"Keep Commerce Human"... OK, then how come I cannot talk to one after a bot deactivated my listing?

[HKsportswear]

Sunday, after 16 hour day trying to get my sales back up, I noticed that Etsy had deactivated one of my listings due to a child product safety concern.  

I won't take you down the rabbit hole where I read all the information that may have applied and led me down 9levels of pages all the way to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.  And in all those pages, there was nothing that I read, indicated that my products were not in compliance.  The gist of the issue here is that you cannot sell hooded sweatshirts with drawstrings to children under 12 years of age or they risk chocking themselves.

I certainly understand the need to be safe and I'm going to have to be extra careful that my 9 year old doesn't strangle himself on his hoodie.  However that being said, none of the products in this listing for dogs, infant, toddler or youth had drawstrings.  No where in the title or description did it say drawstrings and I had multiple pictures showing this to be true. The only image of a hoodie with a drawstring was the adult one and the one where it said the word "drawstring" was in the materials list. 

I'm guessing here that a bot saw that word "Drawstring" and the word "toddler", "youth", etc and deactivated the listing.  Fair enough.  I really should have delved deeper down the rabbit hole and ruled out every conceivable issue that I could have and I should have not put the word drawstring in the generic materials.  Even though, that list that pertained to nothing in particular and wouldn't even be shown unless you clicked on the ... to see all the materials. 

• The email came as a noreply. 
• There were no links or mention of any sort in that email only a bunch of links to all the rules and regulations that I already mentioned above.   
• I went to Etsy Help and Contact Etsy and that leads to dead ends and just takes me back to the start of help

In short, any "Human" looking at this listing would quickly discern that I in no way violated this rule.  If there was any confusion about this issue, then I would have no problem removing the word drawstring from my materials list or change it to say "drawstring on adult only".  

Though I don't even know if this is the issue or something else.  It doesn't appear anyone is actually working in seller support at Etsy.  So instead of a simple fix and misunderstanding from a bot, my listing is permanently banned and I took the listing down and the 3 other listings that shared similar products as a precaution until I can find out the exact issue.  It's not worth having my store deactivated over a poorly crafted tech function and non-existent resolution or support. 

Unless I'm missing something here, does anyone know any other way to address this or get a straight answer?

[Marmalady]

I think the way around it is to have 2 separate listings -- one for adult hoodies with drawstrings and one for children's hoodies without any mention of a drawstring ( not even to say "no drawstring")

[BagmakerSupply]

@HKsportswear: It is hard to speculate on why a particular listing was deactivated, but Etsy is cracking down on what they feel inappropriate. Copyright and trademark infringements is a large factor, but it also seems that the bots are looking for trigger words with no consideration for context. Just as an example that may or may not apply to you, if you say an item is ivory colored the listing may get flagged because ivory is not allowed to be sold on Etsy. Since Etsy is now also factoring descriptions in search, they along with titles, tags, and materials (and possibly even alt tags if you are using them) are all probably being checked. And the bots are also "reading" images. Hopefully you have / will receive an eMail from Etsy explaining the reason.

[PlatypusDream]

Etsy will not give you a personal answer to your question.  It's about liability - if they give you an exact answer, you might be able to refute it and turn around and sue them.  They don't want to open themselves up to legal issues, so they are purposefully vague.

It is up to you research the regulations and find out what is appropriate to sell here.

Good advice up above about separating the listings.  Good luck.

[HKsportswear]

Thanks for the helpful follow up.  I came to this realization myself.  The entire concept of, "Get matching Clothing for the Whole family" idea is one that does not fly on Etsy.  

And then again, if that is the issue right?  Also I am also aware of trigger words like Ivory, Also words like Champagne.  My favorite is one that will probably age me, but if Barney Fife was policing Etsy banned words, his own catch phrase, "Hip it in the bud", would get him delisted on Etsy.  Only he didn't say hip but you can't actually type the word from that phrase in this forum for even troubleshooting purposes. So I will just replace that with Hip for our purposes.

I do have one helpful word of advice if people are concerned about no-no words on Etsy.  Start typing the word into the Etsy search window and see if it comes up in suggested type.  If you see the word as a stand alone word with suggested topics then it is a good word. 

So if you type the word

"Hip" into Yahoo "Hip it in the bud" is #1. 

On Google #2. 

On Etsy the word "Hip" doesn't even come up.  Instead the phrase; "Nipples Jewelry Non Piercing" is Ety's #1 suggestion.   

Word of advice.  Don't click on that if children are around.  Apparently full female nudity is ok.  But Barney Fife catch phrases from the 50's are not. I understand that phrase is offensive and I would never use it in that context.  Nether did Barney Fife.

And I've also been on this not-so-merry-go-round before.  I got hit with a banned products / trademark notice last year.  I never did get a straight answer.  It's why I'm posting here. 

[PlatypusDream]

Note that the word you are referring to, "Hip" with an n, is a derogatory racial slur.  

Thus, it is banned.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@HKsportswear What you are suggestion does not exactly work.  Hip does come up on  Etsy.  And no I did not see what you saw.  

Everyone sees something different.  It is the AI at work.  It's not perfect,

As to contacting Etsy.  It is easy to do.  Respond back with the email asking for further information.  The other use Contact us.   

And if you do children's items, it is a good idea to make sure your items conform to children's regulations on CPSIA.   Don't rely on some company to do it for you. 

Trademark btw is not something Etsy deals with.  It is up to you to contact the holder.  If they say you cannot use their words then you have to remove them from the listing.  Then they have to give the okay to Etsy for you to relist. 

[HKsportswear]

Yes, I already did say I understand that.  But, it also means to cut, trim, sip, etc.  And a HUMAN which is in Etsy's Tag line, would realize when it is being used in a derogatory way.  If anyone was to use that in a derogatory way here on the posts, I'm sure they could easily report that right? 

Which leads me to the point of this post.  Keep Commerce Human is a joke, a parody a pun.  When you have your reputation and hard work cancelled and you are threatened with deactivation because a bot made a ruling and there is no option to appeal to a HUMAN.  

But then again, you are missing the point. It's not that I'm putting the "n" word in a post, its that my listing was deactivated and apparently because of the word "drawstring".  Which isn't a banned word.  I wasn't selling items with drawstrings on any hoodie youth or smaller.   Any HUMAN would understand that.

If the problem was that word, would removing the word rectify the problem should I chose to relist?  Or was it the word hood or hoodie or hooded?  Or something else?  In leu of actually being able to only guess and spitball here on the forums we are left to our own devices. 

When will the next combination of words or phrases get my store or your store deactivated?  Who knows...... I  wish you luck if it happens to you.  

[HKsportswear]

JDTotesnDolls - It's not the word Hip - its Hip with an "N".  I can't even put it in here or I get a big red tagged warning and you can't even post it for the topic of conversation.  But if you type the world Nipples, the first three letters of that word don't show up as a single word.  Yes it is a derogatory term but it also means to trim, cut, sip, etc.