We have been around for a few years, and never had any problems, when we suddenly recieved a 'Bummer! Etsy has temporarily disabled your messages...'.
Now we are unable to respond to customer inquiries, nor solve any issues with previous orders. This was over a week ago, and we have reached out to Etsy by chat, email, and even social media. They keep saying they'll escalate a ticket, but we have recieved no emails or anything on the subject. I've spoken to several of their people over chat, and they tell me they will escalate it.
This is truly awful, as we are now recieving poor reviews because we cant solve the issue for customers.
We have never sent an unsolicited message, only responded to other's inital messages to us.
Etsy is creating a poor customer service environment, and penalizing us personally for their failings.
I'm hoping by posting here, I might grab the attention of someone who can help.
Any ideas?
You can always email the buyer.
We've tried that, and got a single response out of dozens
@GlassGrownAquatics Did you put in the header line what the problem was and a deadline for response?
any chance you were using auto-reply?
I use auto reply and do not have the problem.
We were! But only after hours and weekends. Could that really be it?
I can see how the auto reply could get caught up in the sending too many similar messages issue that gets some people locked out of the convo system. It would be an error/glitch but it's definitely a possibility for the origin of the problem.
You are not able to send a reply via the message system? Just making clear. If you have an email reply, reply back to it that you still need help and cannot reply to the buyer. Chat cannot help with this and who knows where it gets placed in the line up when they submit it. That's why email is often preferred for technnical issues.
You will need to be persistent in emailing Etsy about this. Other sellers have experienced the same thing. It's a limited problem so it just does not affect enough sellers to get Etsy's immediate attention.
We have sent several emails and never recieved a reply at all. It was very strange. When I keep reaching out to chat, I keep making sure they are using the correct email... and they are! Checked spam and all that.