@ImGlassyEyed
I'm glad that Etsy took this step, and don't mind that scam beware msg being there. Though I don't think it went far enough. Elsewhere in their buyer/seller Tou's it states the following:
"Because navigating off the Etsy platform may increase the risk of fraud or scam exposure, taking communications and transactions off-platform is not allowed.
This includes, for example:
- Making offers to buy or sell outside Etsy
- Encouraging buyers to purchase an item in your Etsy shop through another venue
- Using a QR code to direct users off of the Etsy platform"
Because scammers are infiltrating lots of different corners of the site, including what may have been at one point, our regular buyers, whom have become infected with the Etsy PPP initiated "let me see if I can scam something for free" bug. The methodology of different scammers can either be more apparent or bogged under a mess of covertly undifferentiated and weirdly unspecified communication. Specifically, this one:
"Seeming to not have read or looked at your listing, based on their vague questions." ...adding, the ongoing and never-ending back and forth barrage of questions...of a certain "difficult customer".
Even and especially if you, like myself, bend over backwards to describe your items accurately, and they then insist they still need to talk to you over the phone or in person, as many of us have experienced with this type of "difficult customer". This type of approach may also include an entreaty to your sense of empathy (red flagging potential manipulation), implying they have an undefined impediment of some sort which precludes them from understanding the listing. I hate it that selling on Etsy has become a minefield that has damaged the trust we previously enjoyed forging with our customers. The reality of the PPP/PAR initiatives is what it is, and we now have to proactively protect ourselves.
So seller beware, even if you had no intent of defrauding Etsy of fees or of selling off-site as the X3 more specified bullet points indicate, should you engage in an off-site "discussion" for whatever reason, you might have broken their TOU's and voided the PPP including protections for yourself! So keep all communications on-site, for any and all reasons, and in my example of a customer giving me their phone# for a return call from me, I placed that conversation in my spam, blocking further communications.
FYI: I did do a karen check, which found one worrying review, which cinched my blocking them from further communications.
