Some Etsy sellers are reporting a processing error when trying to pay their Etsy bills.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5742842
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5742843
Credit cards are being declined, or said to be expired, on Etsy’s end when they should not be. Several users reported being charged more than once after making multiple attempts to submit payments (verified through their CC companies). In some cases, Etsy does not record or credit the payment, even after payment has been completed and independently verified.
CAUTION:
Be sure to submit your payment only once. If the payment does not register on Etsy, then verify the payment with your CC company before making any further attempts.
If paying via debit card, submitting a payment more than once could result in overdrafts and accompanying fees.
update by JB, Aug 4
Stellaloella has posted this update
Yesterday (Sunday, August 3) from approximately 4:00 AM to 11:30 AM EDT a small percentage of our sellers experienced a problem paying their Etsy bills. This was due to a malfunction at one of our third-party credit card processor’s gateways. As a result, these sellers were informed that their cards were not charged, when in fact they had been. Some sellers attempted to pay their bills more than once and subsequently were charged more than once.
The malfunction was resolved by 11:30 AM EDT Sunday and all subsequent Etsy bill payments have been recorded and processed correctly. At no time were any credit card numbers or sellers’ personal data exposed.
In order to clear up this problem, our credit card processing company is crediting back all impacted bill payments that occurred during this time period. We are contacting the sellers that were affected to let them know what happened.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Since this is a billing matter, we will work privately with the sellers who were affected. Please contact billing [!at] etsy.com if you have a concern or question regarding this matter or your Etsy bill. Thank you.
Posted at 7:09 pm, August 4 2008 EST
See also: This storque article
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Uhm, this certainly doesn’t do much for improving my view of an IHPS. Shudder.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
an admin has finally replied:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5742843&page=8
August 5th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Ok I got the email announcement, it says the refunds should be within the next few days, but may take up to 5 business days to appear on your credit card statement. They are not just refunding the duplicate payments, they are refunding all payments made during that time window on Sunday morning. So you’ll need to pay your bill again after you are sure the refunds have been made.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I finally found my password so I can comment again :) Anyway, I never got an email about refunds…maybe it was just sent to those who paid?
August 12th, 2008 at 5:15 am
UPDATE from Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/tech-update-credit-card-gateway-issue/2364/
August 13th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Update:
On both Monday August 11, and Wednesday Aug 13, I received identical emails from Etsy with updates on the refund situation. The wording is nearly identical to the Storque article.
Both emails said Etsy had spoken with the credit card processing company “today”, (i.e. the day they sent the email) and that the current ETA for refunds is “imminent” but that might mean “later this week or beyond depending on how your banks process the payments”.
It is a bit confusing because the Storque update from Aug 9 says the same thing. If Etsy actually spoke with the credit card processor on Aug 9, why do the emails sent on the 11th and the 13th claim they spoke with them that day? Did they actually speak with them 3 separate times, and just sent identical emails each time, or did they last speak with them 4 days ago?
August 13th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Another Update:
I received another email regarding the refund, this one says: