“They treat their sellers horribly, have terrible customer service that hang up on you, and stole my money and said they're keeping it..I'm sorry what? I don't recommend any seller to open a shop with Etsy. Ever.”
“If I could give negative stars I would. This website is a joke! I tried to start selling on it and left the set up process to come back to it on a later date. When I returned it said my account was closed and that I needed to contact support. I did and had to reach out 3 times to get an answer. After about a month and a half I finally got an email stating my account violated their terms and conditions and was permanently closed. The email then went on to tell me to not attempt making any other account buyer or seller as those will be closed too. So there was no feedback as to what was the violation, nor was there a way to remedy it. They just closed my account and went on the threaten me with closing any other account! What type of business are you when you do not give the benefit of the doubt? What type of business are you when you block users with no way to make things right? How is this business even still around? It has terrible reviews, terrible customer service, terrible policies and handling of said policies. What a waste of my time! I am so glad they never got a chance to take any of my money!”
“This etsy company didnot deliver my 26mm panerai rubber strap..i am not happy with this compAny... they just ignored my complain ...Dont trust this company.!”
“It was never anything big or well known in the UK, but covered costs so kept with it for 6 years. Around 2019 it became more recognised and sellers sales increased. That is when they enrolled every seller in an advertising program where they take 20% (yes twenty!) of any sale made within 30 days for an ad you never placed being made. That is on total value including post and taxes paid by the buyer - so closer to 30% of my actual sale values (don't forget you have already paid listing fees and they still charge you the standard 5% sales fee!!!!). Most handmade companies do not add 30% profit margins after labour etc, so ETSY have basically bankrupted most small sellers. WASTE OF TIME. RIP OFF. VERY SAD. Could and should have been so much more. Even Amazon are not so greedy at 15% and they do way more advertising of your products for that fee! Oh, and they don't charge listing/renewal fees either. If you want to work your ass off for free making some corporate rich off your endeavours ETSY is just for you. Me, I work to had to not make money!”
“Terrible experience. My shop was shut down with no warning for illicit products and I had no illicit products. My money is being held and I have to eat the cost for unfulfilled orders”
“Don’t even bother starting a shop on Etsy.
A plethora of top sellers and sellers who’ve sold on Etsy for more than a decade have been recently shut down for prejudiced and invalid reasons, whilst Ali Express fraud sellers are still on Etsy having a blast.
Please be smart and dont for a second think you’ll be able to be a millionaire off Etsy. Most people respect companies and entrepreneurs with their own website, not people who rely on third party sites such as Etsy to drive them easy sales and not do the work.
Success in business is all about learning SEO and driving traffic directly to your own site.
Having said that, your account will also be shut for no reason - even if you have a consistent 5 star reputation and are in the top 3%.
No explanation will be given and you have no chance of reinstating your account. Payment will also be held on freeze and your income will be held hostage by Etsy.
Just go on trustpilot to read the overwhelming amount of reviews of people having their shops shut down.
Customer service on Etsy is also useless, and a joke to be brutally honest with you.
If you want to make easy money but go bankrupt a year or two later, then by all means start a shop on Etsy.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
“I opened my store a month ago. And suddenly Etsy closed it without any warning. I did not receive an email from Etsy (yes, I checked my spam folder). I have no clue what I did wrong. I was going to sell prints of my own photographs and artworks. It's not on the prohibited list. It's not a copyright issue - it's 100% my photos and my original artworks. I am very new to Etsy, I read the selling guide and followed it in detail. I had Etsy payments, About page, policy, photos, descriptions, no external links except to my other items on Etsy. I subscribed to eRank and Marmalead, services recommend by Etsy, to optimize my items. I did not use VPN. I don't see any reason for what I did wrong. I very politely asked Etsy about a reason for closing my store. And received from Etsy a very rude and offensive response (I copied it below). I understand that Etsy has the right to not accommodate any store on its platform but without any explanation do not allow me even BUYING on Etsy?!!! It is not fair. Not just in respect of me but in respect all other sellers on Etsy because now I cannot buy anything in their stores.
Very disappointed.
My recommendation to all new sellers: don't waste your time on Etsy. Your store can be closed at any moment without any explanation.
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ETSY response:
After a close review of your account, my team and I have determined that we can no longer accommodate your business on Etsy. As a result, your account has been closed.
Please do not open any additional accounts for buying or selling, as they will be closed without notice.
This decision is final, and we will be unable to respond to any further outreach about your account. This email constitutes our final communication on this matter.
Thank you for your attention to this.
----------------------------------”
“I had an Esty account for a few months-2 tops. I went to log in and my account was closed. no email explanation, nothing. I didn't have many sales, much less reviews. when i tried to contact them via chat, I could only read the first few words which were " refused service" and the chat closed. I cant sell, or purchase. absolutely terrible. DONT OPEN YOUR SMALL BUISNESS HERE. They can take it away with no notice, explanation or reason.”
“Absolutely TRASH to Artists... they literally rob them of profits, drive up prices, act like a dictatorship and have no accountablility. Avoid like the plague that they are. Sellers are treated like trash, buyers are treated like trash. Etsy is trash.”
“I would suggest selling somewhere else. They take very high fees and give zero protection for sellers and buyers. The review system is ridiculous and you get no help from their support team whatsoever. I was Selling and buying for 9 years and constantly had issues on both ends. Seems like they have grown to be money hungry and could care less about the little people.”
“ETSY is the WORST !!!
I bought items for 405 from Germany and seller sent from China with fake Documents ! The invoice and receipt did not match and DHL could not give me the package ! 3 months and ETSY still covers the seller .
Seller openly sais about fake documents etc and no help from ETSY
Thank GOD for Paypal that solved the problem
DO NOT TRUST ETSY !!”
“WARNING FOR ALL THE SELLERS. ETSY CAN STEAL YOUR MONEY!!!
I was selling on Etsy. One day they just banned my account without any previous warning, e-mail or even an explanation why they did it.
I also want to point out, that I had many sales, 5 stars review and I always made sure, that customers are satisfied. So, it's excluded, that any of my customers would report me (I seriously doubt it). And even if, shouldn't Etsy sent me some warning firstly?
The worst part is, that I had set MOUNTHLY payouts. So, everything I made in April (256$) Etsy took.
It's been more than 2 weeks and I still didn't receive any money on my bank account.
I was trying to contact Etsy almost every single day (email, twitter), but it was complete waste of time... No respond.
I also contacted some of my customers if they received any money back... and no, none of them didn't get anything till this day...
Long story short, I got ban with no explanation, I sent products to my customers for "FREE", but they still paid for them... WIN/WIN situation for Etsy.
Take care and have a great day
PS: Apologize my english, I'm not native speaker”
“I’ve been a successful seller on Etsy with over 1800 sales, 320 consistent 5 Star Reviews and a solid loyal clientele from 33 countries and counting, made over 6 figures in less than a year.
I was in the top 3%, only to have my shop suspended by Etsy abruptly for no apparent reason 3 days ago. No warnings, nothing.
Your account can be easily terminated by a Bot.
I could no longer log into access my chats, orders, refund my customers or even let our clients know what was going on.
I immediately contacted support, only to be treated rudely and disrespectfully.
Don’t bother calling the hotline or emailing, etsy’s support is as useless as it is.
And guess what? Tons of top sellers, even sellers who’ve been on Etsy for 10+ years with over 20,000 sales and nearly perfect 5 star reviews have been screwed over by Etsy and shut down for no reason.
Read about them, RESEARCH. You’ll be truly bamboozled.
Thankfully, we already have an established store and a website and thousands of followers on Instagram. So it wasn’t a big deal when I got suspended.
Unfortunately - We know other sellers who entirely relied on Etsy, and went into financial debt later when their store was closed for no valid reason.
This is how severe the problem is. Wake up. Stop relying on Etsy entirely for your business.
- unless you want to risk being bankrupt and wake up to your shop terminated for no reason one day.
If you’re just starting out like how we all did, go ahead and start an account or shop on Etsy, but never attempt to think you can be on there long term.
Etsy will also hold all your funds if your shop ever becomes suspended.
If you think Etsy is some get rich quick scheme because it helps you drive traffic with little to no effort, you’re so mistaken.
The hardwork comes in when you’re building your own site.
Moreover, Etsy is horrible to sellers during a worldwide pandemic.
Delayed shipments are blamed on you and counted against you, and Etsy allows buyers to abuse you over delayed deliveries.
Harassment is condoned and Etsy has zero empathy towards sellers.
Cases opened against you and closed will also be COUNTED against you, increasing your ODR (order dissatisfaction rate)
Bad reviews over deliveries or factors outside of your control will not be taken down.
When this happens, Etsy carries out what’s known as “THROTTLING” - stopping or decreasing traffic to your store, hiding you in search or de-indexing your store altogether as a way to “punish” you.
Google it up! Read about it. Be informed. Stay acutely aware.
This is a corrupt corporate company filled with greed. Etsy was once amazing, however now that the new CEO has taken over, they’ve been completely abominable.
Etsy also allows competitors to report your store using defamation and false accusations. A previous successful Etsy seller with over 10k sales and 5 Star reviews got aggressively taken down because a business competitor had falsely reported her store out of malicious intent to take her down. She handmakes all her stuff, but her competitor reported her as a “Drop Shipper”.
Competitors can report you out of sheer hatred and vindictiveness, and Etsy will not be on your side.
The irony. And Etsy still allows Aliexpress sellers on there. It’s a joke.
Etsy contact hotline is also a joke. It’s nearly impossible to get through to anyone. It’s competitor, EBay, provides way better support and customer service.
If you’re looking to start your business on Etsy, do it, but don’t be naive by thinking that you’re able to run your store there without any problems forever. You’re in for a good shock of your life if you think that.
Research into building your own website, setting up your own platform, learning how to do SEO and getting your website listed on google.”
“Beware! Etsy will close your account even when you are making good sales and they never disclosure reason. All earnings will be lost and purchases will become untraceable.
Don't go to such places if you are serious buyer or seller.”
“Etsy is great as a buyer great variety og shops but as a seller if theres an issue with your account customer service will not,help. They regularly close stores and give no,explanation even going as faras telling you to cease contact in support messages and to hang up on you if you call.”
“Etsy is allowing a shop "SalonUber" (amongst many shops doing similar), to sell gemstones with false origin statements.
This shop is also listing modern, machine carved Jade pieces which are machine created, beautiful pieces, but not in any way antique as the seller states and they have many and clearly they know full well their pieces are not antique.
This same sellers even goes to far as to list some of their pieces as over 500 years old. This does a large disservice to legitimate sellers, who then are competing against this. Not only is this deceptive but it is fraud by deception, that is illegal.
Why is Etsy allowing my genuine listing to have other items of interest advertised when those are fakes? I have my own website now due to this, I refuse to be affiliated with scammers and I don't really want to fund Etsy either, their seller service is lacking in many many ways.
Given Etsys current reviews they won't have many decent sellers left as the authentic ones leave their platform.
I could list other shops too, this one is the worst I have seen.
Etsy is just trouble.”
“Be Warned. Etsy does not require any responsibility of its Sellers when a package does not arrive. If they shipped it, they are in the clear. So if your package is lost in the mail and never arrives, you are screwed! The sellers can provide proof of shipping even if the shipping shows that the package was never delivered. They don't even require that their sellers follow up or file a claim. They have absolutely no responsibility and you have no recourse. Can you say "Bend over"?”
“Had an awfu experience with one of the sellers on here and when I wanted help from the support team, They were less than helpful. Don't be put off because I have had great experiences with other sellers on there but it does make you very vigilant when placing orders. Always check reviews”
