Urgent - Shop closed - Verifyication of seller info for incorporated business not working

[LivingDreamsYarn]

There is no provision for uploading our corporate documents (Legal Entity) as well as our personal IDs - but Etsy is requesting both.  We are on Etsy since 2010, Starseller etc. and our shop got put into vacation mode today. None of our business information has changed and all our documents are current. This glitch is extremely harmful to our business. Please fix asap.

Please review case ID: [This content was removed by Moderation - Please refer to our Community Policies]

[PeoplePackages]

You can upload items by clicking under finance, then click legal and tax information, you can upload there

[BagmakerSupply]

@LivingDreamsYarn"Please fix asap ... Please review [REMOVED] Just so you know, even if Etsy Support or the Help Pages sent you here this is a seller peer to peer forum, and should not be considered a way to contact Etsy, if that is your hope (although Etsy does sometimes read and reply to posts).

[PinkPosyPaperie]

I am in the exact situation.  I have talked to 3 different support people and have gotten nowhere. They keep saying engineering will get back to me but it has been almost a week.

[BlackMarketChicago]

@PinkPosyPaperie  .... your shop is open again.  Please post here what helped, so others can get through this?  Thanks

[LivingDreamsYarn]

Yes, I understand that this is a peer to peer forum. It is my attention to get a response from Etsy monitors by talking about it here (this works very well on other marketplaces as the number of responses usually indicates how big a problem is). Etsy should be embarrassed by this topic and help the community here.

We have been continuously VERIFIED for many years before we were asked to upload documents again today. We made no changes to our seller info and already received our 1099K for 2023. There is no doubt about our status as a tax paying legal entity.

There is an inherent conflict in the wording of what docs Etsy is requesting: if, like us, your legal entity is a corporation and you are being asked to upload personal documents - they cannot possibly match.

Being put in vacation mode represents an enormous loss of daily business.

How do you get in touch with support people who can solve this?

[BagmakerSupply]

@LivingDreamsYarn: "There is an inherent conflict in the wording of what docs Etsy is requesting" Clearly a lot of Etsy instructions must be written by an attorney whose primary interest is no one being able to say "but you said ..."

"... your legal entity is a corporation and you are being asked to upload personal documents ..." Many of the new laws and regulations require that not only the business entity but also a real human who is responsible for the entity be verified.

Every eMail from Etsy support should have a link something like "I Still Need Help". Click on that link (or actually reply stating that you still need help) to keep the report alive or Etsy will assume that it is resolved. You may have to do this innumerable times, but once on each Etsy reply before anything is done but do not give up.

[CappuccinoLace]

How do you get in touch with support people who can solve this?

The only way to contact support is through the help section to open a ticket.

As you have a ticket number, you're already in contact with support, and that's all there is.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Etsy needs the information again for the Inform Act which was in place as of July last year,  Informing Businesses about the INFORM Consumers Act | Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov)

How did you start your shop?  Personal or business>  That may make a difference.  If you added information about an LLC later, Etsy may see both the personal and the business information.  Did you enter SSn or EIN?  Ein with personal name or with business?  What does the IRS letter say?

To contact Etsy use Contact us.  THis may work   Submit a request – Etsy Help  Supply a phone number and maybe that will work better fro you.

Chances are that when you started and what is needed today are not matching and hence the confusion.

[foreverbeading23]

I am having the same issue. Although Etsy did verify my ID and I received an all-ok message stating anything that was paused or suspended will go back and I can conduct my shop again however they have me on vacation mode. I have emailed and emailed and emailed and I am getting nowhere. It is not fair for those who do follow the policies and the requests. We have families to feed, and they are not helping. Plus the only way I can contact them is email. I don't have option for live chat or a call back. They don't respond to me via email so I am just stuck. 

[JDTotesnDolls]

@foreverbeading23 When you say email are you using Contact us?  or something found on the Internet.

If you received a reply back, you need to use that one to reply back to Etsy.  The first reply is always generic.  Submit a request – Etsy Help  Try this.

How did you start the shop?  With personal name and SSN?  Did you start an LLC at any time.  Is the bank account and other information matching the form of name had by the IRS?  

[foreverbeading23]

@JDTotesnDolls 

Yes, all under personal name and SSN. On my page it shows all is verified. I received an email saying all holds and suspensions are lifted, and I can conduct business, but I am still on vacation mode. Even if I wanted to go and upload more documents I couldn't because the sections are greyed out. 

I am so frustrated and sad because this is the way I pay my bills. It just doesn't seem fair. 

[BlackMarketChicago]

I just went through this, and was released from the imposed involuntary vacation mode just Tuesday night.   It lasted FIVE whole days, and there are no words for how you feel when you think your life's work is being grabbed from you, for seemingly no reason.
The system is slow.
The support people are KIND, but they often do not know how to assist.
You scan and upload your documents for your corporation into ONE document, a PDF and upload it like that.   
I would not advise uploading separate docs.   Every time you RE-upload, you are made to wait longer for those to be reviewed!!!
I sent the following in my PDF: 
*  Annual Report from last filing
* State Certificate of Good Standing (which  I had to pay for from my State; $26)
* Certificate of Registration (for my State; the resale certificate)
* A page from my corporate books, with the corporate seal and my name

[PinkPosyPaperie]

Mine lasted for 7 days.  I kept trying every day to submit the form and kept getting the error message.  I tried again today and it went through. No rhyme or reason. I still have the red message at the top saying I have 1 day to verify my information yet all the information is correct and verified.  We shall see what happens tomorrow.  

[WalnutStudiolo]

Thank you for posting this solution, we are struggling with the same. Our minds were boggled that they were specifically asking for a document that validated our business LLC name with my personal date of birth! What do you use for a page from your corporate books with corporate seal? Are you C-corp?

[LivingDreamsYarn]

BlackMarketChicago, thank you so much for all the good information... and congratulations on your prison release! You are expressing my current state of mind very well - nothing makes you feel as powerless as not being able to swiftly fix this situation. I certainly tried uploading a number of docs and that is probably now adding wait time to the process. 

Could you please clarify a couple of things for me:

Did you upload any personal docs in addition to the corporate docs? Since Etsy already had all our current corporate docs I assumed they wanted personal docs in addition. Etsy interpreted the upload of personal docs as a change of ownership.

Were you in touch with support by phone? Or email/case messages only?

[Amaradorn]

I don't know if it will help, but If you are uploading multiple documents you need to combine them into one PDF file first and just upload that.

[foreverbeading23]

Even if I wanted to upload I couldn't because all the sections are greyed out. 

[BabyMaesShop]

We are in the same boat. We've been an outstanding seller on Etsy since 2010. None of our tax information has changed. Etsy put our shop on pause yesterday. This shop supports two families. It is absolutely infuriating. Etsy has made a lot of money off of us sellers, but this is how we're treated. It doesn't matter to them since they can just direct your customers to the next seller.

[LivingDreamsYarn]

Day 3 in Etsy jail - no progress. I opened a case and provided not only all business and personal documents in a single pdf, but also screen shots of the conflicting information Etsy is requesting. The case is escalated to the verification team and it seems there is nothing else to do but wait until some actual humans look at the documents. Each upload seems to restart the 2-5 days wait time.

This may all be only relevant if you are incorporated. Today the Etsy support person admitted that their request to upload a personal document that reflects business information is very poorly worded and she will make suggestions for improvements for next year's round of verification. In hindsight I should have simply uploaded my driver's license and ignored the fact that Etsy requested a driver's license with the name of our business on it... maybe that would have gone faster...?

[foreverbeading23]

Going on day 7. Call several times a day and email over and over. They keep saying to upload documents, but the sections are greyed out and even if I wanted to I couldn't This is our livelihoods. How do I pay bills. 

[heiczq3w]

Still nothing from Etsy .. I sent them 5 emails. Nothing back from them. I think I'm just going to call the police. I have funds that they are holding with no reason to hold them and they closed my shop.

[heiczq3w]

Same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago. And I still have money they owe me . They have had my info for 5 years.

Sorry to hear that this has happened to you too.

Brian

[WalnutStudiolo]

The same thing is happening to me, too. I already uploaded and Etsy already verified my Government ID but it is not "recognizing" it in the confirmation screen and I can't progress to Step 4/5. I opened a support case and am getting nowhere fast. Etsy is withholding our payments and I've already provided the info they asked for.

[LivingDreamsYarn]

Day 6 in enforced "vacation mode" - still no progress. Insult to injury!

Today I received the following message from Etsy:
>>> We’re sending one last nudge to confirm your seller info within the next 24 hours.

I am totally discouraged. Did Etsy not get my daily uploads/phone calls/messages/case updates???

Etsy wrote:
>>> If your info hasn’t been confirmed in the next 24 hours, we’ll put your shop on pause via Vacation Mode.

Is Etsy not aware that LivingDreamsYarn has been put in vacation mode 5 days ago?
I was told that Etsy escalated my case and is working hard on re-opening the shop. They assured me that they are aware that we are experiencing enormous loss of income with every day that goes by!

These are of course merely rhetorical questions. I know that the email was just another AI generated message which is not applicable to the situation. I am so tired of wasting my time on poorly employed, dumb AI - either give us really smart, capable AI or HUMANS!!!