Listings 'Deactivated By Etsy'

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

Hello friends,

Have anyone encounter the same thing as me these past days? I have just renewed 6 listings and posted 1 brand new listing today. Every single one of them have been deactivated by Etsy. I was stunned! So far I have never had such encounter before! 

My shop is selling wool paintings done by myself. So I don't thing they are violating any Etsy selling rules as I have been selling wool art for quite a while now. All my other existing listings are ok but I hope they will stay ok.

I checked on Youtube and it seems that it happens to quite a few people. Is Etsy kinda hold the listings for review first to see if they are ok before releasing them for viewers? 

I haven't write to Etsy Help yet cuz I wanted to know if this is a common practice by Etsy or not.

If anyone has experience this before, please do let me know, thanks!

Zain, FuzzyLittleFriends

[AnniebelloPaper]

Is it possible Etsy bots think you are selling a real animal?

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

Hahaha, could be cuz I stated there as 'sheep'! But I did use real wool though!

But anyway, they held my listings for like 3 to 4  hours only.

[Amaradorn]

Auto deactivations occur when a listing is published or edited and are usually triggered by certain words. Etsy updates the list of words periodically which explains why something might get flagged which was okay before.

I am confused however because Etsy did announce recently that they were going to stop deactivations and just remove it from search until the item could be reviewed. I guess they haven't started that yet then.

Did you get any kind of email or notification explaining which policy they think your violated? (Check your spam/junk mail folder)

ETA; do you use cashmere?

[Amaradorn]

Possibly it's because you mention the following (I assume some are restricted) countries in your listing description and bot has picked up on this:

Afghanistan, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan ,
Timor Leste, Ukraine and Yemen

I would remove that information. Etsy will tell buyers if you don't ship to their location just by looking at your shipping profiles.

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

No, I din't get an email. I guessed that it might be something like a "checking" procedure done by bots before releasing it to the public views. You will get this "checking" when posting a video in YouTube for copyright issues, censorship etc but YouTube is fast in their checks, few seconds only! Skillshare teaching platform also have similar case too. Once you published a class on Skillshare, your class will be under "review" (checking for video quality etc) before releasing it to students. But they always send an email to inform you that your class is being reviewed and that usually takes like a few hours too. But with the self explanatory email, at least we feel at ease. Unlike ETSY, just let you wonder if there's mistakes or we violate their policies!

But they released my listing already after 3 to 4 hours later, I am glad!

[sharonjenkins1]

That’s a good thought above.  I love your shop, it’s darling!

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

Thank you Sharon

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

Oh, reason why I listed those countries is not because I don't want to but it's what stated at the post office. They said that there are either limited or no flights at all to these stated countries and also some of these countries are war zones. In the past they stated only 2 countries I think, North Korea and Israel. I did have an order from Israel few years back and the post master advice me not to send in future cuz there's no direct flight there and it might take months to reach your customer. I think that's the only time I ever sent and after that, I stop sending to these countries. 

But anyway, ETSY released my listings after they "review/check" or whatever they are doing after 3 to 4 hours.

Thanks for the advice! cheers, Zain

[TheVintagePineapple · Accepted solution]

@FuzzyLittleFriends As Amaradorn pointed out above, the bot probably picked up on several of the countries you have listed in your descriptions.  You may have a repeat of the problem when you list or renew again. 

You can edit your shipping profile by choosing only the countries you will ship to.  If someone from a place you won't ship to views your listings, they'll now see the blurb ''Sorry, this item doesn’t ship to _______.'' 

[booknookcreations]

It seems as though I have seen posts from some sellers having problems that used the mockup frame backgrounds, I don't know much about it but that's something to check out. 

[FuzzyLittleFriends]

@TheVintagePineapple Yes, I got what you meant, thank you! I will do the changes and see what happens when I list or renew again next time. Thank you again, cheers! Zain