WHAT IS ETSY UP TO???

I don't often talk about my Etsy shop on here, because I don't want to turn this blog into a selling blog, but I know that many of you also have Etsy shops or buy on Etsy and may not be aware of what is going on at the moment.

I just posted this on my Vintageland blog -

A few days ago I was preparing a custom listing, went to check the details and to my absolute horror, the shipping prices had disappeared from the shipping tag in the listing. I thought I had done something terribly wrong, redid everything, with the same result, no shipping charges were showing. The customer bought the items, and it was only then when I looked at the invoice that I was sure that the correct shipping had been applied. WTF was going on? Eventually I went to the forums and only then found out that Etsy was testing. Without informing anybody beforehand. A random selection of buyers/sellers were now unable to see the shipping costs upfront under the shipping label, and nobody was told that you now had to put your items into your shopping cart in order to find out the shipping charges. ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!! Shipping costs are an important part of any purchase, especially for international transactionS, so what the heck  are they doing making it so difficult for customers to find out shipping costs? I am in the same test myself, I can't see shipping charges on my listings, I can't see them on anybody else's listings either. Incredibly frustrating when you are looking for supplies for example. Many sellers on Etsy carry very similar supplies, ie beads, and to compare their shipping costs, you would have to place each and every item from each and every seller in your shopping cart, compare, delete, add more, compare, delete etc etc. WHAT A RIDICULOUS WASTE OF TIME!!! There are thousands of comments, 99% negative regarding this issue on Etsy.

I have no idea which potential customers can see my shipping charges under the shipping tag and which customers will be totally perplexed by seeing a heading 'SHIPPING' without any shipping details at all. Apart from charges you also cannot see which countries I ship to, where I ship from etc etc.

So, if you are looking at my shop, and can't see shipping charges under SHIPPING, I am not being devious and hiding them because I want to make a killing on overcharging you, it is because Etsy thinks it is a good idea. 

I am so frustrated. As a seller, I feel awful for customers getting confused and leaving, as a buyer I am so mad that it took me ages to compare prices for some special ribbons I wanted to buy, only to give up in the end and say sod it, I really can't be bothered with all that shopping cart crap to compare shipping costs. 

I don't rant often in public, but this has really upset me. Nobody knows how long this testing will last, it has been going on for days already. 

Sigh, so there you go, you may be able to see shipping costs etc, you may not. I can only apologise for any confusion and frustration this may cause you.

Toodlepip xxx

------------------------------------

I wonder if any of you have been selected for this testing as well, or perhaps for the other test they are running at the moment, which has also upset so many sellers, where they are taking away your banner, your info, completeley mess up the shop front, basically all that makes your shop YOUR shop. I escaped that one, for now, phew.