Sellers Tire of Etsy Poaching

“Here are some other items from other sellers”

This seller perfectly sums up Etsy poaching:

Here’s how I feel about all this, in a nut shell…..
Etsy does not bring buyers to our shops (aside from a very small amount of accidental overflow through a messed up internal search attempt), we have to find buyers ourselves. That is fine – we pay for the right to display our products on their site, for a small fee. They are just a venue. It is also a tremendous time suck and hit-or-miss undertaking with no promise of the hard work of finding customers panning out. If we can’t find our buyers, we have little, if any, chance of succeeding. To have the “venue” that you pay rent to arbitrarily syphon off our efforts of getting buyers into our shops, and then redirect them to our competition, is highway robbery in my book. Those buyers belong to the person who found them, since we have to harvest them. The venue obviously feels otherwise, for what reason, I cannot imagine. To have the venue help themselves and send them to our competition crosses so many ethical lines, I can hardly talk about it. There are a lot of things happening here that I think cross the line of ethics in so many ways…but as long as people, myself included, tolerate it, it will not change. It weighs heavily on me and as soon as I figure out an alternative market for my products, I will head there – pronto!

Case Closed. next.

“Etsy will not respond to my emails…” (emphasis added)

Corine Tran11:03 am Oct 25, 2013 EDT

July 14 I bought a item from www.etsy.com/shop/PickleLilyBoutique. (store seems to be closed?)We corresponded back and forth and the seller was good about that in the beginning. She had to move, the item wasn’t sent but communication was good and I didnt have reason to believe things would turn sour. I am a small business owner, I realize things can happen. At first she said she’d give a refund and then would say she was sending item. Finally communication stopped right past the time I could not contact PayPal for a refund.The seller had several bad reviews from other buyers for the same problem all around the same time I bought my item. Had these reviews been there before I purchased I would not have purchased from this store.

I opened a case with Etsy Sept 25. I had to escalate the case and finally someone started getting involved in the case Oct 3.

After Etsy threatened to suspend the sellers store the seller said she would be sending a refund by 10/10. On the 10th when nothing happened Etsy wrote again that they would be closing the shop until the issue was resolved. The same day suddenly there is tracking info for the item. No refund was given even though that is what I requested and what the seller said she would do.

I was glad that it was going to be handled and over. However the item arrived damaged Oct 13 and I immediately went to the the case and wrote about the item arriving damaged and included pictures. I received no response from Etsy or the seller. Later that day Etsy closed the case.

I contacted etsy through their contact form and emailed them via a email I had going with them. I only received ONE response and that was after my first email. Part of Etsy’s response was “I’m sorry for any confusion about this case! I reviewed the case, and I see it closed because the seller fully refunded your order. Cases close automatically when a refund is made as it is proof of a resolution per Etsy’s policies.”

I emailed 6 more times after this asking where did I receive a refund and also asking for the case to be reopened as the item arrived damaged. At this time the sellers store was back online though set to “vacation”

My question is, how do you get heard by Etsy? I followed their instructions, opened a case, emailed, contacted via the website. They closed the case even after I told them the item arrived damaged and I have heard nothing back. Its extremely frustrating to be treated this way and not feel like you have a voice.

I mean is this it? Is this what I can expect from the people behind Etsy? 😦

As indicated by a reply to this post, “I am afraid so.”