Now etsy are putting items into our baskets ? !

[#1]

Something I'd favourited a few weeks ago suddenly appeared in my basket today with a note saying the seller was offering me a 5% discount, it was there in the basket added by etsy!

I NEVER put things into my basket to hold, if interested in something I put it in a folder, it only goes in my basket as I pay for it.

If you're someone who does put lots of things in your basket to hold and this happened to you, you could end up paying for something you had no intention of wanting.

As it is I had to search really hard to find the empty my basket button.

This is a really bad idea, stay out of my basket! 

[SnowBunnys]

I removed the Etsy app on my phone because I kept getting too many messages from Etsy about coupons and items I had favorited selling fast, etc.  Also, the orange circled numbers on the app icon that would not go away even when I had reviewed every purchase and left photos on the reviews, but still a number there.  Numbers for updates too, appearing multiple times in a day.  Too much of a hard sell by Etsy.  I still shop on Etsy from the dashboard in the Sell on Etsy platform on my Mac, but I wonder how many people have deleted the Etsy app due to the heavy-handedness of Etsy, and how many sales, we the sellers, are losing due to these noisome practices.

[BirdieGirlAntiques]

That happened to me, too!    

[CanningCrafts]

I had an item go into my cart once when I clicked a "Shop Update" coupon code on the storefront. Did you by chance do that? If it ended up in your cart just by favoriting it, then that is sneaky. I'm pretty sure when I clicked the coupon, it directed me to my cart right then.

[cutebutton]

Quite a while back a had a customer contact me fussing about my business practices and how I needed to change my shop ASAP because of this very reason.  I politely responded that I 100,000,000% agreed that an item shouldn't randomly be put in anyone's cart and that it was etsy's doing and not mine.  Luckily the person ended up being very nice and understanding and I think she eventually purchased an item but I told her to contact etsy to complain and that I would too because it's not right for people to think I would run my business that way when I totally would not HAHAHA. 

[PWOriginals]

Ummm - I would think Etsy putting things in buyers' carts would be illegal.

[MirageRiverCreations]

I was kind of wondering this myself, but maybe it only crosses that line once someone buys? Still it’s cheeky, underhanded, sneaky, and downright a bad idea. While Amazon gets slapped for fiddling with prices all day long, Etsy thought “hmm, how could I do even worse?” Mission accomplished!

[PWOriginals]

@MirageRiverCreations 

I liken it to:

Shopping at a physical store and having employees add things to your cart (out of view) simply because you looked at them on the shelves.

And then hoping you wouldn't notice the extras during checkout.

[digitaldoodlebug]

@PWOriginals 

I hadn't even thought of that. If people had other items in their cart they could easily miss an item they didn't add. That could explain a few sellers getting contacted for cancelation for items the customer "didn't order"

[ChillwolfArt]

Thank You for the Heads Up. I've never used the Cart; when I buy something it's instantaneous. In the Notification Icon (bell), I would get discounts for something I Faved, but the item never went into a Cart.

[Thesingingbeader]

Yes, this just recently happened to me as a buyer.  I was  looking for gifts  for family and got a coupon pop up.  I clicked on it.  I didn't notice it went into the cart when I was buying similar items.  I'm also a seller, so my main concern is if this happens to one of my buyers. 

[MouseGarden]

It's like Etsy is hopping up and down and yelling at the FTC, Pick me!  Pick me!

No wonder customers cancel stuff saying it was accidentally purchased.  They might not have even put it in their basket?  

[FunkyJunkyVintage]

@cutebutton 

etsy pulls that crap because they can. They can do all the bad things and they KNOW people will think it's the shop owners, i.e. we're not real people to the marketing department that comes up with these super fine ideas, we're expendable churn! It baffles the mind how they can think they're helping sellers all the while stabbing us in the back. I cannot even get my head around how they think this is good business practice, it seems so dishonest.

The scary thought is how many people won't say anything, just suck it up and keep the item they didn't buy because it's too much of a headache to deal with, but never come back to our shops again, and/or leave a wonderful review like, "Seller is a rip off! Sent me something I didn't buy and charged my credit card extra!" And then you contact support about the confusing review and etsy tells you that it doesn't fall in their parameters of removing a review.

I cannot even imagine the amount of people who are going to be burned by this, especially the sellers who ship out same day or next day, and what a flipping headache to have to do all that work only to have a return, or a pissed off accidental customer. And you know etsy always makes it look like it's the sellers with these cockamamie ideas they come up with.

[digitaldoodlebug]

I had one better today. An item I viewed yesterday, didn't even favorite, was in my cart today. I found out when etsy made a popup pushing me to buy it. That's a fast way to drive buyers (and even browsers) from the site. Maybe it was due to clicking the popup, but it made it look like it was in my cart and wanted me to check out. And I'm here thinking what is going on? Would be annoyed and possibly not return if it was my first time at etsy.