Help Requests Tickets

[PrettyVagrant]

I am at the point I don’t know what to do so I am trying here.  

I have a help ticket opened after chat could not help.  

I get a canned response from person #1.  I respond back, then someone else, person #2 chimed in and totally did a 360 on the subject to something that had nothing to do with my concern.  What person #2 brought up alarmed me(some tax stuff) and so then I ask for clarity on that.  Then yet a person #3 came in, ignored my question to person #2 and did a canned response almost identical to person #1.

I don’t want to sound wrong, but it seems very outsourced and I feel like not a single person, especially #2 and #3 did not read a single thing I typed or looked at a single screenshot.  

Is this how support that my fees pay for is going to be from now on?  

[LastCentury]

Yep, welcome to world of etsy support.

Keep replying until you receive a relevant response from a real person.

Include screen shots with circled details if needed to make it 100% clear for them since I quite often think that English is not always the first language.

Good luck.

My last ticket took 9 replies from etsy over a pan of 10 days before I got a relevant response.

If you give up, they will think they have been successful and give themselves a pat on the back.

edited to add... I wonder if that outsourced help dept gets bonused on successful ticket closures? aka that's why they exhaust you with irrelevant responses... so you'll just go away.

[PrettyVagrant]

Problem is now all of a sudden they got marked as completed except the second one I opened NEVER even received a response! 

[LastCentury]

@PrettyVagrant how many tickets did you open? Stick to one and just keep replying until you get a real person with a relevant response.

It doesn't work if you just keep opening new tickets.

My last one I received a survey half way thru, I guess they thought my ticket was answered... I filled it in appropriately and still replied to the most recent email to let them know they should reread my initial request and answer with relevant advice.

[PrettyVagrant]

@LastCentury I opened a second since one of the responders did a 360 and brought up a totally different topic about tax information that was concerning since it’s all correct and I never received a email.  

Then they both got closed, the second one with 0 response.  

its unacceptable that whomever or whatever is monitoring the system can do that and I am hoping I can get a real admin to look into it.

[PrettyVagrant]

Support changed the subject and brought up my Tax information and the ability to take Etsy Payments.  My tax information is all correct and verified.  I received no email!  

So I open a new ticket for that and it gets closed with in a hour with absolutely 0 response.

So someone in support has access to view my tax information and then can disappear and not respond??

Livid and worried right now with this level and lack of service, especially when my livelihood is on the line 

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@PrettyVagrant   What was the original question?  Is it something you can ask in general and we can help guide you?

Did you receive an email back from the tickets?  Take that one email and respond back that you still need help.  You may need to expand yet still keep it simple the help you need.  Wait to see if you get a further reply.  After some 48 hours send the email back again asking for assistance.  Yes sometimes we have to be dogged.

Etsy employees can see your tax information at a certain level.  If they though your question related to that, it may be why they asked.

One thing I have learned over the years is that the support staff are not conversant with everything that happens in a shop so we need to break it down into simple yet precise questions for them to understand.  Yes it seems to us they should understand but when you look at the complexity of Etsy, you can appreciate it is not that simple to answer questions.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

Also make sure to check spam folders.  It is also possible that Etsy answered but your email provider might have stopped the email because it may appear to be a spam email.  If your email requires Etsy to be an accepted provider, make sure they are entered. 

[ZehOriginalArt]

I had this happen to me with email support. I kept responding to the same ticket until the support person simply vanished and never responded again. She did not even close it, nothing. So I learned to do this: if one method of contact does not work, try another. I have had more success with callback which I used after the debacle of email "support". This is the link which brings up that option for me right now: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling#issue_sell_manage_listings-callback

Just to add, I was very pleasant with the callback person and did not let my frustration show. I think that helps. You are a star seller and that can help as well.

[PrettyVagrant]

next step is call, then I call media outlets

[cindylouwho2]

It's been this way for a few years now. Last year when they were changing Canadian taxes, I had a 28 message ticket, in which all but 2 of the Etsy replies gave me completely the wrong info. I never received a fully correct response. 

They don't receive proper training, and aren't given enough time to read the ticket all the way through. This is what Etsy calls "keeping commerce human". 

[PrettyVagrant]

Yeah, its obvious they are not reading and sometimes what they reply does not even make since because english may not be their first language.  

I will not be blown off when my shop is SUDDENLY dying and I risk loosing everything.  Trends don’t die in a 10 day vacation closure , especially after being successful for 13 years, nor does shoppers behavior…..unless Etsy did something during that time to change it.   My graphs prove all this and I keep getting blown off.

[cindylouwho2]

@PrettyVagrant I am sorry your shop is struggling!

Unfortunately, vacation mode can tank shops; I have seen it happen, even to shops that have used it before with no issue. At this time of year, the algorithm is more sensitive to closures due to the increase in traffic. (I find I generally do well in January due to never closing; I get a boost over a lot of my competition.) 

Do what you can to drive sales & reviews, to get some momentum back. 

[AAANativeArts]

Pretty much. Etsy Support is almost non-existent for sellers. Chat are people in foreign countries reading from a script that can only answer basic questions that are already in the Help files. They can't make any real decisions on anything.

The key is to keep it all in one email thread and only answer using the I Still Need Help links at the bottom of their answers. If you open a new email thread, they will close your old thread and consider the new email a new problem and kick you to the end of the line to start over with the canned responses.

Usually, you will get 2 or 3 canned responses, including one that might say their decision is final. Just ignore it and keep replying, and eventally a real person will respond. You have to be really persistent to get any real help, and it can often take a month or two and a lot of back and forth.

We can answer most questions here in the forum as long as it doesn't involve a shop suspension, a deactivated item, or anything that involves financial matters.