Brief summary:

December two orders went MIA due to USPS. I sent out replacements, but customers still put in refund requests.

Etsy approved the requests, attempted to take it from my bank account but one number was incorrect so it was rejected so they took it from my available funds.

I reached out to Etsy, Etsy refunded my account as the protection plan should have covered it.

Next day my shop was closed with an email saying I needed to pay any due balance. I didn’t have one, my card info was updated, so I emailed them and they told me to wait 24 hours.

4 days passed and nothing, people started to put in refund requests and Etsy continued to take it from my bank account. I lost full access to my account and couldn’t tell the customers what was going on, Etsy still had all my funds.

A week later they finally responded to an email I sent asking why it hadn’t been released yet, where they said it is now open.

Next day my account was put on 30% reserve. They keep sending small amounts of my sales to available for deposit, while holding onto a majority of it all. Every time I make a sale, my minimum in my reserve goes up and they take whatever was in my available for deposit and puts it in the reserve, while the rest of my funds just sit there. Currently I have $500 in my available balance, $67 in my reserve while my minimum is $87, if I make a sale my minimum goes up, money gets moved to my deposit but then immediately taken back out to go into the reserve.

They aren’t allowing me access to any of my funds but expecting me to still ship orders, all without notice and after they drained my bank account during the closure that was wrongfully given.

I have 2 accounts, but 1 I really never used. They said I owed fees on the account I never used, that’s why they shut down my main account. I was like “no problem, I will pay them” as I had no idea. They refused to give me access to the account, kept saying all the info I was giving them as proof was incorrect to allow me access. I said, “how can I pay if you won’t help me gain access?!?” This went on back and forth for weeks/months of me trying until I gave up. I lost my main account where I sold and people “knew” me!

In December of ‘22, I made 2 sales on my Etsy to the total of about $105, this amount includes the shipping costs. A few days after the money reached my account, I found the amount had been taken back out of my bank account. No explanation, no notice from Etsy, and nothing about it in my Etsy account. But it was clearly taken from the same account that had deposited the money. I contacted Etsy, over the next fortnight I spoke to 6 different people as each of my emails was never assigned to one particular person and each etsy team member introduced themselves in their email just to tell me they “don’t have access to the accounts that would show if they have taken my money” and then essentially told me to just forget about it. I persevered, I contacted my bank, confirmed it was Etsy who took my money, and I was then having to make the handmade items that 2 customers had paid for, but I was not being paid to make, had no profit, had not been paid for the materials, and had to take the money from my personal savings to ship them. I kept hitting dead ends with Etsy representatives, it took 4 different people before anyone with the “authority” to check their account would speak to me. They then just denied it flat out, despite confirmation from my bank and all of my hard evidence. They told me “someone else” had taken my money. I then closed my 3 year old Etsy store for good despite it being my main source of income for my small business.

Our business has been forced into “vacation mode” for 42 hours now. We can’t receive orders, and our items or business don’t show up in searches while we’re in this mode. Furthermore, having forced our shop into vacation mode means that our products will not perform as well in the Etsy algorithm IF our shop is reactivated.

We received notice from the platform and were prompted to make changes in our tax/legal information which were impossible for us to make because the platform’s mechanism for editing this information was broken (I.e. we couldn’t submit anything because the submit button was greyed out).

We contacted Etsy for support in advance of the deadline and they sent us an email saying to “try a different web browser.” This instruction was given (and didn’t work) on the same day our shop was shut down.

We have 6 employees that depend on us and for a shop of our volume, losing a single day in revenue is something we might not recover from

In April 2023, I sold one of my art pieces, a customized helmet, on Etsy. The customer needed to have it delivered asap as she wanted to gift it to a friend for her birthday.

I sent the item using next day shipping.

The very next day, my Etsy account was unceremoniously suspended without any clear explanation or warning. When I reached out for clarification, Etsy refused to disclose the alleged violation, leaving me in the dark and holding my hard-earned money hostage. In the meantime, I got a message on Etsy, from the customer who had purchased my creation, saying quote "Meant to thank you sooner. The helmet arrived on Friday and it's perfect!! Thanks for getting it to me so fast!" Despite the fact the customer has indeed received the item, on time and is very happy with it, Etsy has been ignoring my requests to collect the remaining balance in my account and are simply ignoring my emails for the past 10 months.

As of today, February 26th 2024, I still haven't received my funds. They're stuck in my Etsy account and despite many emails and phone calls all I received were generic responses saying that my account has been suspended permanently and never addressing the payment balance which is always scheduled to be deposited the next business day but then never is.

It's simply infuriating to see a company that claims to champion creativity and community treat its sellers with such disregard. As artists, we pour our hearts and souls into our work, and we deserve fair treatment and respect. This incident has not only affected me but also exposes the risks other artists face on Etsy.

While my shop was on vacation mode as I took maternity leave after having my first child, I received an email from Etsy that a reserve was being placed on my payment account. The possible reasons cited in their email could not possibly apply to my shop that had been on vacation mode for nearly 3 months. Prior to vacation mode, I also would not have met any of their stated criteria to merit a payment reserve.

A package to the Uk worth $2100 was slow going through customs, tracking said 'in transit', customer opened a case to try to locate the package, etsy refunded and charged my credit card without the customer having requested a refund. Etsy support threatened to suspend my shop when I ask what recourse I had. The customer also forwarded me a copy of her etsy support transcript where they told her, twice, that she could keep the package and not pay me.

I make cute hand made books. Etsy determined that I was somehow in violation of their AUP or TOS, or something, they never provided me with any information as to why my account was closed. I appealed, and the next day they just said that my account was permanently suspended. I still don't know what I did wrong, or what I could have done right.

71 year old, on ETSY for 16 years, disabled, no problems whatsoever, major source of income to me to supplement my Social Security. I took a vacation, did not shut my shop down, processed orders, informed each buyer of delay in shipping, all said ok, red banner went up on my site 5 days after cruise started, found a toggle button for shipping delay days which I did not know about, toggled it, Suspension banner came up, appeal form letter came up with no reason for suspension, asked what was the reason I was being suspended, 1 hour later, I get a bot letter saying I am permanently suspended - from selling or buying

We got an order via Etsy with a 10% discount, using a coupon code ("FATHERSDAY") which we never made. After doing some calculation (because finding out how much Etsy actually pays you is always a trek), we found out it was coming directly out of our actual cut of sales. After emailing Etsy, their help prepresenative, and they said the following: "Upon checking on your account [our shop], You are opt in father's day event. and although the coupon is applied to your orders, the whole order amount will still go to your Shop payment account since this is an Etsy Sales, Etsy is the one who will pay for the discounted price the coupon have discounted from the sale. All in all even if you see that there is coupon applied you will still get the whole amount of the order."

This lead us to believe that the discount of 10% would be paid back to us via Etsy, and so we asked (since we immediately opped out) if we opped back in at, say, 15%, Etsy would pay that too. After letting us know that there 'should have been an email' detailing the Father's Day Sale and how it would be run (but no mention of us being automatically opped-in), they said "And as for your 2nd question When Etsy run a sales like this we would only cover the discount Etsy is hosting such as Father's day sale, and if they use different code you are running then Etsy will not cover them as it is your coupon or sales you created."

So, okay, we thought, we'll opt back into the sale and set it to 15%. Same discount code, run through Etsy's sale programme, even if we end up paying for the extra 5%, we can live with that.

The sale is now over, and Etsy has not paid us. They have told us in emails that we were opped in "by mistake", but other than that they have not responded to any emails pointing out that they did already say that we would be paid back the 10% of all the Father's Day coupon sales. It comes to almost 700 euros at this point, and that's not considering the 5% we are willing to pay ourselves. Repeated emails have been sent at this point and aside from the one telling us we should never have been opped into the sale in the first place without our consent, none have been answered.

Etsy AI bots found my images on a Chinese marketplace. Etsy deactivated my listing as non handmade policy violation. I have provided a video of me making the bracelet and uploaded a letter from the photography company I used who took the image. The letter confirmed that they took the image of the bracelet on behalf of my company. Two weeks later Etsy suspended my shop. This is my sole income.

I have reversed image search however, I am unable to find it anywhere. Therefore I’m unable to issue a DMCA so I can send it to Etsy. That said, they probably wouldn’t even look at it.

I called Etsy and spoke to an advisor. He said that on my case notes my images were found on a Chinese marketplace therefore, they are saying my items are commercially available and I am using stock images. I find it incredible that they have not looked at my evidence. Also, if they took the time to look at my entire shop they would see that all my images were shot the same style and quality…because the same photography company took all of my images.

I am so upset. I have had my shop since 2016. I had over 78,000 sales and over 12,500 5 star reviews. All my achievements have been lost because Etsy is now using AI to check listing images.

I recommend that anyone with an Etsy shop to put there time and effort in developing other platforms and revenue streams.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved having my shop but when something goes wrong that’s it, poof…your shop, life and income are gone in a click of a finger.

Etsy removed one of my bestselling listings, and repeatedly refused to allow me to appeal the decision.

Etsy have flagged several of my *very definitely handmade by me* dress listings, telling me the listings breach ‘creatively standards’. I contacted Etsy support to ask what is going on, they told me they cannot reinstate my listings. No explanation. No actual human being to help me, just a lot of automated replies.

Etsy has taken down my original artwork for violating their “creativity standards” I have sent proof of me making my product from start to finish, all my craft supplies with my shops name attached, they simply refuse to do anything. Fast forward 2024 they removed 2 of my items for same reason. I have waited weeks for response but they ignored me. They have removed my complaints on Etsy forums. My shop is about to close because of their mistake and lack of communication.

Etsy removed my best-selling listing and accused me of buying it from a Chinese selling platform because they had stolen my photos.

I've been selling on etsy for 5 years, and debuted a set of original pin designs with them in 2021. These designs went on to become best sellers, and became a big part of my income earned through the site to this day.

Around August 2024 it seems Etsy has introduced a new bot to their automated moderation, that appears to target best seller listings with a reverse image search. I'm not sure if this is what happened exactly, because they won't tell me what rule I violated, but I suspect this bot encountered a stolen image of my products on a site like alibaba or aliexpress.

I own the copyright to my products, I issue takedowns on those platforms regularly - I even have them registered on Etsy's IP platform and have issued successful strikes!

They will not look at any evidence I've provided, nor look at my listing again. Getting in contact with them in any productive way has been impossible, they will not tell me what I did wrong, nor how to fix it. I'm at my wit's end.

Temu stole pictures from my Etsy (!) shop, and so Etsy started to remove my 100% handmade listings claiming that I'm not the designer and maker of my pieces, I'm just a reseller.

I'm the designer and maker, 100%. I can prove it, but Etsy is not willing to listen.

They threatening to close my store if I (!) continue to violate their policy.

Thousands of Etsy sellers are in the same situation. Forums are full of desperate requests for help, because Etsy doesn't give sellers chance to prove they’re right. No one is listening to us.

My Etsy shop is 12 years old, this is my main income. They already took away my star seller rating and I was listed back in the search engine. I don't know how much money loss this meant. But if they close my shop before Christmas, that would be a huge financial loss.

I have been selling in Etsy for over three years generating the companies tens of thousands of pounds. They suddenly started deactivated my listings although they fall well withing the policy. (I buy charms online and use them to design and make jewellery)

My images have also been stolen and used online. They deactivated my listings one by one which led to an eventually account suspension.

After several attempts to get this resolved my account (And listings were reinstated).

They have now started the process of deactivating my items again. This has lost me huge amounts of income and caused massive amounts of stress.

in July and August of 2023 took down my 2 bestsellers for not being handmade and ignored my help requests for several weeks despite providing ample evidence that they were indeed handmade and that I owned copyright on the designs. The estimated loss of income was 2800$. Even though they finally admitted this was an error on their part (after doing it a second time !) they of course refused to compensate me for the huge financial loss incurred. To add insult to injury, both listings never recovered their original ranking in search and now only receive a fraction of visits and sales compared to before the deactivations. So the actual loss of income is in the tens of thousands (I use to sell a dozen of each design a day consistently for the past 8 years, and now barely sell 2 or 3).

It is also my understanding from testimonies of other sellers faced with the same issue, that despite the reinstatement of the listings Etsy still counts this as a strike against our accounts (which means potential suspension if they repeat the same mistake).

Like many others currently on Etsy, my listings go taken down by Etsy bots and my 10+ year old shop is now in danger of being closed! They removed my Star seller already! Temu continues to steal my pictures and Etsy takes my listings down. There is no help, no response from Etsy and it’s costing me my livelihood.