Etsy

I closed my Etsy shop - they treat their sellers like cr@p. You can be muted or even kicked off if you complain about their policies. Do NOT sign up with your regular email - they are now partnering with Facebook and mining personal data at full speed.

Oh, and while there are still many talented sellers on there making beautiful things by hand, the site is now over run by fake "handmade" stuff from overseas factories. Etsy makes a lot of money off these fakes, so they are largely ignored even though they are breaking Etsy TOU.

Buyers beware!

I heart etsy! My home would look so bleh without it. You could buy anything from artwork to jewelry to baby clothes there. Very easy to use site, many features other shopping sites don't have such as ability to search for local sellers and ways to request custom items in the alchemy section. Etsy sellers are not your typical seller. They have super communication skills and are willing to go out of their way to make you satisfied. I usually get hand written notes and free samples when my purchase arrives. I love this site so much, I got inspired to start my own store on etsy and found an incredible amount of resources to help me get started and start selling.

Bought boots from a merchant in brisbane australia (victoria is her name and is just as stupid as etsy customer service people) boots were not described properlyand could not wear them. Return was ok, except they want me to pay for shipping, which would have cost me 70 dollars to return 114 dollar boots. 6 weeks I dealt with the merchant and etsy. They never once said anything about my complaints about the return costs. This victoria just kept raving on about how no one has ever had a problem with her merchandise. Etsy also ignored all my questions, always dancing around the only issue I had with them.In the end, etsy resolve team did absolutely nothing but waste 6 weeks of my time. I will never look at this site again. And beware of merchants from outside the USA. Nina H

This is a hard one to review because shipping, pricing, items, are all the sellers doing, not the site.
So with that said, the site ETSY.COM itself is rather user friendly (until you get to paying). The shopping cart feature is nice to store stuff so you can keep shopping instead of doing 500 one-off purchases, you can come back and go through what you've added and remove what you don't need (or when your husband puts a limit to how many Doctor Who pillows or prints you need).
Four stars for the site because at checkout, if you are using paypal, it will not allow you to toggle between your payment menthods easily. It's an additional 10 steps which gets super annoying.

I wish they offered some type of etsy.com rewards program for buyers to get points or discounts, but they dont.

Worst online marketplace ever! Not only are the items ridiculously overpriced but Etsy is run by complete morons. Customer service is non-existent. And sellers also need to avoid this site at all costs. There are numerous horror stories out there about people having their shops suspended even after complying with Etsy's Intengrity Team's intrusive requests for sellers to disclose their trade secrets then having their items reproduced. Etsy also rips seller's off with listing fees as they don't refund them even if they suspend a seller's account. Tons of sellers are leaving this site because of Etsy's harassment and also their lapses in privacy such as disclosing sellers' full names on promotional e-mails instead of their shop name. It won't be long before Etsy is shut down for their shady business practices. Forcing out the people that keep Etsy up and running is a sure way of ensuring that this site will never be a successful marketplace.

I purchased stained glass from karenmiles who struck me at first as very helpful... until the product did not arrive. After calling, emailing, trying to get any indication at all, it is six months and I figure it must all be some sort of con. I would NEVER use this site again. As one reviewer put it, you are on your own if your seller simply disappears as happened to me. I should have never trusted her since she just kept the money and because she kept delaying and delaying (perhaps on purpose) it was long past the period where one can even post a review. Stay away from karenmiles and the etsy or buy at your own risk. It is really disappointing that people pretend to be professionals like this and then act like criminals.

This site has gone past the dogs and straight into the sewers. I was on it for over a year, made my payments on time and sold original merchandise that people enjoyed. Then, a Domo plush I made for myself got mixed in by accident and boom, account is gone. There's no customer service number so you're forced to wait for automated emails that may or may not have been sent from a real person, and there's no way to speak to ANYONE from their company about issues you could be entirely innocent of. You could be selling the most original artwork ever conceived and they'll still find a way to suspend you. Not worth it, guys. Avoid etsy like the plague. Go to BigCartel, Storeenvy, eBay, Amazon, whatever, just stay away from etsy.

After around 6 emails with the seller they agreed to reimburse me for the item once they received it, but not the shipping cost. Turns out the seller is from London UK. Post office quote to return the item was 40 something dollars and around 100 at the ups. Not worth sending back a 20 dollar item that I assumed was the correct one just by looking at the picture. If it was Amazon, they would of refunded everything. But why are these items coming from overseas with out us knowing? Why are they selling from overseas when this item can be found in the USA. Making it more expensive for us to return, so we get stuck with an item that does not meet our needs. 2nd item I bought from Etsy with problems on both, so I closed my Etsy account. No more inconsistent descriptions and charges. If I can't find it in the USA, I don't need it. But I'm sure I will not have that problem with AMAZON. Don't waist your money...

I placed my order for Barney invites April 10th. About for days later I contacted the maker via email and asked when my order would be ready. At that time she said " will be sending via email shortly". Well shorty to me is like a few hours but here I am going on day 7 with no invites and two emails unanswered? The money has already been taken out of my bank account so I'm confused as to what's taking so long considering it's a digital file? I'm not a very happy camper as I still have to print out invites and send!

Furniture purchase from an Etsy seller called the WoodworkerUK
Nothing but a nightmare and Etsy are so unsupportive of customers backing their dubious sellers instead. This was a £928 transaction
The review I posted on Etsy says it all.
"Despite me providing exact measurements, this furniture arrived far too big for the space I had specified. I had been promised that the benches would slide under the table but they don't as they are the same length as the table. Bespoke? No not at all. To add to the issue both benches have significant lateral movement This has become by far the worst purchase I have made ever in my life. It was to be used for a unique family event at Easter and now that is ruined. The after sales support has been woeful with no replies for days now from Mr Jones - he doesn't seem to care."