Can anyone tell me why estimated delivery dates are completely wrong?

[luola]

I am a vintage seller so I can sometimes ship purchases as little as 10 minutes after an item is purchased. Often when I do this (or shipping within hours of the sale, or one day, or whatever) the site tells me the shipment may be "late". What on earth am I doing wrong?!! I've even set my shipping dates to up to 5 days after the sale. I don't understand why this keeps happening! I've been lucky since my customers haven't complained, but it's just a matter of time. I've been shipping promptly for over 14 years, and this has become a huge source of frustration and unnecessary stress.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

This won't help. But it's just one post about shipping times. https://community.etsy.com/t5/All-About-Shipping/Etsy-s-estimates-on-shipping-time-causing-disgruntl...

If you scroll through the forum, there are a number of posts about it. Etsy is just being unrealistic again.

[BagmakerSupply]

@luola: Are you referring to a message you get when purchasing labels through Etsy? Based on the many many posts about this in this forum, this is a user interface issue (bug) when purchasing Etsy labels and it does NOT affect Star Seller or Customer Service stats (as long as you mark complete and ship on or before the scheduled to ship by date) or anything else. It is the expected delivery date shown on the actual order after marking as complete that might affect other things.

[luola]

Yes, I'm referring to that message which pops up often when I print shipping labels. Are you saying that my customer isn't seeing and expecting that projected arrival window? I've not had any complaints from buyers, but I've had them mention a shipment being "on time", or before expected arrival date.

And this is a bug? I wonder why it's not been addressed? 

[dayspringcollectible]

Ignore it.  Etsy doesn't go by your processing times, it goes by your actual shipping history, and you are shipping earlier than your processing times.  Since you ship sometimes within minutes of receiving the order, Etsy would consider that same day shipping which means you are shipping on what they consider the last day of shipping.  When you ship on the last day of your shipping window, they often label that as "may be late."  So even though it is four days earlier than your processing time, since Etsy views you as shipping within a day, you are shipping on the last day, and thus in their eyes....late.  On other orders, they are going to start to pressure you after that first day since they are going by your past history and have in their records you ship that fast. They are so messed up on their estimates it is unbelievable.

Remember, they are always competing with Amazon, and since Amazon tries to ship same day or next day, Etsy is always going to push sellers to ship that fast.  But you set your processing time and ignore their messages meant to pressure you.  As long as you ship in the processing period you set, you are fine.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

I sell on Amazon,

I use the same processing times there as here, definitely not same day or next day.

And I post the things off myself through Royal Mail, like I do here

[dayspringcollectible]

Maybe not, but that is their target they aim for.  That's why they have so many distribution centers and their own fleet rather than going through mail systems.  It's also why they want sellers to use FBA instead of shipping themselves, so they can control how fast it is sent out.

And they hit that target often enough that is why buyers have no patience anymore.

[luola]

So are you saying that even though I sometimes ship within 10 minutes of receiving an order, Etsy considers that to be late? I'm so confused...!

My concern is making sure my customers have an accurate idea of when they'll receive an item. Are customers seeing the dates Etsy shows me? As in "expected arrival" dates