Dive Brief:
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A payment glitch on artisan marketplace Etsy is dragging into its fifth day, leaving customers and sellers frustrated.
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The website's PayPal functions are working, but credit card and gift cards are affected by the problem at the company’s third-party payment service provider, according to information on its forum. Speculation is that the vendor is Worldpay, as listed on its direct payment information page, though neither Etsy nor Worldpay confirmed that to news reports.
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Etsy experienced similar issues in February, which caused problems for many sellers catering to Valentine’s Day shoppers.
Dive Insight:
It’s clear from seller forums on Etsy and the marketplace’s communications on Twitter that this payment glitch was expected to be well cleared up by now. The company said it expected the issue to be resolved within hours, only to see another day go by with mounting vexation. Etsy is advising its sellers not to ship ordered items until payments go through, but many sellers are worried about fanning their customers’ frustrations.
Indeed, many sellers’ complaints were centered around what they say is Etsy's failure to keep them and their customers up to date.
"HELP! Guys, we desperately need to know when you're having payment processing issues,” one seller wrote on the company’s Facebook page, according to the eCommercebytes blog. “I understand stuff happens and you try to fix it as quickly as possible for us. But to come home from a Saturday with my family to dozens of messages, emails, and cancellation requests from customers is not acceptable. You've got to have some kind of notification for your sellers. These are people who may not buy from me again because they don't understand that I have no control over your direct checkout.”
Payment issues online aren't new. Even tech/retail powerhouse Amazon has experienced payment and other processing glitches, but rarely do such problems drag on for so many days. And a Wal-Mart prepaid-card glitch last month set off confusion and blame-trading among vendors as customers found themselves unable to access their money.
Worldpay, which is said to be Etsy’s payment vendor, confirmed there had been a technical issues but also said that had been resolved, according to the eCommercebytes blog.