Etsy Support is a joke

[3DPrintBotCo]

Does Etsy even have a support team? I have been a seller for over 3 years with over 2000 sales. My shop has fortunately been running great until December of last year. I have had non stop issues with their site performance and lack of support. By performance I mean only getting sales with that awesome 12% extra Etsy advertisment fee tacked on. Now my shop has been put in vacation mode due to their inability to verify my government issued ID? Yes, the same one that I used to open my shop with. How do you get an onboarding failure 3 years after you have been onboarded?

Since they put my shop in vacation mode I have lost the sales for the 2 custom orders I was working on and the cost of the materials that were used to make them.

Thanks Etsy!

Where is the so called live 24/7 support? That is non-existent also.

Sales are down over 70% this year.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Etsy is obliged by law to reverify your information periodically.  Absolutely everyone on Etsy has to do so.  Your information must match exactly the documentation you provided. 

You can see what is already held by Etsy by going to Shop Manager - Finances - Legal & Tax Information.  You should have the option to Edit this information if needed and Submit.  

You are also required to enter your SS number by scrolling down that page to Additional Legal & Tax info, put in your number in the box and select your country.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save if there is one or click Submit if not. 

Verification is outsourced so Etsy "support" cannot hurry it along.  I believe it can take up to 21 days but hopefully not. 

Unless you have made $10,000 in any year then you can switch the Offsite Ads off.  

Go to Shop Manager - Settings - Offsite Ads

Hope you are up and running again soon. 

[3DPrintBotCo]

My information does match. Even funnier that the same exact information works on eBay and Amazon..

No ss when you use a EIN.

Hit the 10k mark.. so I had  that going for me. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@3DPrintBotCo: "How do you get an onboarding failure 3 years after you have been onboarded?" Not withstanding the fact that Etsy could make the process more transparent, the reality is that the ever changing laws mean that we sellers need to get used to more often and more in-depth re-verifications. The 'fudge' factor is also melting away where discrepancies that did not matter before now do. And the reality is that what was acceptable for verification yesterday may not be enough today.

Sales are (drastically) down for many many shops - the reasons range from external ones like the economy to internal ones like tweaks to the organic search algorithm, the number of sellers compared to the number of buyers, a changing buyer demographic, etc. If you are truly "only getting sales with that awesome 12% extra Etsy advertisment fee" and no sales from Etsy's organic search you may want to review your listings to see why.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@3DPrintBotCo   In your dashboard > Help > Contact Us.  They can't help you with Verification. The process takes time and apparently varies according to other forum posts similar to yours. 

[PrimFun]

You use Contact us to contact Etsy to ask if there are any issues with verification.  Names and addresses have to match and if yours has even the slightest of discrepancies that can cause a pause.  3 years ago Etsy only asked for ID.  Now they have stepped up verification processes and with the amount you sell you need to be verified for the Inform Act which means having certain pieces of information in place which you may lack if you did not look at the information from last year or so.

Etsy has 7 million sellers so it does take time.  Nothing can be done in a few hours or a day and there are sellers which much more urgent needs that need attending to.

If the item had already been paid for then you can ship the item using an outside label.  If you did not get paid when the order was made then that is on you as most sellers who do custom tell others to get paid fully up front.  You can mark the item complete when you get your shop back up and running.  You might even be able to extend shipping date.  You can ask Etsy if you can do that.

Etsy's support is not 100%.  No one's is.  There are always going to be people who sort of get left behind.  Not because they don't want to help but the sheer volume of people needing help.  People who clog up Support by not reading the articles or Our House rules where they can get the answers they need without talking to Etsy.

And I have never had chat.  I always use email.  Email is sometimes quick and sometimes not.  

[3DPrintBotCo]

There is no issue with my documentation. They declined it with in minutes. All information matches and it is exactly the same for me as it has been for the last 3 years! I have had to provide them the same infomration each time! Perhaps you have been lucky and only had to provide them with ID, but that hs not been the case for me.

When etsy puts your shop on hold they also put a hold on your funds. So while I did collect the payment I am unable to get the funds! so instead of making a comment, you should probably understand what the issue is first. I refuse to extend the shipping date. I also refuse to ship using an outside provider as there is no way to find out when Etsy will have my shop fixed!

[SugarTaffySoap]

@3DPrintBotCo   There's another seller with the same verification issue as you.  They upload documents several times and receive a template email. Try a forum search because this happened a while back where many sellers were experiencing the same problem around the same time frame. Reach out to them via message and see what you can find out and if they have any recommendations. Normally I would not suggest this, but if you cannot get a callback from Etsy - there's not much else you can do. I do know there is a time frame with which you have to wait