Etsy removed my handmade ceramic listing

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Hi,

For context:

I make handmade ceramics and pottery. I take a bunch of clay and mold it by hand or on the potter's wheel. I paint, glaze, and fire everything myself.

I photograph, edit the photos, and write the listing title and description.

Last year Etsy removed some of my soap dishes claiming they were not handmade, I contacted the support and they reinstated the listings.

A month ago the flawed Etsy system removed one of my decorative bottles, I contacted support, and they said my account was under investigation for not following the handmade policy and removed my star seller badge (Your badges were removed because you received a final policy violation warning. ).

Today I woke up to another of my listings removed because it violates the handmade policy. It is a miniature bottle similar to this one:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/947969719/handmade-ceramic-mini-bottle-tiny?click_key=af367010357fcc5a0...

How can someone not see that this is handmade ( it even has my handwritten signature on the bottom, which can be seen in the listing photos)

The only explanation is that no one is looking at this. Etsy relies on an automatic system to remove random listings from the website, hurting handmade sellers and leaving all types of mass-produced items available for purchase.

Thank you for taking the time to read through all of this!

My question is if anyone knows how to fix this?

How do I have my listings reinstated?

How do I get my star seller back?

How do I prevent this from happening in the future?

Thank you so much!

[FallenAngelBrass]

According to a proud declaration from our CEO, Josh Silverman, Etsy has recently unleashed bots that are programmed specifically to take down ALL items that also show photos on Temu and Shein.  Many legit Etsy artists have seen their stolen ideas and photos appear on these marketplaces.  Etsy's efforts to derail Temu and Shein resellers have caught many of the original artists in the dragnet.  

Here's a recent and informative thread about it:  "Etsy destroyed my store. They are responsible for their own downfall"

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Thank you!

I just saw the post you referred to. The OP managed to have some listings reinstated, I guess I have to keep trying.

[VooVooDesign]

Wonder why they don't also focus on the Alis. Maybe because a good 15% of all Etsy listings would poof?

What's horrid though that the bots are not programmed to do other than go after listings posted of the Shiny sites w/o any checking first. Too many sellers have had their photos stolen.

Recall back when I was new on Etsy a forum post by an enraged seller. She made baby dress-up outfits. The outfits were modelled on her little blond children or grandchildren.

She tried to make the Shiny seller take the stolen photos down but they claimed they were THEIR photos.

I don't remember the resolution.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

Wow.... it seems like Etsy kept the strikes on your account from the first time, even though they reinstated your listings. How awful.

Keep appealing with etsy and don't give up. You may want to consider adding your shop name to your photos  to protect your work in case someone decides to copy and take your photos.

As for getting star seller reinstated - I don't know how that would work.

Good luck and I am sorry you are dealing with this

[SeasideRoseCreations]

While this practice IS awful for the OP (a legitimate hand made seller), it's the reasons so many infringers are caught unawares when their shop is permanently shut down.

Etsy DOES keep track (and rightly so) and their "final warning" doesn't always come with a warning sticker.

I sympathize with this OP but not the other resellers and infringers.

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Thank you!

I have searched for the images of the listings that were deactivated but didn´t find them anywhere.

I don´t care a lot about Star Seller as I don´t believe it has any meaning. I do my best with customer service and I think that is all that matters, keeping the customers happy and informed about their order.

What I don´t like is that red banner threatening to suspend my account. I will keep searching for a solution.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

@SeasideRoseCreations I agree about legit infringers. I just think it's unfair for a strike to remain on someone's account that was given erroneously in the first place.

[JMOldeVintage]

IMO while in theory Etsy may have found a good way to patrol the marketplace to get rid of resellers & outright scam artists, in practice their system is quite flawed.

Do a google image search on just about any listing here & often you'll find something similar. Never mind the identical photos on Temu, Shein, ALiexpress, etal. 

How fine-tuned are the image-recognition bots Etsy has deployed?
And even if the image is identical, does the bot know the shop owner first posted the image 'x length of time ago' versus the sudden appearance of that photo on another site?

Add in the possibility that their shop &/or listing(s) are being reported by other shop owners because their frustration with Etsy's lack of policing the site over the years has led to way too much "stuff" (yes, too nice a word) being sold here.

It appears many shop owners will now have another job - a full time one at that - patrolling the internet & filing DMCA's when they find their stolen photos, description, etc.

Sadly, Etsy does not have the numbers of human staff needed to review these deactivated listings. Toss in Etsy using previous inaccurate deactivations and suddenly removing shops from the Star program (which is becoming more important).
It appears the people that will be most affected by this current move to improve the marketplace will be the shop owners doing the right things.

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

You are totally right. Etsy does not have the numbers of human staff needed to review these deactivated listings.

I asked for them to have someone go look at the deactivated listings without success. In my case, it is easy to see from the photos that the items are handmade.

[SeasideRoseCreations]

This is really unfortunate that you are getting caught up in this half baked way to get rid of non handmade here on the site.

It would behoove them to have dedicated staff that could expedite the ratification process for legitimate artists on this site.

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Thank you!

I appreciate the effort Etsy is making to clean the site. And I understand that mistakes happen.

What is frustrating is that no one will look into this to fix the problem when a mistake is made.

[audreytherese]

If they refuse to look at it, direct them to this: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/How-we-ll-continue-to-keep-Etsy-safe-and-unique-in-2023/...

• Making it easier for sellers to appeal policy decisions and get a quick resolution. While we’re confident in the tools we use to identify listings that violate our policies, on rare occasions we make mistakes. Earlier this year, we launched an updated appeals center where sellers can ask our Trust & Safety team to review and reconsider eligible account suspensions. Since introducing this new process, we’ve seen a 17% increase in seller satisfaction with the appeals process.  

And this: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Announcements/An-update-on-how-we-re-keeping-Etsy-special/td-p/1434560...

• Adding more human reviews to our enforcement processes. While we need to use automated systems in order to review the millions of listings on Etsy, human reviews are critical to ensuring those decisions are accurate. Now, when a listing is flagged by our automated controls for potentially violating our Handmade Policy,  it will remain active but not appear in search results and recommendations in order to give our specialists time to review the listing. Our team will determine if it should be removed, or if it can be sold on Etsy and be made visible again. The review process typically takes less than 24 hours.** 
  • We’ve heard your feedback that listing removals can be disruptive to your businesses, and we believe making more space for human reviews will help reduce instances where we remove items in error, while still enabling us to limit the visibility of items that may violate our Handmade Policy. As we test this new process, we’ll also be working to add more transparency to let sellers know if their listings have been temporarily removed from search for review.

[JMOldeVintage]

@audreytherese  - Thank you for posting those Announcement links. 

It appears Etsy is not handling deactivated items within the "guidelines" they announced, the:  "Now, when a listing is flagged by our automated controls for potentially violating our Handmade Policy,  it will remain active but not appear in search results and recommendations"

The ** refers shops to this footnote:  **The vast majority of reviews will be completed in less than 24 hours, but may take up to a maximum of 48 hours. Any listings not reviewed within 48 hours will automatically be made visible in search and recommendations."

My addition of the bold to the text.

[audreytherese]

I probably should have put the in the reverse order (humans in the review process first, then about the appeals), but that's ok, both are completely relevant and Etsy needs to be held accountable for not following through with statements they made not that long ago. 

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Thank you so much for posting these links. I will refer to them when I contact Etsy again.

[FallenAngelBrass]

Sadly, Etsy is not standing by those flowery promises.  The only way to access the "appeals center" is to join the throng and send an email to Etsy's seller support.  If you're lucky, you'll get a canned response.  If you're even luckier, you'll get an actual human to look at your deactivated listing.  If you're super duper lucky, you'll see that listing reinstated.  That's a lot of luck. 

The seller support response has crashed to dismal numbers.  It's not what it was even a few months ago.  Gone are the days when your listing gets reinstated "within 10 days" and "48 hours" is beyond laughable.  There is also no discernible guideline or pattern to how many strikes warrant a shop badge removal and shop suspension.  

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

It´s been a month since I first contacted Etsy after they deactivated my listing. The only response I received was a generic one with links to the handmade policy.

Then they just told me to wait.

[irmaKdesigns]

@CeramicaAnaRafael do google image search to find what sites are using your images, and ask it to be removed. Do it before Etsy finds it and removes more of your items or closes your shop thinking you are a reseller.

Sorry this happened to you. When your items become popular, it gets copied. You'll need to do regular searches to find copy cats before Etsy finds them. Best of luck.

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

I´ve searched the images on Google, and the only places where they appear are on the other places I have them for sale.

I don´t make stuff worth to be copied. All my work is handmade, takes a lot of time to make, and wouldn´t be very profitable for those people.

[JMOldeVintage]

@CeramicaAnaRafael  - Some have suggested using different photos of your items on each marketplace you use or if you have your own website.
Maybe there is the possibility that Etsy's bots won't deactivate the listing if the photos are not identical?
Honestly have no idea & yes it seems like so much extra work after you've gone to all the effort to get that one photo just right.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Do a search for your items.  The photos are probably showing up elsewhere.  Etsy has not written a good BOT for this.  Many sellers are getting hit with this when there items are truly handmade.

If in the US, you could get a Notary Public to attest to a video of your items being made by you and submit it to Etsy along with the information that your photos were stolen.

Sad that this has happened to so many.  While I applaud trying to clean up Etsy, they are risking truly losing good handcrafters and will be left at some point with well.......won't go there.  

[CeramicaAnaRafael]

Thank you!

I´m from Portugal.

I will send them a video, that is a great idea.

[SimplyByShayla]

How many listings have you had removed for violating the handmade policy? I’m curious what the limit is. I had a listing removed two months ago and after opening a support request with videos showing my process I was able to get it reinstated after two weeks of waiting. However, the exact same listing was removed again last week for the same reason so even if you prove you’re handmaking the item, they may still remove it in the future. I’m hoping if they reinstate a listing it doesn’t still count as a strike against your shop since it seems this will continue to happen (in my experience).

[JMOldeVintage]

@SimplyByShayla  - There is no "set in stone" number. 
Etsy can shut down a shop whenever they deem necessary.
One likes to think the Star Seller Badge would hold a bit of weight when Etsy is making the decision.
Bu in the OP's case it appears Etsy has decided they can no longer participate in the Star Program?
And since Etsy does award the Star Badge to shops that are resellers, have shops full of IP infringement listings, etc. maybe Etsy doesn't take the Star Badge into consideration?