Listings deactivated by etsy

[BarbAshbeeGlassArt]

Hi everyone, I make glass marbles and figurines, etsy keeps deactivating some of my listings as drug paraphernalia which they certainly aren't. I've been on here about 6 years with no problem, this only started about a month ago. They give them back to me after a couple of days, after they've been reviewed but the really frustrating part is they often deactivate the same ones every couple of weeks. I've messaged them several times and no response. You'd think that with the amount of times they've deactivated my listings and given them back someone would check out the shop thoroughly and see I don't sell anything remotely to do with drugs. Also once a particular listing has been checked out surely the system could be adjusted to not target that item again?

I've checked out the forum and it seems lots of shops are having listings unfairly deactivated and often the owner can't even figure out why. It's so frustrating not being able to speak to a human about this and getting no response to emails! Is there any way to talk to a human from etsy? 

[InTheDustApparel]

Hey! The same thing happened to me about a month ago for a face chain that had been advertised for a while. It’s so frustrating… 

I wasn’t able to ever use the chat option that used to appear, so my only option was to email. I’d email them asap because it took them weeks for a human to respond (before then it was just auto responses detailing why listings were deactivated) 

I believe new AI bots may have flagged certain words in my listing: my trigger may have been ‘bag’ to describe how it is a packed in a velvet bag, or ‘pendant’. In your item listing do any words even closely relate to street slang for paraphernalia? or do any pics look like/resemble paraphernalia? (It’s so silly I know but this is how the bots work) 

however, Etsy never tell you. You can only speculate! 

anyway, a few weeks later my listing was reactivated. Really annoying because I had to refund all orders because you’re not allowed to sell ‘prohibited’ items 

I hope they get back to you soon! Eventually they will, it’s just a waiting game 

[BarbAshbeeGlassArt]

That really sucks having to refund sales! Thanks for the advice on street slang for drug paraphernalia, that's something I hadn't thought of because I don't know any. I'll do a Google search about it .

[nineteen27]

are they de-activating the glass straws.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

And yet there are 2,536 Etsy search results for "pot pipe".

[DKVintageandBeyond]

Just love the "personal touch" for seller assistance like no other. LMAO

[BarbAshbeeGlassArt]

its not just the glass straws but also other ornaments that look nothing like anything you could smoke with. And yes I just had a look at what others are selling on etsy and there are thousands of weed-smoking devices and other things that could only be for smoking harder drugs plus they use all sorts of commonly used words for drugs in their listings!! And yep etsy's personal touch for seller assistance is beyond words. Not only can you not communicate with a human you get completely ignored. I'm being accused of selling drug paraphernalia when I sell nothing that looks or sounds anything like it when thousands of other items on Etsy are blatantly advertising that's what they're selling. I'm feeling quite frustrated! I was ok until I did an Etsy search and saw how much drug paraphernalia they were selling.