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Etsy's answer to your account being hacked? Investigate the breech, or close you down? What do you think?
We got this as a comment to the "Etsy is Powermad" post, and though it deserved some front page time on it's own - it's astounding Etsy admin can even order Starbucks on their own with such lapses in deduction skills:
Etsy certainly is Power Mad!
My password was cracked and I was being harassed through convos from MYSELF - and my wife was receiving them also!
After I realized that someone was on my account I changed my password immediately, but I was still receiving convos from the person on my account, apparently you have to sign out and try to sign back in for the password change to go into effect.
I started to get worried about someone being on my account, because I have all my personal information; Full name, Address, Phone number, Email address, and all my private convos and purchases!
I contacted etsy through Support@etsy.com
On the 3rd day Etsy finally responded to my cry for help, and they DEACTIVATED my account, and my Wife's account!
My wife nore I received a Email explaining why we were Deactivated. Why her's was deactivated is a mystery.
I wrote them demanding why I was deactivated and telling them I didn't want to be deactivated and want to be reactivated ASAP.
This was my response:
"Below is a message from Etsy's Support Team.
If you need help again, please let us know.
Etsy's Support Team is here to help.
Click here to access your issue on Etsy's Help site.
Etsy's Support Team (Erin) wrote on 05/17/2010 03:21 PM:
Hi Charles,
The account CETphotography has been closed.
The following links may be helpful;
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
Etsy Terms of Use:
http://www.etsy.com/terms_of_use.php
Password: Keep your password secure. You are fully responsible for all activity, liability and damage resulting from your failure to maintain password confidentiality. You agree to immediately notify Etsy of any unauthorized use of your password or any breach of security. You also agree that Etsy cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to keep your password secure. You agree not to provide your username and password information in combination to any other party other than Etsy without Etsy's express written permission.
Provided that your e-mail account password is secure, your Etsy password can only be changed by you. Additionally, if you receive the lost password reset e-mail but did not request to have it sent to you let us know. You have the option of not confirming the change.
Best,
Erin
Etsy's Support Team
http://help.etsy.com"
WTF kind of help is that! I can't even access the links to their help site! I would need an active account in order to click that!
It's 3 days later and I've sent 4 email asking them to reactivate my wife's account, she had nothing to do with this and her account was safe.
Etsy has to have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. They need to have a technical support phone number[s], where people like myself can speak to a LIVE person immediately! Not being sent some generic regurgitated emails. We've paid for services that are not being rendered.
Charles (CETPhotography)
www.CTPhotography.biz
20 Comments:
Fully automated assholes. So sorry about this-- you aren't the first.
Try sending an email to Rokali. Wish I had better advice.
I thought Robbie was setting up at least 2 phonebooths so people could actually call Etsy and talk to a real person instead of sending automated messages without even reading what the problem is??
Etsy FAIL
Huh? That sucks. It reminds me of the "old days" on eBay when they used to change their 1-800 number whenever the regular sellers would get a hold of it.
Yes, this is totally unprofessional and not surprising.
In it's prime, AOL did the same thing to me. Someone hacked into my account, they blamed me, and were incredibly rude about it. I was happy to witness the controversies around their terrible business practices and their overall decline.
I can only hope Etsy follows that same route.
This is what made me become apathetic towards Etsy - I had items go missing from my shop during the days of RevolvingDork. It occurred overnight when I was sleeping and I had been on Etsy well over a year at that point, yet Etsy insisted I must've deleted them without knowing it or I never finished listing them. When I showed them the items listed on my invoice from Etsy without any item being anywhere on the site, they just said the database noted I deleted them (how they would note that, I have always wondered). I changed my password in the event my account was being logged into. It stopped after 3 days and 13 items...and they never gave me an answer as to why. So 13 listings, that I paid for, were gone. They only refunded me the few cents for the newest listing, but the others had been up for a month or two, so they felt they didn't deserve refunds. Even for that piddly response I had to go to the forums to get any response...their customer service sucks. It always has.
That happened after some disagreement I had with admin in the forums - I don't even remember what it was about now - but I remember thinking what a coincidence it was. I told my boyfriend that I bet admin was messing me by removing some items - I meant it somewhat jokingly at the time. I wouldn't be joking if I said it today!
Customer service issues aside for a moment, I think Etsy took the proper steps on their end to ensure your safety.
Deactivating your account and any accounts associated with you (such as your wife's) would seem to me to be a logical move, especially if you have no idea how the hacker accessed your password. If you have some sort of virus on your computer, or someone accessing your unsecured wireless network, the possibility exists that this could also affect any accounts originating from your location.
If you used the same paypal account and/or the same credit card when signing up, then again, deactivation of both accounts was reasonable. Both of which, if you haven't already, should have their passwords and pin numbers changed and either cancel the credit card or be very cognizant of your account and watch for any unauthorized purchases.
Unless Etsy gets more complaints of this happening, it is unlikely that the breech is on their end so there is nothing, at this point, for them to investigate.
Having said that, there is definitely an issue with the lack of timely responses and the inability to have real time communication with someone who can assist you.
It's my opinion that Etsy really didn't do anything wrong or inappropriate, but their level of communication is sorely lacking. I understand your frustration and sympathize with your situation. I hope it gets resolved and that no further damage occurs.
WindysDesigns,
I've stepped back and tried to look at it from both sides.
I can see where they would close my account, but why my wifes account? Her account is completely separate from mine.
Her account was setup with her own credit card, her own PayPal, and her own computer. The only similarities were the shipping address and IP address.
I'm security concise and know how to keep my machine safe.
I don't download files, I use Sandboxie, and Firefox, along with up to date anti virus software.
I'm just pissed off that Etsy wont respond and tell me what I have to do to reactivate my account, my Wife has invested a lot of time and money towards her shop.
CS has been such a low priority at Etsy, this example is only 1 one of many that Etsy mishandles because they (1) put inexperienced new employees at the CS desk (2) they read the first line of the seller email then cut&paste an auto-response without reading the entire email (3) they are not sellers nor do they experience or understand seller issues so they have a profound lack of understanding from the get-go (4) their responses are so vague or off-topic that they qualify as no-reponse and (5) most Etsy CS emails contain an underlying message that mimics competence (with the over-the-top bureacrateze language) when all it does it convey arrogance.
Etsy doesn't "do" CS, they never have. Which goes to show - how old is the "promise" to open up CS phone support?
The Funny One,
You hit the nail on the head.
In a previous post by The Cranky One;
"Etsy made $12 million in 2009 from all reports I’ve seen."
$12,000,000?! Wait so basically they figured they would open more etsy offices world wide rather then fixing their NY office where apparently they didn't spend a dime on Customer Service!
How can they expect to expand when they can't even handle their E-mails.
Is it greed? maybe just arrogance.
Either way it doesn't seem like a promising business model.
Etsy is its own worst enemy
"biting the hand that feeds you"
I couldn't have put it better myself.
windy- there are other ways of dealing with hackers than deactivating the shop, nevermind his wife's account. There is no way to access your wireless network by hacking an account. The only way is if you are close physically to big up the wifi.
Hacking into the account wouldn't spread a virus- there's no way. It sounds like for once they responded to an email and rather than do something about the real issue, they just deactivated the accounts. Lazy way to do things.
Heres another imformational Email ent to my wife:
"Etsy's Support Team (Jim) wrote on 05/19/2010 04:01 PM:
Hi there,
Per our Terms of Use you are fully responsible for all activity, liability and damage resulting from your failure to maintain password confidentiality. As we cannot determine who is responsible for the account now we have had to close it.
Regards,
Jim
Etsy's Support Team
http://help.etsy.com"
"Per our Terms of Use you are fully responsible for all activity, liability and damage resulting from your failure to maintain password confidentiality. As we cannot determine who is responsible for the account now we have had to close it."
*********************
That's the easy way out........it really means, "Our TOU's say we are NOT responsbile for anything on this site! So, you are screwed!"
All cetphoto wants is to reactivate his and his wife's account......they weren't ripped off, just harrassed. Come on......
FantasyClay, I wasn't saying the hacking of the Etsy account caused a virus or enabled someone to access an unsecured wireless connection, I'm suggesting that a virus or an unsecured wireless connection could enable someone to find the information, like passwords to accounts.
I'm not really understanding what anyone thinks Etsy should do, leave the account open so the hacker has access to private information like a credit card number? Let the hacker continue to have access to an Etsy shop so they can send convos, start trouble in the forums and delete or edit listings l like marking everything down to $1?
I'm of the opinion that not all is as it appears on the surface. We don't know all the details of this situation and it's ridiculous to assume Etsy is always the bad guy.
Oh, and would someone please explain how one sends convos to themselves? I seem to be unable to recreate that phenomena.
It's so weird that the hackers were even able to send you convos, since you usually get that message about talking to yourself when you try to. Odd.
Sorry, let me clarify.
The person who got on to my account convoed my wife's account first and then continued to talk to me through that one convo
UPDATE:
Etsy finally responded to my wife.
She wrote them asking why her account was deactivated, and what steps she needs to take to have it reactivate.
Here's Etsy's details response.
"Etsy's Support Team (Jason) wrote on 05/26/2010 12:44 PM:
Hi Laura
Etsy has elected to revoke your account privileges permanently. We do not make such decisions without great consideration, but our relationship must now come to a close.
Best,
Jason
Etsy's Support Team
http://help.etsy.com"
Etsy has the worst CS. I had also opened up an Etsy account to sell my things but had issues with the setup so I had went through "their" proper channel of using their CS and received no response. I've sent them several mails in a course of 2-3months and no answer so then I decided to send them a request to have them close my account. Now I have been trying to have them close for several months now and they still have not responded. I have even looked them up on the BBB site and got the number they have listed and got their answering machine and still no response.
at least you GOT a form email! I didn't even get that!
Oh, etsy, how do i tolerate thee...let me count the ways:
1. is for the crappy feedback forms, (and the fact that persons should be able to respond to feedback given).
2. is for the fact that we the people are named "Legion", because we are many.
3. three is for three strikes and you're out. One more crappy incident on etsy, and i'm switching!
I spoke out in the forums, and less than a month after being muted, my credit card was hacked and fraudulent charges appeared. I doubt my local hardware store, and grocer had anything to do with the fraudulent activity. The only other purchase I made on that account was to pay my etsy bill every month. Nice, huh?
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