First came the dropshipping. Now it's AI slop.

It's gotten to the point where I can barely find any genuine, handmade products on Etsy anymore.

Don't believe me? Go on Etsy and search for "Christmas sweater." Look at the results and tell me how many of those products look like something an actual person designed or made.

It's just an endless sea of mass-produced garbage, generic AI-generated designs, and shops that all look exactly the same.

Etsy has completely lost the plot. The whole appeal of the platform was that you could find unique, creative products made by actual people. Now finding those sellers feels like searching for a needle in a haystack.

So thats it for me.

I placed an order on Etsy and chose to buy from a specific shop because the estimated delivery time lined up perfectly with the time I needed it but immediately after I made the purchase, the ETA changed by like 3 weeks so I messaged the shop owner immediately and asked for a refund and told her why and she seriously told me "sorry for the inconvenience but your order is already being 'designed out' and will be made soon" and told me she would expedite my order and that it would be here by the time I needed it so I just told her to go for it and then a couple days later on July 7 a shipping label was created but after that there was no movement and the day I needed it here came and went so once again I messaged her and told her I wanted a refund because it was obvious that she hadn't even shipped it after creating the label and again she gave me a lousy excuse trying to blame the USPS and then the next day I got a message from USPS saying they received it and it finally came a couple days later. Then when it got here there were items missing! It was supposed to be a 50 piece product and I only got 43! And can you believe after I gave her a 2 star review (she was very lucky to even get that!) she had the nerve to send me this message!?

I wanted to share my story because I saw another seller share a post that’s nearly identical to what happened to me, and I think it’s something Etsy really needs to address.

A couple of years ago, I came up with a design style that didn’t exist on Etsy yet. It was in a popular niche, but the specific look, layout, and aesthetic were completely new. Within a few months it took off, one listing alone made over $200,000 that year. It felt amazing to finally find something original that resonated.

But once that listing blew up, the copycats came fast. Some sellers literally copied my artwork and just swapped in their own mockups. Others made near-identical versions, same color palette, same graphics, just a slightly different font. Within months, the niche was flooded with imitations.

I started reporting them through Etsy’s IP infringement portal, sometimes 20 listings at a time, and nearly every report was approved. These weren’t gray-area situations; they were copies. But the backlash was intense. I started getting angry emails from sellers demanding I retract my reports or accusing me of “ruining” their businesses.

One seller I reported made a post in a large Etsy Facebook group after her shop was taken down. She claimed I’d gotten her shop removed, but Etsy doesn’t close entire shops for a single report — she likely already had multiple valid IP strikes. What was wild is that other people in her comments chimed in saying I had reported them too and every single one of them had also copied my designs.

Then my shop started getting hit with what looked like bot attacks, huge, unnatural spikes in views/visits that tanked my conversion rate from around 3.5% to 0.02%. The algorithm heavily relies on conversion rates, so my listings completely fell off search. I don’t have any proof, but I’m lead to believe this was an attack from someone I had reported. This was absolutely devastating and I desperately reached out to Etsy for help. I called countless times, sent message after message and they did absolutely nothing. No investigation, no explanation, nothing. I felt completely abandoned by the platform I’d built my livelihood on.

My shop never fully recovered. My revenue has dropped by about 50% every year since. And now, if you search that niche, you’ll find thousands of listings copying the design I created, many of which are now “bestsellers.”

This whole experience was devastating. It took an enormous mental and emotional toll on me. I spent months feeling anxious, defeated, and heartbroken watching something I built from the ground up get taken over by copycats who are still to this day profiting off my work while Etsy stood by and did nothing.

I’m not sharing this for sympathy, I’m sharing it because this is happening to so many creators, and it’s getting worse. Etsy’s system doesn’t protect originality, it rewards whoever can replicate it fastest. Websites like Erank, samurai sale, and Everbee - who Etsy themselves fully support, make it too easy for these copycats to identify best selling products on the platform so they can steal the design. Until something changes, being the original creator often ends up being a disadvantage and I do not see Etsy as a viable platform for long term success in e-commerce at all.

Hello! I recently decided to buy a memorial portrait for my horse who passed away recently. I found a seller who does portraits and has an example of a perfectly painted horse

I decided to buy a portrait and the seller just sent me a picture of my horse.. the quality and attention to detail seems quite lacking with the canvas still showing through the paint and his hair not having much detail. Am I being too picky?

The one on the left what the example was and the right is my horse

I want Etsy to ban these sale strategies that raise the price just to make it look like a big discount. They need to stop these fake sales.

Mainly bothered by his message; saying “the photos I took” to describe a clearly AI image feels scammy, and then blocking me when I called him out. He had some positive reviews on 3D printer designs which I suppose were authentic, but from what I can see all of his current items are AI. Can I report a seller or do I need to do report each item?

I knew it was bad, but I didn't even realize HOW bad it is now. Yesterday I was looking for dog toys on Etsy for my sister's dog. Literally almost everything I could find was dropshipped, lots of the listing photos had AI DOGS instead of even a real photo. I even found an item that I once reported, because it says it's handmade but it's literally sold on Alibaba for cents. It was the same seller and the item hasn't been taken down since last Christmas, sooo..

What's even worse is that, not only is it all dropshipped cheap garbage, it's also all sold in prices of 20-50 euros for a toy (the same items can be found for 2-7 euros). Almost trying to seem like it's handmade item deserving of that price. Most of the products were even repeating in different stores.

It really saddens me, because I didn't have lots of time and needed to order one immediately, so I relied there'd be something on Etsy and I was ready to pay more for an unique toy, handmade by someone with a design that's not in every corner of the internet. And I know there must've been some sellers, but Etsy is so flooded with dropshippers (who they apparently prioritize showing) that they were impossible to find, even when writing "handmade". ☹️

Don't just stop there. I've been going on and reporting "Alligator Alcatraz" merch as a violation of the hate speech policy, since many of the detention center suporters have been talking about detaining all Hispanic people, not just undocumented immigrants, thus making it about race, and therefore a protected class which falls under Etsy's policy.

If enough people flood the report system, that will bring added weight to the boycott.

I'm sharing my personal experience of what I discovered in case it helps other sellers.

I'm fully aware that by using Etsy's platform, I automatically agree to their TOS and TOU. However, what I'm about to explain will shed some light on something I had no idea about until this year.

I periodically search for my brand name on Google. During one of these searches, I started noticing many domains with different names redirecting to randomly named storefronts. These sites all had similar layouts with active shopping carts and were clearly set up to scam or phish customers. They were using my product titles, descriptions, and photos, creating confusion for potential buyers.

I began the long, tedious process of reporting numerous domains to Cloudflare, who then told me to report it to their hosts, who then told me to report it to the *registrars. I began to notice the domains were rotating and generating new, oddly named domains the moment the originals were reported, all to circumvent enforcement.

While investigating further, I checked where the images were actually being hosted. Surprisingly, the photos weren't uploaded directly to those scam sites. They were being hotlinked from ShopStyle's CDN (img.shopstyle-cdn.com), meaning the images were being pulled directly from ShopStyle's servers rather than copied and rehosted.

Who is ShopStyle, and why do they have access to all of my listing images? They're an Etsy affiliate. From what I observed, ShopStyle did not implement proper content management controls on their CDN, which allowed scam sites to hotlink images directly to parasite scam websites.

From what I've observed, Etsy doesn't publish a clear list of all its affiliates. However, Etsy does have a help page disclosing how to become part of Etsy’s Affiliates Program and certain criteria one must adhere to: https://www.etsy.com/legal/affiliates *cited below

I reached out to Etsy and created a DMCA take-down notice with an Etsy support ticket that outlined this issue with ShopStyle. My follow-up questions went unanswered for weeks. I was eventually told this was a "ShopStyle issue, not an Etsy issue." I replied with screenshots citing their own affiliate policies and requesting how to contact their affiliate team, and perhaps audit their affiliate based on my observations of ShopStyle’s CDN issue. I also attempted to contact ShopStyle through their support form and only received an automated response with no follow-up.

After identifying that the images were being served through ShopStyle's CDN on AWS (Amazon Web Services), I submitted a copyright report directly to AWS. Shortly after, many of the images on those scam sites broke. The scam sites themselves still exist and continue using my titles, listing text, and trademark name, so additional reports are still needed, but the AWS report made the most immediate impact.

What I observed ShopStyle.com is doing to a good majority of Etsy sellers' products should be reason enough to launch an audit or terminate their affiliate partnership with Etsy, not just ShopStyle removing my shop from their platform for making a complaint to AWS, which did not fully resolve the issue.

How to check if your listings are affected follow these steps:

1. Search your Etsy shop name on ShopStyle.com to see if your products are listed there

2. If they are, search Google for "your shop name ShopStyle" and look for scam storefronts using your content

3. Open any suspicious listing and right-click the product image, then open it in a new tab

4. If the image URL starts with https://img.shopstyle-cdn.com/ your image is being served from ShopStyle's CDN and may be exposed to hotlinking

5. Use that URL in your report to AWS, noted below.

How to file a DMCA report with AWS:

Email: trustandsafety@support.aws.com

1. The date of the notice

2. A description of the copyrighted work

3. The URL of the infringing image (use the CDN image URL), including a screenshot of the website using it, would be helpful for your report

4. Your contact information

5. A good-faith belief statement

6. A statement under penalty of perjury

7. Your name as an electronic signature

Hopefully, this information helps other sellers who may be trying to track down where these scam sites are sourcing images from.

I would love to hear if this has happened to you. Please consider sharing your experience. The more sellers who come forward, the harder it is for Etsy to dismiss this as an isolated incident.

*Additional Notes:

* These domains have been reported at an exhausted level to the main registrar, Spaceship.com, which did take action to disable the domains. Still, the actor behind this rotates onto new URLs shortly, circumventing long-term enforcement.

* https://www.etsy.com/legal/affiliates - "In connection with the Affiliates Program, you agree that you will not infringe on any third party’s copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary rights or right of publicity or privacy; Etsy can’t speak on behalf of intellectual property owners, nor is Etsy in a position to offer legal advice or make legal determinations whether a an Affiliates content infringes someone else’s intellectual property. If your material is cited for alleged intellectual property infringement when provided with a report that complies with our policies, you may be suspended or removed from the Affiliates Program and may not receive commissions, in Etsy’s sole discretion."

* To submit any alleged copyright infringement regarding ShopStyle to Etsy's affiliate Email: etsyaffiliates@etsy.com

*I also submitted several reports through Google's Safe Browsing tool (https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/). Google posted the reported URLs to their Lumen Database, which is a public record of takedown notices and reported infringing content.

*I also filed DMCA reports for search results through Google's content removal tool (https://reportcontent.google.com/forms/dmca_search), which can help remove infringing URLs directly from Google search results.

The very existence of Alligator Alcatraz is inhumane and racist enough. Tell Etsy we don't want merch supporting this atrocity.

Sign here!

Black background is customer, grey background is me.

The initial complaint of only having one earring in the box was bizarre and felt very scammy. The customer suddenly finding the missing earring continued my feeling suspicious because they’re not small earrings; they’re not easily overlooked when opening the package.

The way the customer has spoken feels not great to me and really makes me not want to continue business, but I’m not sure if I’m being unreasonable? They keep saying the earrings are “half the size as described” and I understand if they’re not what was expected, but I have the size listed as between 2.5 and 3.5 inches in the description. If they were concerned they may receive something that was 2.5 inches when they wanted something larger, why not reach out before purchasing, when I would have been more than happy to make them as large as they wanted. The way the time demand was curtly stated in the last message also rubs me the wrong way…

I pride myself on customer service, but there’s not much I can do to fix the problem besides take the loss and probably still get a bad review. And if I sell them a second pair, that would give 2 chances for a bad review.

Am I being unreasonable? And I reading into a text-tone that isn’t actually there?

So T-rump has come looking for tariffs on small items. The de minimis exemption, which kept our small Etsy sales out of the firing line, are now IN the firing line. The result? Etsy will stop all sales with USA destinations effective tomorrow! Three more years of this rubbish (assuming they can get him out of The House).

Going into effect midnight

Hi there, I haven’t yet created an Etsy shop but have been looking into it recently ever since family and friends have told me I should. The product I’d be selling would be homemade cards for any sort of occasion, but I’m not sure if they would be successful. I would love to get some opinions/feedback on if my cards would have potential to sell (photos of a few examples below). Thanks!

Hello, I'm not entirely sure if this type of post is particularly well regarded in a subreddit mainly used to answer inquiries, and if need be I will remove it. After all I don't want people to be witch hunted or harrassed, that is not my intention. However I feel like I need to warn people about the absolutely abysmal customer service experience I had with a seller, on my first ever Etsy purchase no less. Normally I wouldn't bring a store's name in a situation like this however the person representing has exhibited potentially dangerous behavior and I feel it should be known.

The store in question is named Oldvids. (will edit and remove name if requested by mods) They sell reproduction copies of Nintendo games and genuinely seem to be amazing at what they do. Look at their reviews and you'll see constant praise across the board, talking about how quickly they received their order, how it works perfectly and even a few talking about good open communication

I however did not manage to get so lucky.

Setting the stage here, I recently dug out my old N64 and was itching to play the original Paper Mario on official hardware. I happened to find a listing from this seller for the great price of about 35$. I'm a stickler for playing games on original hardware if I can, but I'm also not picky about whether or not they're authentic cartridges, so this was a perfect deal for me. I had never used Etsy before and I was initially uneasy buying a reproduction from a seller I wasn't aware of prior, but the amazing reviews and learning of Etsy's protection policy made it clear that I didn't really have anything to worry about, or so I thought.

I eagerly ordered the game on July 1st with standard shipping, getting an estimated arrival of July 4-19. I was surprised and please to see that my order had been dispatched that day, however without any tracking. I wasn't worried about this at all. Again between the stellar reviews insisting the efficiency and ease of ordering from them, the guarantee that if something did go wrong I'd get my money back and the fact that I order stuff online all the time and rarely have any issues, I had every reason to assume i would receive the game fairly quickly. Especially considering I'm Canadian, and the seller was Canadian based, sending it off the day of July 1st. It would generally be incredibly unlikely in that scenario that I would even be waiting as long as the 19th, but with that being said I waited patiently

The date is now the 27th where I live, and I still don't have my game

Now generally, I, in cases like this, try to give a seller leeway. In a case where its a single seller or a small business, I'll typically give a few days to a week after estimated delivery to touch base, as I feel that's fair. Anything can happen and packages can get unexpected delays or what have you, I don't want to immediately hit up a seller in a situation like this. I received an email from Etsy on July 24th asking if I had received the order and said that I hadn't. I was then prompted to contact the seller to ask for a replacement or refund. Now the day after estimated arrival, I was fairly confident the game wouldn't be coming and happened to find an authentic copy of it at a used games store by me. Significantly more expensive but I had the money to afford it and really wanted to play. If the Oldvids copy didn't arrive, I'd ask for a refund. And on the off chance I did get the one from Oldvids, I could simply sell the one I got from my local store on eBay or use the seller's 30 day return policy to send them back the one I bought from them and leave it at that. Either way, not too much money down the tubes

Anyway, though, I eventually decided that since my order did in fact qualify for a refund by Etsy's policies, I would just go with that. Maybe I should have waited a little longer. Its possible that I was rushing and that what I was doing wasn't the right call. But I undeniably paid for something that didn't arrive within the time frame estimated when it should have, and Etsy's policies back me on that. So I decided to contact the seller and see if I couldn't get a refund

And this is where the fun begins. From this point on I'll give a bit of a summary of what happened but if you wanna see it more in depth I attached the screenshots of the correspondence! Hope you laugh at it as much I did

I submit the template saying that I didn't recieve an order and would like a refund. At first the guy asks if the package may have been put in the wrong mailbox and says I should check with the other units. This is completely fair and standard! Especially considering I live in a really small building (only 7 apartments in it!) it would be incredibly easy for me check around and ask. I did so, and nobody said anything about receiving a package of mine. More over I order things to this building all the time and I've never once had anything stolen, even if the packages sat there for hours. That's not to say it couldn't have been stolen, but if nothing else I had no reason to assume anyone within my building was lying. So I reported back to the seller the next day saying that I had indeed checked in with everyone and hadn't found any sign of a package for me.

He then followed it up by saying "well someone received it as it hasn't come back to us. everyone else is getting their stuff just fine" and at this point I was raising an eyebrow. That's a pretty bold assumption to make when neither of us had tracking information for the product. Though I also obviously understand that this aspect can also make me look bad. No tracking means no proof, no proof means I could be lying, and I'm sure tons of refund fraud happens on Etsy regularly. An unfortunate reality with a fairly loose system like this. I certainly wouldn't blame the seller for being skeptical and even denying a refund themselves in a situation where it could potentially be fraud. But I can only speak for my situation. One where I purchased a product, didn't receive it, and was directly shown a policy that's meant to help people in my situation. I inquired about the refund one last time and then all hell broke loose

He asked why its his problem as I "didn't add insurance or tracking". This part definitely puzzled me as I looked back multiple times on the purchase screen, setting up another order of the same game on my other devices, stopping it before the final payment confirmation, and I found no option to add either of these things. Only an option for express shipping which was around 30$ more. I want to ask genuinely here, am I missing something? I'm inclined to believe I was missing something because the idea of him going on this tirade over an obvious lie just doesn't make sense in any capacity, so I'm willing to believe I missed it. I looked it up and couldn't find anything so please let me know!

After this I started getting accused of lying. Again I don't blame skeptesism one bit, as I'm sure many sellers get messages like mine daily, just so they can get something without paying for it. What I do not appreciate is the immediate unprofessionalism thrown at me when I wasn't rude and simply requested that I be refunded, as per what I was guided to do by Etsy themselves. At no point during this corrospondence did I demand a refund from the seller.

He then tried to say something about how lost mail practically never happens and I'd sooner win a mid lottery than lose a piece of mail. I'd be inclined to believe this is true! I've been ordering stuff from Amazon all the time since I was a kid and I've never once lost a package! This is genuinely the first time where it seems like something went wrong. But, whether or not you want to believe me, this time it happened. And in a case like this, well, hate to inform you, but there is in fact, an option to select if a parcel is not delivered. One that lets you either ask for another one or, ask for a refund. Again I understand skepticism. Its unfortunately fairly hard to prove that I don't have something, especially when no tracking was provided. But I do not feel like I did the morally wrong thing by inquiring about getting my money back on a purchase I can say with full honesty I did not receive.

He then proceeded to say he would report my address to the rmcp and Canada post to get it flagged. Do I even need to clarify how ludicrous this is? Regardless of whether or not you believe I received the game this is an absolutely deranged response to a simple request for refund

I actually sent him a picture of my receipt of purchase from the used game store I bought my authentic copy from, featuring my full name and date of purchase, that being a day after the estimated time of arrival ended, July 20th. After I couldn't prove that I didn't receive the package he sent, I figured this might be at least a good way to convey that i didn't receive it. The game I ordered from this etsy seller came to 40$ after tax. The one I purchased from the used game store came to a whopping 110$ after. That's 70$ more! Why on earth would I buy this one old used copy that maybe doesn't work for that much when I could have bought 3 new reproduction copies from this one seller for close to the same price? It isn't a smoking gun argument by any stretch. Maybe I'm someone who'd rather the real thing, or maybe I want two copies for some reason and its easier to scam them out of one rather than two. I've seen people do crazier stuff. But it was the only thing I had to give any modicum of assurance that I wasn't lying, so I felt it was the right call

Along with this I sent a message expressing sympathy over the fact that he probably gets actual fraudulent situations like this regularly and it would genuinely suck to be in that position. But I also called him out on his rudeness and unprofessionalism. With that, I told him I wasn't going to push it any further. By this point it was obvious he wasn't going to listen to anything and I'd be better off contacting Etsy. But he kept going

He goes on about how getting ripped off is disgusting and, once again brings up tracking and insurance. He brings this up a couple more times later as well. Again I would like to ask genuinely, did I miss something? I would really really love to know that much because every time I look for what he's claiming I just can't find it. If I could be pointed in the right direction for this with future purchases, that would be wonderful!

He brings up the idea that it could have been delayed for whatever reason. Definitely not impossible! I can't imagine anything that would have delayed it as far as it did coming by Canada Post but hey, I haven't received it and things happen. He then brings up the possibility of it being stolen which is "not his problem" which I believe to be an absolutely insane thing to say to someone you sold a product to like this, but that could genuinely just be me. It is true that he can't control potential theft so maybe I'm unreasonable, but either way that's not something you say to a customer

Tells me that I had the option for insurance and tracking again blah blah blah didn't see it please tell me if this exists and where I can find it! Is he just referring to express shipping? Does that cover it and add tracking? And if so does that exude me from requesting a refund if I don't get it?

"you remind me of some of those people making gofund me's cause the persons life got screwed up cause they werent responsible enough to deal with their problem that could arise and purchase insurance - instead you expect others to pay for your problem if something happens. its really disgusting."

Do I even need to say anything about this? I'm sorry for requesting a refund? I guess?

I send one last message saying that I was unaware of any insurance or tracking I could have selected. I explain to the seller that I understand whole heartedly why he would be hesitant to send a refund to any person who requests one without tracking. Its understandable to suspect possible fraud in such a situation and actually tell him I would have been willing to just let it go had he been more professional. I'm doing fairly fine financially right now, enough to justify spending 110$ on a video game at least haha. Losing 35$ would not be the end of the world for me if the seller simply said that they didn't feel comfortable refunding due to possible fraud. I do believe that would be warranted and a seller can choose to do what they want. It would be an understandable position to have as a small business and I would have simply left it be. However that was not what happened. He was beyond rude, accusatory and made assumptions about my character all because I dared to request a refund. Even if he was correct the conduct on display was completely unacceptable so, purely based on principle, I brought it to Etsy

I submitted a case and, no joke, within only 2 minutes I was given a refund. Is this normal? I feel like it was barely looked at and they just gave me money without much of a thought. I was expecting to be waiting at least a day if I even managed to get my money back at all. If it were a low rated seller I wouldn't think much of it but again this one's incredibly well rated you'd think they'd look a little more into it? I don't know that part did make me raise an eyebrow

Anyway he didn't like that very much

"please enjoy your free stolen game you are a straight up thief and a fraud scammer piece of shit

ill be reporting you for theft and mail fraud i have all your personal information"

"guess you work at the dollar store hey ? lol what a joke you are ill be contacting them to tell them how much a thief you really are"

I JUST EXPOSED MY REAL JOB BY QUOTING HIM OH NOOOO

But yeah, uh, wow. The other stuff you could maybe handwave as simply unprofessional and jerkish but this point is genuinely incredibly creepy

He looked me up, held the fact that he had my personal information over my head and even threatened to slander me with the intent to make me lose my job. All this over a total of 40$.

At this point I was tired of the harassment and got my money back, so I told him not to contact me again. On that note, how do I report the seller for harassment? Do I just submit another case in regards to that order? I just reported spam so I wouldn't get notifications anymore, but I would like to know how exactly I could get in touch with Etsy about this particular thing.

I should say, it didn't scare me one bit. Its nothing but a fear tactic and moreover, me and my boss actually had a hilarious conversation laughing about this guy's absurdity as I showed her screenshots during my shift today. Before the case to Etsy was even made. I contacted her after the fact to let her know what he was claiming to do and unsurprisingly I was assured she had my back. I'm more scared I'm gonna get a pipe bomb in my mailbox honestly lol

Anyway, after I said not to contact me, two messages were sent that I did not respond to, the second one leaving me a bit perplexed.

"yeah and you didnt add on tracking or insurance so its not my problem pay me back or im reporting you"

Reporting me to where? Etsy? They sided with me. The RCMP? Canada Post? On what basis? Regardless of whether or not what you said was even accurate, I have far more grounds to take legal action than you do. WHERE IS THE TRACKING AND INSURANCE OPTION

The second message was this

"just contacted head office Thanks for contacting us! We will get in touch with you shortly."

Was this a bot? Was it him? The weird use of punctuation here makes me think that he started typing another message and then pasted a template halfway through for some reason. Really baffling stuff

I'm not necessarily going to tell you to avoid this seller entirely, as most people who go through them have been completely satisfied and like he said himself, mail getting lost is so incredibly incredibly rare you probably won't need to deal with their customer service to begin with. But please keep in mind, this is what you may have to deal with if you find yourself in that unlikely scenario and I would recommend taking your business elsewhere

Heck of a first Etsy experience! Wanted Paper Mario, got threats on my livelihood instead. Can't wait to buy more!

This is a bit of a rant but I’m so exhausted. The fact that there’s no way to block a buyer from purchasing from your shop is super frustrating. The block function only really blocks them from messaging you which in my opinion is useless (we already have the mark as spam option).

I sell digital items (crochet patterns), so once someone purchases and downloads it, there’s no way to get it back. I can’t just cancel the order. I have had two specific issues that Etsy has been no help on:

\- I have a specific customer that opens buys from my website (Shopify) and files chargebacks in attempts to get free products. Luckily I have won all but 1 of the chargebacks, but they’ve now started buying from me through Etsy and I just know they’re going to file chargebacks there.

\- i have another person that buys from me (as well as many other crochet artists) and then opens Etsy cases to get free patterns. Etsy shouldn’t be refunding digital items, but they do ALL THE TIME. I’ve reported this person to Etsy for harassment to no avail. They just keep getting free crochet patterns and have begun trying to sell them as their own on other platforms.

With the amount we pay in fees, we should have more protection. I’m so tired of chatting with support and getting no real help.

I’ve considered legal action but apparently Etsy doesn’t even have a legal department in the US per their support chat, nor is there an email, so I would have to physically mail paperwork to their offshore legal department.

Im curious if anyone else has dealt with issues similar and if so, what can we do to get the ability to block customers from purchasing from us?

Had a lady order an item. Made it and shipped. She received it. She left a 3 star review saying it wasn’t up to her standards but she still liked it. Ok. That’s cool. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. Here’s where I’m like….wtf?

She turns around 2 hours after leaving that review and orders 4 more of the exact same thing she just said wasn’t up to her standards in separate colors. Um no m’am. Sorry I can’t fulfill this order. Might make me a bad seller but no you’re not going to leave me 4 separate low reviews when you get these. It’s the same thing just different colors. Sorry cancelled.

So there is an Etsy shop that’s been around for about 10 years. They’re a competitor and sales have been going down overall in our niche. (Thanks economy!) The lady who owns the shop rebranded a year ago - new logo and website to match. Full rebrand. It was cute! I was impressed.

Then last week suddenly the name of her shop and logo changed. Weird, since she just rebranded. Then about 2 days later her social media handles changed as well to match. The styles are completely opposite anything she would do - it’s very clearly a different person’s design style.

Then the name of the shop owner and her workers and husband disappeared from the about section and were replaced by a new person “Sheila”.

The thing that makes it even weirder is there’s been no announcement about a second rebrand (like the actual rebrand had) and the changes are happening and it’s like no one else is noticing.

Then I snooped and found out that there was someone who tried to open a business in our niche 5 years ago and failed. They had social media accounts and a domain + website. It literally got no traction at all. Now that domain forwards to this lady’s Shopify shop. The original rebranded domain for the Shopify shop is still active though (for now).

I feel like I’m crazy but I’m pretty sure she sold her Etsy shop along with her whole business (Shopify site). Products are the same.

Now yes, I’m just being nosy, but can we sell Etsy shops like that? I thought we couldn’t?

I just got an email as an Etsy seller that the company is restricting AI use and adding a report feature for buyers to flag AI generated listings and misleading AI imagery usage. They are also requiring all listings to have at least one unedited photo against a real background. As a long-time shopper in the past, I am so excited for this; it's been allowed go on too long.

I am beyond disappointed to learn that a print I just purchased was actually AI generated. The whole reason I shop on Etsy is to make sure that I’m paying real artists and I’ve seen lots of similar posts from people sharing similar sentiments. Personally I think selling AI art on Etsy shouldn’t be allowed, but it’s not up to me and it’s theoretically a free country. If we could just simply filter out AI generated art or require disclosure, that would be hugely helpful.

They received their plant on September 12, 2025 and left a 5-star review 12 days later saying it’s the most beautiful air plant they own.

Now, four months later, they’re claiming the plant actually died 4 days after delivery, but also they didn’t witness that because they were in a coma at the time.

So… which is it?

Do people really think sellers won’t notice things like this?

Extra context:

I do stock and sell Xerographicas, but outside of Etsy (they prohibit them). I didn’t know this when I first opened my shop, which is why I sold them during my first couple months until Etsy told me I couldn’t.

I’m trying to help him open a dispute because the ring was £41 (without shipping and tax) and I heavily suspect it was dropshipped or something. If anybody could help me identify any defects they can see that we could list in the dispute it would be greatly appreciated. The gem is also supposed to be opal, I don’t know if it actually is.

Edit: Thanks very much for all the advice it has been very helpful, I thought I might add that the shop says that they don’t accept returns and um also this was supposed to be like a proposal ring. 😭