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That's disturbing how badly Etsy handles it

@Carniflora_Emporium23

4 ай бұрын

Right? I left Etsy for this reason. They are basically diet eBay.

@jasbelial3943

4 ай бұрын

For real! But the real customers there seem to get more and more stupid too - They leave a 5 star review just for getting their item shipped. Due to which scam accounts seem to get more and more attention. Terrible.

@blacksheepministry

4 ай бұрын

What's disturbing is the amount of people who are so dumb they believe these fake plants are a thing... sooooo many dumb people, that scamers make money from them.

I've been tempted for the same "just to see what happens" reasoning, and I think it's a great point that by doing this we're just perpetuating the scam.

Last year I purchased on Etsy a thai constellation for $106.00 from a seller in Florida. Prior to shipping the seller moved to Pennsylvania. Days later the seller's store was stationed in the country of Turkey. A week later the seller was located in New York and was selling Nike sneakers. Three weeks after purchasing I finally got a tracking number. The item was never received by the post office. Etsy required that I give the seller two weeks after the mailing label was created before issuing a refund. I learned than even when purchasing plants at fair market value from an purported US seller you can still get scammed.

Etsy is also terrible for succulents. All the cactus plants and seeds are extremely overpriced and scams are super common, especially for valuable seeds like Copiapoa.

@ohrats731

3 ай бұрын

Seed scams are so common. It drives me nuts. I won’t even buy seeds online anymore, which is a shame. But they’re perfect for a scam because by the time the buyers realize it’s not germinating or is the wrong plant, the dispute window has closed. It happens on Etsy, Amazon, eBay, everywhere 😖

This is good advice. That’s why I only buy from US sellers on Etsy and they need to be within a few states of where I live. With all the BS Etsy pulls, I’m not surprised we’ve seen more legitimate sellers leave to go sell in FB or their our respective online store.

Etsy needs to make it more visible where the seller is located.

I fell for an Etsy plant scam a year or two ago. The US seller sent my plants, supposedly, to another similar address a few miles from me, also in upper Manhattan (seller not a New Yorker) and I was unable to obtain them from the post office, the post office couldn't find them. By this point two weeks had gone by, it was the middle of July, and my haworthias would have died so I let it go. At the time I really thought I might have entered the wrong address but months later, it hit me. Had I given a wrong address after living in the same apartment for over 14 years?This occurred to me after I saw a plant tuber's video on Etsy scams. I no longer buy plants on Etsy, although I have bought there with no problems. There are plenty of ethical sellers on Etsy, I was attracted because the price was so low. Live and learn. Thanks for your interesting episode

I was waiting for this vídeo. It just proves we have to be more and more careful and not do impulse buys before checking certain points like seller location, payment methods, reviews (if they are within a short period of time) everything that can raise a red flag. Another great video!

I fell under the same mentality ordered $112 of plants with 2of these separate sellers on Etsy thinking Etsy had payment protection

Been waiting for this one! Makes me so sad that this amazing plant hobby has brought the worst in these scammers. It’s disgusting that they are getting away it. Seems like there are scammers everywhere these days and it makes me so mad! Thank you for sharing this with us Chris! Everyone needs to educate themselves about this. I have personally been scammed on Etsy myself and now I’m hesitant to buy ANYTHING on that app! Another great video!! Thank you for all your hard work! We appreciate you! 🫶

The key to buying plants from Etsy is to buy from local shops or shops based in the US - if US is where you live. Also if you are importing plants, there is a permit/license that has to be secured before importing. May of these plants are on CITES endangered species lists, so there are restrictions. Also be aware of your own state's restrictions. I live in a state some sellers will not ship to, because the restrictions. The fact that the shop in question did not specify the required licenses and permits to import plants should have been a red flag.

This is just like some Sellers on Amazon pushing Orchid Seeds that you can plant in soil in your yard and get all of these beautiful plants. Again, if it sounds too good to be true, stop and think about it. Keep your money and try a reputable brick and mortar shop or online nursery. I think as plant lovers/collectors, we see something like this plant, or the orchid seeds and our common sense goes out of the window, we just want that plant for our collection! So sad that our hobby has to be part of this type of criminal activity. Be safe and happy growing!

I always buy from the same 3 sellers on Etsy that l am 💯 % sure of and that l have bought from over the last 4 years😊

@callaitaa

4 ай бұрын

What 3 sellers do you trust?

@Manu-61

4 ай бұрын

@callaitaa l don't know why your from but lm in Belgium if your in Europe l will send you the sellers names 😀

The art of scamming has ruined the delight of shopping. It is too much effort to peel away the trash. Thank you Chris for the effort you put in to add value to your customer’s experience.

@prettyingreen

4 ай бұрын

Thank you Shaun! 🌱

@FeatheredDreamStudio

10 күн бұрын

Facts!

I considered purchasing some plants on Etsy but after watching this I'm definitely not going to

Definitely needed this to be made! Ty!

Thank you so much for covering this topic. It's rather sad...

YES! I WAS WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO 😃

I have been waiting for this video and love that you expose scams. Thank you so much!!

thank you for bringing attention to this!!

Great video, very informative and eye opener!thanks for sharing. I really didn't know how bad people can be! Thanks for telling us these stories so we stay alert. Have a great weekend and happy growing 😊

Thank you for all your work

@prettyingreen

3 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching!!!

Great coverage. I almost fell for this last month when trying to get a Thai con and saw some other rare-ish plants on Etsy. I thought surely if it was fake then Etsy would shut them down asap. The same red flags were present (priced too low, long delivery window, and images ripped from elsewhere) which is why I decided against buying any. Nice to finally get some clarity on this and hopefully this video saves people from a messy claims process.

I'm so glad I found your channel!

@prettyingreen

10 күн бұрын

I'm so glad you did too!! Thank you for being here!!!!

Wow I had no idea and what baffles me as to why I am baffled? There are scams everywhere this should not be surprising to me, but it is. 😂 I have bought almost all my plants from Etsy and thankfully have not fallen into a scam. I will say I NEVER buy from outside the country no matter how beautiful the plant or $$$. I hope Etsy can make this better. When I am on Amazon it’s no different than Etsy I thought because the “shops” can be on any forum that supports that market. I buy from certain stores so I guess I will be very cautious going outside of those in the future. Sad. 😢 Thank you for this detailed information and sharing it with us.

Wow! Thanks for this information.

@prettyingreen

4 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching 😄

I was just looking at 1 of these shops on Etsy. I got so excited seeing cheap nodes, then saw where they’re located. I decided , nope, I’m not gonna try it.

I just wonder why people do not put a red flag to ETSY after seeing something like this: ORDER placed February 5. payment charged immediately, plant shipped next day, and EXPECTED ARRIVAL March 1 to April 2. How can it be alive?

Wow so informative!

Very informative video. Thank you :)

Thank you for your research

SMH these ppl are heartless!

Happens in Europe too. The "stores" are "located" in Europe, but they put a later shipping date, so you can't dispute early. I did test one out and it wasn't PayPal payment. Etsy isn't the place to buy anymore.

@fluffy_mcsparkle

4 ай бұрын

Yes! And they are mostly "located" in Germany atm. Their scammy photoshopped, AI generated pictures CLUTTER the search, it is so bad, if I am looking for a specific plant and 80% of search results are unrelated BS listings. I don`t even know how thats possible, since you can (or used to) only be able to use 13 tags or keywords. How do they still show up no matter what plant I am looking for. I have reported these accounts so often but nothing happens. Etsy is broken.

I tried a “ too good to be true” Etsy seller. They closed their shop 2 weeks later. Etsy immediately refunded me.

Thank you for your investigative journalism here because I love monsteras and I never hard of the rare black one but luckily you have warned me about this scam.

In uk we have the opposite problem with eBay. Monstera plants (nodes) are selling for hundreds of pounds, sometimes thousands. I’m convinced it’s money laundering for some criminal activity.

Thanks for this info! I actually DID see this black monstera on Etsy and thought…Hhmmmmm…..🤔 It’s good to know, and I suppose wise to stick with known sellers from past purchases. Or, important to really research before buying!

I got scammed from the same shop or one like it a couple years ago. With Ceylon in the name. I had 51 days for shipping. Never received the product. And by the time I could review the store was closed. I got a refund through PayPal.

I get ripped off twice!! Cant even get a hold of anyone to report the seller. Yes, one place was Sri Lanka....

I was considering selling through Etsy but wasn't sure how to market myself when the pages are so flooded with plants like this. So may just stick to selling through groups cause of etsy's lack of moderation in general. In the past, you could block sellers and prevent their listings from showing up on the page and there was a way to report fake plant/seed listings but ever since the overhaul it has been so difficult to both buy and sell.

" Highly tropical?", what makes it more tropical than other tropical places? lol

Are they gonna eventually send you a plant? It’d be interesting to see what exactly they send customers

@ElsieJay

4 ай бұрын

I bought albo wetsticks from some variation of CeylonAce, never arrived

I think people should think also "Can it be economically possible for someone to sell an 8 dollar plant and ship it free from around the world?"...I think the answer is no, it is not possible. Just the shipping can cost that much or even more than that so why the seller would just send you stuff for free?

Ugh I’ve reported this exact listing to Etsy. They do nothing. It’s disgusting

@prettyingreen

3 ай бұрын

Etsy has become so crap in recent time :/

It’s not just an albo black monstera… it’s an albo DARK BLACK monstera. Makes all the difference. 😉 Jokes aside, really glad you posted this, Chris. While I’ve seen the listings from Sri Lanka and generally thought they felt scammy immediately, had the same experience buying from a seller in the UK (!) who also had thousands of 5-star reviews and was selling “rare” Monstera nodes at ridiculously low prices. However, the tip-off was that it was regular parcel mail shipping - 4-6 weeks delivery to me in Canada! Like anything organic is gonna survive that… I bought $40 of stuff for sh*ts and giggles, and after about 4-6 weeks I checked back to see that the seller account had been removed from the platform. Etsy refunded me basically immediately but just goes to show you the same scam exists all over, I’ve seen this with Polish seller listings as well. 🤷🏽‍♂️ It’d sure be nice if Etsy did something about it, though. I’m shocked their tech isn’t good enough to automatically detect some of these fraud posts and sellers.

This happened to me unfortunately I wanted to buy a monster albo, I got a couple of wet sticks... They keep pushing the shiping date back months... I will never be purchasing anything from Etsy unless I get recommended from a trusted source...

I've been waiting on rooted cuttings from Ceylon since Dec! Luckily, it was only $20

In Europe you can buy 4 albo cuttings for 29 € (that's 7.85 $ each)...

I only buy plants locally for this reason. I like to support my local shops.

can we get info on which payment options are safer than paypal?

Ahhhhhh thanks for the reality check lol. I bought 12 fancy alocasia corms the other night at like 2am cause 2am logic says it’s worth the gamble for $35 😂 now that I look back all the red flags are there 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ good to have a refresh of this kinda stuff going into high planting season!

I got scammed once...but I reported to PayPal and got my money back. Thank God...I even tried reporting a potential scammer on Etsy but I couldn't so I had to message the person they took their fake reviews from (which happened to be a legitimate US seller on Etsy) thankfully she was able to report the person, following that person's shop was closed. And yes, they are coming from Sri Lanka and Latvia 😔

Sounds like the people who sell a 100 rainbow orchid seeds on Amazon and Etsy.

In Sri Lanka we don’t have much variegated, exotics & rare plants available example like thai cons & albos . Im not saying there’s non but majority of these plants are low quality variegation, one leaf cuttings & poor condition. Far as I know there’s less than 5 genuine people that sale proper variegated/exotic plants. Its sad people do such things like this 🙁

Ohhhh okay I understand now! 😅

Bro i just went to see in etsy about my monstera order and surely the shop is now closed 😂

I remember seeing pink monstera on ebay before. Obviously a fake, the pictures were awful, also being sold from Sri Lanka. It would be mad if pink monstera actually existed though.

I was ripped off by Etsy and a seller from Sri Lanka about 9 months ago. That’s why I bought an albo from your shop. Just don’t do it

Haven’t watched, yet, but I know this is about that one cylon, ceylon, etc. seller who is always on about some bs. I report the item every time I see it. It disappears for a while, then it’s right back. I hope the seller throats a cactus for trying to take advantage of unknowing individuals

@prettyingreen

4 ай бұрын

🎯

@jmfrunner

4 ай бұрын

I had been reporting them daily too. Several plant friends were as well. Etsy didn't care. This video seems to have changed that. Looks like all the black Albo listings have been removed!

So is Etsy no longer reliable?

@ThatGirlShelbyy

4 ай бұрын

Sorry, I made a helpful and more detailed comment explaining some stuff for you, but he deleted it.

@nwyk153

4 ай бұрын

just dont get anything from Sri Lanka.

@puddsmax863

4 ай бұрын

Etsy is reliable. Just take a look at where the shop is based, and read the reviews. See if the reviewers have actual pictures of the plants received attached. If it's too cheap and/or the shop seemed to be based out of a pretty random country, don't go for it. Also, if they only have stock photos listed and no photos of the actual plants, I wouldn't go for it. I go to the filter the search so only shops based out of the US show up. Hope this is helpful. :)

@puddsmax863

4 ай бұрын

And I only filter US shops because I live in the US.

@ElsieJay

4 ай бұрын

If all their pictures have different backdrops, their delivery date is a month away, they say something like "free phyto" (phytosanitary certificates aren't cheap) then it's likely a scam

This happened to me but PayPal did help me out. They refunded the money asap.

I only buy plants that are in my hand

I think the real scam takes place with the paypal-adresses. Nearly got scammed by one of this offerings before christmas and reached out to the seller via the mail-adresses at etsy and paypal for a refund. One of the paypal-users (I bought in Sri Lanka but he was from Mexico) responded and explained he lost hundreds of dollars because his account got hacked.

@prettyingreen

4 ай бұрын

Woahhhhhh another layer. Interesting…

If people really fall for this, they.....nevermind.

Mom get the camera my Reddit posts made it to KZread

@prettyingreen

3 ай бұрын

Lolllll YESSSSSS 😅🙌

Sorry to say, but shame on them.

guys, please be smart. dont just fall into the trap.

When u buy from Etsy and u did not receive ur plant u can get refund as I did whit no problem. I don’t know what are u talking about PayPal support buyers

Trashy people do trashy things…

Why must lie...you sell plants not sell lie right...et😢sy

🫶

Imo these scams are small reparations for colonialism.

@manuelavonwitte

4 ай бұрын

😂