Etsy Sellers Concerned over Pattern Shop Uncertainty

by: White Rabbit

I do hope the AG office looks into this if they do not remove this at once. This is fraud and theft on a grand scale. The kind of crime that could get the CEO many year in a federal prison. One can dream. :-)

by: White Rabbit

this link seems to help to deactivate this scam:

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/pattern/settings

by: maxmad

I would say this is 100% intentional, and totally designed to deceive. I can only imagine how many sellers now have a pattern website link, and don't even know, they will be paying a monthly fee, and the worst part is their Paypal account has been integrated with DC, never to be reversed, nice work etsy,

Hey etsy, got the next great idea for you, ''No click shopping''

Simply viewing an item means you automatically have purchased it, buyers will love it, no need to do the old school checkout, or be bothered with any of those confirmation thingy's

by: kie

Thank you again Ina for shining a light on a scam ... Etsy really flew under everyone's radar with this move...I am so angered I'm looking to move the bulk of my business elsewhere. It's a sad trend when a co. has to rob your sellers blind to beat the street.

by: Writings on the Wall

The Etsy forums are again afire with this one.
Someone posted this on the bugs thread from the FTC site
www.ftc.gov/enforcement/statutes/restore-online-shoppers-confi
dence...
MISSION: Consumer Protection
RULE/LAW: Pub. L. 111-345, 124 Stat. 3618
FILE: application/pdf icon online-shoppers-enrolled.pdf (163.48 KB)

This Act prohibits any post-transaction third party seller (a seller who markets goods or services online through an initial merchant after a consumer has initiated a transaction with that merchant) from charging any financial account in an Internet transaction unless it has disclosed clearly all material terms of the transaction and obtained the consumer's express informed consent to the charge. The seller must obtain the number of the account to be charged directly from the consumer. The Act prohibits initial merchants from disclosing purchasers' financial account numbers or other billing information to third party sellers. In addition, for all online transactions with a negative option feature (both initial sales and post-transaction sales), the Act requires the seller to disclose clearly all material terms, obtain the consumer's express informed consent to the charge, and provide a simple means for the consumer to stop recurring charges.

by: BuildingMyOwnSite

Ina Said: ''The response doesn't explain how a seller can tell if a Pattern shop has been created''

Within a few days or so of April 5, I went to see what a new shop might look like, also getting caught in the mess described.  I signed out when I saw something like ''step 2 of 4 completed''.  I thought about posting to the Etsy forum.  But on Etsy, the members often can't give an accurate answer, due to nobody really knowing what the rules are, or what is going on.  And the answers that the admins butt in with, are consistently just plain dumb, and often point to completely irrelevant & incredibly vague rules.

Important threads go off on a discussion about answers given by the admins, until someone calls them out sufficiently to get the thread shut down.  It is just tooooo frustrating.  I gave up.

Etsy has arrived at the junction of Google & Ebay, just plain evil.  I figured this was just another mix-up.  But after re-thinking the matter, I am in agreement, that they are just stupid enough, to do this on purpose.  They must have learned from JD's tricks & traps how to treat their sellers.

On Ebay, a post will often, quickly get an accurate answer, from an Ebayer.  (You never get an answer from Ebay staff).  The real sad part here is that the Etsy officers, staff, and admins are just too stupid, to keep their mouths shut.  They think their drivel will serve as kool-aid, and probably  think no one will catch the meaningless double speak, exhibited in the article above, for what it is.

by: BuildingMyOwnSite

5:33 pm 18 Apr, 2016 EDT
(Original Post On Etsy Forums)

5:35 pm Apr 18, 2016 EDT
(Next Post on Etsy Forums)
Over 40 posts were added to the above, over a period of 24 hours.
(The above post was removed)

There are about 100 posts on the first page.

There are 24 pages now, at about noon, April 19.

Question:  If you were Queen,(King?) Etsy......

Why not just fix it & put it to rest?
Maybe answer some of the questions?
Maybe dump whomever is responsible?

Answer:
The Queen(King?) wears no clothing.

by: BuildingMyOwnSite

Correction:

''Over 40 posts were added to the above, over a period of 24 hours''

Should have read 12 hours.

Clarify: the post that was removed, was apparently the FIRST post after the original, and generated over 40 comments.

by: Ina

Etsy posted a clarification in the thread, see the update in the above blog post.

by: White Rabbit

when all else fails and you are busted for attempting to pull the biggest scam of the century... blame it on a programming bug.

the same story over and over.. it was a programming bug, glitch.. :-)

by: maxmad

Yes, an update, unfortunately the Administrator, posted a link for sellers to check and see if they had started a Pattern Site,

Clicking on the link will automatically Start a Pattern Subscription !! and since they removed the cancel button, it will be difficult to get rid of, as many sellers are reporting, once disabled, pattern keeps installing itself, within a few hours

DO NOT CLICK ON THAT ADMINISTRATORS LINK AT ETSY, you will have a Pattern site in less then 10 seconds

This is NO BUG, NO GLITCH, it's done on purpose, etsy is almost at the end of the 30 day free trial for probably 10's of thousands of sellers, , billing is about to start, they can almost smell the money, all that money is almost in their hands, they just have to keep their little secret going just a bit longer

by: zenbreeze

That happened to me today.  I honestly don't remember what I clicked but it suddenly said it was setting up my website.  I didn't "agree to terms" or anything like that.  I've been selling online since 2002 and I've never seen anything like that--where you don't have to agree to it first. I left a note for customer support to call me.  They said that, if I don't have a "settings" option in the Pattern section, Pattern isn't fully set up and I won't be charged but that there is no way to remove that half-ass thing that started to set up, which makes me nervous.

by: Moonwishes

Jeepers, right from the start I thought 'Pattern' was a dumb idea, well I guess it only is for the sellers, not for the site owners.

Hey guys come and bring your good Etsy stores and set up for free on eCRATER. With a good influx of good, honest sellers that are willing in exchange for free listings, promoting their stores you can help eCRATER grow and tell Etsy to shove it.

The more good sellers on eCRATER, the better the chance to make eCRATER a great venue!

by: Watching the Wheels

@ BuildingMyOwnSite, who's responsible? That would be Chad. He was CTO during the MetaTags fiasco under Maria's regime.

They all claimed ignorance on that one, too. Support even had the audacity to tell me, that "I" had to be the one who had put the phrase "handmade" into the meta tags area of my vintage items, back then.

I would suggest going to their stock market page, and announce their latest, and greatest, but I get censored ALOT in those news articles.

What's sad is the never ending amount of energy that has always gone into their numerous subterfuges. Pity they lack the confidence and ethics to apply this level of energy into quality execution.

Moonwishes, it's a given site's OWNER, THAT HAS THE RESPONSIBILTY OF MAKING A VENUE GREAT. IF SELLERS KEEP SHOULDERING THIS RESPONSIBILTY, out of a misplaced sense of ego, there will continue to be garbage cranked out by owners. Isn't there some sort of ads within eCrater, now?

What would be nice is a site that does their end, properly and honorably, does the "DO" to get site traffic to a workable level, then charges a fair price without the incessant "what can we do to get ourselves monetized", at the seller's expense?

Venue forums also provide a layer of legal protection for the given sites. IF forum advise goes south, the given site is NOT LIABLE. Forum advise and answers would be deemed HEARSAY, in a court of law.

Sellers need to write support, even though answers wind up being "canned", for documentation purposes.

by: joker13

This does NOT make me one bit happy either! So glad I never clicked on that pattern link as I don't with any such links. These folks, I'm sorry to say, do not inspire a whole lot of confidence for me as a seller. It has been a nightmare since they have gone public. I saw that coming. There must some kind of recourse for the sellers who got caught in this deception. Not the only game in town but still the best option for handmade so far. I have looked at other options. Don't seem to have the essential traffic. Please tell me if you know a better option!

by: White Rabbit

the situation at Etsy will balance itself out Joker. Unfortunately this is not a good thing for sellers. As Etsy gets less serious buyers of quality handmade and vintage goods it will move toward more Factory Chinese items under $5. As this happens more and more the buyer base changes to low end buyers. It has been happening quickly in the jewelry and higher end markets there. Low ball cheap customers have replaced the past good quality and artistic seeking buyers.

The problem is no new sites are around that caters to Handmade and Vintage and Etsy was a real gem years ago. no more.

Changes? etsy will be the piece of $%%^ it has turned itself in to.

I think social media will take over a lot of the selling of handmade and vintage in the near future in conjunction with personal websites.. real websites :-) (not fake etsy websites)

it might be a good time to get that website set up nicely and start using social media like facebook groups.

I do hope some changes occur that take the power away from sites like Etsy, Ebay, Amazon.. it could happen over the next year as a lot of social media site's BIN buttons are in the works

Paypal BIN buttons are free. these PP buttons have an email option also (and code option) the email can be posted on any social media site to enable a way to sell.not saying is is the only way to do this.. lots of ways to facilitate a sale on line.

THE TRUTH -> as etsy sales decrease the other options become more an option. Etsy sales are decreasing big time for the smaller sellers. This is why Etsy is doomed to collapse. Just a matter of time till the sellers get bored and move on to other places once this gets worse.

by: Flying Childers

Great comments here on ECB. As usual you get more genuine info here than on the sites themselves.

The situation on Etsy has descended into absolute chaos since they inflicted the New Look and Pattern on the public. Sellers can't get found, buyers won't keep scrolling and so get frustrated and leave, the site is like a land mine. You never know what's gonna hit you if you click on the wrong spot.

Glad to see there's actually a law being proposed that will help somewhat. However, be aware that Etsy has set up a lobbyist in DC in order to become above any laws and to avoid playing by The Rules.
This is a clear indication of the problems they have & shows that somebody is worried.

Here's the sad truth- until a better platform comes along that caters to quality vintage, authentic artisans and high end crafts, things are only going to get worse. Chad & Co. know they have a captive audience.

by: White Rabbit

I agree with this Flying Childers
:Here's the sad truth- until a better platform comes along that caters to quality vintage, authentic artisans and high end crafts, things are only going to get worse. Chad & Co. know they have a captive audience.:

but.. humans tend to get bored if they constantly are not making headway.. they move on or just plain quit. this is a logical response. Losing money month after month in an Etsy shop is a total waste of time. breaking even is a total waste of time also :-)

the less etsy offers in rewards for you efforts  = the less hold Etsy has on it's sellers. I have noticed a real "care Less' attitude brewing on the forums again.. this is an indication that most of the sellers have nothing to lose with Etsy.

by: fifilapew

PEOPLE...if it looks too good to be true...then of course it is!

Why on earth would a selling venue (which takes a FVF on sales) just simply offer to create a website for its sellers????  MONEY folks!

etsy sees the writing on its walls-its sellers leaving and opening their own websites. They've GOT to get that soon to be lost revenue SOMEHOW so 'hey why not give our loyal sellers their freedom and STILL make a nice little profit for doing ABSOLUTELY nothing by offering websites for sale on our website lol'  How crazy is that idea??!!

Why must these once well working sites keep shmudding (a mix of mud & s**t) things up? Don't these fools know a good thing when presented to them on a silver platter? sadly...apparently not

Just when my etsy sales were starting to match & sometimes actually over take my ebay sales (on a monthly basis), the 'masterminds' that believe they know what's best for MY business become greedy-hence create greed driven changes to line their pockets...not yours, not mine...theirs

by: Noneya

Worth repeating: as many sellers are reporting, once disabled, pattern keeps re installing itself, within 24 hours of disabling, sellers are seeing that their Pattern shop is reactivated.

The joys of Live testing bad code.