Monday, December 22, 2008

International....not

There is a new Etsy admin - Muka (real name Liz). She works on International development.

Etsy shows us again why they desperately need someone to concentrate on this area for the site that has almost half of its customers outside its country of origin (ie. the United States).

Look at the "Related items" at the bottom of the article linked above:

All of them are U.S. sellers

Three of them don't ship the particular item international.

Nice! Way to go international, Etsy!

26 Comments:

Anonymous said...

But at least they are not trying to cram the vintage suitcases and the fingerless gloves and the cowls into the promotional items for this article.
Still, big time international FAIL. There are several awesome international sellers, none of whom apparently made the cut.

Megan McGory Gleason said...

LOL ETSY FAIL

I ship international! But I criticize the everloving hell out of Etsy so I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting some love at the bottom of a storque article. Or anywhere on that site.

And I made my first ARTFIRE sale, which happened to pay for all my Artfire subscription fees for Nov. and Dec! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

jodie said...

As an Australian seller, I am fed up with the USA-all-the-way attitude at Etsy.

Non-US sellers drive a lot of traffic to the site and yet we are treated like the red-headed step child.

Then, of course, whenever we speak up about such no-brainers as USD not being clear on the site, there are the usual bullshit posts from morons who tells us that "Etsy is obviously an American site, so obviously it's in US dollars. Like, obviously". It's that attitude that has Etsy and those kind of posters, looking totally ignorant.

The Dangerous Mezzo said...

Yay, Megan!

I couldn't believe that article. How clueless can Etsy Admin be?

Anonymous said...

Clearly, they are hiring new people who are the same variety of oblivious dunderheads as the current crowd.

Nice managerial skills.

FAIL.

Anonymous said...

And...it's a total Fail right out of the gate.

Honestly! You couldn't make this shit up!

I look forward to her muddling her way through her etsy corp work days in a haze of they call me The Girl Who Appears to Not Fully Understand Her Job.

The Funny One said...

Etsy-lip-service, something they invented a long time ago. Everything on Etsy is Etsy-invented, and building an international site is just too much work.

Etsy redefined laziness. They are just too damn lazy.

Why, it's much more fun to create trends that sellers jump on board with, and then they can congratulate themselves for having all that power to create trends that have little lasting value.

Hmmmm, could Etsy be infested with Etsy-get-it-while-the-goings-good-I-am-so-pinkslipped as of 1/1/09??

Hope springs eternal that Etsy will get off their butts and do their spring cleaning a bit early in 2009. Someone (and some ones) are clogging up the Etsy-drain.

Anonymous said...

This woman obviously has me confused with someone who gives a shit about her favorites.

Or anything else other than her upcoming job performance in the etsycorp office.

It's not personal, it's business.

SuzInToronno said...

jodie nicholson said...
As an Australian seller, I am fed up with the USA-all-the-way attitude at Etsy.
-------------------
Welcome to North America, Jodie! *waves*

Take it from a Canadian - give it up. You won't win.

Anonymous said...

There are some non-US items up now. I saw Australia, Greece, Ireland. But still several US. And several comments on the glut of US items.

The Disgruntled One said...

Muka's comment on the Storque article, after a number of people pointed out that all of her picks were US sellers and that three of them wouldn't ship internationally, does not inspire me with hope:

"I love seeing all the different ways to say hello and that was super interesting about the Rukiga as I'd never heard about that language in my visits to Rwanda. I can tell that this community is going to bring loads of new knowledge.

As for items and sellers from around the globe that have caught my eye there are definitely some in my favorites--and many more that I've yet to discover!! Thanks again for all the good cheer and for keeping me on my toes!"

This response worries me. She sounds just like a clone of every other useless Admin -- people like Vanessa who is clearly a nice woman, but who doesn't have a clue.

#1 I don't give a rat's ass what she learns or doesn't learn in her job at Etsy. She's supposed to be there to help International sellers and buyers (I hope, unless there's another agenda) and her saying that something's "super interesting" seems to be the same old borderline literate cheery hipster girl crap we get all the time from Etsy.

#2 There are SOME in her favorites? Really? But she didn't pick any to accompany the article? Sellers' suggestions "keep her on her toes?" Oh dear baby Jesus. Why can't we have a professional for once, who doesn't need us to point out the obvious.

#3 "The Girl Who Appears to Not Fully Understand Her Job" is right. I suggest Ms. Liz learn a new word in 50 languages -- the word is FAIL.

Note: In response to a thread complaining about this issue on the Forums, marymary said that the related items would be changed. What they've done is just added six international items to the original nine.

TeawithFrodo said...

but all the foreign sellers ship to the US...
I could think of a bunch of people who make great items but aren't US sellers.

One of which I've purchased from and actually had better communication then some American sellers

Andy Mathis said...

anyone but me, find it odd, that they do away with Sara's team position, and hire someone totally new to handle international accounts?

Anonymous said...

Etsy redefined laziness. They are just too damn lazy.

Why, it's much more fun to create trends that sellers jump on board with, and then they can congratulate themselves for having all that power to create trends that have little lasting value.

Hmmmm, could Etsy be infested with Etsy-get-it-while-the-goings-good-I-am-so-pinkslipped as of 1/1/09??

Hope springs eternal that Etsy will get off their butts and do their spring cleaning a bit early in 2009. Someone (and some ones) are clogging up the Etsy-drain.
_______________
While we are wishing, PLEASE get rid of whoever is choosing their friends's treasuries for the FP 5 times a day.
Thanks.
Andy--Sara is selling on 1000Markets. I don't know if that came before or after the pink slip, but if it was before, it might be related.

MI Zombie said...

Poor Etsy. I think they try to look stupid on purpose. Yes, that has to be it, on purpose!

Andy Mathis said...

I think anything outside of Brooklyn is considered international.



Sara selling on 1000markets- set up after the pinkslip.

The Disgruntled One said...

Andy Mathis said...

I think anything outside of Brooklyn is considered international.

Ka-ching! We have a winner!

Anonymous said...

Oh, but come on now....she included an item with the Eiffel Tower and another with what appears to be Asian writing on it. (I didn't bother clicking to find out for sure what the writing is, sorry.) She has her bases covered! ; )

Anonymous said...

Crap. I almost feel sorry for her. Truly, can't Etsy do anything right the first time? WTF? Virtually every dork article has issues with the related items. Why the hell isn't anyone checking them?

Anonymous said...

These are educated, supposedly intelligent people, yet they FUCK UP SO BAD.
There were some outofUS sellers added to that article after a few comments pointed it out, but they ALL should have been int'l at onset.
It's beyond comprehension. What do they do, write the article on the subway and get some broom-pusher to pick a few favorites?
THE MIND REELS.

Anonymous said...

What do you get when Etsy provides you with thousands of dollars worth of free advertising?

The New York Times

http://tinyurl.com/9yrfvd

Anonymous said...

The Eiffel Tower pendant can't be shipped out of the US.

That's a double fail if I ever saw one.

These clowns get paid for this?

The Funny One said...

Don't they check anything? Ummm, no. Too much work.

There is one constant on Etsy for the last 4 years.

When an Etsy Admin is caught with her cupcakes showing, Etsy jumps on it like a bat out of hell.

When hundreds of sellers are lighting up the blogosphere with long lists of Everything That Etsy Does Fail, Etsy Admins suddenly lose interest and pop off down the pub.

Etsy is a personal site built on personal tastes, built around some very stubborn and overblown personalities, that are being fed by the Etsy Machine.

Anonymous said...

What is the most agonizing is that nowhere else will google searches find me, no matter what I do.
I need a manager-- because being affiliated with Etsy is so embarrassing.
Instead of the alternative to places that want to rip off artists, this has become the site that squanders all the golden opportunities laid in their path. Are they blind?
and they drag us all behind them because of that fucking googlesearch.

Anonymous said...

I am really curious to see what Etsy International will involve. When I/old job used to work on internationalizing a site, it involved an incredible amount of work and logistics, as well as at least a year of planning and dev time.

You know, Etsy really needs to become an internet company...if it wants to be an internet company (just because one is on the web doesn't make them an internet company).

Anonymous said...

Gee, Its amazing to hear how so many sellers are unhappy with Etsy! I used to have a shop on etsy, but closed it in Jan 2008. I did not sell very well on etsy and then later found out that you have to keep re listing your items every day in order to stay on their front page listing. I think that etsy is a joke and certainly not a good place to sell high quality hand crafted work. I think that 1000Markets is better and it caters to a more affluent shopper. Most shoppers on etsy want something dirt cheap. I make hand painted silk scarves and clothing and my work is very labor-intensive. I can't possibly sell my scarves for $10 or $15. I also signed up with Artfire and shophandmade.com this month. I hope that they will be much better than etsy.