BUG - Inaccurate Delivery Estimates by Etsy to buyers

[WendyShrayDesigns]

The information that Etsy provides to customers regarding the estimated delivery is wildly inaccurate and confusing! Etsy needs to fix this so that buyers don't leave negative reviews based on thinking their orders are being delayed and arriving late. 

I have set my processing time at 5 days. When I look at any of my listings on Etsy in the buyer view, it will accurately show the estimated delivery dates to the potential buyer. For example, for today (May 2nd) the date a potential buyer is shown is between May 9-11 (which assumes I ship it by day 5, with a 2 - 4 day transit time would be around that date range). For an order placed today, on my end in listing manager, it says that I need to mail the order no later than May 9th, which is correct for the 5 day processing time, with no processing on weekend. However, when I went to print the label ON THE SAME DAY the order was placed, is says the buyer expects to get the order between May 3rd and May 9th! That allows just 1 day to get from CA to NJ (where the buyer is located)! That is completely setting the customer up to think that their item is late even when I shipped 5 days before my due date!!! Please, Etsy, fix this problem!!

[OneEyeCatStudio]

Yes, you are not alone in your complaint.  There are numerous threads about this.

https://community.etsy.com/t5/All-About-Shipping/Ive-seen-posts-here-about-Etsy-telling-buyers-that-...

[VintagePatternGirl]

I agree totally - ETSY PLEASE GO BACK TO THE OLD FORMAT of listing MY shipping policy, not an estimated delivery date.

For my orders, my policy has always been to ship the next day (M-F)...  well, it used to be but now a buyer can't see that, just an estimated delivery date picked by Etsy.

Even if I get an order early morning and I ship the same day, my shipping label info shows my item is 'Arriving Late' and the customer is expecting the item tomorrow (and within a few days).  How can they have an item tomorrow, when it's not scheduled to ship until tomorrow, from Florida to Oregon???

It's really confusing as a seller and a customer as well.  When I shop, I want to know when the item is physically shipping, NOT when Etsy says to expect it.  If I'm on the fence about two items from two sellers, I would go with the one who ships the fastest but that no longer shows.  Just Etsy's expect date.

ETSY - you are NOT helping!!

[OurLittleCountryShop]

Yes, buyers are getting confused and it's frustrating for me too! I've had a few customers ask when it will ship and say that the date keeps getting extended(which it does not - at least on my end). I have to tell them the ship date they were given at time of order. I don't know why the delivery date is changed?? I certainly don't change it.

[GrizzlyWorksRC]

Same issue here. I have 1-5 days processing time (M-F) as my shipping policy even though I typically ship orders out either same or next day. However an order placed later in the day Saturday is showing the buyer is expecting delivery between Tuesday and Friday this week. Thats just one of the multiple weekend orders with this issue. WTF Etsy? DON'T HIDE MY STORE SHIPPING POLICY AND GIVE MY CUSTOMERS YOUR MADE UP UNREALISTIC ESTIMATES. Even if I had shippind the item on Saturday (after the post office closed) there is a chance it wouldn't be there by this week. I'm honestly just about done with this platform. Message issues, delivery estimate issues, ignoring legit problems, false information.... To top it all off higher prices to quote, "make the platofrm better for sellers". It seems ever since the prices went up, the problems became more frequent. For fun I just checked one of my listings and Etsy is estimating 2-8 days (not business days) delivery if it's going to the other side of the country. They also don't list my 1-5 day processing time anywhere on the listing. How is that OK? 

[BagmakerSupply]

@GrizzlyWorksRC: I am in no way defending Etsy's method of calculating, but their whole goal is to give the impression of (nearly) instant gratification to the buyer and they have stated that want to see delivery times go down by two days.

So the calculation in your case is understandable if you use their perverse logic. "my 1-5 day processing" to Etsy means that it might ship in one day and their are places that are a one day point from you, therefore "estimating 2" days on the low end makes sense to them. USPS estimates that most points are 3 days in transit therefore your "5 day processing" plus three days in transit equals "8 days" delivery on the high end.

Etsy has never been very good at dealing with what day of the week it or how your time zone affects processing time. An order placed at 12:01 am will show the same scheduled ship by date as one placed at 11:59 pm.

Also keep in mind that there was an announcement that implied that Etsy would ignore your processing time and use your actual shipping time.

Obviously we have no idea of what exactly goes on in the corporate boardroom, but it feels like so many of these things are designed as things they can brag about to shareholders - regardless of if they actually help (or work) or what the impact is on sellers and buyers.

[RavenKingCrafts]

As others have said you are not alone! I have no idea why their analytics are off so badly, they frequently will show that a customer expects and item to arrive BEFORE the item is due to ship. 

[AspendosWoodworking]

Same here. I was thinking that Etsy would fix this but i guess not. I am an IT Manager. Every time we make a change on a system we test in our test environment. Once we believe everything is fine, we move it to a production. For any reason if the update has bugs or it is causing problems, we always have an option to roll it back. It boggles my mind when i see ETSY pushing updates like this and just leave it the way it is for weeks. If we did the same thing i would see a pink slip on my desk. 

[heartmadewhole]

I’m having the same issue. I’ve had multiple angry customers and I’ve had to refer them all to Etsy’s Purchase Protection Program. Not sure why Etsy would prefer to keep refunding these “late” deliveries instead of fixing this issue. And we risk bad reviews for something completely out of our control. So frustrating. 

[BluKatDesign]

I don't get it what is wrong with Etsy? I get the same things & I ship right away!

[TheHeadyMamaWookShop]

I am having the same problem. It's a huge drag. The way my shop is structured, I have quite a long processing period, although of course I take ship by dates seriously. Recently I've been super busy, so a lot of my orders have been shipping out just in the nic of time. I realized that even when I shipped a batch of orders out the day before they were due/the day they were due, they were scheduled to arrive late, compared to the delivery dates Etsy provided buyers. This is because Etsy was estimating that a buyer would receive an item the day after it shipped.

The only way for me to ensure that buyers are receiving their items before the latest estimated delivery date provided at purchase is to disregard the ship by dates provided in shop manager, and re-calculate them at least 4 days ahead of what I'm given. This is highly inconvenient & annoying. Also pretty fed up with this platform

[DPcustoms]

Same issues here, especially with any international orders. Then it's compounded by the rash of unresponsive "Guest" customers. Just a couple reasons we removed all custom options or add-ons, now we confirm with customer what they were shown during checkout and juggle to accommodate if possible. If I don't receive a response within 24 hours after purchase, I cancel. Seriously fed up, but they won't change whatever is happening if it's still initially producing more sales platform wide. Would really like the option to not accept guest orders, that's produced a ton of problems for highly custom product lines. 

[eclecticsoulcostudio]

I’m having the same issues. The messages from customers is hugely frustrating to the point I’ve wanted to close my shop. With what we have to explain to our customers, it sounds scammy and like we are being dishonest. I would feel the same way if I was a customer and received the explanation we have to give. I hope they fix this very soon, I can’t take much more 

[BeadBistroCrafts]

I knew this delivery Estimate issue was going to become a huge problem. I posted about this issue about 3-4 weeks ago and chatted with Etsy support and didn't see then that as many seller's were talking about this issue. I'm glad we are talking about it now because it is a real issue that will cause lasting negative effects on Etsy sellers if Etsy doesn't address it soon.

It is an annoying nuisance right now to try and provide accurate processing times which will reflect to your customers with accurate delivery estimates. You kind of need to lie about the processing times in the shipping profile settings so that a buffer is built in which allows a few extra days for delivery. For instance I process orders in usually 1-2 days, but I have my setting set to 2-3 days just to give a buffer. 

Part of the problem is also when USPS experiences slow downs and estimates change, but this doubled up with the over promising estimates Etsy gives at checkout creates a large problem.

I think this problem will become very amplified as we approach the Holiday Shopping Season. That is when buyers become even more dependent on the estimates to make sure they get items in time for gift making / giving.  

[ChonkKittea]

Is Etsy going to address this problem? Because this is bs

[JustResinBits]

I'm being affected right now, noticed after a buyer contactes me regarding the shipment arriving on time.

My shipping limit is the 14th of November but his expected delivery is 08-16. How the f is this possible?!

Most of my orders are shown properly, others are messed up.

This will have a huge impact on my tiny store

[DougsVintageStore]

Its been like this on and off for my vintage sales for months.

At first I contacted the buyers and explained that because they bought the item on Sunday they were going to get it delivered on Tuesday.

I was lucky and my customers were ok with it.

I got the same messages this weekend for sales.

Best of luck to all.

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