Etsy Sold its Soul - and its Handmade Ethos - to Corporate Greed
I won’t bury the lede here: Etsy, the e-commerce website launched in 2005, promising unique handcrafted and vintage items from aspiring artists and small sellers, has caved: it’s betrayed its principles, sold its soul. However you want to say it, Etsy and its mission of giving an platform to honest and aspiring crafters and artists, and a fair deal to consumers, have left the building.
Etsy has been embroiled in problems and reports of sketchy practices from the get-go. The company has been accused in court of permitting trademark and copyright infringement among its sellers, as well as apathy, and corporate fraud. The once small start-up with a great vision for indie crafters pretty quickly blossomed into a problem-ridden interest with shady management practices.
But it was the company’s 2013 decision to permit factory-made goods on its website that forced its soul to leave its body. It was then that Etsy suggested – incredibly - that the meaning of the word ‘handmade’ should include ‘factory made’. The company threw open its doors to mass producers, and that ushered in the beginning of the end.
It was a classic boneheaded, greed-driven corporate decision, and a tragic mistake.
But let me give you something better as evidence than Etsy’s sketchy history or information about its mismanagement that anyone can easily find online. From a consumer’s standpoint, I can bear testimony to the decline of Etsy.
As of today, May 16, 2018, I have one open case against an overseas Etsy seller, who took my money some time ago and never delivered the product. Two days ago, another case I had against an Etsy seller was closed, after the seller – some nondescript entity in Thailand - took my payment, and sent nothing. I’m expecting a refund, and even though Etsy has closed the case, I consider the case wide open until that money finds its way back into my bank account.
That’s two open cases I've had going at once this month alone. And these are not the first cases I’ve had to open against deviant Etsy sellers. On top of the two cases I had open this month alone, I’m about to open another against a California-based seller who sold me an item that was so far off from the online description that it’s positively laughable.
I also discovered that this seller is a mass producer, not a small-overhead artist. I’m doing a little more evidence gathering before that case is opened. And on top of all that, I recently received an item that simply doesn’t work as described. I’m in a conversation with that seller, who so far is reluctant to do anything about it. This may end up being yet another case. It's madness.
Just this morning, I tried to put on a pair of ‘handcrafted’ Etsy seller earrings when one earring simply fell apart in my hand. This very same earring has broken and been replaced no less than two times before by this seller. This time, I just tossed the earrings in the trash. Enough.
You see where I’m going with this? Forget for a moment reports about Etsy’s mismanagement, layoffs, court cases, revolving CEOs, and investor fraud – all of which are disturbing, but irrelevant to me as a consumer as long as my shopping experiences with them are good
But my shopping experiences with Etsy are not good – they’re really bad. And I can point at the calendar to show you when things began to nosedive – right around 2013, when Etsy waved in factory-made, mass-produced, overseas merchandise, while very casually selling its soul.
Robert Kalin, one of Etsy’s creators (who in 2011 was fired after a brawl with Etsy’s CTO Chad Dickerson), was once asked how he chose the name ‘Etsy’ for his new enterprise. Kalin explained that he had been watching Fellini’s film ‘8’, and the Italian word ‘etsi’ buzzed in his ear. After finding out that ‘etsi’, translated to English, means ’oh, yes’, he knew he had his new company’s name.
Thirteen years later, and ‘oh, yes’ has become ‘oh, no’. No, no, no. Once my cases with Etsy have been resolved, I’m closing my account with this sell-out company.
Barbie xo
