Why so difficult to get started on Etsy? Support is atrocious.

[The3DMill]

When googling for a way to contact ETSY as a Seller, Google suggested "Why is everyone leaving Etsy?"... so it begs the question if ETSY are bleeding sellers leaving their platform, why is it so darn difficult to get up and running as a new seller?

Here's our scenario;

- Signed up, loaded products, and received email that we were verified on the same day.

- Began running marketing campaigns/social media ads directing traffic to the site, only to receive complaints that customers could not check-out due to "All payment methods for this store are temporarily unavailable".

- Jumped on live chat, was told the issue would be escalated.

- Following day, radio silence. Requested a call back.  Again wasn't told what the issue was, just that they would raise a ticket and someone would look into it.

- Following day again, radio silence.  Requested a call back, again wasn't told what the issue was, just that it had been escalated, and this time provided a ticket number.

- Following day, received an email "You did it: Your Etsy shop is open for business!"  - Issue still not resolved, same checkout message, losing sales from buyers.  Requested a call back, got told it had been escalated and there is no ETR.

- Following day again, radio silence.  Requested a call back - got told it was a verification issue, not that there was anything wrong with the information that had been submitted, but that it was a *technical* issue with no ETR.

Etsy - we're both losing money from this situation.  How is this okay?  If there's an issue on our side, tell us what it is so we can fix it. If it's an issue on your side - fix it so we can both mutually benefit and please our customers?  Not once since first raising this issue have we received an email advising of a ticket number, acknowledgement of the issue, nothing - zero communication.

[The3DMill]

I should mention that we've done our research to ensure we've dotted out i's and crossed our t's.  Many forum replies on the identical issue as reported by others are often responded to with "verify the deposit made into your bank" or "go to your payment settings and complete the verification".  As others have reported - there is no verification to complete - it says that everything is active, and the only way they had their issues resolved were after contacting support, which we have done, 5+ times.

The identical issues for other sellers I have seen magically resolved have been where @thatregina has been involved.

[TastefulArtisan]

Silly thought...did you make sure you added a phone number?

When this happened to me everything was legit and verified but my shop still on vacation.

Added my phone number which is useless since I never answer a call if I don't know who it is but whatever. My shop was reinstated right away but took a few hours to return my SSB. 

Maybe check that? I know it's not helpful but one can hope it'll solve your issue. Etsy isn't well known for their transparency, sometimes their stated "reason" is a blanket statement and you have to guess.

I've suspected that support requests are closed with either a blanket auto-reply or without a response when the answer can be found searching the wide confusing net of the Seller Handbook and/or the forums. But that is only a supposition based on the sheer number of forums post around the 1st of the month.

And guessing on the number of complaints in the forums about SSB they never reply with more than a generic message and will close the ticket and others created about the same issue.

It would be nice if they'd just say on the support page things they won't reply to:

Star Seller
Low sales
No sales
Low visits
Hand Delivered aka SSP
If you are selling illegal/counterfeit crap we'll take your message under consideration while closing your shop.

That would result in far fewer support tickets being made making it easier to get to the ones like verification problems, login issues, being hacked, financial problems etc. Less tickets, more availability equals a better support system. I can't even begin to try wrapping my head around how many requests they get for the above, it's probably thousands around the 1st of the month. In fact, based on the forums, it's likely thousands a day.

I've only ever had positive experiences on the rare (maybe 4 times in 9 years) but I think I just got lucky. The most recent one was a few months ago.

Wish in one hand...

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Granted that it is difficult to contact support but it is not magic that you can get something sorted on the very same day.  There are verification checks to go through etc before payment gateways can be opened.  On all other platforms this can take days or weeks. 

Each time you create a new ticket you are back to square one.  If the reply is generic then you need to respond to the email to say you still need help.  If you don't reply, the issue gets closed.

Any Etsy support phone numbers you come across online will be scammers so always contact support from your Shop Manager. 

[The3DMill]

There's been no email what-so-ever.  I first made contact via live chat - they advised it would be escalated. The only updates I've had is where *we've* made contact. This is over the course of 5 days, not 1.

We're not calling Etsy, we're using the call back feature on the Etsy support site, it's legitimate.

As said in the original post - if it is OUR issue (which we've been told it's not), then communicate with us - not give us radio silence.  And likewise if it's Etsy's issue - again, communicate - don't just leave us (and our customers) in the dark.

[PrimFun]

@The3DMill   Live chat is limited.  I suggest using email under Contact us.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Do you mean your identity has been verified or your bank account has been verified?

You need to sign up for Etsy Payments before customers can purchase. 

What is Etsy Payments? – Etsy

[The3DMill]

Both.  Identity has the green "verified" tag, and Payment Methods gives no indication anything is wrong, nor have we received any email to the contrary - that page simply shows all the accepted payment options for our store, and says "You're getting the highest level of payment protection and support while offering the most payment options" - in reference to Etsy Payments.

Bank account details are present, everything looks fine on that page, at least no error message stating otherwise.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Have you received the small bank deposits yet and entered the amounts?

Go to Shop Manager - Finances - Payment Settings to see if you have the green Verified badge for your bank. 

[The3DMill]

Negative, no green verified tag next to the bank, but also no error message either.

Etsy confirmed it's a technical issue on their end, unless that's a generic line they use.  If there was an issue with the bank details we had entered, surely the support team would know this and they'd tell us in either one of our calls, or via ticket/email update...

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Can you please confirm whether you have signed up for Etsy payments yet and received the small deposits into your bank account?

[The3DMill]

This is what we get on the Payments Setting Page:

===================

Etsy Payments

You're getting our highest level of payment protection and support while offering buyers the most payment options. Learn more

===================

We have not received a deposit from Etsy, but we did sign up for Etsy payments at the time we opened the Etsy account itself.

Edit:  This may be the "technical issue" they are referring to, whereby they haven't issued the deposit or something else is preventing them from conducting the verification.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

If not, there is a link to enrol in this article:  

What is Etsy Payments? – Etsy

You will need to enrol in order for people to buy. 

[The3DMill]

Clicking on that link, followed by "Enrol in Etsy Payments" - takes me back to the same payments setting page with:

===================

Etsy Payments

You're getting our highest level of payment protection and support while offering buyers the most payment options. Learn more

===================

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

"A technical issue" and "we will pass this to a specialist team" are phrases the support staff use when they don't know the answer!  The small deposits usually take a few days to show up in your bank so log in to your online banking to see if they are there.  When you receive them it will then take a further 48 hours for the boxes to appear in your Payment Settings screen for you to enter them.  

[The3DMill]

Yeah that's what we figured, too!

Just checked the account again, nothing - it's been 5 days since we enrolled for Etsy payments.  Sigh.  I appreciate you trying to help though.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

Good luck.  As you have found out nothing moves at a lightening pace in the Etsyverse!

[PrimFun]

@The3DMill   Did you enter the small deposits?  Check the bank information?  Made sure your bank has received the deposit.  Sometimes there is a problem with the bank and the deposit.

[The3DMill · Accepted solution]

Update. Miraculously after having posted this thread we awoke to 2 ticket updates from Etsy.

The first being irrelevant as it was explaining the automatic enrolment of off-site ads... I think they misconstrued the fact that we were running paid ad campaigns ourselves driving traffic to our store and that's how we discovered that buyers were unable to checkout.

The second ticket advising that Etsy Payments was now operational on our store!!  We just checked to confirm... and yep, payments methods are now displayed on checkout.

I should note that this activation has occurred without verifying a bank deposit of any kind, nor changing any of our information or settings since first setting up the store.

Hard to put the timing of this post and the resolution of this issue down to coincidence.  Either way, it appears we're finally up and running!

Thanks to all for your assistance, turns out this was an Etsy issue after all.