UNDERSTANDING ‘PERMANENT SUSPENSION’ BY ETSY OF OUR 12 YEAR-OLD SHOP WITHOUT ANY REASON

[CharlestonKnobs]

Has anyone else here commented on the sheer impossibility of having any one-on-one communication with ETSY ? They closed my Shop ‘Charleston Knobs’ after 12 years, on November 7…despite dozens of emails that come back unanswered they refuse to tell me WHY they shut me down. Any similar experiences ?

They are even withholding payments due to me. I am so so frustrated after so many years of good reviews and impeccable performance…to be punished like this, for what ?

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Your shop is not permanently closed;; it is on a short break.

[NanaLetha]

Your shop is not closed.

[audreytherese]

Looks like we need to go over this again. Etsy has put another shop in what looks like vacation mode so they can wrap up anything outstanding while telling the shop they have been permanently closed. You can no longer assume that just because it looks like a shop is in vacation mode that is all it is. There is more going on behind the scenes. What I have gathered from most posts is they have 30 days from being put in vacation to when their shop disappears. 

Unfortunately OP I have no advice, but you are far from the first shop to come with a similar story. 

[TheEternalKnot]

Did you receive a notice of suspension?

[MouseGarden]

It looks like your shop has been placed on vacation.

Do you have a lot of open orders?  Was there a sudden surge of orders? 

 Is the credit card on file still current?  Were you told to verify any info before it happened? 

If you send them an email and they give you a form letter, you have to reply to that form letter (yes I still need help) or it starts it as a new ticket and you go to the back of the line.

Have you had any cases against you?  Were there any late orders?

[Amaradorn]

Did you recently change/update or send ID documents? Etsy often put shops on forced vacation while they verify your documents. Check your emails (including junk mail folder).

[DKVintageandBeyond]

@CharlestonKnobs sent you a screenshot. Auto reply says back soon catching up on orders.  

[CarpetCollectionAU]

In recent weeks we have seen many similar eamples of long-term Shops being notified they are "suspended" and have a certain amount of time before permant closure. Then Etsy placed the Sho/sp on "Vacation"

The most common reasons as far as Forum reports have indicated are incomplete / out of date financial information or high case rate. You do not have any of the SSP Badges but, as Reviews seem OK it would appear that you did not reach the $ 300 / 5 Orders in 3 Months benchmark, so it does not look like a sudden upsurge in Orders was the cause of the forced "Vacation".

Given the above considerations, it would look like a problem with verifying your financial information which Etsy now requires all US Shops to do to comply with the "Inform" act and other Banking Regulations. You say you have been here 12 years so, whilst you may have been updating your CC on file, you may have overlooked verifying your Bank Account using the "Plaid" platform.

[CryzalisMasksUK]

I have noticed that when a shop is placed on vacation by Etsy (not by the seller) the badges are removed.

[hopeandjoystudios]

I have noted something and it is curious. If you try to list a new commercial supply knob or pull with the new lister, the only categories it supplies to pick from are HANDMADE ones. Even if you picked made by someone else supply. EVEN THOUGH there is a supply category for home and hobby>home improvement> drawer knobs and pulls  and also home and hobby> woodworking and carpentry >hardware . There are NO SUPPLY CATEGORIES PRESENTED. I think possibly that with the new listing form when old previously legit (and still legit by their own categories) supply items renewed or sold/renewed suddenly they did not have a supply category via the lister it somehow added a handmade one and flagged it as NOT HANDMADE? Either a horrible glitch or Etsy just shuffling sellers to the curb?  Try listing a knob and see what I mean. Anything that starts with Home and Living is a HANDMADE category no matter what comes after it. @CharlestonKnobs 

[hopeandjoystudios]

If I try the same thing with a vintage year 1960 for a knob you get the same categories, but they'd be delegated to the vintage search..which can't happen if it is a new supply because it doesn't belong in a home and living category but a supply one... which it is not presenting to categories as a choice. And you can't add your own category picks any more.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

Sounds like Etsy is shooting itself in the foot.

Again.

Seriously how much longer can they last with this current constant parade of ineptitude?

[PrairiePrimitives]

@OneEyeCatStudio Until they run out of churn? 

[OneGoodReason]

I’m sorry this has happened to you! I find it’s pretty easy to reach a human support person. When you go to etsy help choose:

1. Contact us.

2. Selling on Etsy.

3.  Manage my shop and listings. I would choose this over “my account is suspended” as that just takes you to “file an appeal” and that would take forever for information.

4. Manage listings.

5. I still need help. 

This method will at times present you with 2 options. One is “email us” and the other is have etsy call you back. Then almost as soon as I choose the call back, my phone will ring. It is really best to reach them early in the morning to get that option. Once you have a real person, if they cannot help you with this, they will transfer you to someone that would be able to.

Good luck! I hope you can reach a human and figure it out. 

[OneEyeCatStudio]

You got that kind of service when dealing with a shop suspension?

You are the first person I've seen posting here that has had that happen.

[OneGoodReason]

@OneEyeCatStudio  

No, just a way to reach a human and then having them transfer you to another tech if the initial tech cannot help.

If you choose the suspension option, it just leads you to “file an appeal” and not a human. I chose it for @CharlestonKnobs  because they have likely already filed an appeal, which requires someone reviewing your case and lengthy back and forth answering questions and the the OP @CharlestonKnobs said:

“despite dozens of emails that come back unanswered they refuse to tell me WHY they shut me down.”

So I gave them steps to reach human option. Where, if they cannot answer the question,  they can transfer them to someone that can help them.  I have always reached a human to call me back in 5 minutes or less. Usually instantly.

[ChantillyAvenue]

@OneGoodReason 

Actually, when you reach a live person, they will tell you they are "escalating your issue to the appropriate team, and they should be in touch within a few days".  But, of course, they never do.  I've had more subtle brush offs than that, and usually got at least one nice dinner out of it.

[PrairiePrimitives]

@CharlestonKnobs Found your cow knobs on Wayfair under the same seller name you use here. And I found the bee knob right here on Etsy in another shop. Etsy has bots looking for items matching Etsy seller's images so they may have found these items (and potentially more). 

Since you apparently didn't make these items, but are trying to sell them as Supplies, and assuming that's still Etsy legal (with this Summer's new Creativity Standards, I don't know what's legal and what isn't!), filing DMCA's probably isn't going to work for you. But I don't know what options that leaves you, other than trying to reach a human at Etsy. Good luck with that. 

These days Etsy wants "unique" and if they can find the same thing on another site, then it's not unique to Etsy. And they've been suspending shops because of that. For handmade sellers whose images have been stolen, they need to file DMCA's to have the stolen images removed, then prove that to Etsy. In your case, you might want to use different 1st images on each site (I don't know if Etsy's bots look thru all the images or only compare the 1st images). In the case of the bee knobs, it was clearly the same bee body but the "antiquing" was different on each, so a strong resemblance is apparently close enough. 

[Goshirtly]

I see that you have your own online store. We know that ETSY sees this as a problem when the same products are sold on different platforms. Have you reported your store to ETSY? We saw a store on Amazon that sold the same products was closed down last week.

[CryzalisMasksUK]

Most of us have our own websites as a primary, in all these years that seems to have not been an issue. There are also plenty of sellers on Etsy that have an amazon store without any issues.

Unless of course they name these websites or shops on other marketplaces something different with different seller details.

[FabioMcMustache · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The ETA for response varies on a case-by-case basis, and a separate team is handling the ticket you recently filed. Any further communication on the matter, if applicable, will only occur directly with you, and via email.

As support requests are handled privately, we're now closing this thread.