No way you can Just Glue Some Gears On It.
A payment error on Etsy wound up drawing large amounts of money from the accounts of its users. While the event occurred on Friday, due to the federal holiday on Monday, it won’t be fully resolved until Tuesday. Etsy has, however, gone on record to say that it was not caused by fraud; moreover, that the issue that caused it has been fixed.
Users need to have a valid credit or debit card on file, and that was likely how the problem managed to deduct money from their accounts. On Friday morning, users began reporting that anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars had been taken from their bank accounts. Etsy, on their part, gave a brief explanation of the issue, before later going on in long form:
An update on recent issues affecting payment accounts
On Friday, February 15, a bill payment error affected a small group of sellers which resulted in some cards being incorrectly charged. Sellers who were affected have been notified by email, or by Etsy Conversations, and the issue that caused this has since been resolved.
As part of fixing this issue, all incorrectly charged cards have been refunded. It may take several business days for the refunded amounts to clear and settle in card accounts. Also related to fixing the root problem, some sellers saw their scheduled deposit of funds returned to Etsy on Friday, February 15, and those deposits will now be sent on Tuesday, February 19.
For affected sellers, we are very sorry for the trouble or concern this may have caused. Our first priority has been to correct the issue. This was not a fraud issue, but instead an error related to a site change which affects a small group of sellers and is unrelated to buyers’ purchases.
This is an issue we do not take lightly. We’ve assembled a Payments task force, including senior executives across Etsy, to address any concerns or troubles resulting from this error. We will refund any undue fees associated with this incorrect charge and change in deposit schedule. We don’t expect this error to impact additional sellers going forward.
Regardless, this wasn’t exactly enough to make their users happy. Many of them stated their displeasure with Etsy’s handling; that there should have been hourly updates. But I sort of expect that kind of entitlement from the types of people that make stuff like this:
ANATOMICALLY CORRECT Sock Monkey Artisan Made
You met the monkey, now meet his banana.
Source: TechCrunch
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