I’ve also noticed that the sponsored ads (paid for by shop owners) have been tagged by Etsy showing “Similar items that may interest you..” Which leads to checking out other shops, steering them away. BUT if the buyer should purchase anything from your shop–there is that horrible 30 day off-site advertising fee.

Etsy lost their focus on shop owners as their customers as soon as they went public. At least Amazon never even tried to say “You, the seller, are important to us.” It was strictly business for them. (Amazon stock today= $3444.24 per share.) It’s all about the money, baby.

Sadly, while I support your efforts, I don’t think a petition is going to go far with Etsy. Not until a class-action lawsuit hits them.

I wonder if it will take as long for Etsy to lose tens of thousands of sellers, 5% of their entire buyer base and worse. Or will they see the light and realize that like eBay and others, they’re nothing without their sellers.

Ebay has for over a decade completely ignored their sellers, only now casting out a carrot to them by arranging a “Buyer Abuse” panel, as if hearing the same issues they’ve heard about before will improve the problem. It won’t, of course, but it’s intended to make sellers think there WILL be improvements, so they stick around for more abuse!