I got an email last night telling me that my etsy shop had been closed down.  It was because I was late paying my etsy fees, a bill that had mounted up to almost 300 dollars.  I won't argue that I was late with the fees, but it seemed odd to me that they would just close down my shop without an email warning telling me they were going to. I'm pretty sure most legitimate handmade shops on Etsy wouldn't want the unprofessional-ity of a dead link into their shop, even for five minutes, and all it would take is a warning email for us to make things right.

In the frequently asked questions section of etsy regarding bill paying, there is no mention that they will take this action.  In fact one other time, last spring, when I was late with the bill (seems to be a spring tradition) they sent me a nice obviously written by an individual email saying they'd hate to have to shut my shop down, so could I please pay my fees, and I answered saying I could pay a chunk and then the rest in a week, and they said okay they knew how tough it could be managing things sometimes...it actually brought a tear to my eye that Etsy was so human and understanding.

But that was last year.

So anyone looking for my shop last night would have come across the "a stitch has come awry" page, a page which I'm sure has infuriated many an etsy seller run afoul of policy, and even a few that have done nothing wrong (that they can think of).

It gave me a chance to imagine a life without an etsy shop.  It was bleak and scary, but also freeing and had a definite "f* you" element.  I pay a lot of money to Etsy and have been getting diminishing returns for years now. 

In any case, I paid the outstanding fees and my shop is back up.  I hope you were not inconvenienced.