Help! Deactivated listings

[#1]

Hi everyone,

I make money leis for graduation, I have my listings for over 2 years in Etsy without any problem. I had done some marketing this year so I could have better sales during the selling season, which is starting now; and all of the sudden Etsy deactivated most of my current/best seller listings.

It has been over a week, I've called and e-mailed multiple times and just today I got an email from the "Integrity" Team indicating that money leis are not allowed on Etsy. I have already replied indicating that there are TONS of similar listings; including money bouquets, money cakes and so on that also include bills and I can't understand why my listings have been aleatory deactivated. Still no additional feedback.

I found this very concerning and discriminatory. Did anyone else encounter a similar situation? What can I do? 

[ManeIngredientStore]

I asked the same question. I just keep reactivating my listings once i notice they are deactivated.

[TreeTreasuresCanada]

@ManeIngredientStore   It is not a good idea to reactivate listings after they have been deactivated.  You need to find the reason and, if possible, correct the problem.  I would suspect your listing(s) may have been deactivated due to your making medical claims.

[dayspringcollectible]

@ManeIngredientStore 

That's a good way to be kicked off the site permanently.  Don't relist deactivated listings.  Contact Etsy and if they can be relisted they will put them back up for you.

[PlatypusDream]

@ManeIngredientStore 

Your listings were deactivated because you can't sell cannabis on Etsy.

You are also making banned medical claims.

See your thread for the pertinent links.

[OurTimeArt]

@SmudgePlant 

@NoFrogsAllowed

 @PillowDetails 

@TreeTreasuresCanada

Thank you all, based on the policy I understand these items should be allowed. Maybe the listings need to described as collectibles then? If it's a matter of description or classification I think a notification and/or a warning is appropiate, not a deactivation. 

@PlatypusDream

I honestly do not believe the money leis are prohibited; and it is not my place to investigate or report any vendor. Etsy make a decision that I am appealing and it's Etsy's place to apply its policies equally to all vendors. 

I did not reactivate the listings and I will not create another one until I resolve this issue with Etsy. It is not my intention to go behind the rules. 

Hopefully the Integrity team responds to my email in a timely manner and in a way that represents the value it's supposed to stand for  

[dayspringcollectible]

Money leis per se are not prohibited.  But selling current money is.  That's why they are being taken down.  You "might" get away with selling them if you use currency that is at least 20 years old, list them as handmade with vintage, and give the dates of the currency.  No guarantees that would work, however, since they would still be considered "current exchangeable money."

[OurTimeArt]

@dayspringcollectible

This is my point, I sell money leis! And I got my listings deactivated right at the beginning of graduation season

[dayspringcollectible]

What is your point?  Are you making your leis with no money in them or play money?  That is the only sure way they would not be a prohibited item, in which case you can request Etsy re-instate the listings.  But if you are making them with currently valid money, they are not allowed.

[PillowDetails]

Well, now we know about Etsy's policy.  I didn't know either.  There is no sense in worrying about other shops that Etsy hasn't found yet.  Yes, it's not fair.  

Time to move on, and think of a way to make it work for you - how about selling the lei part, with a tutorial for the origami money?  Or a few pieces of plain paper, with the steps of folding, so the Buyer can learn how to make the flowers out of money?

* I could NEVER learn origami - my daughter has a knack for it, and I would always have her fold money into little Hawaiian shirts for tips when we went to restaurants!  I think she made shorts out of money too, to go with them - LOL!

[OurTimeArt]

@dayspringcollectible

I guess I missunderstood your message when you say "Money leis per se are not prohibited" 

@PillowDetails

I have no choice but wait for their decision. 

I appreciate all of you for your support. I didn't get to sell so many but what I sell truly helps and I'm freaking out about what's coming without these expected sales.

I'll keep you posted once I hear back from them.

[PillowDetails]

@OurTimeArt I'll bet people would buy the graduation leis with the flowers in the school colors instead of money! - I am sure of it!

[bydezign]

I sell money leis as well and am going through the same thing.  When I looked at my shop this morning, all but one of my listings was deactivated (I removed that one just in case).  Etsy sent me an email about current and exchangeable currency being a prohibited item and requested that I cancel/refund my current orders.  I thought I had thoroughly researched before I opened my shop in 2014, but I missed this one.  I do think another shop is going around reporting competitors since grad season is right around the corner though.    If you don't mind me asking, how were you able to get a hold of someone at Etsy?  

[OurTimeArt]

I'm so sorry you're going through the same thing; it is extremely frustrating! I believe the same thing, right after my listings were deactivated I found one that was literally an exact copy of mine. Someone is probably doing this intentionally and Etsy is failing to properly investigate these cases. 

I haven't been able to get any real answer from anyone,  the so called "Integrity Team" had replied by email a couple of times trying to justify their wrongful decision. The last email they sent me they said their decision was not the desired one but it was final.

I disagree. 

If the money leis are not allowed; they are not allowed. Fine, I accept it. But if this is the case, then the same criteria should apply to all vendors across the platform and it is not happening.  Everyone knows that the argument about "new vendors not getting caught" is nothing more than a plain excuse. 

If the money leis are allowed, then our listings should be reactivated inmediately and Etsy should investigate why our shops were selectively targeted and implement some policies to avoid this kind of situation happening in the future to anyone else. 

I have contacted both the legal and the Trust and Safety departments via email without any answer yet. All this time we're trying to figure things out, we are losing sales. As long as so many other listings and categories are allowed in the platform, I'm holding Etsy responsible for our lost businesses.

I think it's quite clear and simple!  Let me know if you're able to find out something else. Good luck!

[CatsBeadKitsandMore]

@OurTimeArt  , If there are a lot of listings in the category then it takes time to remove them all. They go from shop to shop. So maybe they are getting to the others.

[FindingTrail]

I’d personally love to know how the reporting shops are getting Etsy’s attention. Nothing has ever been done about shops that I’ve reported!(Not yours, of course).

[RustyCrustyRepurpose]

You can buy movie prop money that looks very real.  Not the same tho.

[OurTimeArt]

This is not the issue. The issue here is the lack of transparency and consistency from Etsy.

The way they're handling this situation is far from fair. 

[CostumeCoutureNaomi]

I suspect the restrictions on selling leis made of currency is not an Etsy thing.  Most likely it has to do with Federal banking and commerce laws.

There are millions of sellers on Etsy listing millions of items, using a listing system designed for a much smaller scale of shops, sellers and listings.  Thousands, even hundreds of thousands of them are listing things that are illegal to sell.  Etsy tends to do their clean up on the back end, instead of having a system that blocks those items from being listed at all.  Because of this, they seem to miss a lot of items that are not "Etsy legal" or even legitimately illegal.  And when they purge these listings, they tend to do it en masse with little scrutiny, in a bot driven manner.

Based on the list of prohibited items (lottery tickets, crypto, etc), selling anything made of dollars or other currencies is likely illegal on a federal level, or restricted and regulated more than Etsy wants to mess with.

One other thing that might be an issue with your listings, is "handmade" and "currency/dollars/money" in the same listing.  The combination of handmade + money could be getting flagged as you selling counterfeit money.  A bot would just identify that combo of words and deactivate.

[OurTimeArt]

I am not arguing that these items should or should not be allowed.  

One way or another, the way Etsy is handling the situation is extremely poorly and unfair. Not all vendors are treated equally and the ones targeted are the ones losing sales. 

[SueDicksonGallery]

Can I ask this shop owner or anyone else, who did she email or call? With what contact info? I can never find either of those options. My shop has listings de-activated and I have no idea why. Pottery ring holders, vases. They were hand made by myself. Nothing edgy. Nothing that I haven't been selling for years. No idea where to get help, or how to read if anyone responds to this post. Very frustrated.

[SmudgePlant]

@SueDicksonGallery  Etsy has been deactivating listings with the word "Amber" in them due to a lawsuit over an amber necklace.

Go to your dashboard and click on

Community & Help>Contact Us>Selling on Etsy>I can't find my listing>Etsy may have removed my listing...>Then after reading what they recommend, click I Still Need Help. It will then give you an option to email, or sometimes, get a phone call back.

Good luck.

[VMLDesignStudio]

Reword your listing! Try to use a different name for your product that will still reflect the same product. But use the actual term in your keywords. I