Sellers Can No Longer Offer Standalone PayPal on Etsy

by: Sierra

I have sold on Etsy since 2006, when PayPal, along with checks & money orders, were the ONLY payment options available to Etsy sellers. As a U.S. resident, I have been required to accept Etsy Payments for several years now. I opted to keep my stand-alone PayPal account when I was given that opportunity.

PayPal has been my online spending money and Etsy sales have been a pretty reliable way of getting money into my PayPal account.

I am NOT happy about the change in Etsy policy. The whole point of being grandfathered is to be able to keep what we had ... and now they're taking that away.

I will be changing to daily deposits from Etsy, as I suspect many other sellers will be doing. This means it will only be a matter of time before Etsy does away with that option so they can earn interest on our money for a few more days.

Etsy Payments works smoothly ... MOST of the time. Let's hope Etsy Payments doesn't have another meltdown, like happened in July 2016!

by: Sierra

Also wanted to say that my Etsy deposits are in my bank account by midnight of the day Etsy disburses them. My bank is Chase, in case anyone wants to change banks. :-)  When I had Bank of America, it took 2 to 4 days for the money to appear in my account!  

by: Silver Ice King

Etsy has been showing all the signs of a growing company who does not have sufficient capital to continue their growth.  So they keep turning to the Sellers to "loan" them money, interest free.  By forcing Sellers to use Etsys Paypal account Etsy now has control of all the money rather than the Sellers and once again can invest it in the growth of the company.  

What they don't want to admit is that this is still nothing but short term fixes and they need to get their spending under control as they are running out of options to increase their cash flow.  This is the last way they have to increase incoming revenues on a daily basis without resorting to theft, which they showed they are not above committing over Presidents Day Weekend.  I still have not seen anything about all those Sellers getting the money back to the source it came from.  I do not consider adding the amounts as a credit to the Sellers Etsy Account as a legitimate method of refunding their money as that still allows Etsy to keep the money in their grubby hands.  This is nothing more than fraud and theft from their sellers since they evidently cannot get the additional capital they need from any other source.

Just a matter of time before this all comes out at Etsy and Silverman will wind up being indicted by DOJ due to all the complaining the sellers will do to their politicians.  The politicians will in turn pressure the DOJ to deal with it and get all these people off their backs.  Personally, I think Ebay is getting right on the edge of having to deal with the DOJ for a lot of things that they do, especially with what they continue to supply to China.

by: mcposty

I closed etsy shop up. Just like ill close ebay completely when they do it site wide.

Really..with social media and advertising..its not too hard to get buyers to your own store.

by: FIVEPERCENT

I feel that Silver Ice King is correct.  Something is a little off here, with Etsy's continual scramble to grab every cent they can from the sellers.  I am one of those non-US sellers who is STILL waiting for my refund.  Someone with the proper authority needs to take a good look at Etsy's financial dealings, as something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

by: RKTOYS

It's pretty irritating for these companies to be demanding bank account access.  They pushed and pushed and pushed to make people sign up for PayPal.  Now we have that and it's suddenly not good enough?  They can go jump in a lake.

by: fAlken

It means that I might actually have to make use of that shipping window they give us, instead of paying for shipping same day and sending the item out same day, I'll have to rely on website and ebay sales to fund paypal for shipping because I am not going to use Etsy shipping, it's going to make accounting difficult.  It's possible I might not ship items out for up to 5 days now instead of same day shipments.  I'm basing that on the absolute piss poor performance of ebay currently.  I get the feeling this "Tax benefit" was no benefit at all, I bet they just changed with holding status to make people think they got more money, now they all owe a tax fee unless they have kids.  Well, now that online sales are getting screwed I have to go back into the workforce, it was a good 10 years, but now it's back to the god damn rat race.

by: fAlken

And so it begins, every online venue turns to shit when it goes public, this is just the beginning.  Look at Ebay, mark my words, in a couple of years, ebay will be an AOL.  Younger gens will say "You could sell on ebay?  Get out of here!  They're an instant messenger company, when did they sell anything?"  Etsy will follow suit when the shareholders start to bitch and it becomes a game of showing growth at every quarter at any costs.  I'm angry because now I for sure have to go back to the rat race, the wild wild west days of the internet are coming to an end and corporate america will destroy any opportunities that the little guy had.  Good luck to you all, this income has to go back to being supplemental for me now.

by: maxmad

The etsy threads of hundreds of complaints will eventually get closed, the rants will be silenced, a few will move on, most will roll over, and etsy will be richer by millions more, getting ready for the next big theft of more money from their customers, etsy must be laughing at all the stupid looser sellers. who continue to use their company.

too funny

by: EyeFlipDaily

doesnt Amazon, Poshmark, & Mercari do the same thing???

by: hawk

it's always the same throughout history. greed , corruption , outright theft , killing off the opportunity for less fortunate people to have a better life , does nothing but destroy all good things. then , everything falls.

start all over , and do the same s**t all over again. HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH??

by: rover

It seems there is little to choose between online market places which are publicly traded. The opportunities in online selling have now moved on to a combination of owning your own website and/or selling on social media. Too much greed from corporate giants and too many taxes from greedy corrupt governments looking to fleece their citizens. In the meantime no one has punished the bankers for the financial crash or put in place measures to make the corporate giants and super rich pay their fair share of taxes.

by: ewegolf

One facet that is not being mentioned is that when you sell on Etsy via  standalone Paypal, the shipping label is usually generated on Paypal.  This deprives Etsy of its rake on the shipping label which would be the difference from slightly above the old Commercial Plus rate and the Commercial rate you receive. This, of course, is in addition to the 5 percent you pay on shipping charges received.  I suspect that in the near future there will be an Etsy Empirical Edict declaring that all labels must be purchased via Etsy Payments.  

by: BargainzBabylon

@Rexford

"Are Silverman and Wenig the same person?  Has anyone ever seen them in the same room?"

Silverman is Wenig's little brother - follows him around and copies everything he does.  

by: RealHandmadeGal

I’ve been selling on Etsy for over 10 years and this is the last straw. I’m tired of my handmade product being showcased next to cheap factory-made crap from overseas. I’m tired of Etsy telling me I should ship for free and if I don’t, my site will fall back in search. I’m tired of all the privacy slips, each time Etsy telling us how they take privacy seriously, they’ve implemented more security procedures and it will never happen again. Then it happens again.

This move follows the ruination of Etsy forums - what a coincidence. My Etsy team moved off-site partly because Etsy will not “un-mute” teammates who are now unable to post in private teams. Although I think our disgust with Etsy is probably a primary factor.

Let’s not forget the most recent financial debacle that had Etsy stealing funds from sellers, claiming it was only an IT problem that they caught right away. Not quick enough for the many sellers who had Etsy taking hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in bogus selling fees out of their accounts (unsuccessfully in some instances).

Let’s not forget all the international sellers who had fees charged incorrectly last year and have still not been made whole.

I’ve nurtured my website over the years and sales there far surpass what’s going on in my Etsy shop. Etsy is just a way to promote my own website now - it can be done as long as you don’t break Etsy rules and are not blatant about it.

To anyone starting a new business - stay clear of Etsy. Be independent. Create your own website - it’s very easy today. Don’t be sucked in by the crap Etsy spews about helping you build your business.

by: maxmad

@RealHandmadeGal

I totally agree,,,,,,

by: Toledo Maude

I have been selling on Etsy for 7 years and have been happy with Etsy payment systems both pre- and post manage payments.  The one day delay in currently seeing my Etsy money deposited into my bank account is no problem.

I never missed using Paypal to process payments.  Goodbye and good riddance.  Too many sorry memories of evil Paypal.

Several times I have tried selling from a ''cookie cutter'' websites.  The last time I gave up and closed the website due to the cost of credit card processing fees and other predators who promised great sales but delivered only monthly fees.

As far as eBay's upcoming managed payments and with sales so slow, it maybe time to say goodbye and good riddance to eBay after 19 years.  

by: Flying Childers

Real Handmade Gal- very good advice.

by: FIVEPERCENT

@RealHandmadeGal      Spot on!  I've been on Etsy for almost 10 years now and never has seller morale been so low.  Changing the Etsy fora was just a way to mute those who disagreed with Etsy's underhand machinations.  The Etsy shareholders and vulture capitalists must just love Silverman, with every new ploy he comes up with to shaft the sellers and make more $s for them.  However, I wonder if it's ever crossed his mind that he is now a hamster on a wheel, as he has to keep improving each quarter's profit margin.  In my opinion, it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke!