Mere hours after our #EtsyMustPay campaign went live across social media, and Etsy’s Payment Reserves made major headlines in the UK, Etsy made an announcement saying they were drastically changing their policy:
- Making reserves more dynamic. For the vast majority of sellers, we are substantially decreasing the percentage of funds we currently hold in reserve.
- Improving communications to sellers who are newly placed in reserves to help them understand our logic and how to get their funds released earlier.
- Making adjustments for issues that are beyond sellers’ control. We are aware that there are limited options for low-cost, tracked shipping services in the UK and other markets. We will be adjusting our criteria and making accommodations so that sellers can still have their funds released quickly.
We are waiting to see how these changes will be implemented – whether they will really solve the problems caused by Payment Reserves, or if they’re just an attempt to quell the public outrage that’s rapidly forming as the world learns what Etsy has been doing to its sellers.
For sellers whose credit is in shambles, who are thousands of dollars in debt, these changes announced by Etsy are not enough.
People can’t get back the money they paid in interest, in bank overdraft fees, in credit card late fees, when Etsy’s Payment Reserves policy put them thousands in the hole with no explanation and no recourse. People can’t get back the hours they spent begging customer support for relief, only to hear unhelpful platitudes. People can’t get back the customers they had to turn away when they couldn’t fill orders due to Etsy’s refusal to pass customer payments on to their sellers.
The incredible public pressure campaign wrought by this international movement of Etsy Sellers did bring about change, but even if that change fixes every problem with Payment Reserves, it won’t make things right for so many sellers victimized by Etsy’s corporate greed.
Are you one of these sellers?
We’re starting a campaign to share the stories of sellers like you with our thousands of followers on social media. You can share your story while remaining completely anonymous. We ask for a first name in the form below, but if you’re worried that Etsy might retaliate by shutting down your shop (as many sellers are) feel free to use a pseudonym.
If you haven’t yet signed our petition telling Etsy to “Pay your makers NOW”, please do so! We will use the email you provide to us when you sign to send updates on our fight. Our petition is designed to help us organize an action to get this covered in the news, worldwide. You’ll notice, if you check the options to indicate that you are a seller who Etsy put on a payment reserve, we’ll also ask you if you want to speak out, and if you’re in the US, we’ll ask which US state you live in.
We know from experience that when movements like this get large, journalists will reach out asking to be connected with sellers local to them. We want to make sure we can do that, which is why we ask for location information from sellers willing to do interviews. Every journalist we’ve ever worked with has been happy to keep sellers anonymous on request – they’ll say that you’re “An Etsy Seller from (your city)”, but they won’t share your face or name or shop information.
Starting this week, we will create images like the ones below, to share stories from sellers like you:
Follow us on the social media of your choice (Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) to see the stories people share with us.
We chose the hashtag #EtsyMustPay for this campaign – and it’s still tragically appropriate. The damage wrought to the creative small businesses – to the livelihoods – of so many people is something for which Etsy still absolutely refuses to pay.
If you know anyone hurt by Etsy’s Payment Reserves policy, please share this post with them!
#EtsyMustPay.
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