Messages Blocked, can't respond to help requests!

[AikoAndMae]

My title pretty much sums it up... My messages have been "muted" and I can't even respond to customer help requests. I contacted etsy chat about 10 days ago and am still waiting on an email from somebody. Live chat says they can't do anything else to help but keep waiting.

Am I allowed to put a note on my banner to please email me instead? Or within my "note to buyers" section? I don't want to break the rules any further but I also don't want to make my customers mad.

My shop is only about 2 months old and I seem to have triggered this "mute" by sending a handful of messages to customers on the same day. No spam intended... I was sending past customers a link to download a significantly improved version of a digital product they had recently bought. I thought I was providing excellent customer service but instead I seem to have gotten my shop flagged.

I understand that Etsy has to protect buyers from shady sellers... but the fact that I can't even reply to help requests is pretty crazy to me. I tried to set up auto-reply as a workaround but those aren't going out either. At this point I'm thinking maybe I should shut my shop down until it's fixed in order to prevent any huge issues/prevent my star seller response rate from tanking any further.

Any advice on helping my young shop survive this would be SO appreciated.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

You can't just contact past customers, unless you know they have agreed to you contacting them, and you can't know that

you have been banned and just have to wait it out,

just don't do it again

[AikoAndMae]

Lesson learned the hard way! I thought contacting buyers was okay if it was pertaining to an order update.

Do you know how long the ban lasts?

I'm just surprised that it also applies to help requests.

[NanaLetha]

You should have emailed those buyers. 

[SugarTaffySoap]

@AikoAndMae  Are you aware your Announcement is incomplete?

[AikoAndMae]

I just fixed it, thank you!!

[AAANativeArts]

The ban can be for 7 days, 14 days or more. They usually tell you. Contact Etsy and explain what you did, and they might remove it. But usually they won't remove it until  your banned period is up. They have no way of knowing if you are answering help requests or sending more Spam, so you either have those privileges or you don't.  If you do it again, they will ban you permanently.

[AikoAndMae]

Ah, good to know. When I contacted Etsy they didn’t tell me anything. Only to wait for somebody to email me. There was no warning before the ban. I’m not even sure how to know the ban is over other than trying again daily to reply to help requests… which, might look like more spam? I’m really in my head about this now.

[GroundZeroCreations]

As others have said, Etsy likely saw you had send out an unusual number of messages and that led them to believe you were spamming people. Or if you are contacting people just because they favorited your items, that is spamming too. Be very careful about sending unnecessary communications. And don't spam contacts on Etsy with a marketing emails from another platform unless they have signed up to receive them. After looking at your shop I can't really see any reason why you should be having daily customers with problems that you need to communicate with them. 

Also, it was my understanding that when you are muted that you can still respond to messages from customers that have actually purchased from you. (if I am wrong perhaps someone else will chime in here.) So it sounds like the messages you need to respond to are not buying customers at the present time. But if some are, you should be able to respond to them. If it is just inquiries, you likely won't be able to. 

[AikoAndMae]

@GroundZeroCreations @ Thank you for your reply! Just to clarify I am definitely muted from replying to help requests from customers. It’s not daily, but several times a week I have buyers messaging me who don’t know how/where to downloadtheir purchases. 

I would never ever message somebody for favoritingan item. The messagesthat got me blocked were just me offering a free upgrade to a better version of the exact same product they recently bought. No strings attached,just trying to be nice and do something I would appreciate if I were the customer. Definitelylesson learned though and I won’t be messaging anyone again unless it’s a reply.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@AikoAndMae 

The messages that got me blocked were just me offering a free upgrade to a better version of the exact same product they recently bought

You can't do that, they have not opted in to receive unsolicited messages from you, so you just can't do it, it is illegal in many countries

Your message about etsy messages being down is wrong, you are blocked from using them for acting illegally, Etsy messages are working exactly as they should be

you have to wait it out

[MoonbeamsnBlossoms]

My messages have been blocked also after sending quite a few messages to my etsy friends in a short amount of time.  They were not spam.  We make sets on urstyle including each others items and then send the link to the urstyle set so they can interact with it.  We have been doing this for many years and I didn't know there was a problem doing this.

I had another shop on etsy for 14 years, but due to health problems had to close my shop for over a year.  I'm finally back and muting my messages is making it difficult for me.  I have sent many help tickets, but have never received a reply.  Have also had a few chat sessions with no luck.

I saw in the forums that Herr Moostache helped another etsy seller with this problem and I'm hoping he will help us also.

[LittleGemsJewells]

That's ridiculous Suzanne the people you are communicating with are your fellow etsy friends and sellers here on Etsy not spamming past customers. Letting your friends know that you are back after your illness should not warrant a mute or message ban. I would get in contact with them again and ask to escalate the issue to the next level. You are starting over again from scratch and don't have many customers and those that have bought are friends trying to help you build your shop back up again. Sorry this has happened to you Suzanne.

[DifferentPointOfArt]

I have it also. That's so not fair cause people who are asking me for help with downloading are sending official help request. In other hand I got a few weird messages from people who are offering setting up SEO for example of course for money. And that's allowed?

[TOPSnTEEzApparel]

This has happened to me and the only messages I send out are the automated ones that etsy provide for the sellers! 

I have a customer contacting with with questions and I can't even respond to them. 

Etsy seller help is shoddy to say the least. Out of all selling platforms, Etsy is by far the worse in regards to lack of contact options and response.

This is something Etsy really need to address as they are growing rapidly now and need to move with the times. 

[SteveMayneTest]

My wife's shop has been blocked for over a month. Etsy have not responded to help requests - or worse, have said it's resolved when it isn't. It's almost impossible to offer good customer service to purchasers when you can't reply to their requests for help. This is completely unacceptable.

[catfluff]

incredible, they can't manage to stop the scammers from sending messages but they can stop innocent sellers.

[StarShipByME]

My messaging had been disabled more than a month now and I haven’t received a response back from Etsy Support. I’ve contacted them multiple times already.

[ArchangelSilks]

The same thing has happened to me.  this is very stupid. Does anyone from Etsy look at these messages?.  A potential Buyer has asked me a question and I can't reply.

[GroundZeroCreations]

Etsy has strict guidelines for what you can and cannot do when messaging. Sometimes, a violation may occur simply because you are unaware that it is forbidden to do that. I will post the entire policy for messaging below. Those who are having problems might want to review this in case you may have missed seeing something when you opened your shop or have simply forgotten it. It might offer some insight into why you are having problems trying to use the messaging system. I suspect this is all being controlled by bots that are programed to search for violations. So that means sometimes a seller may have violated policy or sometimes it may be the bots don't fully understand the context of the text used. I suspect the violation in blue color may be the one that is most often the reason for being shut down. 

c. Communication Standards

i. Messages

With Etsy's "Messages", you have the ability to communicate directly with your buyers or other Etsy members. Messages are a great way for buyers to ask you questions about an item or an order.

Messages may not be used for the following activities:

1. Sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations, or spam;
2. Harassing or abusing another member or violating our Anti-Discrimination Policy;
3. Contacting someone after they have explicitly asked you not to; or
4. Interfering with a transaction or the business of another member.
5. Exchanging personal contact, financial or other information for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Etsy, including phone number, address, email, social media handles, external URLs, instructions for money transfer, etc.

Harassment and Discrimination

Any use of Messages to harass other members is strictly prohibited. Similarly, Messages may not be used to support or glorify hatred or otherwise violate our Anti-Discrimination Policy. If you receive a Message that violates this policy, please let us know right away.

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