Etsy Shop Suspended!

So we have been told that our Etsy shop has been suspended.

"Due to sufficient overlapping information between your account and the other Etsy account in question, we consider these accounts related.I cannot disclose our internal review criteria, but the strength of the overlapping information connecting these accounts has led us to determine that you are either the owner of this other account or are operating on the owner's behalf.
We are unable to reconsider this determination, and this decision is final"

I have no idea whatsoever as to what they are talking about and can only assume someone has stolen all of out designs and set up another shop. We're not related to any other shop in any way.

Our Etsy shop brings in 50% of our monthly revenue so this is crippling us right now.

Surely I have the right to know what I'm being accused of and shouldn't they have to show me some sort of evidence?!

Has anyone any experience of this? I Google the problem and the advice seems to be give up, no chance, forget it, move on...really not want I need to hear!

Try and get hold of someone in their Dublin office over the phone if you can as i'm sure that's where the decision makers are +353 15137100

It will not be to do with designs.

Their overlapping information will be to do with things like addresses, credit cards, ip access, emails etc.

This would indicate that they think your current account is associated with a previously banned or suspended account.

As long as accounts are in good standing you can open as many shops as you want as long as the email address is different. I have 2 different shops without a problem.

Have you previously been banned or suspended and tried to open another account without first dealing with the issues of the other account?

Nope, this shop came as part of a business purchase.

Have you logged in to Etsy using a public wifi such as a business centre or at a trade fair?

I had a problem once with Ebay. I used to do a craft fair at Abergavenny market and you could use it's free wifi. Another trader logged into Ebay through it as well as me and a couple of months later we both had our Ebay accounts suspened

Apparently because we both logged in on the same ip address, both lived in Abergavenny and both used the same bank Ebay decided we were the same people and suspended us.


It took quite a while for the issue to be resolved - it took quite a while before we could work out what had happened because Ebay does not give out a lot of information on a suspension.

No, nothing out of the ordinary.

They just keep saying they won't share any details as though they have me banged to rights...but they can't have!

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Nope, this shop came as part of a business purchase.

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Could the person who ran the previous business have started up again, but hasn't paid the bills?

Bloody Hell Justin, sounds like a nightmare, just out of interest have you tried searching for similar items on Etsy, to see if you can see anyone who is using your images ??

A few things. When you have more than one shop on Etsy, you must be transparent and publish all links to other Etsy shops in your About Me bio.

You must not sell identical items in your additional shops.

It's probably related to the activities of the newly purchased shop. Are you allowed to buy a shop? What else have those registration details on Etsy been used for?

Did the previous owner sell the business to you and set up another identical shop with the same registration details and designs?

Nightmare mate, just as Christmas is picking up. Hopefully this can be resolved soon.

Are all your items truly hand-made Justin (a primary requirement of etsy) or are any bought in ready-made and sold on?

Do you dropship anything on etsy? Another no-no.

None of our products are bought ready made. No, we don't dropship off here for anyone else.

If you purchased the business from someone else it might be because of that. I'll have a look and see if I can find Etsy's statement about it but I remember on one of the Etsy Facebook groups, a shop got shut down because she bought it from another seller. She was creating the products by hand but Etsy still closed it down.

The reason they're giving is another account was shut down and we are so closely associated with this other shop by association we have been suspended!

Shower of sh&^e this company. I called the Ireland number, sounding like one guy sat in his bedroom. He gave me the support email address! doh!

They've done this more than a few times to sellers who access their Etsy shop from a shared IP address. Could it be something like that?


You could try requesting a call back

[h=Contact Us by Phone]1[/h]In the US, Etsy phone support operates 7 days a week:

• Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Eastern US time
• Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm Eastern US time

To use the "Request a Phone Call" tool:
1.) Sign in to your account and go to Etsy’s contact page. It's linked at the bottom of this page.
2.) Choose What can we help you with? and any other topics that are relevant to your issue.
3.) Click Request a Phone Call to get to the request form.
4.) Provide your name, phone number, and a brief description of your issue.
We aim to call you back within 15 minutes of your request at the number you share with us. Our call will come from 800-328-5933.

I don't see any telephone contact whatsoever when I log in, everything is directed towards email. Is this for sellers or buyers? Looking through their own help files there is a section for filing a dispute, these says to go to contact section at the bottom of the page but that isn't there either! GRRR!

It's for sellers (I'm not sure if buyers can request a call back). They might have re-routed everything because of the suspension.

About a third of the way down on this page there's an alternative way to get to the call back option which might work for you instead

https://techboomers.com/t/how-to-contact-etsy

Feel sorry for you m8.....
i,m just shocked you even get 50% of any income on there tbh.
Most we could ever get was round 10/12% - crap !

Yeah, our Etsy shop is very busy..usually!

Someone else has responded to me now and they appear to be a little more helpful. They're still intimating at multiple stores but we'll see!

Hope you get it sorted soon. This is the worst time for this to happen.

Just from what you've posted, it sounds like the previous owner may well have done something not good, and had an account suspended. Thats been linked to the one he sold to you. Etsy will keep previous data from when names are changed etc, and still have this linked to the account. This stops people having multiple bad accounts. So if you bought your account from 'John Smith' and then changed the account name to 'Justin From Shetland', John Smith will still always and forever be linked to the account. The same is done by eBay.

Further, Etsy terms say:

'D. You are responsible for your account. You’re solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you’re sharing an account with other people, then the person whose billing information is on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. If you’re registering as a business entity, you personally guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your accounts are not transferable.'

from https://www.etsy.com/uk/legal/terms-of-use

So if you ring them up and say 'but we're not linked to any other account' they'll know that's wrong.
If you say you created the account, they'll also know that, and tell you to look at the main one they suspended.
If you say you purchased the account fair and square, they'll say that against their terms anyway.

In my Sunday morning opinion you'll be lucky to get it opened again. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's the reality.

Options? Depends on weather the account was important, to the product. If the products can be sold on any account (ie the number of return customers is next to nil, and products not instantly link-able to old account) and you have listings backup, then create a stealth account, wait 48 hours, list 5 things, wait 48 hours etc.

If you really need this account, then keep going. Etsy is only really interested in the share holders now. If you're on Twitter, start by going to the CEO who is @jgsilverman but your time may be better spent creating a stealth account, selling else where etc.
I would also email previous owner and ask them outright if they've fornicated up.

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Originally Posted by Drew

Just from what you've posted, it sounds like the previous owner may well have done something not good, and had an account suspended. Thats been linked to the one he sold to you. Etsy will keep previous data from when names are changed etc, and still have this linked to the account. This stops people having multiple bad accounts. So if you bought your account from 'John Smith' and then changed the account name to 'Justin From Shetland', John Smith will still always and forever be linked to the account. The same is done by eBay.

Further, Etsy terms say:

'D. You are responsible for your account. You’re solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you’re sharing an account with other people, then the person whose billing information is on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. If you’re registering as a business entity, you personally guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your accounts are not transferable.'

from https://www.etsy.com/uk/legal/terms-of-use

So if you ring them up and say 'but we're not linked to any other account' they'll know that's wrong.
If you say you created the account, they'll also know that, and tell you to look at the main one they suspended.
If you say you purchased the account fair and square, they'll say that against their terms anyway.

In my Sunday morning opinion you'll be lucky to get it opened again. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's the reality.

Options? Depends on weather the account was important, to the product. If the products can be sold on any account (ie the number of return customers is next to nil, and products not instantly link-able to old account) and you have listings backup, then create a stealth account, wait 48 hours, list 5 things, wait 48 hours etc.

If you really need this account, then keep going. Etsy is only really interested in the share holders now. If you're on Twitter, start by going to the CEO who is @jgsilverman but your time may be better spent creating a stealth account, selling else where etc.
I would also email previous owner and ask them outright if they've fornicated up.

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That's some very good info Drew. A very good example of not to buy an existing site on Ebay or Etsy.

Good luck Justin. A s**t situation to be in and just before xmas.

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Originally Posted by Drew

JIf you really need this account, then keep going. Etsy is only really interested in the share holders now. If you're on Twitter, start by going to the CEO who is @jgsilverman but your time may be better spent creating a stealth account, selling else where etc.

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Thought this was a great idea thank you...unfortunately I can't send him a message unless he follows me! :-(

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Originally Posted by Justin

Thought this was a great idea thank you...unfortunately I can't send him a message unless he follows me! :-(

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Mention him in a tweet with a brief overview of what the issue is, and the etsy team will be back to you. Looking at his mentions on twitter, the etsy customer care team respond to his mentions, and they're probably not going to have the standard, outsourced people monitoring his account (I would suspect). Put the @ username first in the tweet, and it won't normally appear in your followers timeline as well :)

Hi Justin, I was thinking about you and your Etsy shop and wondered if any progress had been made?

A truly horrible thing to happen at any time, but so much worse at this time of year.

Regards,

Ray

Thank you Ray, much appreciated. Thank you also to everyone else that posted help and suggestions.

I got the shop back reinstated last night!

I'll posts again later with details of what I had to do.....never jumped through so many hoops!

Awesome news Justin. Hopefully you can make up some of the lost sales. ;-)

Alex.

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Originally Posted by Justin

Thank you Ray, much appreciated. Thank you also to everyone else that posted help and suggestions.

I got the shop back reinstated last night!

I'll posts again later with details of what I had to do.....never jumped through so many hoops!

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Absolutely fantastic news...Really pleased for you. What a nightmare!

Hey Justin,

Sorry for pop-up this old topic but I am in big problem and I need your help. I have similar situation with Etsy how they close my shops, basically it's 70% of my income. If you could help me and give me some details how you managed to get in contact with responsible person? I was working 2 years with Etsy and didn't had any problems, but now they suspend my shop and nobody reply to me. I just need to get in contact with live personal nor robot where I can explain my situation.
I already send you DM. When you will have free time your help would be such appreciated. Thank you

I did get your PM but haven't had chance to reply yet. In a nutshell perseverance. Everyone tells you Etsy won't release your shop. Etsy will ignore you and won't respond. As I probably detailed above, I called every office I could find and tried to make a nuisance of myself.

They've been on the verge of suspending us again recently for copyright issues. My designs are 100% original and I have written permission from the designer/artist but because one person/company have decided their design is similar, they've got Etsy to remove items and threaten to suspend me. The companies don't respond to my emails and don't have to. I thought if they were making these claims they would have to back it up but alas no. I wonder if I did this to my competitors if Etsy would back me up?!

I wish you the best of luck but in all honesty I'd put my efforts into working on my own website. Etsy isn't what it was, we get more sales from other similar sites nowadays.

Thank you Justin for your reply. I wont give up on this, because I didn't do anything wrong, if it will be necessary I could go to their office in Dublin to meet in person and explain everything, but let's hope it won't be necessary :). Could you give some details how you managed to get shop back? It was after you talked with legal office by phone or they ask you to send some documents to prove it? How do you find person who has permission to unblock shop, by phone or by e-mail? Sorry for disturbing you with this questions, but I want to get some more information before tomorrow when I will start my quest for unblocking. Every detail would be helpful. Also I wish you that you wont get suspended again on Etsy due to copyright.

I'd need to check back, I may have detailed earlier in this thread. From what I can remember it was just a matter of perseverance, I insisted they investigate and eventually they admitted it was a mistake but they did absolutely everything they could to get rid of me before admitting this.

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Originally Posted by Justin

I'd need to check back, I may have detailed earlier in this thread. From what I can remember it was just a matter of perseverance, I insisted they investigate and eventually they admitted it was a mistake but they did absolutely everything they could to get rid of me before admitting this.

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How are your sales and views on this account after all of this? Do you think they have demoted you in search?

Etsy sales have been very poor recently, noticeable decrease over the past couple of years anyway.

My Etsy sales are way down compared to a few years ago it used to be good for me, now it's getting to not be worth my time. My US sales have basically stopped. There are a number of reasons that I know of for sure and possibly more!
The ones I know of are

1. Etsy now gives preference to the home market ie Those in the US see US based shops in preference to anywhere else.
2. Free postage to US addresses gets preference over postage at an additional cost.

Janners

I just wanted to say that you are really talented The drawing is so simple yet adorable, a perfect design for your shop Also I checked out your Etsy and those hides are incredible I could never make anything remotely close to that even if I tried Im sure your business will do extremely well Good luck