Submitted Appeal, Waited Two Weeks, Now Appeal is Closed with No Answer

[MeissaHandmade]

I submitted an appeal for my shop on September 6, 2024, and have been patiently waiting for a response. It’s been two weeks, and I still haven’t received any updates from the Etsy team. When I checked the appeal ticket, it indicated that the request was marked as complete, yet I never received any notification or response. Now, when I click on the "file an appeal" button, it prompts me to submit a new one. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Could this be a technical glitch?

[NanaLetha]

@MeissaHandmade  appeal for what?

[MeissaHandmade]

An appeal to reinstate my shop

[VintageRescueSquad]

What was the reason for the suspension? The notice that you are "taking a short break" is usually because of ID or financial info.

[MeissaHandmade]

Creativity violation. 

[Former_Member]

The announcement on your banner looks written by you - which makes me think you put your shop on vacation, not Etsy. Etsy's enforced vacation is usually 'I'm working on fulfilling orders right now' Unless they changed it recently. But from what you say here, looks like Etsy is done talking with you on that appeal. Either way, your shop is not completely suspended so there's still a chance.

See if you can get someone to call you:

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling#issue_sell_manage_listings-callback

If the problem is not solved on the phone (usually isn't) then you should get follow-up emails from a place called Zetsy/Zendesk; keep an eye out and check your spam folder too. There will likely be 2 or 3 emails you will have to reply to until you speak with a real human - just say 'I still need help' in every email reply and it should stay open. I recently had a simple query and it took me 9 emails to get a straight answer!

Looking at your other sites, were you using the same photos on your Amazon Handmade and website that you are using here? Have you done any sweeps lately to see if someone has stolen your photos? Etsy doesn't like it when the photos here match anything else online, whether it's stolen from you or your own on other sites.

From what I can see of your work, you're probably going to have to prove that you are legitimately handmade/designed by you, AND if you get back on, make sure all your photos are ones that are both unique to this site and not stolen.

[MeissaHandmade]

Thank you for the link. I was able to get a call back, but they just told me to keep waiting.

I didn't put the shop on vacation mode, Etsy did, but I was able to change the away message. 

Yes, I am using the same photos for my website and Amazon Handmade. But Etsy does encourage us to sell on other channels to promote our brands. So I didn't know that using the same photos for all of my sites isn't allowed. 

I think the true problem is other people selling my photos. I found them on so many sites like SHEIN, Temu, AliExpress, and more after my shop was suspended. And I submitted over 60 IP infringement claims to get those listings removed. It's just frustrating to be punished when I see that other people have been stealing from me. 

[Former_Member]

@MeissaHandmade  yes other people stealing your photos is definitely a problem, especially if those sellers are on Ali, Temu etc. There's been many reports of sellers being taken down because their photos were stolen - very unprofessional of Etsy but they don't seem to care.

Regarding us using the same photos on more than one of our platforms... it's not exactly against policy. At least I can find nothing in the handbook that says so. But I have had a conversation with email Support about it. I can't copy/paste their reply (that is against policy) but I can say that they told me Etsy likes the product here to feel that it's available nowhere else, and that using the same photos elsewhere does not fit with that.

They didn't directly say they stifle listings with non-exclusive images, but after asking them that exact thing at least 3 times, and not getting a yes/no answer, I came to my own conclusions. So I think that while it's not 'against policy' now, there's going to come a time when Etsy will announce sellers with original photos will be boosted. In fact (I'll probably get deleted for saying this) I suspect that's what the current takedown fiasco is about, they're training their bots to be better at image matching. A lot of innocent sellers are being caught up in that, but Etsy doesn't care about us. They're just trying to build a system where photos here are only found here. Why get rid of the resellers when you can just force them to wear a mask...

[MeissaHandmade]

Hi BriarMoonBeads, 

I see your point there. It's very hard to have the photos be only found on Etsy if our items ever got popular. It is so easy for someone to screenshot something and start to resell it. It is just wrong to punish the original creator of something without first talking to us or getting the facts straight. But what can I do... It is just very disappointing because the very platform that promotes personal touch and connection does not truly care about us. If I get the shop back, then I would change all the photos, but that's going to be a big project and I can't just change everything overnight as a small business owner. 

I had someone literally copied EVERYTHING on my store and made a full store just like mine on Etsy a few years back. It is just ridiculous. Ever since then, I started putting watermarks on my images, but then people would still enlarge the images and erase my logo, so it just really sucks. 

[FabioMcMustache · Accepted solution]

Hello! We're sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with your shop. We've forwarded your concerns to a specialist team. Thank you! 

Please know we handle support inquiries privately per our Community Policy – we’re closing this thread, so you can get the support you need from us directly.