Etsy is Highlighting a Very Bad Review I received 6 Years Ago

[SepiaSmiles]

All of my other reviews since then have been great. I am not sure why Etsy would make this one-star review for a product I stopped selling years ago to be the Very First review everyone sees!! 

*The bad review is when you are on the listing pages rather than the main reviews section. It makes it worse because when you look at the listing the first thing you see is that embarrassingly bad review.

I have looked into the Help section for a way to contact them about this but there doesn't seem to be a help contact category for this. 

Can anyone help me with how to contact them? It is incredibly unfair. At least I may have found the reason for why my sales have ceased this month so that is something..

Apologies if this is in the wrong board, I wasn't sure which one it should be in. 

[SignandLetterShop]

I just looked at your shop, I see nothing but 5 star reviews on your main page.

Edit to add

I've clicked on several of your listings and now see that review (either in first or second position).  Wow, I can't understand why Etsy would dredge up something from 2016...how is that even relevant??

[vintageNCtreasures]

The bad review from 2016 doesn't show up on the main page.

It shows up on the listing pages.
I clicked on 3 listings and that 1* review is shown either 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

@SepiaSmiles 
I noticed this happening for a long time.

I don't know if this will work anymore or not but if you go to your sold item page and delete that item all together, then that review won't show up like that anymore.

I know at one time this worked (2-3 years ago) but not sure now.

[SepiaSmiles]

@vintageNCtreasures It is so irrelevant I agree. Thank you so much for the tip. It is definitely worth a try because this must be hurting my sales. 

[SepiaSmiles]

@GalleryAntiques Thank you, it is definitely hurting my shop and certainly horrible! If deleting the old listings doesn't help soon I will definitely try to contact Etsy

[BlaqKat]

I can only see 5 star reviews and the reviews are set to "recommended" as usual.  The 1 star is on the second page if I look but part way down

[SepiaSmiles]

@BlaqKat  Ah, thank you! That is a relief so maybe they just shuffle them around sometimes? 

[SepiaSmiles]

I forgot to add in the original post that it is when you are viewing a listing it shows up

[SepiaSmiles]

Thank you for checking, another seller who is also in the UK like me said she saw it as the first review like I do so maybe it is a uk thing? 

[BlaqKat]

Just to confirm, I'm in the UK and I don't see it

[GalleryAntiques]

I am in the UK and I do not see the one-star listing when I view your shop, but when I look at a listing, then it is the first one, this is so wrong and must be so horrible for you.

I have no suggestions, as this will have to be something that Etsy deals with, but I hope they can help, as it could be hurting your sales to have that show up on listings.

[NostalgieCT]

Yep. There it is right under two listings that I pulled up. Apparently that's how it's being done to others as well whether it's a test or some really poor attempt at "fair and balanced" presentation of reviews, who knows but the really old reviews like this should not be dredged up to top billing. If it was 6 weeks or months old then that's probably fair but 6 years is just not right.

[SepiaSmiles]

Okay so some can see if first and others see it on the 2nd page. I agree it isn’t really fair that such an old review be on the front page at all! I only sell digital items now and stopped selling them arrows years ago. Thanks for looking 

[NostalgieCT]

For your general shop page with all of your listings the 6 yo review does not show but when I pulled up individual items it was the first or 2nd review. That's how others here on the forums have described their situations of old negative reviews popping up near/at the top, on the individual listings. Not great.

[SepiaSmiles]

@vintageNCtreasures I am going to try deleting the old listing now.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

For some (unknown) reason, the reviews which show under an individual listing are in a different order than they are on the Shop Front Page.

Although the 2016 Review is buried on the Shop Front Page, it is appearing first or second on some individual Listings in your Shop.

I have never seen an explanation offered by Etsy about this, but others in Forums have suggested that, somehow, the programming attaches Reviews to Listings according to some "similar to" algorithm. I have never read anyone giving any suggestion as to how to stop this as it happens even when the original item reviewed was a "one of a kind" / is "sold out" or, even, "deleted"

[vintageNCtreasures · Accepted solution]

@CarpetCollectionAU 

2-3 years ago I got a bad review (complained I didn't send a red cotton item, the listing was for a purple polyester item) anyway that 1* review showed up on a lot of my listings that didn't have anything to do with that item.

So I went and deleted it from my SOLD page and that bad review went away. I don't remember if it went away fairly quick or took a few days but it eventually did.

I don't know if this works now or not but it would be worth a try for the OP to delete that item from her SOLD page if she hasn't tried it.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

Deleting from the "Sold" page may work. Deleting from the "Sold Out" section may also work. IDK

But it is not the existence of the Review that is the issue. It is the fact that it appears so prominently 6 years later and ahead of all the 5 Star ones left since 2016.

I cannot see Etsy allowing Sellers to actually remove Reviews by deleting the items they were attached to, as this would open up  whole "world of rorts" for people wanting to get rid of poor Reviews.

[SepiaSmiles]

@CarpetCollectionAU Thanks so much for this information.

[SepiaSmiles]

@CarpetCollectionAU  I have deleted the old expired listings and the ones from 'sold out' but not sure which page is the 'Sold' page. I tried 'completed orders' but can't delete from there. 

Thanks in advance!

[vintageNCtreasures]

@CarpetCollectionAU 

Deleting the sold listing won't remove the review from the main review page.
It will still be there but not front and center like on the listing page.

In the past deleting the item only keeps the review from showing up on a listing page where it is no longer relevant.

@SepiaSmiles 
The SOLD OUT page on the listing manager is where you'd delete the item from.

[SepiaSmiles]

@vintageNCtreasures 

thanks for confirming, I have deleted it from sold out. I really hope it helps!

[SeasideRoseCreations]

I saw it on the first listing I clicked on.

It's odd because I *thought the reviews shared were supposed to be related to the listing.

The arrows are not the same as Floral Wreath Save the Date.

The only thing I can think is that the listing has gold and the arrows were gold?

It's a shame, that's all.

[ColorfulCastAndCrew]

I read a post a few days ago that another seller was having this same issue. The poor review was from years ago and was the first review listed on all her individual listings. If you were on her homepage it was buried but on the listings page it was front and center. If Etsy is looking for ways to hurt shops I think they've found it. Let's face it, most folks come to our shops through Search so they land on a listing page, not our home page.

Between this and Etsy shutting sellers out of their own shops for days on end I'm starting to seriously wonder who's running things around here. Sounds more like running into the ground...

[SeasideRoseCreations]

It's the way their AI works (crappy).

Read my post below.