2 Hurricanes in 13 days hosed my all of my Star Seller stats...is it worth it to try to repair?

[LLPapergoods]

My traffic has been steadily declining since 2020 for this site. I created this store as something i wouldn't need to manage every single day. The Etsy "Customer Service" improvements has changed all of that. I feel like i am jumping through hoops for less and less money.

On top of that, My home was hit by Hurricane Helene AND Hurricane Milton. I had orders well past due, but all of my customers were understanding.  My Customer Service stats will be in the absolute gutter. Traffic is already at a trickle.

Should I even try to bring it back?

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Are you up to date now?  If so, just keep going and I am sure you will eventually get back to where you were. 

If you are not up to date then I would cancel/refund those you can't do yet in case someone opens a case and Etsy steps in who could put you into vacation mode or worse.  Hopefully it is the former!

I hope you get your house sorted too - hit twice is real bad luck for you. 

[OrangeGroveBeads]

I am in the same boat, also Hillsborough county. Etsy star seller is not even on my radar of things I am concerning myself with right now. I'll probably lose it for next month due to late shipping but that's fine. I have had it every month since the beginning and I don't think that it has ever given me any sort of advantage. My advice would be to do what is best for YOU right now, not Etsy. 

[PillowDetails]

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/HURRICANE-MILTON-will-be-Devasting/m-p/146731789

Read @thatregina s pinned post - reach out to Support.  Best wishes to all who are affected.

[theferriswheels]

We got hit with Helene (thankfully not nearly as hard as the counties directly to our west) and were stressing trying to get orders out with no power or internet.  Once the power was back on (almost a week later), we got an email from etsy saying we would automatically get star seller for Oct as long as we had it for Sept.  We only shipped one late at that time, but it was quite a feat!

I imagine the same will be true for Milton.  I can't imagine why it wouldn't.

[Natalya1905]

Check your listings for trademarked items (mouse ears, pink doll, GoT, Army and other logos, etc.), then read the link above. 

[CoquetteBath]

Yeah, this would be a good time for the OP to run through her shop.

A lot of things people don't know...like 'superhero' is intellectual property. Flags. Insignias of military groups. Of course, any known game or movie, or doll...

basically if you didn't design the idea, you can't use it.

[ModAngie · Accepted solution]

I'm so sorry to hear about the effects of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in your area, and I want to assure you that we're here to help support you and your business. We’ve notified our support team of your situation and they will be reaching out to you directly;  you can also contact Etsy Support directly.  

I also recommend checking out the following Help Center and Seller Handbook articles, which offer suggestions on how to manage your shop during this difficult time as well as resources for recovery. 

[FringeVintageShoppe]

I have the same problem. I live in St Petersburg and still only have spotty wifi. Just got power back yesterday. Hurts to be dinged by Etsy after going thru a hurricane. I have tried to contact Etsy through the link someone shared but it just takes me through a maze of other links and I don’t have enough cell signal to go through that. Why can’t they give at least an email address to contact? 

[Photohacklovers]

I am having the same issue and need assistance, the etsy support button was removed and no way to contact anyone, I just assumed that etsy would know we had back to back hurricanes and not hold it against our shop.

[ThePurplePuppy]

The same thing happened to me when the bootleg fire swept thru here 3 years ago.  I cancelled a bunch of orders but the ones I was able to fill were late. I did not stress myself to get "star seller"  I just kept doing what I had always done and eventually all those bad stats fell off and I was SS again.  I have not really seen any difference in business whether I have that star or not. Perhaps it gives your search parameters a bit of a boost. That is about all I can think of.

We do get the chat option but I found during the fire they are pretty useless actually so have not used them since then.