This is EXACTLY what happened to my dad's shop a few months ago. His listing photos were stolen by Temu, Amazon and even Ebay. The photos were taken in his yard! He tried emailing multiple times to no avail. It was, of course, his best seller at the time and really affected his sales. I advised him to change his photos more often, especially for items that are popular. He's almost 80 and has been an artist since his 20s. I had him start an Etsy shop so that he can stop going to outdoor Art shows and I have done well on Etsy for years now. Of course, now I'm spooked that something will get taken down of mine. Always on our toes with these AI bots!!
Happened to me. I made $500k and was a star seller. My photos were stolen, and the AI flagged my listings as violation. I appealed and my store was shut down.
Even my photo, which is included in the product photos on Etsy and shows that I produced the product in my workshop, is stolen along with other photos of the product and published on copycat sites. the photo of my own face and the text "welcome to my etsy store" under it are on dozens of different sites! Now they use bots and don't even weed out the photos.
My items were deactivated by Etsy even though they are handmade. I submitted sketches, photos, and the working process, but Etsy ignored them. They only responded by telling me to try listing the items again. They punished me by removing my Star Seller status, and this time, they took away my star without any notification email, just telling me to read the policy. They warned that next time, my shop will be suspended. What should I do? I have no idea what violations my shop committed or where the violations are. I have been running this shop for 7 years, and this year, Etsy is the most crazy.
Etsy really needs stronger customer support for sellers… I’m losing faith selling on Etsy , knowing that any time soon a listing or store is taken down while doing the right thing
Etsy support sucks, I have been selling on Etsy since 2022 I got an email on June 1 about handed made policy, but I made my own products I sent them pictures and videos but 2 days later etsy suspended my shop, I appealed since 2 weeks but have not yet received any response back from Etsy
Same here, selling since 2016, 78,000 sales. They’ve deactivated a listing because they are saying my image was found on a Chinese marketplace. I can’t find the image anywhere apart from my shop. I don’t think it my image or bracelet design and believe it to be misidentified. I’m on my 4th appeal. All responses I’ve received are AI generated. While the bracelet appeal is still ongoing Etsy has permanately suspended my shop. I’ve supplied lots of evidence showing it was made by me and without a human looking at the cases how on Earth can you fight this.
I woke up yesterday to two of my items being delisted by Etsy due to them not being handmade. They are replacement baseballs which I make from sheets of wood for our maps which we make completely from blank wood, paint/stain and assemble. No response to my request to review.
When are we as handmade sellers going to say enough is enough and band together to boycott ETSY and work together to find or create an alternative. I’ve been closed suspended for 5 months with zero support from Etsy I made real handmade jewelry not aliaba components but actually making it. I made 100,000 with 5000 sales and 1000 plus 5 star reviews. They don’t care They won’t help I’ve gone into severe financial debt trying to stay afloat while I’ve been unemployed because for some of us this was our full time job.
Over the course of 9 years I've had 12 listings removed. It does not make any sense that other sellers can sell the exact same New Orleans fleur de lis and it read "NOLA Girl" on a baby onesie but I put it on a cheer bow ribbon and that's an immediate infringement! My favorite when I've tried to appeal the infrigement allegations is, "Have your attorney contact us."
I just joined 2 days ago. They took my 15.00 sign up fee then suspended my account. I appealed, They sent me an email and wouldn't tell me what I need to fix, so Im suspended for good. I'm little upset
Amazing how a clown run business can make so much money by shafting the creators that make it happen. The most disturbing issue is that creators have to show videos of themselves giving away their trade secrets for free.
They Suspended me about a month ago as soon as I renamed my store from Silicone Dog ID to Hush Puppy Dog Tags (my brand name!) they continue to charge my credit card though
@@dawnmiller6909 you may have a good point, but Hush Puppy Dog Tags should be ok because I’m in no way related to shoes and Etsy says I am related to 2 accounts that I am not related to. It’s a real cluster fk!
I just listed a handmade retreat bag in my Etsy USA store, a second later I got an unsolicited email with a pic of my item ,no message, but it said Etsy UK. I deleted that email as spam and visited Etsy UK, and there was my item. I don't sell outside the USA.
Two of my listings were recently "flagged" by not as not handmade and now I am ineligible for star seller according to Etsy, I've been on Etsy since 2014, my jewelry products use supply parts that are available on many supply sites including aliexpress, I'm assuming the bot is too general, I'm almost afraid to even try to appeal, I can send videos of me making my items step by step
I’ve had an Etsy listing suspended, come to find out the AI flagged something as not being vintage, when it was a vintage art style of a digital product. They automatically fixed it, I never knew I never knew it was suspended. It was flagged and fixed while I was sleeping.
This happened to me. It’s my second suspension within weeks as a brand new seller (Print on Demand with Printify). The suspended me the moment I started the shop because the IRS had a zip code 1 digit off related to me EIN. This time I was suspended with no notice or communication. The emails have appeared automated and ask about other accounts and locations in different words with each response. Still in process.
I am even more nervous to list my handmade jewelry on Etsy. I've been holding off for six months. If you guys ever want to do a video about opening a new shop, step by step, you can do it for the shop I want to open.
OMG! I just saw this video this morning and brushed it off (kinda) since I do make only handmade items (not POD) and am very established with great sales. I went to ship a $300 order only to find out my shop is now suspended! What in the actual F is going on over there?!
@@danil_L Sorry this happened to you, too. I've retained an attorney and it seems there is a TRO against my shop, but I don't sell stuff with logos/trademarked designs, so we'll see. I'm losing $3,000 in sales a week because of this.
@@Elizabeth_Parsons_327 that’s horrible! I hope your attorney can help. I’m getting ready to do a complaint at the BBB. Etsy has NO IDEA regarding the livelihoods they destroy with the sudden suspensions and no idea of the mental anguish and turmoil they cause people.
This happens on ebay and amazon all the time, their detection system sucks and i get screwed on amazon with having pic of an Apple and i get copyright warnings because they want me to upload authorization documents that is about Apple the company. keep in mind this is one of the biggest companies in the world that have a poor ai bot detector. What chances does etsy have to be more accurate?
Etsy has asked sellers to focus on 'necessities'. If you look at the disappearance of stores (big or small) across the continent, you can pretty much get an idea of what's coming. Grocery stores, had cut down on many imported products (cheese, porcuitto, just to name a couple). If sellers are selling necessities, these will have better chance against the odds. We just have to embrace for the impact... When economy contracts, so as our wallets.
I can change the first photos of my products whose photos are copied on sites like Temu and Aliexpress (but it is very difficult to change all the pictures) Will this prevent Etsy bots from seeing my copied photos on sites like Temu and Aliexpress and removing my products?
Etsy is done. It is way too risky to build a brand only for it to be suspended. This happened to me on Amazon. My design was copied and used by others. I complained and I’m the one that got closed down. So go figure.
Total bs... One line of code in that AI program and Etsy can detect where the photo was posted first. Something like "if this picture was created first on Etsy... Then it's legit".
Same happened with me etsy removed my listing because of hand made policy and after that my shop suspend. No reply yet.. Please help. I m selling on etsy last 5 year and sold almost 15000 sales
Every year is worse, last year they were holding money from almost every shop, even the more aged ones…someone should start investigating that tool Josh Silverman for negligence..
So what if you use a mockup and AliExpress has the same image. I saw a lot of mockup digital download with same image as AliExpress. Also what about the printify providers from china?
Etsy needs to die or change hands back to folks who are actually running it and not relying on AI. Once Esty went public, they lost all interest in supporting their sellers. The Star Seller things is a total joke. I was a Star Seller months in a row and all my sales suddenly dried. I wasn't the only one. The Etsy community was full of people who made Star Seller and all their sales dropped off. Then Etsy started telling sellers to contact customers who gave 4 stars to ask them to please REVISE their rating to 5 stars - basically from 'I like it' to I love it'. No. I'm not bothering my customers over one stinkin' star.I left with that going on - right before the Plaid payment debacle. Now people are losing their shops with no recourse, since Etsy has zero interest in the very people that made/makes them their money. Etsy won't do anything as long as people keep opening shops and paying Etsy's fees.
So one of my Etsy listings for a breast cancer cheer bow was taken down for not being handmade. I sent 3 messages to Etsy support regarding this as I am a breast cancer survivor myself. The one reply from Etsy support didn't give me any detailed reasoningmuch less any INSIGHT as to why my listing was removed. Just the typical blah blah and please read our policies as we stay compliant with industry laws yada yada BS
As a Small Business owner (I've never used Etsy), the talk I'm hearing makes me think their cutting off their nose to spite their face. That's an old saying but what it really means is, they need the sellers to make their cut & people are leaving so fast as there are so many other platforms to use to sell what it is you're selling. Sellers don't have the time to be calling/emailing etc to stay with Etsy. They want to make they products & sell them & enjoy what they do. I for one, wouldn't use them at all. Them blaming AI is a cop out. My small business (this is my personal RUclips channel. I don't post here at all. I comment & have opinions). Yet with my business the only 'person' I need to prove anything to is my accountant. 🤷♀
Every time I view this channel you guys have a very positive attitude of a real horrible situation that is effecting the handmade community and you guys don’t understand the gravity of the destruction ETSY is doing to truly innocent long time loyal Shop owners and makers on the platform. I guess know one actually understands how devastating this is until it happens to you and your business. I hope you guys start truly advocating for this community because you have a voice we don’t have. . But this false faith and optimism in ETSY for an ongoing wrong that is continuing to happen and ISNT being fixed isn’t an honest representation of what ETSY is doing to their own community.
I feel like Etsy would be better off utilizing their AI bots to flag to Etsy themselves, listings that have the same pictures show up on other sites, for human workers to review. I get that there are a ton of sellers with a ton of listings on Etsy, as well as the entire internet.... but given the # of shops that were flagged, or listings removed when they shouldn't have been, is a complete disservice to the Etsy platform and their sellers. Forward thinking, but not well thought through the entire process by whoever implemented these changes, in my opinion. Sometimes there simply is NOT a substitution for an actual human, and the sooner people figure out AI isn't the answer for everything, the better!
Etsy was a great idea, but the executives who run it are morons.
Please don't insult the morons. They're far better than those you are referring to at Etsy.
AI isn't the problem. Etsy's apathy and disdain for the sellers is.
This is EXACTLY what happened to my dad's shop a few months ago. His listing photos were stolen by Temu, Amazon and even Ebay. The photos were taken in his yard! He tried emailing multiple times to no avail. It was, of course, his best seller at the time and really affected his sales. I advised him to change his photos more often, especially for items that are popular. He's almost 80 and has been an artist since his 20s. I had him start an Etsy shop so that he can stop going to outdoor Art shows and I have done well on Etsy for years now. Of course, now I'm spooked that something will get taken down of mine. Always on our toes with these AI bots!!
Happened to me. I made $500k and was a star seller. My photos were stolen, and the AI flagged my listings as violation. I appealed and my store was shut down.
Even my photo, which is included in the product photos on Etsy and shows that I produced the product in my workshop, is stolen along with other photos of the product and published on copycat sites. the photo of my own face and the text "welcome to my etsy store" under it are on dozens of different sites! Now they use bots and don't even weed out the photos.
I saw someone on Reddit say they contacted Etsy on social media and filed a complaint with the BBB and that’s how they got their shop back.
I tried that and they just did not reply even after a few months, case got close by BBB, happens a lot where they get no reply from ETSY
My items were deactivated by Etsy even though they are handmade. I submitted sketches, photos, and the working process, but Etsy ignored them. They only responded by telling me to try listing the items again. They punished me by removing my Star Seller status, and this time, they took away my star without any notification email, just telling me to read the policy. They warned that next time, my shop will be suspended. What should I do? I have no idea what violations my shop committed or where the violations are. I have been running this shop for 7 years, and this year, Etsy is the most crazy.
Etsy really needs stronger customer support for sellers… I’m losing faith selling on Etsy , knowing that any time soon a listing or store is taken down while doing the right thing
Etsy support sucks, I have been selling on Etsy since 2022 I got an email on June 1 about handed made policy, but I made my own products I sent them pictures and videos but 2 days later etsy suspended my shop,
I appealed since 2 weeks but have not yet received any response back from Etsy
Same here, been selling since 2022, over 500 sales and only 5 star reviews. I was shut down June 27th.
Same here, selling since 2016, 78,000 sales. They’ve deactivated a listing because they are saying my image was found on a Chinese marketplace. I can’t find the image anywhere apart from my shop. I don’t think it my image or bracelet design and believe it to be misidentified. I’m on my 4th appeal. All responses I’ve received are AI generated. While the bracelet appeal is still ongoing Etsy has permanately suspended my shop. I’ve supplied lots of evidence showing it was made by me and without a human looking at the cases how on Earth can you fight this.
I woke up yesterday to two of my items being delisted by Etsy due to them not being handmade. They are replacement baseballs which I make from sheets of wood for our maps which we make completely from blank wood, paint/stain and assemble. No response to my request to review.
When are we as handmade sellers going to say enough is enough and band together to boycott ETSY and work together to find or create an alternative. I’ve been closed suspended for 5 months with zero support from Etsy I made real handmade jewelry not aliaba components but actually making it. I made 100,000 with 5000 sales and 1000 plus 5 star reviews.
They don’t care
They won’t help
I’ve gone into severe financial debt trying to stay afloat while I’ve been unemployed because for some of us this was our full time job.
Over the course of 9 years I've had 12 listings removed. It does not make any sense that other sellers can sell the exact same New Orleans fleur de lis and it read "NOLA Girl" on a baby onesie but I put it on a cheer bow ribbon and that's an immediate infringement!
My favorite when I've tried to appeal the infrigement allegations is, "Have your attorney contact us."
I just joined 2 days ago. They took my 15.00 sign up fee then suspended my account. I appealed, They sent me an email and wouldn't tell me what I need to fix, so Im suspended for good. I'm little upset
Amazing how a clown run business can make so much money by shafting the creators that make it happen. The most disturbing issue is that creators have to show videos of themselves giving away their trade secrets for free.
They Suspended me about a month ago as soon as I renamed my store from Silicone Dog ID to Hush Puppy Dog Tags (my brand name!) they continue to charge my credit card though
Is Hush Puppy trademarked?
@@dawnmiller6909 you may have a good point, but Hush Puppy Dog Tags should be ok because I’m in no way related to shoes and Etsy says I am related to 2 accounts that I am not related to. It’s a real cluster fk!
I just listed a handmade retreat bag in my Etsy USA store, a second later I got an unsolicited email with a pic of my item ,no message, but it said Etsy UK. I deleted that email as spam and visited Etsy UK, and there was my item. I don't sell outside the USA.
I've had 3 of those exact emails recently. Right after listing and it's in the UK. So disturbing. How is Etsy handling this? Who knows?
Two of my listings were recently "flagged" by not as not handmade and now I am ineligible for star seller according to Etsy, I've been on Etsy since 2014, my jewelry products use supply parts that are available on many supply sites including aliexpress, I'm assuming the bot is too general, I'm almost afraid to even try to appeal, I can send videos of me making my items step by step
This has just happened to me. I sell jewellery also. I feel like it’s jewellery sellers and POD are been affected by this most at the moment.
I’ve had an Etsy listing suspended, come to find out the AI flagged something as not being vintage, when it was a vintage art style of a digital product. They automatically fixed it, I never knew I never knew it was suspended. It was flagged and fixed while I was sleeping.
This happened to me. It’s my second suspension within weeks as a brand new seller (Print on Demand with Printify). The suspended me the moment I started the shop because the IRS had a zip code 1 digit off related to me EIN. This time I was suspended with no notice or communication. The emails have appeared automated and ask about other accounts and locations in different words with each response. Still in process.
I am even more nervous to list my handmade jewelry on Etsy. I've been holding off for six months. If you guys ever want to do a video about opening a new shop, step by step, you can do it for the shop I want to open.
OMG! I just saw this video this morning and brushed it off (kinda) since I do make only handmade items (not POD) and am very established with great sales. I went to ship a $300 order only to find out my shop is now suspended! What in the actual F is going on over there?!
See this is why I'll be putting my website up soon...
Mine got suspended too. Hope you get your shop back.
@@danil_L Sorry this happened to you, too. I've retained an attorney and it seems there is a TRO against my shop, but I don't sell stuff with logos/trademarked designs, so we'll see. I'm losing $3,000 in sales a week because of this.
@@Elizabeth_Parsons_327 that’s horrible! I hope your attorney can help. I’m getting ready to do a complaint at the BBB. Etsy has NO IDEA regarding the livelihoods they destroy with the sudden suspensions and no idea of the mental anguish and turmoil they cause people.
This happens on ebay and amazon all the time, their detection system sucks and i get screwed on amazon with having pic of an Apple and i get copyright warnings because they want me to upload authorization documents that is about Apple the company. keep in mind this is one of the biggest companies in the world that have a poor ai bot detector. What chances does etsy have to be more accurate?
Etsy has asked sellers to focus on 'necessities'. If you look at the disappearance of stores (big or small) across the continent, you can pretty much get an idea of what's coming.
Grocery stores, had cut down on many imported products (cheese, porcuitto, just to name a couple).
If sellers are selling necessities, these will have better chance against the odds.
We just have to embrace for the impact...
When economy contracts, so as our wallets.
I can change the first photos of my products whose photos are copied on sites like Temu and Aliexpress (but it is very difficult to change all the pictures) Will this prevent Etsy bots from seeing my copied photos on sites like Temu and Aliexpress and removing my products?
Etsy is done. It is way too risky to build a brand only for it to be suspended. This happened to me on Amazon. My design was copied and used by others. I complained and I’m the one that got closed down. So go figure.
This makes no sense. They took down your listing and you're the original
Etsy should shut itself down for unacceptable business practices. Maybe the bots can pick up on that.
WE NEED PEOPLE TO ACTUALLY TALK TO.
yah the etsy image policy request you to be clean and clear , however if without the watermark(watermark is ugly btw) the image got stolen easily.
Total bs... One line of code in that AI program and Etsy can detect where the photo was posted first.
Something like "if this picture was created first on Etsy... Then it's legit".
If this is possible then I wonder why they are not doing it? They have just permanately suspended my shop because of this!
Same happened with me etsy removed my listing because of hand made policy and after that my shop suspend. No reply yet.. Please help. I m selling on etsy last 5 year and sold almost 15000 sales
what do you sell? jewellery?
Every year is worse, last year they were holding money from almost every shop, even the more aged ones…someone should start investigating that tool Josh Silverman for negligence..
Are you not allowed to sell on different platforms?
You can sell your wares wherever you want.
But you cannot have two Etsy shops that have the same item listed in each.
So what if you use a mockup and AliExpress has the same image. I saw a lot of mockup digital download with same image as AliExpress.
Also what about the printify providers from china?
@@ecouturehandmades5166 can you have an item listed in one of your shops that was previously listed in another shop but currently isn’t?
Etsy needs to die or change hands back to folks who are actually running it and not relying on AI. Once Esty went public, they lost all interest in supporting their sellers. The Star Seller things is a total joke. I was a Star Seller months in a row and all my sales suddenly dried. I wasn't the only one. The Etsy community was full of people who made Star Seller and all their sales dropped off. Then Etsy started telling sellers to contact customers who gave 4 stars to ask them to please REVISE their rating to 5 stars - basically from 'I like it' to I love it'. No. I'm not bothering my customers over one stinkin' star.I left with that going on - right before the Plaid payment debacle. Now people are losing their shops with no recourse, since Etsy has zero interest in the very people that made/makes them their money. Etsy won't do anything as long as people keep opening shops and paying Etsy's fees.
Etsy is out to destroy itself! They have become a corporation consumed with profit and could care less about their sellers.
So one of my Etsy listings for a breast cancer cheer bow was taken down for not being handmade. I sent 3 messages to Etsy support regarding this as I am a breast cancer survivor myself. The one reply from Etsy support didn't give me any detailed reasoningmuch less any INSIGHT as to why my listing was removed. Just the typical blah blah and please read our policies as we stay compliant with industry laws yada yada BS
It sounds like Etsy's programmers are idiots with their development of "AI" screening bots.
As a Small Business owner (I've never used Etsy), the talk I'm hearing makes me think their cutting off their nose to spite their face. That's an old saying but what it really means is, they need the sellers to make their cut & people are leaving so fast as there are so many other platforms to use to sell what it is you're selling. Sellers don't have the time to be calling/emailing etc to stay with Etsy. They want to make they products & sell them & enjoy what they do.
I for one, wouldn't use them at all. Them blaming AI is a cop out.
My small business (this is my personal RUclips channel. I don't post here at all. I comment & have opinions). Yet with my business the only 'person' I need to prove anything to is my accountant. 🤷♀
Every time I view this channel you guys have a very positive attitude of a real horrible situation that is effecting the handmade community and you guys don’t understand the gravity of the destruction ETSY is doing to truly innocent long time loyal Shop owners and makers on the platform.
I guess know one actually understands how devastating this is until it happens to you and your business.
I hope you guys start truly advocating for this community because you have a voice we don’t have.
.
But this false faith and optimism in ETSY for an ongoing wrong that is continuing to happen and ISNT being fixed isn’t an honest representation of what ETSY is doing to their own community.
Its etsy destroying its platform now...
I feel like Etsy would be better off utilizing their AI bots to flag to Etsy themselves, listings that have the same pictures show up on other sites, for human workers to review. I get that there are a ton of sellers with a ton of listings on Etsy, as well as the entire internet.... but given the # of shops that were flagged, or listings removed when they shouldn't have been, is a complete disservice to the Etsy platform and their sellers. Forward thinking, but not well thought through the entire process by whoever implemented these changes, in my opinion. Sometimes there simply is NOT a substitution for an actual human, and the sooner people figure out AI isn't the answer for everything, the better!
They also suspended my shop as top seller
Don't worry. If Etsy doesn't care.
Exactly. If Etsy doesn't give a crap we don't need to give them our money.
Yo people the day Etsy suspend my account I am not bother appeal it I just move on my sales is not that great anyway
AI is like a child, letting AI make the final decision in DESIGN and CUSTOMER SERVICE IS WRONG
Just watermark All your images! Yes, make sure the mark goes over the product.
Watermarks can be removed.
@@jf5336 Sure, but not 100% and it deters massive amounts of amateurs. Worth every second of ones efforts.
Maybe we should put an actual card with our store name in the photos?
I found professional images on the main Chinese marketplaces. The item was in my branded jewellery box. The edited out my logo 😤
Etsy bots do as they a trained to do.
oh no, maybe I should have logged out and replied as ANONYMOUS
It’s Etsy just getting rid of China’s competition.
Yeah! This is the future! AI ruine everithing. Congrats Etsy! You are getting worst everyday.