June 3: ETSY Listing and Re-Listing Failures...Tried to List New Inventory All Weekend But Site Down

[#1]

Hello Friends,

I am writing because I am frustrated, and someone out there might have a clue as to what might be happening.  

**I tried all weekend (I'm in Virginia, USA) to list new inventory because I have decided to enlarge my shop considerably.**

Whenever I tried to list throughout the weekend, a burgundy red banner with an unhappy face emoji popped up, stating, "Hm, we're having trouble saving your changes.  Try again, and if this keeps happening, contact Etsy support."  This has happened recently as well, only about a week ago.

Two days ago, I then thought to Google, "Is Etsy down?" after repeatedly trying and with a few hours between attempts, all while getting the same banner.  The answer comes up on the Etsy site in what I think appears odd because Etsy has a wild-looking illustration with some red-headed guy on fire. Next to this fiery guy there are words that say, "Don't worry, Haim's working on it!"  Then, it states, "What's happening: A hardware failure brought some of our image hosting servers offline, so listing and re-listing items is currently disabled. Estimated downtime: until 5:00 AM EDT."

Below that, it reads, "Etsy's down but our news site The Storque is still up, and you can have a look at wiki too."

So, my first thought is, who is Haim, and why is he on fire?

I shrug.  So, I say to Etsy Corporate Office: Please, when is the listing part of your site actually coming up again?  There's no date such as 5 a.m. on such-and-such day and year attached to this warning stating that the site is somehow down.

When I clique on The Storque link provided below the burning guy, it states, "Uh oh, the page you were looking for was not found." This is on the Etsy site.

When I click on "wiki," I get a stern warning stating that this is possibly a malware-infested site and not legitimate.

So, I waited until after 5 a.m. for two days. Each day, I continued to get the banner but could not list it.

Finally, I contacted Etsy support this morning, June 3, and after a very long messaging exchange, I was told that my tech support ticket was being sent to Tech Support because they "needed to know the extensive range of this outage." 

At nearly noon today, June 3, 2024, I still cannot list my new inventory. 

I wonder if I'm doing the right thing by adding so many new pieces to my inventory in my shop here on Etsy.  I continue to worry that I'm spending too much time on Etsy and should, like so many other vintage sellers especially, jump ship and find another venue on which to build my shop!

Sadly, Haim's been on fire for days now.  Maybe even weeks?  Poor guy.

Can anyone help, please?

Advice?

Thoughts?

Supportive comments to keep me from going mad?

Thanks so much!

Julia
Owner
The Gilded Griffin

[ZiggyWearShop]

I have been unable to renew listings on the new listing format (works just fine on the old), started a chat to get some kind of feedback, was told to just use the old format and that there are lots of bugs right now.  I said I hope it is fixed before the old listing format goes away and I thought it was interesting they said "we haven't made a decision on that yet but will keep everyone updated". Not going to hold out hope that they might not go through with it, but thought that was an interesting statement.

[TheGildedGriffin]

Thank you so very much for this good information! As I mentioned earlier, I tried the Old Form and got the same error message: it was impossible to list the item!  And, yet again, this has been going on for days for me now.  Thank you so much...wish it would all just stop and that we could get to work.  I had just decided to build my shop back to what it once was by adding hundreds of items over the coming weeks, and now this.  It is so discouraging. If we only had some communication about it all from the Corporate Office!  Thank you again.

[BeachPleaseCreations]

This is terrible! Hope it’s remedied soon!!

[TheGildedGriffin]

Thank you again so very much.

[AudaciousAttire]

I just tried renewing an old sold out listing on the new form (had to update/make changes) and got the same banner. I switched to the old listing and it went through and published. I wish Etsy made sure things worked before FORCING us to use their crappy ideas. 

[TheGildedGriffin]

Yes and thank you for commenting.  I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this so very much!  I agree with you.  Etsy seems to have so many changes and there's glitches.  When I contact our Seller's customer service, they are unaware of these issues for the most part.

[CoolWorldPopCulture]

I am also having a host of problems and while I'm not sure it's transfering over to sales my sales have dropped on Etsy recently which makes me think there might be a correlation. That Etsy has never (that I know of) provided any notifications and/or updates about this persistent and apparently widespread problem is inexcusable. 

[TheGildedGriffin]

Thank you for writing! I think that the market has changed quite a bit in the past year, and yet again, also marketing expectations when it comes to lower sales overall.  I believe that one has to actively increase the amount of items...daily even...to get a higher spot in the Etsy searches.  I believe that Etsy has become much like Instagram and other social media platforms in that posting new inventory is vital in order to get noticed.  

However, not being able to post is such a problem.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

I use the new form - windows, chrome

the only problem I had was when the shipping profile needed to be changed,

it would let it through on the old version, but not the new.

and I could renew it from the sold orders, but not the listings page

.......

The USA has had ground advantage added, I would double check that it's not a shipping profile issue.

[TheGildedGriffin]

BRAVO BRAVO!  I awoke here this morning in Virginia USA and read your note. And also the next one that follows here on this page and immediately tried the shipping changes.  What I found is that although I have marked "Free Shipping" for all *domestic* orders shop-wide on my settings, it was not (quite oddly) checked off in my shipping profile.  I checked it off and YES I could publish my listing again!  THANK YOU THANK YOU!  

[decotini]

I FIXED THIS on my shop last week.
I had to go in and update all of my shipping profiles to allow for USPS Ground Advantage instead of the (now defunct) first class package choice.
Once I did that, I was able to upload new listings again.
I was very frustrated but finally got it figured out.
Good luck!

[TheGildedGriffin]

BRAVO BRAVO!  I awoke here this morning in Virginia USA and read your note. And also the next one that just above here on this page and immediately tried the shipping changes.  What I found is that although I have marked "Free Shipping" for all *domestic* orders shop-wide on my settings, it was not (quite oddly) checked off in my shipping profile.  I checked it off and YES I could publish my listing again!  THANK YOU THANK YOU! 

[TheGildedGriffin]

UPDATE:  THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who offered their good thoughts about all this.  I should also add that I believe that Haim's image and status statement may be some kind of hacker's prank, although it states that it is appearing on Etsy.com.   This weirdness is beyond me, and I give up trying to understand this site!  However, the shipping profile changes worked for me, and I can publish listings again.  I have been unable to add listings for three solid days and have spent countless hours trying to rectify this problem!  When I contacted Etsy's support, I was told that the tech support people would write back to me by email and that a support ticket had been made for me.  I never received this promised response or any further communication whatsoever.   It is all THANKS to YOU for helping me! YES! Changing the shipping details allowed me to publish listings again! Thank you so much for taking the time to mull this over on the forum.  Sending best wishes to everyone! 

[TheGildedGriffin]

SOLUTIONS as stated a few days ago are ARE NO LONGER ACCURATE!  NOTICE TO EVERYONE!  THIS IS AN UPDATE!  AS OF TODAY, JUNE 5TH 2024.  I have been able to post without problem since I last wrote UNTIL TODAY!  I sat down to post and yet again this is happening all over again.  I have sold over $500 worth of good since I last wrote and shipped them.  And, I cannot post any more inventory yet again, with exactly the same issues.  I changed the shipping, shortened the descriptions, added 10 photographs and still cannot post.  This is absolutely maddening.  Please, if you are having any issues with posting, please comment so that Etsy's Corporate Office pays attention to this problem?  How am I to work well with such problems?  I am ready to seek a new venue.  This is no acceptable under any circumstances!  Thank you for commenting, please! -- Julia

[ChillwolfArt]

This is so terribly wrong (I actually had to edit this statement a few times). No site that I know of has a Listing Form which prevents you from LISTING.

[BrooklynStVintage]

I am unable to do a renew sold, tried reinstalling shipping profile, closing out and trying about 8 times. What is going on?

[TheGildedGriffin]

Please do read my latest message below.  Thank you for writing in! Truly!

[ChillwolfArt]

@BrooklynStVintage  Did you try doing Renew Sold from the Sold Orders Page? Click the gear to the Right of the photo. I've seen others post about this, and I hope it words for you.

[TheGildedGriffin]

Etsy's discussions about this issue, written in REAL TIME: 

I AM PRESENTLY ON THE PHONE WITH ETSY SUPPORT as I write. The rep, Alexan, states that this "is a known issue" and that "we are receiving a lot of phone calls about this right now."  She has placed me on hold to see if they can "do something to help."  I let her know that this has been going on and off for over a week.   I have stated that after selling online for 23 years and many years with Etsy,  I am feeling the need to possibly close my shop over this situation because I cannot work as I need to do.  I also stated I am considering going to media to let them know about these issues with Etsy as perhaps making this public somehow will change things.  I stated that Etsy has made money off of my shop this week but it has cost me hours of trouble-shooting.  I stated that I contacted Etsy support a few days ago and was assured multiple times by the rep at the time that Etsy's Tech Support would contact me.  ***They did not.*** 

Alexan asked for my Ticket Number from that conversation.  I stated that I was never offered a Ticket Number

*********(Sellers:  This is something to remember to ask for in the future). *******   

She hurriedly stated, as she tried to make certain that I was assured  "this is an on-going listing issue because we are updating the listing forms". 

"Please, there is nothing to worry about no nothing to worry about."  (I am typing in real time as she speaks, she has extremely broken English.)  "Nothing to worry about nothing to worry about you have done your best the first thing you need we advise you to trouble shoot, have you done all that (list such as clear cache, etc.)?"  "Yes," I reply. Alexan states, "I will take good care for your concerns kindly stay for a while"..."this is a known issue please know due to the new form. Are you using the new form?  "Yes, and I have also tried the old form! All giving me a banner with error message.  I cannot list."

She goes on to place me on hold.  When she returns, states "I will tell engineering and they will investigate what is happening since you did the best you could...GAVE ME A TICKET NUMBER.  The Technical Team will make a decision about this after their investigation.  We do not have the exact the turnaround time from them. I have asked to expedite this."  Alexan was very nice and very polite.  I told her that I am writing a summarized version of our conversation here on the Forum for all my seller colleagues  to read.  I wish to indicate that I am being honest about what I am writing here,  and hoping for some type of resolution out of transparency to other sellers.  We hung up.

Here is the response that I received just now and within minutes or less of our conversation. 

So, let's see if this works.  I will next try to list again now.  I will let you know if I am successful. 

Alexan's email reads:

"What you're describing sounds like an error we recently experienced.
 
Since you wrote to us, we've been able to identify and resolve the issue. You should be able to continue using Etsy without further problems, but please let me know if you notice any more trouble.

All the best,

Alexan"

I must add, that, to top this off:  This email was sent to the wrong email address.  I recently changed my email address with the supposed help of their rep about a month ago who stated that my email issues (not receiving sales notices) were all due to my system and somehow my fault on my end. Um, no. 

And just now, this email popped up just now on my computer.  It was sent to the wrong email address.  The old email is one that I gave them when I purchased something many years ago.  It is still within their system and I have no way to fix that myself.  So, I will try to talk to someone else again about that some other day.

As a note here to my seller colleagues: I will let you all know what happens next.  I will again try to list.  This has all taken hours. 

Please do help in this way for us all:

1) Thank you all for mentioning this if you have problems yourself.  Are you receiving a banner error message?  This needs to be documented.

2) If so, do not forget to call in and also to ask for an Engineering Ticket Number and document the rep's name!  Don't bother *writing via Etsy's messaging* because that appears to be useless,  but do call in and document everything in regard to these listing issues.  Let us all know how this is going for you!  Thank you!

And yes, more soon.  Best wishes to everyone! -

[TheGildedGriffin]

HELLO AGAIN to my colleagues:

I have tried to list.  I cannot.  The same error message appears just as it has done over the past week.  

The PROMISE made from Etsy is not reliable!

Exhausting beyond all.  To add, I can Preview the listing but I cannot Save The Draft.  

This is maddening.  I was sold they would expedite this because I have been a Star Seller for so very long, as well!  Not convinced.

[FallsAveVintage]

Maybe you've tried this but can you copy an existing listing and edit from that? That's what I always do and haven't had any issues.

Really sorry you're dealing with this nonsense.

[TheGildedGriffin]

Thank you.  I will give that a try! 

[FallsAveVintage]

I copy from the listing pages, not the live listing. Have never actually tried using the new form for a new item lol. It's just so much easier for me to copy and change all the details.

Hope it works for you. It's been very smooth for me and I change almost everything. It sometimes clears the quantity available field though so don't forget to add a number there.

[TheGildedGriffin]

So, just now, I went back to Google, logged in and cleared history and cache "all time" instead of 4 weeks.  I could post!  

Then, I went back to change the listing, and the banner returned and won't let me post.  I'm so frustrated.  I cannot even begin to describe how frustrated I am.  This is unbelievable!  This has gone on for days!

[TheGildedGriffin]

Restarted Etsy after a complete shutdown.  Was able to update the listing.  I will definitely copy from the listing pages next time, @FallsAveVintage  and give that a try but tomorrow.  I had planned on listing several things and shooting this evening, but this situation took all the time.  Tomorrow will be another day.  We'll see what happens.  Thanks to all for your kind words and ideas!