Etsy Seller Store Disappearing?

Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this, this seemed closest to what I was looking for.

Basically I made an order from MVStudioBJD on Etsy on June 9th and it hasn't been shipped yet. The seller has maintained regular communication with me and has been responsive about delays (they say are due to COVID) but the store or any of the items they carried no longer come up when searched for in Etsy, even when I click the links for their store or the item I bought in my purchase history. It kind of makes me worry that they're trying to pull a fast one because I don't see any reason to remove the store from Etsy (if that's how that works.)

I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences or what they suggest I should do? I want to give them the benefit of the doubt but I'd love a second opinion.

If they deleted/closed their shop and you have no way to contact them any longer, I'd file a paypal dispute because you have no way of knowing if they intend to send you your purchase. If the seller did send it, you could either reject the package so it gets returned to the seller or just send the seller the amount for your order. The fact that they just deleted their shop rather than make a post stating they are taking a break from orders is a red flag to me.

14 minutes ago, Deyja said:

If they deleted/closed their shop and you have no way to contact them any longer, I'd file a paypal dispute because you have no way of knowing if they intend to send you your purchase. If the seller did send it, you could either reject the package so it gets returned to the seller or just send the seller the amount for your order. The fact that they just deleted their shop rather than make a post stating they are taking a break from orders is a red flag to me.

I still have a way to contact them, but I've been getting the "waiting for your clothes to leave the warehouse" thing since the 4th. I contacted them on the 10th, and they got back to me on the 14th with the "waiting on warehouse" thing, and most recently they contacted me first on the 22nd saying ""Hi, update the item has not left the warehouse yet. We are trying to contact them. I will update you soon. Sorry for the delay. This pandemic has been really a hassle 😿"

I just don't exactly know what to think at this point.

Also, question, I made the purchase on June 9th originally, would I still be able to open a paypal dispute at this point if it comes to it?

 

5 minutes ago, watercolorpastels said:

I still have a way to contact them, but I've been getting the "waiting for your clothes to leave the warehouse" thing since the 4th. I contacted them on the 10th, and they got back to me on the 14th with the "waiting on warehouse" thing, and most recently they contacted me first on the 22nd saying ""Hi, update the item has not left the warehouse yet. We are trying to contact them. I will update you soon. Sorry for the delay. This pandemic has been really a hassle 😿"

I just don't exactly know what to think at this point.

Also, question, I made the purchase on June 9th originally, would I still be able to open a paypal dispute at this point if it comes to it?

 

You have 180 days from the date of purchase to open a dispute, so you'd be okay for awhile. Honestly if it were me, I'd ask for a refund at this point mainly because of them closing their shop. That just seems suspicious. I had an issue with an etsy seller and waited 3 months for my order even though I paid for EMS. They didn't close their shop though. It's entirely up to you. I'd be cautious that the seller didn't have the item(s) you are trying to purchase in their possession to begin with. Sorry you are going through this. International shipping everywhere is certainly a nightmare, but I'd also be very aware of potential scams.

1 minute ago, Deyja said:

You have 180 days from the date of purchase to open a dispute, so you'd be okay for awhile. Honestly if it were me, I'd ask for a refund at this point mainly because of them closing their shop. That just seems suspicious. I had an issue with an etsy seller and waited 3 months for my order even though I paid for EMS. They didn't close their shop though. It's entirely up to you. I'd be cautious that the seller didn't have the item(s) you are trying to purchase in their possession to begin with. Sorry you are going through this. International shipping everywhere is certainly a nightmare, but I'd also be very aware of potential scams.

Yeah, for sure, and thank you, I really appreciate the advice. If this was just some store I bought from I'd never heard of before I'd probably ask for a refund now, but with it being M+V I look at how they've had a successful taobao store and are listed in alice collections and it makes me reconsider. I kind of wonder if this was even an officially made M+V store at this point honestly, it's crossed my mind that it might just be someone trying to make a quick buck by hijacking their name on etsy for a bit.

I sent them a message asking about the store closure and mentioned how suspicious it comes across as, and hopefully they have a good answer. If they don't have a solid explanation for why they did that I'm going to be asking for a refund and potentially getting etsy and paypal involved.

No problem, only happy to help! And I agree, I don't want to take money away from etsy sellers especially during a time like this but you still need to protect yourself. I hope everything works out!

Sorry to hear that. M+V studio makes good clothes; I just usually buy stuff from taobao in bulk so it's cheaper in the long run for shipping. I think the one on etsy is a re-seller. You can probably use a freelance taobao agent or a commercial one like YoyBuy in the future.

31 minutes ago, Meguchi said:

Sorry to hear that. M+V studio makes good clothes; I just usually buy stuff from taobao in bulk so it's cheaper in the long run for shipping. I think the one on etsy is a re-seller. You can probably use a freelance taobao agent or a commercial one like YoyBuy in the future.

Thank you for letting me know, I'll probably be using taobao more often from now on I think. I was kind of scared too because the system can be a little intimidating but i'm sure I can get the hang of it.

Apologies for the double-post but I have new information.

I did some digging and I was able to find this user on DOA through their paypal email, they mention nowhere being the owner of M+V so I think what they were trying to do was pretend to be them, and make taobao orders on behalf of the people that bought their listings without disclosing it to the buyers, so essentially pretending to be M+V. I also found that they're charging over double (!!) the price of the actual outfit from M+V on taobao.

I just got a message from them saying they're "having trouble paying the fees on etsy so the store front got put on hold." but that the item was shipped and I'll be receiving a full refund. I opened a paypal dispute but I'll be closing it after receiving the refund.

They still seem pretty suspicious to me but I'm happy with receiving a refund and the item possibly.

Thank you guys for the help again ^^

Yikes, glad you were able to find out the truth! Hope your refund process goes smoothing. I guess that is a heads up for anyone should they try to open their etsy shop back up even under a different name.

The seller is trying to get me to reduce the refund to "partial" to recoup the cost of "shipping and materials" now. 🤦‍♀️ 

I don't even have a tracking number, and I'm pretty sure I led that taobao rep to believe it wasn't my order so I wouldn't be shocked if it got cancelled. I let the seller know that if he wants the item back either I can reject it or he can have it returned to sender through the post but that I want a full refund.

9 minutes ago, watercolorpastels said:

The seller is trying to get me to reduce the refund to "partial" to recoup the cost of "shipping and materials" now. 🤦‍♀️ 

I don't even have a tracking number, and I'm pretty sure I led that taobao rep to believe it wasn't my order so I wouldn't be shocked if it got cancelled. I let the seller know that if he wants the item back either I can reject it or he can have it returned to sender through the post but that I want a full refund.

I wouldn't back down an inch with this scam-like seller. That's horrible 😮 Knowing you know the answer, I'd joke with the seller stating 'what shipping supplies' since they never had the item in their possession to begin with'. If you are on Facebook, I'd leave a report/review of this person (paypal info) on one of the doll buy beware groups to prevent this person from hopefully taking another person in. If you don't even have a tracking number, Paypal will side with you without a doubt. Not sure about Etsy though.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Deyja

2 minutes ago, Deyja said:

I wouldn't back down an inch with this scam-like seller. That's horrible 😮 Knowing you know the answer, I'd joke with the seller stating 'what shipping supplies' since they never had the item in their possession to begin with'. If you are on Facebook, I'd leave a report/review of this person (paypal info) on one of the doll buy beware groups to prevent this person from hopefully taking another person in. If you don't even have a tracking number, Paypal will side with you without a doubt. Not sure about Etsy though.

Yeah this is just crazy at this point. I haven't open an etsy case because it says I can't request a refund through them and I could only do that through paypal so I just went straight to paypal. I'm kind of hesitant to openly report this person though because I'm not sure if I'm confident enough that this was intended to be a scam to put this person on blast. All-in-all I just want a refund at this point I think. Also I hate confrontation

39 minutes ago, watercolorpastels said:

The seller is trying to get me to reduce the refund to "partial" to recoup the cost of "shipping and materials" now. 🤦‍♀️ 

Whatever you do don't let the seller talk you into closing the Paypal dispute. Once you close it you can't create a new one for that transaction, and scammers will try to con you into canceling the dispute in order to take away your only avenue to recover the money.

17 minutes ago, BeyondTime said:

Whatever you do don't let the seller talk you into closing the Paypal dispute. Once you close it you can't create a new one for that transaction, and scammers will try to con you into canceling the dispute in order to take away your only avenue to recover the money.

For sure, there's no way I'm backing down from this without getting all of my money back at this point. They're saying now that they'll provide a full refund but that "Today, we are just figuring out how we can add money to paypal. Thank you for your patience."

So I suppose they can receive and remove money through paypal but that they don't know how to add it back (I can't roll my eyes any harder than I am right now), which doesn't make a lot of sense to me but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I told him I wanted all further communication to be done through the paypal dispute and not through etsy messages so we'll see how this goes. I'll give it a couple days and then escalate the dispute if my refund is issued.

I worry that he might send me the money to my paypal account as a seperate payment and not as a refund which would really complicate things lol.

Okay, thank goodness, problem solved. I received the refund just now and everything is good. Thank you everyone for your help