Why does Etsy have to close a shop to verify?

[PristinityJewelry]

Why does Etsy have to close (vacation) a shop to verify?  Asking for a friend, LOL.

(I've not received an email from Etsy about uploading additional documents.  Just a notice of "vacation" on my dashboard.)

[LynnsLittleShop]

I don't know the answer but I clicked on it to find out if it was your shop! Glad it isn't but sorry if it's someone else you know. 

[PristinityJewelry]

But it is my shop.

Up to 48 hours? Last year Oct 2 + Oct 3 I had $2292 in revenue.

This may make for an expensive "vacation".

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

OMG - if they put your shop on vacation NOBODY (AND I MEAN NOBODY) is safe here.

Unreal.

[ChillwolfArt]

Excellent question. The article about the INFORM Act and rolling Verification, does not say one thing about first closing a Shop before Verifying.

[hopeandjoystudios]

Ye Olde "throw the baby out with the bathwater". I assume they think if they close the shop you will be more motivated to verify. And if you don't ..oh well. Terrible it takes as long as it does to reverify though .

[RebecaMojicaJewelry]

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. You've been on here forever and have such an established shop. It's really ridiculous they paused your shop.

I don't have any answers for you, just wanted to send some empathy your way. Hopefully it gets sorted out soon. Best of luck!

[YarnOtterHandmade]

I do wonder if it matters how we verified the first time.  I chose manual Plaid verification over automatic and I'm worried that it may be what triggers a re-verification request.

[BagmakerSupply]

@YarnOtterHandmade: Probably not. Most of the various laws have rules about triggers (such as dollar volume) that affect how often a seller needs to be reverified.  And Etsy seems to take a "better safe than sorry" attitude in these situations.

[SimpleSilverAndGold]

it's 3:26 edt - still off. that's just awful.

[LynnsLittleShop]

OH no, now I see what your LOL meant. I just read PillowDetails post this morning on someone else's question and she said it did only take about 24 hours, so I'm hoping yours goes quickly too.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

What gripes my fanny is not only do they seemingly unnecessarily shut down your shop, but they lie about it.  I’m working on fulfilling my current orders right now, but will be back soon.  What a load of crap.  Why can't they just say they closed it temporarily for routine maintenance, instead of making the seller seem inefficient.

[BigXStudio]

My fanny is griped most of the time!

[PristinityJewelry]

@NoFrogsAllowed 

One can go in and edit their "vacation" message.

Dashboard > Settings > Options > Vacation Mode > Vacation Announcement

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@PristinityJewelry 

Yes, but in the heat of the moment who's going to think of that and/or how many people will see their message before we change it.  I think that Etsy should own what Etsy does.

[BigXStudio]

Mine is the same.

Vacation mode with no warning.

My banking info and identity are verified (and have been for years.) And yes, I re-checked today just to be sure.

Star seller

No outstanding orders

Credit card not expired

No cases (ever)

No recent changes to any of my shop info.

[DianeMabrey]

wow that's ridiculous. Hopefully you'll be back quickly. I don't get why they are doing this either.

[JDTotesnDolls]

I would assume that if they found the shop in arrears with information that they don't want the shop selling while checking or needing to suspend.  Be my guess.

[PristinityJewelry]

Arrears? Nope.

Reality is Etsy has to verify every shop that meets a certain threshold (sales/revenue thresholds per the "Inform Act")

My question remains, why do they need to pause shops to accomplish the goal.

[fabricfetish]

@PristinityJewelry  So sorry you are going thru this.  I had to verify my shop last week and was never put in vacation mode before or after so it might be a glitch.  I hope you get some answers quickly and are back open soon!

[OneEyeCatStudio]

Well,  IMHO .....

For some inexplicable reason, Etsy seems HEdoubletoothpicks bent on alienating and driving away as many successful sellers as possible.

Why else shut down shops, frequently with no explanation?

Why else inflict on sellers the possibility that they will have to give away anything they sell that totals over $250?

And why create a search that makes it so very difficult for buyers to find what they came to the site to buy?

I can't believe that they are brainless enough not to understand that all of this is certainly going to result in a loss of revenue.

So they must be trying to drive themselves out of business.

But why?

[After9Marbles]

Maybe if they drive the stock low enough that can do a stock buy back...

[BelleAbattoirStudio]

Last quarter GMS (revenue from sales of products) was down year-over-year, but total revenue was up. They don’t care where the revenue comes from. They’re happy to get it from advertising, which they know sellers will turn to when organic sales are dropping. As long as folks are willing to pay for false hope, they’re happy to be a gambling site.

[BootifulLabels]

Just speculating here, but it may well depend on the wording of the "instructions for site owners" of the Inform Act.  If it says shops must be re-verified periodically and cannot be permitted to sell until the verification process has been completed,  this might explain the forced vacation.  I agree the timing is not good when we are coming into a peak selling period, but the penalties for allowing shops with expired verifications to keep selling could be hefty.  Thankfully, it does appear from many reports that the downtime in most cases is 24 hrs or less. Small mercies....

[TTGamingSolutions]

I've been down since Saturday morning, going on 3 days now.  And yes I have had a ticket open since it happened.  They are doing a piss poor job handling this whole thing.