Deactived listing by Etsy

[ZEEMRusticHomeDecor]

Hi, 

I had my best-selling listing deactivated by Etsy and I am at a loss for what to do. It is for a Ceramic Sink that I have sold tens of, I have a five-star rating and almost zero negative reviews. I'm the one who produced the product from start to finish. There aren't any prohibited words and the product itself is not prohibited. Why out of nowhere would Etsy deactivate this listing???I have submitted a query but haven't heard back(sent over the today). Any insight from the community would be much appreciated.

[sweetcakessassypants]

No insight but there must be a bot sweep today. I had the same thing happy for one of my most innocuous listings that doesn't even sell that often. I'm going to wait the 10 days and see what the outcome is before I reach out to Etsy.

[Vintageables]

@ZEEMRusticHomeDecor -- while I cannot provide an answer to you why this has happened I would like to share my story about a listing removed by etsy.  It was a pair of vintage YSL earrings that for some reason or another ended up in the wrong category: "A member of my shop" when it should have been: "Another company or person".   This accidental mistake caused removal of my star seller status as well as imposition of a payment reserve. The reserve has been lifted.  Just as I was re-newing a few listing I saw the earrings; the listing etsy had returned to may active listings.  Well, guess what?  That listing still contained the wrong category which got me in this mess in the first place.  Mind you, when the listing was deactivated, I changed to the correct category but of course left the item in "inactive".  Strange that it should have been returned to me store with the uncorrected category.  Is this a gotcha?

[JDTotesnDolls]

Certain it wasn't the fact that the earrings were YSL.  Etsy did and still does sweeps over designer items.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ZEEMRusticHomeDecor: "There aren't any prohibited words ..." The problem is that sellers do not know what the prohibited or even trigger words are. We can only infer some from posts in this forum and guess at others. Often it is a word taken out of context; so if you say an item is ivory colored the listing may get flagged because ivory is not allowed to be sold on Etsy. Since Etsy is now also factoring descriptions in search, they along with titles, tags, and materials (and possibly even alt tags if you are using them) are all probably being checked. And the bots are also "reading" images.

[PaperSymphony]

What do you mean "bots are also reading images"

[BagmakerSupply]

@PaperSymphony: The bots are able to recognize "text" on an image - so, for example, if New Yorker starts looking for IP infringements they will find their name in your picture even if you never use the words anywhere else in your listing.

[AnniebelloPaper]

@BagmakerSupply @PaperSymphony it's not so much they are reading the 'text' on an image, they are recognising shapes, colours, logos and such that are TM or 'look like' something else. That's why a lot of listings are being taken down for drug paraphernalia - something in the photo looks suspicious but actually isn't.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Can you describe the item?  Was it a floral or greenery design that could be mistaken for something endangered?

It might have been a word that is thought to be for drug use or endangered or even medical and the bot removes for Etsy to review.  My understanding is that it is taking a few days for Etsy to review items deactivated.