Seller was rude and absolutely unwilling to try to work out a problem with the order
(emphasis added)
“I think what I have learned from this unfortunate experience is that I will never again buy from anyone who doesn’t use Paypal, and the other is that I will likely not shop on ETSY again because of the difficulty of communicating about problems that are not able to be resolved… I like to have good customer service first and foremost with any business I deal with. It is actually more important than the product itself. I buy books, etc. from Amazon and from Ebay and have never had a single problem with them that did not get resolved quickly and I could contact them directly and get a response. I think by ETSY removing its direct contact with the customer, they have really damaged the quality of customer service.”
Are you listening, Etsy??
RUSEtsy 
How do I contact the owner of this blog? Everytime I leave a comment here, I get slammed by the Etsy Admin. They now have revoked my forum priveleges indefinatley.
You can be pretty sure Etsy ‘moles” read every post here … and on the other handful of sites critical of Etsy. Every one of them. And they take swift retaliatory action on anyone who comments here. Best way around this is not to use your name or a screenname which Etsy can trace, My screen name is a rude swear word in foreign language … That should get them out with their dictionaries.
Don’t sweat the forum privilege loss. None of the top sellers bother with the forums … or the heart, favorites and follow crap.
Now you know everything you need to know about Etsy admin. Petty, punitive, sneaky, two-faced, lying. They give lip service to what they want you to believe but their actions say far more. Run far, run fast from Etsy. Head to Zibbet.
you can contact me at rusetsy2@gmail.com
Just got finished reading a post where the buyer complained about not getting his item and the shop is shut down. His last sentence – “What the f*** Etsy? Fix your s**t. Should’ve stuck to Amazon.” I guess buyers getting shafted doesn’t matter to Etsy. We all know the small handmade sellers don’t. Zizzybob, Zibbet is a great place to open a shop.
As many postings as I have seen about people ordering things from shop that disappear or get shut down lately, I would be afraid to buy ANYTHING on Etsy. Buy something and get screwed. I’ll pass thanks. There ARE some nice handmade things on E., but why would you take the chance? Especially when it sounds like E. support is sketchy. Yikes.
Exactly. Why would a savvy buyer even chance it?
That’s exactly what I mean. Every time I see these things, it makes me glad I left and went to Zibbet.
I imagine it should be fine to buy items from long-established shops with lots of good feedback. One thing I’ve never seen on Etsy (maybe I just haven’t heard of it happening?) is scammers who take over established accounts and sell items they never ship…. until they get caught. That used to be rampant on eBay, so you could buy from an established shop with good feedback and be defrauded.
Wow. That’s scary. I had never heard of that happening anywhere. I think you are right about established shops. I really hope that they don’t suffer from all of this. Etsy really needs to rethink.
I agree about established sellers, but then we come right back to the fact that they’re so hard to find through search, which may not be a problem for experienced Etsy buyers, but might prove problematic for those inexperienced or new etsy shoppers who consider themselves otherwise savvy Internet shoppers. Unless of course they just stick to the front page and tastemaker lists, because we know factory crap *never* makes it into those. This whole thing is a big ol’ mess. Etsy is unravelling fast.
A little off-topic, but it made me laugh. Fox News (although now apparently edited) called Etsy “A beautiful flea market” … Fair assessment?
https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/13716230/
They couldn’t in all honesty call it an artisan site, not with all the factory crap they offer.