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I’ve been selling silver jewelry on Etsy for almost 5 years. I personally handcraft all my products from scratch. My listings don’t contain any brand names, character names, or celebrity names — and they’re not any kind of fan art.
I personally handcraft all my products from scratch.
In the “Core Details” section, I selected:
Who made it? – I did
What is it? – A finished product
How does your shop produce this item? – It’s made from scratch
What tools are used to make this item? – Handheld or hand-guided tools
When these settings were first introduced about a year ago, my listings displayed **“Made by MY SHOP NAME”** based on the information I provided above — which, according to Etsy’s *Creative Standards* article, was the correct label — and it stayed that way for a long time.
However, last night one of my listings was removed for allegedly not complying with Etsy’s Creative Standards. While reviewing the issue, I noticed that all of my listings had changed to **“Designed by MY SHOP NAME”**, even though I haven’t modified anything in the settings.
When I asked about this in live chat, I was told:
“Your listing was flagged by our automated system for a quality review of the ‘How it’s Made’ label. These labels are assigned automatically based on your listing info that the seller provided and OTHER SHOP SIGNALS."
When I requested an official source explaining what “other shop signals” means and in which Etsy article this information appears, none of the three live chat agents I spoke to were able to provide a reference. (The last one, I think, took it personally and left the chat open so I couldn’t start a new one — I’m currently unable to begin a new live chat because the previous one remains active.I’ve been selling on Etsy for 5 years, and whenever I have a disagreement with a live chat representative where they turn out to be wrong, this same thing happens: the representative leaves the chat open without closing it, preventing me from rating the chat as good or bad and from starting a new one.)
In the newly introduced **Policy Violations** section, I saw that my product image was matched with photos from an Amazon store. That seller had stolen my photos, and according to their customer reviews — complete with photos — they don’t even send the same item shown in those pictures, receiving multiple 1-star reviews for it.
I’m planning to appeal the removal, but from what I can tell, the system clearly misclassified my listings as “Designed by” instead of “Made by.”
Has anyone experienced a similar situation before?
Has anyone had a listing removed and successfully appealed it through the new Policy Violations menu?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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