walkonthemoon’s story:
Just wanted to let you know…. This actually happened to me around Christmas time. I had a customer request a Custom Order & then Subsequently change her mind. I refunded her payment & never marked the item as shipped. About 2 months later I got an email from Etsy saying I did not ship an item and the Customer was furnished with the FBI Cyber Crime thing & my account would be suspended if I did not respond. I responded to the email explaining that she changed her mind & the Payment was refunded. About 2 days later I got the same email & responded agian explaining what happened. I even contacted the buyer (nicely - & asked if she was unhappy in any way with the way the transaction had been concluded & to doublecheck that she had received her refund).She said she had received her refund promptly & was very satisfied since it was she who had backed out of the transaction. She said she had not reported the transaction to Etsy in any way. In fact, she had left me Pos. feedback previously.
FINALLY, I got a 3rd notice from Etsy staing the same as before & saying my account would be suspended within 24 hrs (or something like that) if I did not respond. I responded once agian, somewhat harshly…that I had responded to their emails on 2 previous occasions and was quite unhappy that I was continuing to receive these threatening emails when I had, infact done nothing wrong. My account was suspended! I sent an email directly to admin, explianing what had happened, that I was furious & what did I need to do to have my shop re-instated (offering to send the Paypal receipt from the refund). The next day I got an email from Admin saying something to the effect of ooops, we made a mistake, your shop had been re-activated. No explaination, no apology, nothing. I had no idea this was happening to so many others. Thanks for putting it all on the UEN! -Regina (walkonthemoon)
14 April 2007 1:12pm EDT
Note: As you read these accounts, please keep in mind that UEN only has access to one side of the story: the seller’s. We believe, however, that this is far too important an issue to go unmentioned.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 am
[...] 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/ [...]
January 19th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
[...] http://etsynews.com/75/another-case-of-erroneous-shop-suspension/ [...]
April 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5081880
another threat of shop suspension, this time the complaint was made because the seller did not email the buyer immediately after the purchase. I never knew that was required by etsy! I usually do it anyway but I thought that was the seller’s decision.
Also this seller has 100% positive feedback, and was threatened with shop suspension based on one customer’s complaint.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:43 am
I’ve got a four-letter word for Etsy: damage control.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
“When I contracted for Etsy and asked who’d I be reporting to I was told that I wouldn’t be reporting to anyone, and got the sense that was the case for everyone.”
Got to say, it shows……
There appears to be no real structure.
Hell, even if there was only three guys working on it, there would still need to be structure.
When you’re looking after thousands of customers (members) it is vital to have definitive areas for things like Customer Service. At least there would be some continuity….which is painfully lacking at the moment.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
JB said,
April 16, 2007 @ 6:07 pm · Edit
“because I dared to used the word “manager”, or “business”, or “professional”, or “PR”.”
OMG those are not 4-letter words!
I agree. It’s a little disingenuous anyway - it’s called Etsy Inc. By definition, it’s a corporation. Not all corporations are bad and/or big. We all manage in our lives, well, if we have any time constraints at all on us. Individual sellers are “PR people” on a daily basis - heck, people are every time they decide what to wear and whether it is appropriate for the occasion even if it’s informal.
It’s all good.
April 16th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Thanks JB. :)
April 16th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin’s_law