potential counterfeit or unauthorized item

[GraffitiFonts]

I just received this email in regard to one of my more popular items. The subject of the email read: 

"Important notice from Etsy: your listing is under review"

The email goes on to say: " We’re getting in touch to let you know our system has removed one or more of your listings as a potential counterfeit or unauthorized item, which are prohibited on Etsy..."

This is a digital item, a set of brushes for Photoshop & Procreate. This is an item that I created entirely from scratch from hand-made source artwork. The item has been available for a long time already. There is no material from any other source included or used in production.

This very frustrating email gives no detail as to what the issue is or who is claiming I've infringed them. My listing is apparently down for 10 days & I will have some sort of strike on my account among other consequences. There is no email or other contact for me to respond to, no link to appeal or challenge this claim.

This isn't cool. What am I supposed to do? Any clues would be greatly appreciated.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

You have to wait for Etsy to 'review' your item.  You can use the chat or phone options to try to put this in motion more quickly.
Or just wait.

Etsy has loosed some very badly trained bots on its sellers.  Read the forum, you're not alone.

[GraffitiFonts]

Thank you for the heads-up. I'll definitely start reading the forum. Any specific threads you would suggest? How did you manage to find a phone number? I cant even find a link to email or chat with support. I also noticed that Etsy claims to provide contact information for the entity claiming infringement but theres none in the email or anywhere under my account.

[WitticismsRus]

@GraffitiFonts 

"How did you manage to find a phone number? I cant even find a link to email or chat with support. "

There is no phone number to call, there is only the option to request a call back but it's not always available and when it is it's only available for a very limited set of issues. 

Here is my usual blurb about how to contact etsy support.

How to contact etsy support for sellers-

There is a direct link to the support ticket page in every shops shop manager. Just go to Shop manager > Community & help > Contact us

That will open the page to start a support ticket. Once there select 'selling on etsy' then select issues.

Depending on the issue, they offer email, phone and/or chat support. Note that the phone support option is to request that they call you back. There is no direct number sellers can call for etsy phone support. You can only request that they call you back.

You will need to click around a bit to get to the actual page with the contact options and at times it feels like endless maze loop of clicking and getting nowhere other than faq's that do not address your issues. You will need to get creative and click on options that may not match your issue completely. When you see 'I still need help' at the bottom of a page then click that....it will take you straight to the page with the available contact options.

Keep in mind that the phone support and live chat folks are just a call center and can only handle a limited list of issues. Everything outside of that they will bump up the support chain to someone who works for etsy proper to handle. Live chat and phone call back are only available sometimes it seems and the availability changes throughout the day.

Remember...the key is to click 'I still need help' when you see it.  

[GraffitiFonts]

Excellent. Thank you. Just for anyone else reading... I did get to the "I still need help" a few times, under a few different categories but I still found no call option. I did find an email form eventually. I'll keep trying.

This is all very disappointing. 

[WitticismsRus]

@GraffitiFonts 

I would skip the call back and live chat option...they won't be able to help you with your issue at all. Like I said above, they can only help with the most basic issues most of which are covered in the Help Center. Listing removals are beyond their scope and they will just repeat some standard scripted reply or maybe read you the help center article. Then they will either tell you they have to forward it to someone else and to wait for an email or they will simply disconnect the call or live chat. Don't waste your time. 

[GraffitiFonts]

I just wanted to add that my shops profile image is not coming up. A lot of other shops are also missing their image I see a few posts from people saying they can't upload profile images. My other items seem to be loading, just this one deactivated item is gone & no profile image showing on any page. I hope users are still able to view my items.

[GraffitiFonts]

Good advice. I pay for Etsy ads every day like most shop owners probably do. With my best selling item deactivated, the ads will probably cost me  more then they make me. I guess I should "deactivate" my ads for a while... but that would just cost me whatever other sales I was going to get for all my other items... quite a situation.