Shop Suspended Due to Violating Handmade Policy

[#1]

Hello,

I am trying to get clarification on the issue stated in the headline. I have been selling on Etsy for over 4 years now, have close to 8,000 sales and a 4.8 star rating selling wide brim hats and fedoras.

The other day we received an email stating our store was suspended for violating the handmade rule. The issue is that we never said we personally hand make the hats in our store. Since we do not handmake our hats, we have the 2 production partners listed that I use to bring my designs to life. 

In Etsy's example of a production partner it states:

"Sellers’ original designs produced by a production partner: Original designs created by a seller and produced with the assistance of a production partner. Sellers must disclose that an item is made by a production partner, and provide accurate information about where the item will ship from.

E.g. A unique dress designed by a seller and reproduced at scale by a production partner."

The dress example is exactly what our business does, but with fedoras and wide brim headwear. I monitor the niche to see what styles are popular, or emerging, have someone on Fiverr create mock-ups for me based on our designs and inputs, reach out to productions partners, pay for samples, compare samples once received, narrow down which partner to use based on the quality of samples we receive from the production partner, and then finally once we receive the products from the production partner, we use all our own equipment to take and edit professional level photos using a high end camera, canva, and adobe.

I am not understanding why our listings keep getting removed and now we are suspended. I have wrote to Etsy with each removal of our listings and more recently this suspension appeal and we have never once heard back from a human that can explain why our listings keep getting flagged.

I have put countless hours into this Etsy business and would love if someone could help us understand the issue and how to get it rectified.

Thanks

[nineteen27]

@TwiLdCapitHog 

i just wanted to say...

that i agree with you completely.

[TwiLdCapitHog]

@DopeHatsShop  You can argue black is is white till the cows come home, but the point is if the hats your manufacturer makes for you have no discernable difference to the hats they make for their other customers, then you cannot claim them as your design. Which means you are neither designing or making your hats, so as far as Etsy is concerned, that means they can't be sold here. 

[PWOriginals]

"All of the listings have been updated to designed by and have been that way after they initially removed some listings.

"When they brought forth the new updates we didn't have them updated quick enough to "designed by" with production partners ..."

I'm not understanding these statements. Are you saying you did not list production partners until the new updated listing criteria?

[DopeHatsShop]

I don't believe we had our production partners linked correctly to every single listing. We had 100+ listings at the time. That has since been fixed yet the listings were still getting removed after them getting fixed for all listings.

[NeonSignCustomKing]

@DopeHatsShop I am going through the exact same thing as you.
I found out on 7.25 that I had my Star Seller badge removed. The top of the page indicated that I had received a final notice of violation, and I immediately went to check my email and have yet to receive any new emails from Etsy Support or the Trust & Safety team.
Then in the early hours of the next morning, my store was also forced into vacation mode by Etsy and I received an email from the Etsy Trust & Safety team mentioning that they would be permanently suspending my store after 28 days as there seemed to be more violations in my store!
I checked all my listings and a total of 6 listings had 'Violated Etsy's handmade policy' (Now is Violated Etsy's Creativity Standards).
Three of these listings have been reinstated by Etsy after they had been reviewed and suspended in error.
Then, at the end of April and the beginning of May of this year, I adjusted my store's shipping schedule due to the holidays, and 3 of my listings were removed by Etsy for violating Etsy's handmade policy, all of which were listings I'd been selling for 2, if not 3, years or more. And I also received an email notification claiming that a repeat violation was going to shut down my store.
I was absurd and worried, so I prepared all the design files, production videos, photos, and also added the information from my first sale to the record to initiate the request, but unfortunately, no response was received. They just marked my request as complete and no one contacted me to respond to my request.
I've been shooting tens of thousands of images over the years, or creating different effects for special customized listings. I make sure I have no violated the policy.
And, since May, there have not been any new listings violating the policy. I've also been submitting Requests over and over again to try to reinstate my 3 listings that were removed in error. But each time, Etsy has ignored them and received no response.
I opened the support board again today in hopes of finding an online human customer service. However I found that I was closed to this service, and there is no way where I can initiate a chat with online support, the only way is by email.

[DopeHatsShop]

You have to love it...

The best part of this is that if you search neon sign, you get 500 different listings and I can guarantee all the top listings use production partners, or they would not be able to sell the signs at the prices they sell them for and at that scale. You cannot grow a business and handmake every item if it is a physical item.

My favorite part is that in my niche (hats) I have noticed they have already removed the top 4-5 stores from our space and all that is left is what Etsy thinks is handmade. In actuality none of these items remaining are handmade and are absolutely horribly executed. Low quality products, low quality images, and horrible reviews-- all products the customer doesn't want, or they would have already been buying them. All they did was remove their best sellers and leave trash behind that no one was buying.

I should have never been transparent and used "designed by production partner." It is almost like that is their signal to remove your store, so they can leave only the "handmade" sellers, which are just people reselling items they bought from a wholesaler in the US.

All the remaining shops in our niche that are selling garbage say "handmade by seller," but they are not. I have done reverse image searches and found "their products" online. They were too unprofessional to even take their own pictures-- this is the "new" Etsy.

[vintageNCtreasures]

I disagree about you can't be in business and physically make every item. It can be done.
It depends on what you're making and how much money you want to make. 

There's plenty of sellers on Etsy, eBay and on their own websites that make every item they sell.

I've been in business (self-employed) making pet products since 2004 and I make every, single, item.
I do NOT have help sewing any of the items nor do I have help with shipping orders. 
I only have help cutting out orders for around 3-4 hours a week.

[DopeHatsShop]

vintageNCtreasures

I am not sure what that has to do with the post. We sell two different products. I also didn't say I made our hats, I design them. I am asking for help from Etsy to understand why our shop was removed for violating the handmade policy when I have our store setup with production partners based on my designs.

[vintageNCtreasures]

I replied because you mentioned this above: "You cannot grow a business and handmake every item if it is a physical item."

As for your hats being removed you even mentioned that you "assume" those production partners made those same hats for other companies.
If they are making the same hats for other companies that is a huge problem.
A production partner ONLY makes items YOU design for you and for no one else.

[KeetaLuxury]

@neonsigncustomking

Hi Neon,

I'm facing the exact same situation and was wondering if you could share how long it took for Etsy to resolve your issue. Did they actually reach out for any documents or information, or did they just restore your shop and star seller badges? I haven’t received any email from them yet—not even in my spam folder.

This whole situation is extremely frustrating, and we have no clarity on what’s happening with our store. My entire family relies on this business, and having it put on vacation mode out of nowhere along with losing bestseller listings and star seller badge  - feels like a bomb dropped on our mental health.

Any insights from your experience would be really helpful. Looking forward to your response!

Best,

Keeta

[lalarossa]

Your manufacturing partners are a province on the east coast of China and a city in central Mexico. You should provide the exact name of the company you are working with.

[DopeHatsShop]

I did, you just can't seem them, only Etsy can. That's how production partners work on Etsy.

If they made the exact names transparent, then anyone could just steal the production partners I spent countless hours and dollars trying to find.

[audreytherese]

It's not required to disclose the actual company names with the public, it only needs to be disclosed to Etsy. 

Working with Production Partners on Etsy – Etsy Help

1. Select Add a new production partner and fill out a form telling Etsy and the community about your partnership. The information not marked Private will be shared publicly in your shop.
2. Next to Production partner, enter your partner’s business name. Etsy requires that you disclose the business name, but you can choose to keep this private in your shop. In that case, you will enter a public title (such as “Apparel printer”) that describes what kind of business they are.

[PWOriginals]

OP - You state you have updated all your listings now to describe your partners - that is what not only Etsy, but also buyers, want to know. But you indicated you had listings removed before that was done and more deactivations since the update. Whether intentional or mistaken, you were caught, and now perhaps Etsy has put a pause on your shop while they look further?

Your customers are happy, you've now properly disclosed partners on your home page, and I assume each individual listing, so you'll be good to go when/if you can reopen for business. From your review pics, yes, these are very common style for fedoras and straw hats, so you may be plagued with bot removals going forward.

Slamming Etsy for its rules and other sellers who have yet to be caught, or my "handmade is better than yours", is not a good tactic. Just worry about your own shop and do your buyers a favor in being totally transparent.

Etsy's reputation has taken a large hit, partly due to buyers who are being deceived as to what they're actually buying, and the origin of the product. There are buyers who really don't care who's making what, but there are those who do. Etsy is only asking us to be honest.

[DopeHatsShop]

I understand that the reputation has taken a hit and that this is part of withholding their integrity, but removing sellers and offering no support, or response, and then possibly shutting down their business with no explanation is something anyone operating a small business would not be pleased about.

We have made many customers happy with their purchase from our store and their experience with Etsy and have made Etsy a fair amount of money along the way between their cut of the revenue and our ad spend.

Hopefully someone from the company responds, but given the track record of no response we have had from Etsy, I am pretty sure that won't happen. We will see.

[PWOriginals]

It doesn't matter how much $$ you've made for Etsy (not nearly what you have made, I would hope).

Rules are rules, and declaring partners has ALWAYS been required on listing pages.

There are lots of shops going through exactly what you are right now (do you read the forums?) I still wish you luck, but this constant projection that your shop is somehow more special than others is a bit off-putting.

[DopeHatsShop]

I am not saying our shop is special. I am just stating it from a stance that we have had good success on Etsy and checked all their boxes. We have never had an issue and have represented their image well, so some support for the seller would be nice.

I hope one day you don't have the plug pulled on your business with no means of support, the ability to contact a human that works there, or even an explanation. 

Anyways, it is clear that only an Etsy employee would be able to assist here. Take it easy.

[audreytherese]

"I hope one day you don't have the plug pulled on your business with no means of support, the ability to contact a human that works there, or even an explanation."

This is exactly why I personally don't put more effort into my Etsy shop and why I will never allow myself to become reliant on this platform. Luckily, I'm perfectly happy where I'm at and actually don't want to be more successful here (unlike those that dream of being millionaires, or want a shop that brings in 6 figures). If I lost my shop tomorrow, all that means is I wouldn't be able to buy as many craft supplies going forward. Or that I'd need to sign up for an extra craft show or two a year. 

No matter how 'wrong' it is, I've seen too many have their livelihood taken away from them with no explanation. It's been clear for a long time that Etsy plays by their own rules and doesn't share their true rulebook with us. Sure, we have our rules and policies, but even those following all the rules can get shut down with no warning (often because they were successful and copied, with Etsy giving the benefit of the doubt to the copiers). 

I know this isn't actually helpful, but just another reminder for people to spread out and not rely on this site. 

[DopeHatsShop]

Thank god we have diversified after reading the horror stories and moved over to Shopify, or we would really be going through some scary times right now. Etsy was a sizable portion of income for us.

[NeonSignCustomKing]

@DopeHatsShop 

I know that many of the top-ranked sellers are currently using Chinese production partners to sell neon signs.
But in fact, I am a Chinese seller myself and I have my own craft workshop. My production partner is only used as a font preview site for some of the personalized listings.
And none of these are listings that I have been removed for violating.
The listings that I was removed for violating were listings that I have been selling for years, that I have photographed myself or used my listing review images as product images. All I did was update the shipping schedule and they were determined to be in violation.
I thought that this may be because they matched images on other sites that were similar or identical to my listings. In fact, that was the case with my first removed listing last year, but I was lucky enough to meet a real support person. He sent me a listing that stole images of mine and published them on Aliexpress. So I provided her with proof of all my designs and production handwork. Then they reinstated my listing.
What puzzles me is that Etsy doesn't seem to care about the handmade anymore, no matter how much I provide proof of my production process. They only care if my products are resold on other sites, but I'm just a small business. I don't have that much power to go on all the sites and take down the listings that steal my images.

[DopeHatsShop]

Were you able to reach an actual human this time around?

Mine situation is somewhat similar to yours in that once I changed my listings (added production partners properly) I was almost immediately suspended. I should have just left them as handmade. I notice all the other sellers that just buy cheap products from wholesalers in the US and resell them are still listed as handmade and haven't been removed.

I am going to continue to press them to let me prove my case that I am designing the hats and having them produced based on my specs, but at this point, I am almost certain I will never get a response and my shop will be closed without every hearing from Etsy aside from an automate email.

[Girlfriendnecklace]

Complain to the better business bureau! And film yourself doing your hats.

[NeonSignCustomKing]

@DopeHatsShop I submitted 3 REQUESTS about listing removal. This morning I received what looked like an AI reply, the same string of rule descriptions, and then the reply content that tells you it can't tell you exactly why. I replied again, but am not sure I will encounter a real person this time.
They also closed my online chat channel inside Etsy Support. All the paths I took to ask for help could only be sent via email. I'd say this is simply unconscionable behavior.

[BaggieAggie]

Another old thread revised.

[ModKenneth · Accepted solution]

Hello!

Before posting on the Forums, please check if you are not bumping an old thread that hasn't seen any activity in a while. You can do this by looking at the dates of the most recent replies.

Since this thread is indeed a bit older and the information contained here may be outdated, it will now be closed.

__

If you have any questions about how the Community Forums work, please read our Community Policies.