Etsy Reviews 19,867

Etsy have scammed me out of £170 which I paid for a suit of cosplay armour for my teenager, only to find out days after I made the purchase that I need to pay another £48 in customs fees, which I don't have. I will now not only not receive the product, the vendor will not refund the money so I've spent £170 on nothing. My teenager is autistic and doesn't really understand why his birthday money is gone but he's nothing to show for it. I'll never ever use Etsy again, lying thieving scammers.

Why doesn't Etsy realize that all they have to do to get great reviews and a great reputation is make some sales!!! They purposely kill sales for their sellers and then they get horrible reviews!

I ordered an expensive perfume and waited two months...never got my paid...order.
This was last year. I will not order from them... again.

They sold me a fake leather holster and belt that turned out to be Leather Veneer. I wanted a refund. They won't return my Emails. Very Terrible Company

Very disappointing experience. I purchased 2 dresses and my money was held for over 20 days with no response from the seller despite sending multiple emails. I bought these for a wedding and was left waiting and disappointed. I only received a refund after contacting Etsy support myself. My money was blocked for weeks, there was poor communication, and no compensation for the inconvenience caused. I would not recommend based on my experience.

I've had several orders cancelled here without explanation. Difficulties with sellers. Chatbots for customer service that don't resolve problems. This used to be a great place to connect with talented people and their wonderful products. Now it's a problematic, no guardrails, buyer beware, shake down. I'm sitting with yet another order, charged to my card and nothing shipped, no response. Nothing.

Dont sell on Etsy, new account they hold ur money for 1 month

I purchased over $200.00 worth of stuff in one shot wasn't allowed to read digital downloads, notified Morgana La Fay of the problem repeatedly they closed my accounts refused to fix anything and now won't let me log in at all bad business and treatment

Terrible. They say the account I ordered from is closed. Not true. I ordered as a guest. When I tried to create an account because there was a problem with my order, they said my email already existed. That lethe customer in limbo. Luckily, it was a small purchase. They have lost my business.

Review from a BUYER

I've bought many things via Etsy, and have had almost no problems. But today I wanted to contact Support ("Help"), and was reminded of what others have pointed out: The only way to contact them is via a useless, time-wasting chatbot. (When I thought I was being directed to an email option, I found myself -- incredibly -- staring at the transcript of my one and only "chat" from MANY months ago. A chat that was probably the most idiotic of all my experiences with company bots.) In that exchange, I concluded by insisting that management read the chat, and inviting them to contact me. (I provided my email address.) Hey, guys, anyone want to place a "prediction market" bet as to when, if ever, I'll hear from them? (I'm reminded of a hilarious cartoon: A guy in an office is on the phone at his desk. Caption: "How's never? Does never work for you?")

The reason I wanted help today is that suddenly, there's no longer a way to attach any pictures to messages sent to a seller. But I really decided that I had to submit this, after seeing the shocking number of scathing reviews: many from buyers, but even more from sellers. And then I found the company's "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau. Yikes.

Last but not least: TO ANY BUYERS WHO THINK THEY'VE BEEN RIPPED OFF, AND/OR ARE FRUSTRATED IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO GET A REFUND -- If you don't already know this, here's what you can almost always do, with a purchase made with most major credit cards: find out how to FILE A DISPUTE with the card issuer. Be specific and detailed, providing as much proof as possible. If/when they decide in your favor, they'll issue a "chargeback" . . . a refund to your card account, in an amount grabbed back from the seller.

As a seller... Terrible expereince...
They claim to not have "Hidden fees" while they are literally everywhere... 0.2$ extra fee to "re-list" an item each time it sells (wtf), 6.5% sales fee... then an extra 3% payment processing fee??? a joke... and THEN, 15% MARKETING FEE.
Lets get it straight, Etsy advertises ITS OWN PLATFORM on google/yt/whatever for their own benefit to grow themselve, and then if someone purchases from that ad... the seller has to pay for Etsy's growth... hilarious...
If I could, would give negative 5 stars... but 1 is the lowest.
Many other dumb stuff I just won't bother to even list here... but stay away

My order never came, I doubt if I will get a refund as this company is very very suspect and untrustworthy do not even consider purchasing from ETSY they are incompetant.. stick with a trustworthy company "TEMU"

My order for a Van halen cd was placed 2-3 weeks ago and apparently it was delivered in the US, my mailing address is in Australia thats where I live. I think I've been scammed of $AU63.00. Pissed off, never again 😡😡😡

Sellers, be mindful. This platform heavily sides with buyers to keep them coming back spending money . They don’t care how much time or hard work you put into handmade products. Your Items are at high risk of being refunded if a customer claims “not as described.” I’ve already had multiple refund requests in a short time. Just sharing my experience so others are aware. Also they take a lot of your profit ! I just closed my shop and I’m seeing a huge amount of unexpected fees .. I had to pay before closing .
It’s best if you move away from this platform to save your business so that they want make money off of you .
We are a big threat to this platform especially the small business owners . Customers will leave purposeful complaints that aren’t true to make their side legit . This shop needs better employees and new rules .

Etsy treats their sellers very poorly. We are just money cows for them. They provide horrible customer support, with unqualified agents that stick with emails and send you replies that dont even match the issue. Causing a lot of wasted time dealing with emails back and forath that seem like you are living in a dystopian reality, or that we are not both speaking the same language. Extremely frustrating and disappointing. They have outsourced the customer support and these people are not trained to even understand when a situation is more complex.
They are currently requiring for accounts based in Europe to provide ID verification to match the tax ID. So I have followed the process on their website but because my official ID name does not match my shop name/artist name that I sign my paintings with, they are not accepting my “name change”, even though I am not changing my name. I am just giving them my only ID name that I have had since I was born. I have sent my national ID and in fact I have put my ID through their biometrics camera they have set up on their website and it has been accepted as truthful and compared to my face that I had to run through the same system in three different angles of my face. All verified and completed as correct. Only to later receive emails from support members (Thea first, then Rans) telling me that unfortunately they cannot accept my name change because it doesnt match my ID. Even though it matches my ID, and I have sent photos of my ID in my email replies for them to see it does match. It has to match! I only have one ID, one name since i was born. How could it evn not match?
Thea accused me of trying to transfer my account to someone else and if they caught my account had been transfered I would be banned! Insulting reply, instead of resolving the situation.
Rans wrote today asking me to provide one of this: marriage certificate, divorce decree or court order, to prive my name change!! So outrageous.
My name has never changed!! I cannot provide those documents of course because they dont exist. My name has always been this.
The name I sign my paintings, that I am known by as an artist, that my shop is named, is not my tax ID. Etsy is the one asking me to update the account and make sure i give them my tax ID, so they can report my sales to my government. But now they dont accept the “change”. They want to force me to keep my artist name, which is not on my official ID. And i have called twice, been in chats typing this to people who cant seem to follow it, and take very long time to write back, and when they do say things that leave me perplexed because it seems like they disnt even comprehend. Spent hours and hours in these useless chats. The emails are the same. The phone calls refuse to do anything saying I have to keep working with the team that is emailing me.
This is unbearable anymore. And I have given up all this. Etsy is only making money off our backs and make no investment whatsoever in seller support. They probably pay very cheap labor in other countries where they outsource seller support and these people do what they can, but they cant do much. And we are left in this kafkian situation with no solution.
So I will end up deleting my account of several years, with a solid base of followers and hundreds of sales and perfect 5* feedback from buyers.
I see that Etsy cant say the same : they should look at their 1star feedback. Surely they would have zero if that was possible.
Corporation greed always ends this way. The original Etsy concept is dead and gone forever. Greed always takes over. Sadly.

Absolutely terrible experience. This company uses misleading advertising and sells products that do not match their descriptions at all. What is marketed as leather is in fact cheap polyester — completely unacceptable.
I feel completely ripped off. The quality is poor, the listing is deceptive, and the overall experience has been incredibly disappointing. Buyer protection was also ineffective and did not resolve the issue fairly.
I will never purchase from this seller again, and I will never use Etsy again after this experience.
Avoid Pure Leather Items — the name is misleading, and the products are not as advertised. Honestly, they should be called “Pure Polyester Items.”
Save your money and look elsewhere.

I’ve been trying for over two weeks to open a seller shop on Etsy, and the experience has been incredibly frustrating and time-consuming.

The platform is completely blocking me at the identity verification stage. I have submitted my ID and selfie more than 10 times, following all instructions carefully (good lighting, clear image, correct details), yet every attempt is automatically rejected. At this point, it is obvious that the system is stuck in an endless verification loop.

On top of that, there is also a technical issue with the “City” field in the Public Profile. Even when selecting a valid option from the dropdown (e.g., Iasi, Romania), the system throws a validation error and refuses to save the change.

Because of these issues:

I cannot complete identity verification
I cannot proceed to payment setup (card/bank details)
I cannot finish opening my shop

I have contacted support multiple times, but I only receive generic copy-paste responses about name and date of birth, which are completely unrelated to my issue. It feels like no one is actually reviewing my case.

This is not a user error — this is a broken system combined with ineffective support.

At this point, I am completely blocked from using Etsy as a seller. A platform of this size should not have such critical failures in onboarding, nor should it ignore clear technical issues reported by users.

Very disappointing experience.

Scam! Stay away

VintageLabDimond
on Etsy sold me a ring advertised and stamped as 14K gold. After having it tested by a jeweler, it was confirmed to be approximately 10K gold.

The seller initially admitted that I received a 10K ring instead of the 14K ring I paid for. However, instead of resolving the issue properly, they later changed their explanation and refused to issue a full refund.

Although we eventually agreed on a refund, the seller repeatedly delayed the process and claimed that my payment details were incorrect, despite me providing correct information multiple times. They also stated that they had sent money to the wrong person, which they then attempted to blame on me.

In addition, the seller suggested multiple payment methods outside the platform, including PayPal transfers that they claimed repeatedly failed, as well as cryptocurrency. This, combined with the ongoing delays, shifting explanations, and attempts to place responsibility on me, raised serious concerns.

The ring itself also has a visible defect, with one stone set noticeably lower than the others, indicating inconsistent workmanship.

The seller also attempted to claim that this issue does not fall under “warranty” due to the time passed. However, this is not a warranty issue, but a clear case of receiving a product that is not as described!

This situation has been ongoing for an extended period, with repeated excuses, contradictions, and no proper resolution.

Buyers should be very cautious, as my experience raises serious concerns about product authenticity and seller practices.

Product does not match description and photo's

I want to share my full experience here, as my previous review did not reflect what actually happened and how I feel now. As I was pushed to change my review earlier, I still want to reflect what happenend and what the truth is:

This review is about the seller Alex from ArossCreation (United States - Etsy)

I bought 2 items from this seller. A ventilation piece replica from the Titanic (150 euro's? in total?) and a piece of floor of Titanic's first class replica (200 euro's in total) It took month's to arrive and not one single update from the seller? After receiving the items, I was very disappointed. The products were advertised as being made of hars and shown in professional-looking photo's, but what I received was lightweight foam and plastic and painted to look old and rusty. What a scam!

When I opened the package and saw the parts (such as a ventilation piece and flooring), it was immediately clear that the materials and quality did not match the listing and I was not satisfied.

I contacted Alex about this, but instead of addressing the issue, he insisted that plastic and hars are essentially the same, which is simply not accurate. My concerns were not taken seriously.

Considering I paid around €350,- I expected solid and high-quality replica's, as I had bought before. I have a Titanic model made from hars and that is very different material then this plastic. It was bendy. It looks very cool but it's not of good material, breaks easily. Especially the floor made from foam. It's big, it breaks easily. If I had known the actual materials and quality beforehand, I would never have made these purchases.

Initially, I left a negative review based on these 2 experiences. However, Alex contacted me immediately and persistently after I posted it, which made me feel pressured and uncomfortable, that I was wrong and that he used the materials he mentiond. And he even said that plastic and hars are like the same? Like, did he ever checked his own work? You can even bend it! It's cleary plastic. But he kept hasseling me. To avoid further hassle, I changed my review to a more positive one. I now regret that decision, as it does not reflect my honest experience at all! I would never bought this if I had known this before!

I also did not receive a refund, I still don't know why I didn't push for a refund? Maybe he was pushing so hard I got confused. If I had open a case I would go into a discussion I didn't want to get into. Despite the product not matching the description, and the communication made it difficult to resolve the situation. The seller never wanted to resolve my problems. He still sells items made of foam and plastic and sells them as high quality items! I don't understand why Etsy allows things. They just don't care at all. The seller doesn't care. With his arrogant attitude and wouldn't want to help me. I would not buy from ArossCreation on Etsy ever. You pay loads and you get scammed.

I am now correcting my review so that it accurately reflects my experience. Future buyers should be aware that the product may not match the materials or quality presented in the listing.