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:58 am
“i hadn’t looked at the feedback for the other shop. It is pretty bad, and i guess that is my point.”
I’m going to have to disagree here.
92% is NOT bad. It’s still in the upper percentage. Now if it was below 75%, I’d raise an eyebrow.
I’ve seen ALOT worse elsewhere.
So I seriously doubt that simply because that shop had a less than 100% positive feedback, that that was the reason it was closed.
And if it was, well, there’s something not quite right about that. Because I honestly think it’s unreasonable to expect every single store to KEEP at 100% positive feedback. That’s unrealistic to me. You simply cannot please every single person you sell to, and they will leave you less than stellar feedback. That’s absolutely no reason to lose your shop simply because you’re not at 100% anymore.
There obviously are other reasons as to why Etsy closed that shop. We’ve heard the shop owner’s side of things, we’ll never hear Etsy’s. But to think it’s simply because the feedback was no longer 100%.. that’s delusional to me.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:52 am
i hadn’t looked at the feedback for the other shop. It is pretty bad, and i guess that is my point. While Etsy clearly made some mistakes, attributing the account removal to a single incident (at least that is the situation as it has been presented), when there was a clear problem. I also think it’s important to acknowledge (i’m hardly a etsy cheerleader here) when they seem to have behaved appropriately. While family emergencies, of course, take precedence, numerous orders that were ignored are just not okay.
I understand (and have dealt with sudden emergencies) but not taking the time to email your customers when you run a business is obviously a problem.
I wish cupcake well and hope that she does well elsewhere.
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
There are many collaborations stores on Etsy, it is allowed because they are using other artist’s artwork (with permission) then creating their own items from it.
I just discovered yesterday that Dawanda has an On Vacation option. It’s awesome! And their Search WORKS :)
Also, in Dawanda forums, there have been a lot of people posting that they’re from Etsy and have just opened a shop on Dawanda, some of them mentioning they’ve done it because of the stuff going on at Etsy last weekend.
I know of at least 25 people who have opened shops on Dawanda this weekend, I think it’s fabulous!
Oh and we just made the ‘Top Sellers’ on the English Dawanda list for this week :) Totally psyched!