Seller ArtfulMarket is the latest shop to be shut down under confusing circumstances, according to this forum thread started by ArtfulMarket using another account. ArtfulMarket is one of Etsy’s most successful sellers, with close to 15,000 positive feedbacks, and who makes regular appearances on EtsyTools top sellers lists. At the time of this article’s publication, the ArtfulMarket shop is the “brick wall” indicating a closed account.
lynn61056 says:
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am trying to find out why my shop is gone. I have tried to contact Etsy about it and they sent me an abuse report from a customer who says they never received their order. Funny thing is I can’t find any record of the order in my PayPal account. So it appears they may have shut me down over an order that was never paid for. To all of my loyal customers I will continue to get all of your orders out from the invoices in my PayPal account until I can get this resolved. I am in shock that Etsy would shut me down considering I have almost 15,000 positive feedback. It appears there has been a BIG misunderstanding. I have sent several more emails to Etsy and have not received any response. Please be patient…I am still around!
Please note that Etsy’s version of this incident is not currently available, and ArtfulMarket’s post cannot be verified by UEN at this time.
edit by JB February 25
artfulmarket’s Etsy shop has been reinstated
As well, earlier today, seller Whatyoumacallits reported on the forum (via another account) that her shop had also been closed without warning. Their shop has since been reinstated. Whatyoumacallits has over 140 positive feedbacks and no negatives.
Edit:
A THIRD shop has been reported as closed without prior notice: Thatsmycharm, according to this thread posted by the sellers’s girlfriend (who is a top seller herself). As of February 11th, Thatsmycharm had over 1300 positive feedbacks and no negatives.
Thatsmycharm’s shop was reinstated on Saturday.
According to a statement by admin Kfarrell in this thread, this is Etsy’s notification process:
kfarrell says:
Transaction report emails go out automatically whenever a customer files a nondelivery report. The seller receives an email to let them know a report has been filed, and the buyer receives an email advising them to contact the seller directly. The emails do not assign blame to either party.If you get a notice of a nondelivery report filed against you, contact both the buyer and support ASAP with any information on when you mailed the package, how it was shipped, where it was shipped from, etc.
for previous coverage of this issue of shop closures without warning, please see these previous articles:
http://etsynews.com/584/two-seller-accounts-deleted-under-strange-cicrumstances/
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)
Edit by Serena 2/22 1:30 ET:
Etsy admin daniellexo recommends the following steps to ward off surprise account closure:
1) Please make sure your email addresses are correct on file. If this address isn’t correct - we can’t contact you and neither can buyers.
2) Add support [!at] etsy.com, abuse [!at] etsy.com and billing [!at] etsy.com to your address book. This way it will not be forwarded to your spam/junk mailbox.
3) Keeping open lines of communication with Admin. We will try to contact you numerous times.
Source: Fora.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 am
While I’m glad to see that at least one admin is now aware of the situation, Robwhite does not have the authority to re-open shops, and I daresay ArtfulMarket will lose a considerable amount of business over the weekend if they do not reinstate her shop immediately.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
there’s a phone number listed on the privacy page and I just checked and it is the etsy labs number. Might be prudent for them to update their core pages when things like this change.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:46 am
i believe the etsy phone number is to the labs…which has normal work hours during the week.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:36 am
I think robwhite is on the case now. Hopefully this can get resolved quickly!
For future shut-down posts, would you think it worthwhile to post the etsy phone number in the post? Most people don’t realize they have one and from past experiences we know that it seems to be the best and most immediate solution.
~Sarah
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 am
A third one?
Holy s**t.
It’s another black Friday. This is just what they did when they deleted Thaidreams shop and a few others, they did it late on a Friday and then all went home for the weekend, leaving the forum mods to deal with the protests and outrage.
How much more proof do the doubters need, do you need to get run over by the train yourself before you will believe that trains kill people? The bodies are all over the tracks, open your eyes.
These are not isolated incidents, these are not ” technical glitches”, these are not a bunch of scammers and liars who are trying to steal buyers money. These are reputable sellers with thousands of happy customers, shops that pay their bills and do everything they are supposed to do. If it can happen to them it CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. All it takes is one malicious competitor to make a sock puppet, buy something of yours and report you.
This was thatsmycharm’s feedback on February 11th
Positive: 1,301
Neutral: 2
Negative: 0
feedback doesn’t lie. These are good people and they are getting a raw deal.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 am
I already knew all those things were lacking at Etsy but now I find that they also don’t seem to have the slightest idea what side their bread is buttered on. Even if they have no courtesy or ethics, I’d at least expect them to have some desire to make MONEY and not to piss off their biggest earners! In any normal business, the top sellers like Artfulmarket would have a staff member who was their account manager, someone they could go to with any question or issue and who was the designated point of contact between them and Etsy.
I know this sounds undemocratic, all sellers should be equal, yadda yadda yadda. But this is business, and in the real world, money talks. Clients who bring in the most money do get perks and that’s just life. Of course the same rules should apply to everyone but you just do NOT treat your biggest customers like dirt if you want to stay in business. This can’t be anything other than a mistake and in the real world, people get fired for mistakes this big.
I really hope that when Etsy reinstate artfulmaket, whichever admin did this better kiss some MAJOR ass and apologize, something they’ve never done with all the other shops they closed without warning.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 am
I have just edited the article to include a THIRD shop that’s been reported as closed.
I’m thinking back over the forum threads about various shop closures and all the people who dismissed them as isolated incidents or assumed that the seller must have been at fault because admin couldn’t possibly do anything unwarranted or unethical and I hope this WAKES THEM THE FUCK UP.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 am
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5452155&page=2
shall we count the lies?
Lie #1: Not every shop is given 80 days to respond before their shop is closed. In most cases, the reported transactions were purchased less than 30 days prior to shop suspension. In other cases, the seller WAS corresponding with Etsy immediately prior to shop closure, so there was never an 80 day period of no contact.
Lie #2: There are not always “many” emails sent to a seller before a shop is suspended. In some cases there are NO emails sent until after the shop is closed.
Lie #3: These unwarranted shop closures are not always fixed “right away”, sometimes it takes days to get a shop reopened. Especially when admins make a HABIT of closing shops late on a Friday afternoon and then they all go home for the weekend. There is no emergency phone number and no support on weekends.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 am
Well, if anyone was waiting for a wake-up call, this may very well be it.
Etsy has claimed that it will NOT close a shop for a single complaint, and will try to contact the account holder at least three times before taking any action. This latest closure would seem to indicate otherwise.
How utterly horrifying that Etsy is intruding beyond the scope of its venue status into the business of its sellers, and routinely neglects to give them the opportunity to answer any complaints. If reputable, reliable sellers do not feel safe doing business on Etsy, they will leave.
Communication and consistency are obviously strangers to Etsy. I might add common courtesy is lacking as well.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 am
This is unbelievable to me. I mean I already knew that Etsy did close stores over one complaint, without contacting the seller first or even asking for their side of the story. That’s happened to enough other people that it no longer surprises me. But the shocking thing here is they did it to a HUGELY successful seller, one of their top income producers.
I know whenever this happens someone says “well that’s just one side of the story, how do we know the seller is telling the truth?”
Feedback doesn’t lie.
This was artfulmarket’s feedback 3 days ago
cached on Feb 19, 2008
Positive: 13,959
Neutral: 29
Negative: 3
Only 3 negs out of almost 14 THOUSAND positives. That to me is utterly amazing feedback, I don’t see how anyone can sell 15 thousand items and not have at least one or two unhappy customers. You can’t possibly be perfect and please everyone but Artfulmarket came as close as humanly possible.
I see people say “oh it’s just a mistake, everyone makes mistakes, Etsy will fix it”. These mistakes cost people MONEY!
How much money is she losing every day waiting for Etsy to reopen the store?
NOW will people listen? NOW will they believe?
If this can happen to a TOP seller it can happen to ANYone.
This is the exact same story we’ve heard from so many sellers, does anyone still believe all of them are lying?
Etsy never contacted the seller to notify her of the complaint.
Etsy never checked if the buyer had paid for the item.
Etsy never asked the seller to give a refund.
Etsy never asked the seller to show proof of shipment.
Etsy got one complaint from one customer and closed the shop, and the first communication the seller received from Etsy was the email saying their shop was closed.