Because of Etsy's insistence on becoming a payment processor, and my non-compliance with this mandatory service change my shop will be SUSPENDED by May 18, 2017. If you're desperate to have an Etsy experience with me before it ends, click here to shop now! To stay in touch, or receive updates about my store you can always stay tuned here, or find me on Instagram:@The.Longshoremans.Daughter or Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TheLongshoremansDaughter.
It's 100% my choice to let the company suspend me, just as it is the company's choice making itself a primary money processor a mandatory stipulation after it realized letting people voluntarily sign up for their "Direct Checkout" program for the last few years has not raked in the results the company was hoping for. Now, it's time for a name change (Etsy Payments or EP) in a sloppy re-branding attempt to grab a piece of the PayPal pie they've been desperate to get their hands on, especially after Etsy stock has been tanking.
I can't justify handing over the volume of personal, and financial information they're asking for to a company that can never even seem to chew gum and clap its hands at the same time. A company that is NOT equipped to handle the support I feel is necessary to be a primary money processor (we already witnessed how they along with then-processor Worldpay bungled a month-long payment outage last summer where Etsy's six-day silence was equal parts business as usual for them + unprofessional-ism of the highest order, if not completely crooked (can we really expect Adyen to be a much better partnership?). And, last but not least, a disturbingly dishonest company that hides behind platitudes, and spin. This is not a company I trust.
Why all the hate? No payment processor is perfect, it's not like PayPal has a glowing reputation. Let's not be completely ridiculous, it's not that I trust PayPal particularly more, it's just that I don't think PayPal necessarily pretends to be anything it's not - Etsy was supposed to be different. It was always supposed to be different, but selling-out kind of has that whole conform-or-die thing going for it. PayPal is its own special circus, for sure, but when the chips are down you can call and get someone on the phone to work it out ... meanwhile, Etsy has proven time and again that it is completely inept at customer support (the snotty-intern attitude, and mentality adopted by the "team" it employs being the cherry on top), and while most money processors have the same type of sensitive material on file, I prefer having mine in as few places as possible. So, thems the breaks.
I think it's safe to say, Etsy will miss me about as much as I'll miss it. If there was any love here to be lost, it crashed faster than Etsy's share prices after its IPO announcement.
*Update May 17, 2017*
Email from Etsy (May 16th):
 |
| How generous. |
