Because, let’s break things that aren’t broken!

Here we are again, Etsy just kind of sneaks something in like it’s no big deal, giving sellers only a few weeks to prepare.

I logged on to Etsy this morning to see a small banner saying that the Etsy card reader will no longer work after March 31, 2018, and you’ll need to get a Square reader. (An email came out half a day after I created this post, but I’m still very annoyed.) Your Etsy account will sync up, you just have another app you need to use instead. Let me tell you how many levels of mad I am about this.

• When I first started doing craft fairs, it took A YEAR before Etsy would even send me a card reader. I asked how long, they said a few months, I asked again after 6 months, they said not yet, finally I said what do I have to do, it’s been almost a year, suddenly it showed up.
• I changed phones, and during that time the reader wouldn’t work with my phone. I suffered through, and once I got a new phone everything was fine, but even after contacting support over it, they basically rolled their eyes like “oh you don’t use an iPhone? That’s your own fault.”
• During the time that my phone wasn’t working with the Etsy card reader, I ordered a Square reader, but it was cumbersome to have to deactivate listings on Etsy when I’d have them bought with the Square reader in person and keeping straight the money made with Square and fees there and Etsy fees and NOW…OVER A YEAR LATER from just when I was struggling with this, and probably thousands of others have been struggling with this same issue, they’ve decided to simplify this?!

If Etsy weren’t such a big ecommerce market with tons of traffic, I’d switch to something else. This is the kind of stuff just drives me crazy! If you’re going to make a big change like this RIGHT BEFORE PRIME CRAFT FAIR SEASON FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE give them more than a couple weeks notice! I know that people are just going to keep using Etsy because of how big it is, which is equally sad. It’s like people complaining about Walmart but you still go there even though it’s literally filled with people of Walmart and it’s anxiety inducing. Now Etsy, that used to be a little online market place for people to sell their handmade and vintage stuff that allows most anyone to sell just about anything they want (regardless of the guidelines, even when non-guideline meeting items are reported) it’s not “special” anymore. It might as well be Walmart.

I know, I know, ‘Ashley, why are you complaining about this, they’re trying to fix it?’ BECAUSE IT WASN’T BROKEN! IT DIDN’T NEED TO BE FIXED! If they didn’t want to get into the card reading game then they should have stayed out in the first place! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!

I hope you’re all having a great week, and some ecommerce monster that has gotten too big for it’s britches isn’t trying to make you insane! 🙂 Until next time, happy sewing!