Is there an audit for Etsy Accounts?

[StudioAvai]

For example .if fees have been input correctly?

This will stop spam, scam, shilling and suspension.

You can't beat an entrepreneur says Lindsay Albanese, shilling means buying from my own shop and not reducing the inventory buy the item I bought, I buy to use the product for the good.  I have received spam and scam messages which need to be cleared. Plus suspension emails to go from Paypal to Etsy Payments, I don't understand why.  Lindsay in another world told me what shilling means.

What are you experiences?

[StudioAvai]

I meant to write what are your experiences?

[OneEyeCatStudio]

Do you mean on other sites?
I think you will find most Etsy sellers lacking in experience with shilling here, as it is against the Etsy TOU to do it on this site.

[BagmakerSupply]

@StudioAvai: "For example .if fees have been input correctly?" Since we keep our own records, we can periodically run a routine to compare our calculations of fees against those of Etsy.

[JMOldeVintage]

The Spam & Scam messages received through Etsy's messaging system all need to be marked as Spam. That clears them from the "you didn't respond" category.

"suspension emails to go from Paypal to Etsy Payments"  - not sure what this means....

[SeasideRoseCreations]

Are you asking if Etsy audits our shops?

[Former_Member]

I don't understand what you're asking.

[StudioAvai]

What I mean is the real meaning of shilling is when you purchase from your own shop and keep the item in your shop for resale and don't refund yourself.  I have never done this but some Etsy support staff have accused me of this.  You have to buy and use some of you own products sometimes, that is different that is just shopping, you can set a budget for your shop allowance, otherwise there is tax evasion.   When I mentioned this to Etsy Support in part, the said the shilling message was spam.

When I got scam and spam emails Etsy support said ignore it.

When I reopened my account upon leaving Cara Shoes in 2019, Etsy sent me a message saying my account was suspended, I hadn't touched the account and they ordered me to join Etsy Payments, what a negative phrase they used. Etsy payments say they can't pay your debit card but can your current account same thing to me in this case and I am being charged extra fees for not using Paypal this time round for example.  They also have extra monitoring sales from India.  Also the refunds they have been calculating each month don't add up and my overall sales figures aren't accurate.

If you leave bad reviews that doesn't count, I think you can only learn.

approached Etsy

[TheVintagePineapple]

Yes, ''shilling is when you purchase from your own shop and keep the item in your shop for resale'' in order to falsely increase the amount of sales and leave fake feedback is the definition of shilling.

'' and don't refund yourself.'' This doesn't make sense.  You bought the item and the money went into your own account.  Why would you refund yourself?

''I have never done this but some Etsy support staff have accused me of this.''  I think you have done this, and you admitted to doing it in a previous OP, now removed.  Admin removed several of those reviews you left for yourself but they missed removing one from June. 

''You have to buy and use some of you own products sometimes...''  No, you don't.  You made the products, so why not just make one for yourself?

Bad reviews do count.

Sorry if these are not the answers you were looking for.

[nineteen27]

if you want to keep one of your items.

just remove it from your shop.

you are not supposed to be buying from yourself.

and leaving yourself reviews.

that is absolutely a policy violation.

the sad part is you were leaving yourself low star reviews.

it is shilling but in a way i had never seen before.

i think you are confused and i am not sure how to explain it better.

[SmudgePlant]

You don't have to buy the item to remove it from your shop. You can click on the little gear shaped icon and click on Deactivate. That will remove it from your shop and you can do whatever you want with it. Just make sure you switch the Renewal Option to Manual.

[StudioAvai]

I have worked in retail for 13 years, if you own a shop and just take things all the time you are not accounting for the cost of raw materials and expenses and not paying VAT. Sometimes you want to model the items in client meetings for example.  I am a medical curer and have been for 26.5 years plus a previous actuarial manager and contractor.  Shilling isn't allowed but shopping is with an allowance maybe and product testing is. It is part of selling.

Scams and spams need most likely to be reported to the doctor.

Personally my refunds, sales, fees, taxes and marketing costs don't add up on Etsy stats.  There is usually a 5 year audit that could take place at HO to make sure Etsy's account system is correct.

There was a robotic war now there is a medical war then there is a computer war until there is peace.

I am sorry if you have had a headache, however I am financially fair and have enjoyed Etsy so far in general.  Have a nice day.

[PriddeyThings]

“Scams and spams need most likely to be reported to the doctor.”

I’m sorry - what?!

[PillowDetails]

Ah.  Now it is so much clearer.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@StudioAvai 

Buying from yourself (if you manage to get around etsy to do it) means you have the money (less fees) anyway, no idea why you would then bring attention to yourself, by refunding, and risking being put on reserve. 

There is no such thing as a "test" sale on etsy, there is no facility for it, and it is against etsy's TOUS to buy from yourself, for any reason.

.....

You are in the UK, a bank account, and debit card, are very different things, and regulated differently under the financial conduct authority.
They may be linked to the same bank account, or a different bank account, but they are absolutely not the same thing at all, and are used for different things.
You can't pay money into your bank account electronically, with your debit card (most banks let you do it physically at an atm, but not electronically)
And Etsy can't withdraw money from your bank account, without a direct debit mandate. They can charge your debit card without one.

......

When etsy moved to etsy payments in the UK, we had a changeover period, after that, all payments had to go through etsy payments,
So we now pay the payment processing fees to Etsy, rather than Paypal.

Paypal will not be informed of any suspension, as your paypal account, if you have one or not, is no longer linked to your etsy account, there is absolutely no link whatsoever.

......

If you have spam messages, mark them as spam, and if you want to, report them to etsy

......

All my csv's are correct, not sure what of yours don't "add up"
but it's normally comparing a CSV, with the monthly finance overall numbers doesn't match, - because deposits and payments and fees are all done at different times and overlap days and months.

If you know they don't "add up" and you have accounted for the time differences in payments, fees and deposits, then log a call regarding the incorrect transactions.

Etsy stats, numbers are not even in UK time, and "revenue" in stats , does not include what you charge for shipping, and don't include taxes. they are not to be used for any financial audit

......

No idea what India has to do with anything

or medical wars

I think, there is a lot of confusion here

[PriddeyThings]

One of the many definitions of shilling you can easily find on the web:

”a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.”

This is exactly what the OP has been doing. 

Creating a separate account to achieve the same outcome is arguably even worse.

[NancyQstudio]

It sounds like you received a notice (along with many other sellers) about Etsy payments being required.  This happened quite awhile ago.  No seller was singled out as it was a site wide change which applied to all sellers using Etsy, living in particular regions.  

In regards to purchasing one's own products and leaving reviews for them, this is mentioned in Etsy's policies as against the rules.  It doesn't really matter what's done elsewhere because these policies are specific to Etsy.    

It may help to utilize this as a learning experience to make constructive shop changes. 

[SunnytyDE]

@StudioAvai  May I make a suggestion? Please don’t be offended, I’m really trying to understand. Maybe if you post in your native language we can make better sense of what you are trying to say. 
There is a translate button underneath every post and we can then view it in our native language. 

[PriddeyThings]

Oops, wrong place!