I’d been hoping to get my shop’s issues resolved, but sadly, it’s looking like my Etsy shop will be down for the long term. I don’t have the fortitude right now to battle with them over it so I’m giving in for now.
The problem started when Etsy sent out communications in late March that they would be closing ALL shops that were on PayPal only unless you were in a country where Etsy payments was available. This was obviously devastating for shops in countries where Etsy payments are unavailable. But it also affects a small group of shops like mine.
Even though my Etsy shop is registered in Canada, and I should be using Etsy payments, I have a PayPal only storefront. It’s been this way since 2019. At that time, when a seller moved countries, Etsy would quietly put you into PayPal only mode if you contacted them. I didn’t ask for this specifically, but I did reach out after moving to the US to ask what was possible because I was having some cross border banking challenges. This was their solution. They offered it, I accepted.
A couple years later they stopped that practice and adopted a policy of telling such sellers to open a brand new storefront in their new country. But they didn’t apply this retroactively, so I stayed as I was.
The bigger problem arose when Etsy deactivated the option on my dashboard to switch back to Etsy payments should I ever choose to on my own. They did this in 2023 because their bank account verification / suspension bots couldn’t handle this anomaly of PayPal only.
In 2024 I could see where things were headed and at the tail end of dealing with the continued confusion of my account setup I asked if I could just be put back into Etsy payments. I was ignored.
Fast forward to 2025 and after getting the notification that I should enroll in Etsy payments or lose the ability to accept payments after April 30th I of course reached out to them right away. If you’re at all familiar with Etsy’s lack of seller support you already know what happened next. Nothing.
I got nowhere with them. After multiple messages I didn’t even get an opportunity to discuss it with someone. Etsy has basically ghosted me.
To be accurate, they didn’t actually shut my shop down. Very quietly, without any fanfare, my shop no longer had any payment options available. My store was open, my products visible, possibly even showing up in search, but buyers couldn’t pay. I felt like the only thing to do was go into vacation mode.
Who knows what will happen next? Will my store stay like this forever? Are they just short staffed? Is my shop in a queue to be fixed? I have no idea.
Maybe one day I’ll wake up and feel like dealing with this and I’ll reach out to support yet again. It’s just as possible I’ll continue not to care.
I’ve been a seller on Etsy since 2008. My original store still exists in good order. Though I took an extended break from it the last couple years. You can visit that shop here.
One thing is crystal clear to me in this moment. I’m just tired of Etsy.
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