I’ve been selling on Etsy for 13 years.
THIRTEEN.
So when I contacted customer support about $15 in missing advertising credits, I wasn’t expecting to spend the next several days being taught how Etsy Plus works.
I knew how it worked.
That’s how I knew something wasn’t right.
But apparently, getting someone to investigate a problem instead of explaining the same policy six different ways is asking a little too much.
It Started With Fifteen Dollars
For those who don’t sell on Etsy, here’s the short version.
Etsy offers a subscription called Etsy Plus for $10 a month. Among its benefits is a $5 monthly advertising credit you can use toward promoting your products.
I’ve had Etsy Plus for years. I know the credits expire. I know they don’t roll over. I’ve used them before.
But during July, August, and September, Etsy charged me the usual $10 each month, and the advertising credits I expected weren’t appearing in my account.
That’s $30 in subscription fees and $15 in advertising benefits I couldn’t account for.
Now, my Etsy sales are already down about 60% compared with last year. I’m not exactly rolling around in piles of money over here.
So yes, I’m paying attention to what I’m being charged.
I went through my records, checked my account, and gathered screenshots showing the discrepancy.
Then I contacted Etsy Support.
And that’s where the fun began.
Apparently, I Needed a Refresher Course
I explained that my monthly advertising credits weren’t appearing as they previously had.
The response?
An explanation of how advertising credits work.
They expire after 30 days.
They don’t roll over.
You need an active advertising campaign to use them.
Well, thank you kindly.
I only have 13 years of experience selling on your platform. Obviously, I’ve been wandering around Etsy all this time without the slightest idea how any of it works.
So I explained again.
I wasn’t asking why unused credits expired.
I wasn’t asking for a tutorial on setting up Etsy Ads.
I wanted someone to look at my account and explain what had happened to the advertising credits included in my paid subscription.
Seems like a reasonable question, doesn’t it?
Apparently not.
Welcome to the Customer-Service Merry-Go-Round
One support conversation turned into another.
Then another.
Then came the emails.
And with each response, I found myself reading yet another explanation of how Etsy Plus credits are supposed to work.
I KNOW HOW THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO WORK.
THAT’S WHY I’M CONTACTING YOU.
I provided screenshots. I explained which months were involved. I asked for an accounting of the credits and whether they had been issued, used, or expired.
I even specifically requested that someone review my actual billing history instead of sending another generic explanation.
And still, the responses kept coming.
Polite. Professional. Repetitive.
The kind of responses that make you wonder whether anybody actually read your question before hitting Send.
I can’t say whether they were written by AI, copied from a script, or composed by someone having a particularly long day.
But they sure sounded like the same answer wearing six different outfits.
And every single time, I had to explain that I wasn’t new to Etsy.
Thirteen years.
At this point, I was beginning to think I should have that tattooed on my forehead.
Finally! Fifteen Dollars!
After all the back-and-forth, Etsy Support eventually issued me $15 in compensation for the three months I’d been questioning.
Well, hallelujah!
Maybe we’d finally gotten somewhere.
Except I couldn’t find the credit in my advertising account.
So naturally, I had to contact support AGAIN.
And that’s when I learned that the $15 had been issued as Etsy shopping credit.
Shopping credit.
As in, I could go buy something from another Etsy seller.
Not advertise my own products.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love supporting other small businesses.
But I didn’t pay $10 a month for Etsy Plus because I wanted a gift card.
I paid for a subscription that included advertising credits. I wanted my advertising credits.
In fact, I would have loved to take that $15 and try spending it on Etsy Ads in one day, just to see what happened.
Would it bring in a sale? Would anybody even click?
Who knows?
That’s what I wanted to find out.
Instead, Etsy handed me fifteen dollars I could use to go shopping.
Imagine paying for gas, discovering the pump didn’t give you what you paid for, and having the station hand you a gift certificate for beef jerky.
Thanks, I guess.
But I still need the damn gas.
One Last Question. Just One.
By this point, I’d canceled Etsy Plus.
But I still wanted an answer to something important.
If I signed up again, would my $5 monthly advertising credit actually work?
And why had the credits stopped appearing in the first place?
I wasn’t asking anyone to predict the future.
I wanted someone to review what had happened to my account, tell me whether there had been a technical or billing problem, and confirm that it had been corrected.
Instead, I got another explanation of how the credits would normally be applied if I had an active advertising campaign.
Which still didn’t tell me why they had stopped appearing.
Or whether the original problem had been fixed.
At that point, I was done.
No more Etsy Plus for me.
It’s Not Really About Fifteen Dollars
I know what some people are thinking.
All this fuss over fifteen bucks?
But here’s the thing.
It’s not just about fifteen dollars.
It’s about paying for something, not seeing the benefit you expected, doing the work to document the problem, and then spending DAYS trying to get someone to address it.
It’s about being talked to like you don’t understand the basics of a platform you’ve been using for more than a decade.
And it’s about getting a different kind of credit than the one you were actually paying for.
I’ve been selling digital products on Etsy for 13 years. I’ve watched the platform change, watched fees add up, and watched my own sales take a nosedive.
I don’t expect Etsy to guarantee me sales.
I don’t expect advertising to magically fix my business.
But I do expect a company charging me for a subscription to be able to explain what happened to the benefits that came with it.
And after six support conversations, I still didn’t get a straight answer.
Why did my advertising credits stop being issued? And if I signed back up for Etsy Plus, would they actually work this time?
Two simple questions. Neither answered.
But I did get a $15 Etsy shopping credit.
So apparently, the solution to Etsy not giving me what I paid for was to give me something I never asked for.
Thirteen years on Etsy. Six support conversations. Fifteen dollars in shopping credit. And not one damn answer.
Bless their hearts.
If you’re selling on Etsy, check your subscription benefits and billing records. And if you’re thinking about opening a shop, just remember that running a small business sometimes involves more than making and selling things.
Sometimes it involves trying to get a straight answer from customer service.😂