I've been waiting 12 days since Etsy deactivated my best selling listing!!!

[CoveHomewares]

12 days ago I received an email stating Etsy removed my best selling listing as it violated the handmade policy, it certainly does not, this must be a mistake. I make all my wooden shelves my self in my garage, with my design. I'm still waiting for it to be reactivated and have lost my income for the last 2 weeks. This listing drives 80% of my traffic. What can I do? My partner is about to have a baby any day now and I'm desperate to get my finances back in order. Please help!!!

[CoveHomewares]

I've already contacted support multiple times, they just keep telling me it's been escalated and to wait. I'm going crazy, it should not take this long.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

Doing a quick reverse image search on your products, I see many of your items being sold on Alibaba and elsewhere.

Are you designing and making these yourself? If so, you will need to take legal action. If not - Etsy is for handmade (by you, or designed by you and made with the help of a production partner), vintage, or craft supplies.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

@AutumnHollowStudio  This is a known issue where other platforms have copied designs and stolen photos from Etsy who is the genuine maker and then the genuine artist is having their items removed as if they were buying them from those other platforms.  So, don't assume the OP is buying from there as it is likely not the case. 

[CoveHomewares]

I've sent them images of my workshop and explained everything. Can you send me links where you've found my items on Alibaba or elsewhere? I reverse image searched it my self and couldn't find them. Thank you for your help!!! How do I take legal action without them responding?

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

You need to write to Etsy demonstrating that you are indeed making the items.  See my comment above about genuine artists having items deactivated.  There are lots of previous forum posts about it. 

[CoveHomewares]

Thank you, yes I did that straight away and sent them photos of my workshop. This is so frustrating!!

[PlatypusDream]

Etsy has programmed bots to remove items with photos that are found on other factory sites like Temu and Aliexpress.

You will have to pursue your legal rights and issue take downs with all of those other sites, at the same time as contacting Etsy to plead your case.

Be prepared to prove your items are handmade.

Good luck.

[CoveHomewares]

Thanks for the advice, I found an Alibaba listing with my stolen photos - https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Chunlei-OEM-Art-Decor-Boho-Modern_1600919380852.html?spm=a270...

I'll try and get Alibaba to remove it, I'm on their IP protection platform. I've already sent photos to Etsy of my workshop, all of my listings photos were taken in our house. 

I just can't believe its taking this long for them to review it.

[CoveHomewares]

I've messaged the Alibaba account, and they have removed the listing. I can't see any other listings online. Now just to wait for Etsy to repsond I suppose. Surely any day now!!

[TastefulArtisan]

Wow! Beautiful shop. It's clear why resellers would want to steal your photos, they are amazing.

That said, looking through your reviews I see no "this listing no longer exists" which is typically what shows when Etsy completely removes and deletes an item. So that's a good sign that it will be reinstated but the waiting bites.

I saw you are in Australia so I don't know if the callback option is available for you but the few times I've needed support, it was handled quickly using the callback.

If you can do the callback option, be polite, check your attitude, don't accuse or be belligerent (not saying you are!) but rather friendly and accommodating. When they call say thank you SO much for calling so quickly. How are doing? That sort of thing.

People respond better to polite friendly action. No matter how frustrated you are, be polite. 

I'm not a people person, I prefer the company of my cat to most humans but I can whip out the smile and upbeat demeanor when needed and it almost always works in my favor.

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling#issue_sell_manage_listings-callback

I hope you get your item back soon, you truly have a lovely shop!

[CoveHomewares]

Thank you for your advice, it's much appreciated! and thanks for the kind words! I've spoken to support on the phone atleast 3 times now, always very polite as I realise they are just doing their job. They just keep telling me to wait. I've submitted the images of the alibaba listing to them as well. It's been 14 days now, and I'm simply waiting for someone with authority to review the case. The support agents on the phone say it's not their department and all they can do is escalate it and wait. Yesterday the guy on the phone said he'd imagine I get a reply within the next week as it's already been so long but he couldn't gurantee it. It's so frustrating that it takes this long for etsy to review it, I'm sure they will re-instate it but I'ts crazy that it is taking this long! I can't imagine how bad It would be like if I was a bit bigger and had employees relying on me. I was only just making a fulltime income before the listing was taken down, now I'm at 20% of that whilst I wait. Very very frustrating!

[TastefulArtisan]

@CoveHomewares

That does seem like an unusually long time to wait for a human to review your docs.

It chaps my butt to see shops that take great photos get penalized when others steal them. I'm quite happy my stuff is photographed so poorly. : )

I'm sorry you are still having to deal with this. I know mods pop in every now and again and sometimes help but I don't know any of the names to tag or even if that is appropriate to do.

[CoveHomewares]

16 days! still no response!

[CoveHomewares]

18 days and still waiting. 

[Blissaria]

I've been waiting 6 weeks...  No response to my myriad of messages / evidential submissions / photographs etc. It's destroyed my business... 

[CoveHomewares]

6 weeks?!? Was it a "handmade policy violation" as well? I wonder if putting through new support request sends it to their back of their que?  I can't beleive you've been waiting this long...

[VogueVixens]

@CoveHomewares YES, whe. It comes to Emails., if you start a new inquiry, they close the original one, so you end up waiting even longer.  Sray with the same case/reference #.

Also, have you considered trying other sites to sell your wares, such as Amazon handmade, or your own site?

It's Financially a food idea not to put all your eggs in one basket, Etsy makes changes on a regular basis. 

[CoveHomewares]

Yes I will have to consider other sites now, it's a quite a shame Etsy is pushing me to do so, I was happy with the steady growth but can't live with the uncertainty of issues like this... 

[eronel]

Thank you so much for the suggestion to check reverse image search, @AutumnHollowStudio ! I had one of my listings taken down by Etsy weeks ago and my protests went nowhere. I just found that someone has stolen all the images for that listing and is using them on AliBbaba. Has anyone successfully gotten anyone to take their images down? Their IPP complaint process looks like more than I want to tackle tonight. UGH.

[CoveHomewares]

I just contacted the seller directly and told them they were my images and they need to remove them, they did it within the hour. Hopefully you are also lucky, 

[eronel]

I tried asking the AliExpress shop owner to take them down. We'll see.

I also ran across this article on Reddit that explains the best ways to submit take-down requests with all of companies like Alibaba, etc:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EtsySellers/comments/pc7uwh/master_guide_to_getting_your_stolen_etsy_photos...

Hopefully that will be useful,. Thanks again for your help!

[CoveHomewares]

Thanks so much. You will also get a much faster response from the Aliexpress owner, if you put in a quote request and detail your complaint there, they will check the quote request faster than a general message. I also signed up to the IP Protection Program by alibaba but you have to submit photo id and it takes days to verify. That would be the better way to handle it if you still have more issues. 

[CoveHomewares]

23 Days, still waiting.... :'(

[WPshoppe]

@CoveHomewares 

Is it the dark wood two shelf mount that was deactivated? I see the lighter wood one still available. Maybe you can add variations to the existing listing to include the wood choice. Might as well do it now because what ever traction you had on the one that was taken down is most likely gone. Start promoting the other listing with variations. 

Just a thought.

Beautiful work!