Thank you to a Rusetsy reader for pointing out this post, “At a loss for words,” evidence of another Etsy buyer saying bye, bye to Etsy. In my opinion, one of the most telling posts to come out of the forums in a while.
The OP’s customer sent her a handwritten letter detailing why she would no longer be shopping with the seller or Etsy, and was followed up with a telephone conversation between buyer and seller. The buyer had this to say, as quoted by the OP:
…buying on Etsy, or from a brand that supports Etsy, is contrary to the handmade movement [she] wholeheartedly” supports.
Most thread sentiment was respect and understanding for the buyer’s decision and sadness for the OP in losing a valued customer. However, some nitwits schooled in Etsy tactics accused fellow sellers of being the cause of Etsy’s loss of buyers, the bad press, and Etsy’s failing reputation; and further, of being spiteful, unfocused, single-minded, uncompassionate, dramatic, and unperceptive. Others of this same mindset accused the bye-buyer of being insulting, hurtful, unusual, unkind, rude, unfair, dramatic, disrespectful, bizarre, manipulative, small-minded, and unwilling. Yes, I’m at a loss for words too.
Not only does this forum post give a buyer’s perspective, and accompanying sentiment of distrust of, and disrespect for buyer opinion from some sellers (another Etsy trait), this forum post also highlights the blindness of some of those very same sellers. On the subject of bad press, one called the recent HuffPost Live segment “irresponsible journalism,” yet did not acknowledge irresponsible product labeling, irresponsible marketing, irresponsible handling of money, irresponsible customer service, irresponsible changes, irresponsible shop closures, irresponsible engineering, etc, etc, etc coming daily from Etsy. Get you some eyeglasses, darlin’. And not the rose-colored ones.
One particular seller whose feet are so rooted in Etsy concrete she will never wiggle free said she “would never vouch for an entire venue.” She too has been Etsy-schooled in hyprocrisy, as this seller is ALWAYS vouching for the Etsy venue, so much so I’ve often wondered if she is on the payroll. She questioned the credibility of the Huffington Post while also calling those voicing honest opinions about Etsy changes “outraged sellers.” Quick to state her own opinions, she seems to think others should stifle theirs about the damages being done to them by Etsycorp:
…I can’t get my head around damaging other sellers in the process of expressing my frustration with Etsy.
I believe when the Etsytanic goes down, this seller will clamor to be first on the lifeboat, as she shows little concern for the effect Etsy changes has had on others:
…I can still earn a living. Thankfully, since etsy sellers never seem to concern themselves with the effect of all their protestations…
…If I can’t feed my children because nobody shops at etsy, are those sellers (those voicing negative opinions) going to be there for me? Its extremely saddening to know other sellers have no problem harming me or other sellers in my shoes.
Whew! Glad I’m not swimming the Etsy sea wearing those weighty, concrete-encased shoes…
More thoughts on the forum post from The Muted Seller, “The Cupcakes Just Don’t Get It.“
RUSEtsy 
“If I can’t feed my children because nobody shops at etsy, are those sellers (those voicing negative opinions) going to be there for me?”
Wow. Ignoring the “road closed ahead” sign and then driving your car off a cliff because you didn’t like the tone of the sign….
I remember when telemarketers were calling every five minutes (before the Do Not Call registry), a friend yelled at a telemarketer to stop calling him. The telemarketer responded, “This is my job! Do you want me to lose my job?” and my friend said, “That isn’t my problem! It’s YOUR problem!”
And an especially dense former co-worker who signed up to sell HerbalLife. That kind of sales was prohibited at work, but her response was, “Too bad! I need to make my money back!”
Blaming others because you’ve chosen to ignore the warning signs: not a great business strategy.
“Ignoring the road closed ahead sign and then driving your car off a cliff because you didn’t like the tone of the sign…” hahaha! unfortunate, but true…the “Etsycide” phenomenon
Brandi’s statements toward the people who are speaking out is like blaming victims of abuse who speak out and faulting them for disrupting the status quo and culture of secrecy in a dysfunctional family. If there weren’t any wrongs being perpetrated, and if there were no ugly little secrets to expose, people would have nothing to speak out about.
one big dysfunctional family… what a perfect description of Etsy
Absolutely. People keep blaming “bad press,” and the people speaking out. There would be no bad press if Etsy wasn’t making bad moves.
Brandi always has a bad attitude in the forums, I’ve has some run ins with her myself. It was so sweet to see her told off by a bunch of sellers recently, to say it nicely they, told her they were tired of all her unsympathetic posts all the time, I had to laugh and think to myself, “you so deserve that”.
You can now add “rude” and another “manipulative” to the insults hurled at the buyer who sent the hand-written letter. Unbelievable.
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/13418008/page/10?post_id=198115214
Someone just commented (on page 12), “I guess I don’t understand the whole “handmade only” mentality. I look for something I like and if I had to choose between handmade and factory I’d look to the cost 1st then would prefer to support a handmade artisian 2nd. Just because something is made in a factory doesn’t make it any better nor worse quality-wise than handmade.”
I told her she’s in the right place,then, because Etsy doesn’t seem to understand it either!
Omg, hahahaha!
Hey Lisa, thanks for the plug:) And your comment was hilarious!
I have to say the naivety of some of these sellers is astonishing to me. If you people are really that gullible, then I have a bridge to sell you. Etsy is defrauding their buyers by selling mass produce under the guise of handmade and forcing us sellers to either leave or go along with illegal and deceptive business practices. Not to mention the venue is being flooded, how do plan to even be found under all that stuff, guess what you won’t. I’m sick of it, they need to stop blaming sellers for etsy’s hypocrisy.