Are you fucking kidding me?

Remember those phonebooths Rokali told us about that they were putting in to handle customer service calls?

If you were like us you probably imagine a little cubicle with a computer, a ratty hand me down desk or some grungy table made from a funky old door or window pane or something maybe. Etsy said these booths would be used for customer service calls to sellers.

Boy, were we wrong to believe them. We really wanted it to be true, but they fucking lied to us again.

See, they posted a Dorque article revealing the new rooms! Hurrah right?

Does this look like a work capable environment?

This is just one of the three darling little phone rooms they paid two etsy sellers, who worked for over nine weeks, to make. You have got to see the other two, OMFG.

Lets get started on them shall we?

1. While cute (and if you were 8 year old girl, a fantastic way to convert a closet into a usable play space) these are adults. At work. Work! Fuck do they even know what work means???
   
   
2. Speaking of work - where is there room to do so? There is no computer in these pics, and by the looks of those shelves they won't hold an iMac (Etsy's system of choice) in either weight nor depth for even a damned macbook! How can they possibly add you to the internal blacklist for bothering them with troubles with your account without a computer? How can hey actually FIX a problem with you on the phone while twittering thier favorites?
   
   
3. Speaking of phone - Where IS the phone??? Don't Phone rooms usually HAVE phones? Do they intend the empoyees to use personal cell phones to do customer service? (if they do and you are lucky enough to be called by someone and can get a number on your caller ID, send it to us!)
   
   
4. And those seats.. really...? Despite the padding those are not seats for work. Possibly a campy photo for twitter or your facebook page.
   
   
5. Won't these rooms look adorable in the next national article about how "cool" the Etsy office is? Squeeee! I'm sure they'll look great on the media tours. I think I need to puke.
   

Now what these rooms really are: A cell phone booth for personal calls to your spouse, the vegan deli for your lunch order, or your mother to ask for a raise in your allowance while working at crafting camp.

No, the rooms we were told flat out were to be supposedly devoted to customer care, for the long promised phone support, are for just for show! Or at the very least used for private and personal phone calls without what I imagine is the blaring music and chatter of the office making it impossible to have that conversation. But aren't they cute???


Yeah, just fucking adorable. Fuck.



Edit by Righteous: Etsy responded via Stella in the comments to the Dorque post

stellaloella
Etsy's main offices are in one giant room where everyone works together. Great for collaboration, but sometimes it can be hard to have a one-on-one phone conversation. These phone rooms are for when staff need to have private business calls. We're also investigating offering support by telephone in the future, in which case these rooms will come in handy during the early stages to ensure every member's privacy is upheld.

While the design of the rooms is creative and fun, I assure you, they are totally functional as well. Jen and Brian took care to consider that this is a workspace in addition to an artistic installation. The rooms have working telephones (just not shown in the photos) and staff can easily bring a laptop into the room to work.

So yeah, Etsy cares about its sellers so much that they devote time and energy to making sure staff don't have to step outside to call their mommys while phone support is still non-existent. Fuck you, Etsy, fuck you.



Update by Cranky on Sunday June 13, 2010 at 1:11am:
Etsy is shutting down stores who have spoken out against these rooms in the Storque post with charges of TOU violations that the sellers are saying are FALSE.

So far AprilMarieMai and Bijoutiful (and her other store BijoutifulSupplies as well) have been shut down and muted in the forums.

Here is a new thread about the shutdowns, and you can see the original Storque post is growing and growing in seller outrage as sellers demand answers about these shutdowns.

If you are another seller who spoke out on Etsy who was met with a email notice, or "brickwalled" let us now. A previous forum thread was shut down for "denigrating" the sellers who designed the rooms, though NO ONE WAS. They were criticizing Etsy for having them done and why. We're trying to gather info on what is going on, and who is affected, but we won't publish your name if you say not to (but will add you to the number of shops being shut down on a following post).

Etsy is playing a petulant child because we're not wanting to giggle at their fucking tea party. Maybe it's time we all run to it's daddy, it's Investors, with lots of outraged letters.