Covering auctions, collectibles and marketplace selling.

Fri Feb 15 2019 15:39:31 |
Etsy Money-Grab Glitch Causes Havoc for SellersBy: Ina Steiner |
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Etsy took money from sellers' credit cards or bank accounts that they don't owe the company, some sellers are reporting this afternoon. In some cases, the amount is in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. It appears to be a glitch, but questions remain about how it happened and how many sellers were impacted. Etsy acknowledged the issue when a seller posted on the Bugs forum at 12:22 pm ET that Etsy had drafted $395 out of her checking account when she didn't owe any fees. At 1:18 pm, an Etsy moderator wrote: "There's a team working to correct into this as I type. Once I've got more information, I'll be updating this thread. I'll be pinning this thread to the top of Bugs and directing other threads about this situation into here for easy updating. Thanks!" In the meantime, some sellers reported Etsy had charged their credit cards, such as a seller who said Etsy charged their card for $344.46 despite having held a positive balance. "Why doesn't Etsy have a email support or phone number to get answers," the seller asked. One panicked seller said Etsy took funds she didn't owe the company out of her checking account. "Etsy took over $$$$ out of our checking acct too!! WTH?? My husband is on the phone with them trying to stop that!" "Charged over $12,000 to my credit card! Card has now been de-activated due to suspicion of fraud! What is going on," another seller asked. On another thread where sellers discussed the issue, some sellers reported a supposed fix from Etsy that seemed to further complicate matters for some sellers. "They charged my CC, yet they want to refund me through my Etsy Payment Account. I don't even have access to that money until it is finally deposited into my bank account (Monday is also a federal holiday). For the time being, this is a pending charge on my CC, and they SHOULD be refunding or stopping these transactions before even have the chance to go through, instead of refunding us through our payment accounts." Another seller said, "Same thing happened to me today. I called, and instead of reversing the incorrect charge back to the credit card, they sent the money to my bank account. Really? So, now I am responsible for paying a 1317.00 bill on credit card, as well as any interest from 3 days until money clears on Monday. They would have had to pay a bank service charge for the reversal, oh well. They goofed big time, now it is my responsibility turned off autobilling, so that will not happen again. My question is how it happened in the first place. Scary. With their new policy, I never have a bill, so whoa, this is a big bad thing." One seller advised his colleagues to call their banks. In his case, his bank opened an investigation, but won't charge him interest, nor will they make the withdrawal appear as an over-the-limit purchase until the issue is sorted out. The Presidents Day holiday is adding further stress for sellers worried about their liquidity over the long weekend. We've got an inquiry in to Etsy. Update 2/15/19: Etsy referred us to its update on the thread that is pinned to the top of the bugs board: "We're aware of a bill payment error affecting a small group of sellers which resulted in some cards being incorrectly charged. We don't expect this error to impact additional sellers going forward. "For affected sellers, we're very sorry for the trouble or concern this may have caused and we are currently working to make things right. We'll update the impacted sellers directly as we have more information. Thank you." Update 2/15/19: Some sellers who were impacted said they received emails from Etsy. One email informed a seller that Etsy refunded the charge to her card on file - "and it should appear on your statement shortly." It seems sellers should expect their Etsy payment account balances to go back down accordingly. Sellers continue to express concern about the fallout, including fees and overdraft charges (in the case of checking accounts), as well as possible tax ramifications. Update 2/16/19: Etsy apologized to sellers and acknowledged another problem that arose as it tried to fix the initial error: "related to fixing the root problem, some sellers saw their scheduled deposit of funds returned to Etsy on Friday, February 15, and those deposits will now be sent on Tuesday, February 19." Etsy also said it would "refund any undue fees associated with this incorrect charge and change in deposit schedule" - see more in EcommerceBytes Newsflash. Update 2/23/19: See the following updates published in Newsflash: "An Update on the Etsy Billing Disaster" (February 22 Newsflash) "Etsy Updates Sellers on Last Week's Billing Glitch" (February 23 Newsflash) |
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by: Flying Childers |
Sun Feb 17 11:39:54 2019 |
Great comments- but why is Etsy above the law?? Any other company, the execs would be going to jail. |
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