Hey guys, so for context; I’m about to open a new POD shop after spending months creating all original artwork & designs that I’m actually really proud of & excited about. My plan is really to build more of a brand here not just sell basic POD slop. But because I’m doing POD, & because I just learned about payment holds for new sellers, now I’m really starting to question how that might effect cash flow…

I actually used to have a different Etsy shop a few years ago too, but payment reserves & holds weren’t a thing yet back then so it was never a problem. I naively was assuming not much had changed since & completely neglected to factor these new policies into consideration before trying to open another new shop.

I also had previously heard of Etsy doing payment reserves now, but apparently I’ve also been confusing payment “reserves” for payment deposit “holds” assuming they were the same thing. Although, I now know that’s not technically the case.

Evidently, it seems as if a payment “reserve” is when Etsy withholds usually approx 30% of revenue from a sale until shipping can be validated in most cases. However, a payment “hold” on the other hand is when Etsy prevents one from depositing any funds into their account at all for a certain set amount of time? Correct me if I’m still wrong, but that’s my understanding as I know it to be now.

Of course new shops especially are subject to both of these for at least the first 14 days if not longer. I get this is considered to be a “probationary period”. Yet then I read that some sellers claim they don’t even see ANY of their earnings at all for up to the first 3-6 months of being open entirely!? Which is rather highly concerning if so.

Now I get that Etsy does this to help weed out scammers. And honestly the 30% payment reserves I can totally reason with until shipment tracking can be confirmed for orders. But Etsy gatekeeping ALL of your money with payment holds for any longer than 2 weeks just seems criminal to me!? Like am I missing something here? Idk

That said, how are yall dealing with cash flow? Especially POD sellers? How do you even get started at that rate to begin with?

For example; I recently came across this other POD tshirt shop. And despite them only being open for about 3 months now, they already have 1K in sales! At first I was thinking total GOALS. But now I’m not so sure…
If we do some brief math idk how the heck they’re affording the capital?
Like for instance; let’s round & say they’re selling each item for about $30 including shipping. Then let’s assume their profit could be maybe $10 per order (for the sake of easy math.) Hence, their expense & cost for each order they pay is $20. Therefore, if you multiply $20 by 1000 then that’s $20K dollars they have already had to pay their printing partner in only 3 months!? Which is total insanity to me especially if they haven’t even possibly seen a dime from any of it assuming Etsy is still withholding all their funds/ revenue for being a “new” shop. But I’m not positive.

Obviously, there’s no way to know for certain tho how much Etsy may or may not still be withholding or reserving from their sales without asking that particular seller directly. But maybe they’re on this Sub & can chime in too lol I know I’ve seen some other people mention that if you achieve “Star Seller” status sooner then Etsy might make your probationary period shorter & withhold less? But the seller im referring to did not appear to have “Star Seller” status yet anyway.

Which begs the question; How are they affording their success? How are they affording to pay the printing company they’re using? I know they’ll get all that money back eventually, but still. How does one manage in the meantime if some shops really can’t access any deposits for the first few months? Unless, I guess, you have an insanely high limit on your credit card or you secure a small business loan or something.

Look, I know for a lot of shops it’s probably a non issue anyhow if you aren’t getting a ton of sales right out of the gate regardless. But what if you do? Shouldn’t that be the goal? How do you plan for that? Or do a lot of you guys just wait to even really start actively advertising until after your “probationary” period is up?

Maybe these are dumb questions, & I’m probably still missing something here, but a lot has changed since I last had a storefront on Etsy & any feedback is super appreciated!
(Sorry for the long post.)

TLDR: How are new sellers (particularly POD sellers) affording the capital to pay for their expenses (or to pay their printing partners) if Etsy is gatekeeping all of your earnings to start? Especially if one is getting a lot of initial orders? How long did Etsy instill these payment “reserves” & account deposit “holds” on you? How long did this “probationary period” last for your shop? How did you manage cash flow in the meantime?

long story short, I'd wanted a feux leather jacket for when I watch avengers doomsday in theaters this december so I did some digging until I found one I'd liked enough. seller had plenty of products and plenty of reviews so I'd figured why not, clearly not their images used on the sales itself but the reviews had actual jackets and legit responses rather than those you'd find from someone who just generates reviews.

reasonably they'd be busy during the halloween season, so they let me know they were currently busy and I confirmed the measurements they sent were correct. yesterday a shipping label was created (not yet shipped) as well only to open my emails today to:

"It looks like you recently purchased an item from TheMoviesJackets. Unfortunately, this shop isn't selling on Etsy anymore, so there may be an issue with your order (#______)

To get help, open a case with Etsy and we'll step in right away. Keep in mind: With Etsy's Purchase Protection program, you'll receive a full refund if your order never arrives, arrives damaged, or isn't as described."

I was just wondering if this meant A. it was etsy or the seller themselves who closed shop and B. if there's still any chance I can get said jacket 😭 with the shop closed but label created, would that mean they'd still be able to ship it out?

by the sounds of the email, it seems like I can still get it, but I just wanted 2nd opinions before jumping the gun to opening a case if shipping doesn't update (which is not what I'd prefer to do unless there isn't any updates on the shipping info within a reasonable time window, given the holiday week as well)

Has anyone successfully moved to another platform or website and closed Etsy? I know Etsy is a powerful platform but I am getting exhausted of keeping up with all the seller changes, fees, and constantly different answers from support. But I don’t know if it’s actually feasible to move away from Etsy altogether.

i found this cute sweatshirt on etsy that i thought would be cute to wear to my book club but it looks like it’s a new store and they don’t have reviews. do we think it’s safe to order from there? does etsy give any protections to consumers?

I need help please. I have a personalized order that I shipped on time, to the address provided by customer at checkout. The order was returned to sender for invalid address. Turns out, she forgot to put her apt #. The order is for $413 so even under buyer protection- only $250 would be covered 😭 I have and will continue to try to help her with her delivery but she needs her order by Nov 1st. The package keeps showing as trying to redeliver and hasn’t been delivered nor sent back to me.
The post office said to file a tracker to see if it can help get the package back on route, have her contact her local post office (we’ve done that too).

These were personalized party favors with her kids name and face. I can not resell them. What can I do? I don’t feel it’s fair that I will have to refund her when I spent days creating her items, $ on product, etc.

I did reach out to customer service but can’t seem to get a straight answer as to what will happen next 😩

Hello all. Earlier this month I purchased an item from a seller for a costume party that had an original delivery date of 22-29. This delivery date was the only reason I purchased it. On the 21st I received a message from the seller saying it would now arrive sometime between November 3-10. I immediately asked for the order to be cancelled and a refund to be issued.

The item on the page said that returns were accepted within 14 days so I thought this would be a simple matter but the seller is now refusing my request, making excuses and being generally unpleasant about the whole situation. I've been firm that I want my refund but they are not budging.

I think its pretty clear cut that I have grounds to escalate this to Etsy Support but this is my first time buying something from the site and wanted to check with y'all first before possibly wasting my time.

To make a long story short, I'm hoping to re-create the vampire mug to the left in the photo here, or at least to create a ceramic vampire mug that will complement the two surviving Halloween mugs that were gifted to my siblings and I over twenty years ago. I was recently told to check out sellers on Etsy, so I figured it couldn't hurt to make a post here and see if anyone has any recommendations. Thanks in advance!

I've had my (buyer only) Etsy account since 2019 or so, and I've only made a handful of relatively small purchases over the years. Recently, I made a few purchases after moving to a new place: several posters and a rug (a few days later, separate from the poster purchases.) The posters were purchased, processed, and received just fine, but the rug purchase attempt has effectively bricked my Etsy account altogether.

As a general rule, I tend to use VPNs on my devices, and unfortunately, I believe I just so happened to have my phone's VPN on for the rug purchase. After ~4 days of checking my Etsy app to confirm the rug order had finally moved from Payment Processing to literally any other status, I got curious and logged onto the PC browser version only to find the order was apparently cancelled the same day I made it. I decided to make a smaller purchase to confirm there was no issue with the seller, and my suspicions were eventually confirmed through Etsy itself.

Long story short, after about a week of Etsy's support giving me the runaround, their Trust and Safety team confirmed my account had been suspended (without notice) due to suspected fraud/security issues. After answering their questions, they confirmed my suspension was in error, stated they had lifted the suspension, allowing me to use Etsy again as intended.

Well, I did that... only for the order to be immediately cancelled.

I responded to the Trust & Safety team email again, explaining that it appeared my account was still suspended despite their confirmation. Again, they replied with a near identical message explaining that the suspension was in error, had been lifted, and recommended I attempt the purchase. I attempted to make the smaller purchase again, only for the same outcome... with an identical response when I reached back out for assistance. Again, they apologized with the same canned message, stating my account's suspension had been lifted, and that I should try again.

Their last two emails were clear copies and pastes of their prior response given they mistakenly duplicated their signature and the "Hi there" portion of their emails. It seems Etsy is entirely unconcerned with actually addressing the apparent issue with my account.

At this point, what do I do? Is making a new Etsy account the only way I can actually purchase anything? It's been three weeks, and this might just be the worst customer service experience I've ever had with an online order.