Etsy marks orders as "Delivered" once they leave the country (Norway)

[Artlysian]

Etsy is sending notifications to customers that their packages have been delivered after the parcel reaches "Oslo Letter Center" ( at this point packages are leaving Norway).

I informed Etsy support and they said they would inform their team, but we all know that Etsy customer service never earned the Star Seller badge so I am not optimistic.

There are now hundreds of orders affected, many customers complain every day and I started getting 1-star reviews.

This problem existed 8 months ago and after many explanations they solved but 2 days ago it started again.

I also informed AfterShip service because last time I read Etsy was using their system for tracking.

[Grimnir3D]

I have the same issue from Norway. I've also noticed that even though I have 10-14 days delivery time, the "estimated delivery date" shows one single date, and it does not correspond with the delivery time and dispatched date. The "estimated delivery date" used to be a time range (e.g. 20-24 january), but in many cases lately it's shown as a single date. I even have some orders that were placed on January 13, dispatched same day, and now it says "Buyer expects delivery by: 15 Jan". My estimated delivery time is 10-14 days in the delivery settings, so a two day delivery on the other side of the globe is just ridiculous. I remember having this issue back in May 2024 as well. Both times when I contact Etsy via seller chat, they simply say that they will forward it and that their engineers are looking into it. When I work my ass of making exceptional products and always ship same or next day, I'm sick of receiving one star reviews because customers are falsely notified that their package are delivered too early. And I'm sick of spending hours explaining to my customers what is going on, when this is something Etsy should have fixed long ago.

[Artlysian]

I understand, I had a lot of difficulties with Etsy customer service, and chat "support" will not help you.

You need to open a help request here: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling 

then you should choose: Selling on Etsy-Managing my shop and listings-Manage listings-I still need help(at the bottom)-Email us.

If more sellers from Norway do this we have some chance.

Last time when I had a problem with listing deactivation by mistake from Etsy I had to wait over 6 weeks for them to fix the mistake. After multiple help requests and forum posts, there was no help until one day I decided to write a letter to the CEO of Etsy here. The post was removed very fast and 1 hour later the listing was activated.

Unfortunately, this is how Etsy works now.

[Grimnir3D]

I have also had horrible experience with Etsy help before. The chat will get you no help other than maybe answer a question, but it seems like they at least are able to escalate the case to someone else who maybe can actually do something.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

This is NOT etsy marking it as delivered, they have no idea whether it is or not

It is your shipper passing this information to etsy

Contact your shipper to find out what they are doing (some shippers mark it as delivered, when they hand over to the next company in the chain)

[Grimnir3D]

I don't think that is the case. As an example, I had a customer whose package left norway on january 2. The customer got delivery confirmation from Etsy on january 13 because that is the last estimated delivery date, but he didn't get the actual package. Customer got back to me the day after because he actually had his package delivered on the 14th. So it seems like Etsy just assumes that the packages are delivered on the last day of the estimated delivery window. The weird thing is, now they have sent out these delivery confirmations after two days saying that customers packages have been delivered. But the packages are still 8-12 days out! Some of them haven't even left my country yet, so this isn't related to that.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@Grimnir3D 

It is the case,

Etsy gets all it's information from the shipper, via aftership

and just puts there, what the shipper gives them

Etsy is not the shipper, and does not track anything themselves

They get batch updates, and just apply them

often shippers say they deliver, before they do, or say they deliver on handover, which will be way before the delivery date

[ArtDollsbyJD]

@Grimnir3D   The information Etsy uses comes from the postal system and not from Etsy.  @CraftyCornishMaids  is correct.

So if there is a glitch then it is with the postal system hitting the wrong keys and marking something delivered. 

Etsy only reports the information given from the postal system. 

[Artlysian]

I know that Etsy is not shipper but if I track on shipper website it says in transit ( last event Oslo Letter Center) and on other tracking websites the same only on Etsy it says delivered. Last time (8 months ago) Etsy support contacted me and said it is problem on their side.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Etsy only gets the information from third parties, and uses that to update their info

Of course you can go direct to the site - etsy doesn't , they are fed the info, they do not go searching for it

[ArtDollsbyJD]

It could be the information from the postal system being fed into Aftership which can make errors a times.  Etsy does not track individual postal systems.  They have a central system that does it.  The glitch is probably between the postal system and Aftership protocol.

[Artlysian]

I got the answer from "support" which basically says: "It can be challenging when things don’t work as anticipated. Although we recognize the importance of addressing this, it’s not something we’re able to prioritize right now."

[BlackCraneCreations]

I'm having this issue too and from what I can see from other international sellers, this isn't just happening to Norwegian sellers.

It's quite frustrating since I need to spend a substantial amount of time calming down worried customers who are told by Etsy their package has been delivered when that is obviously not the case.

[BlackCraneCreations]

This morning I had to reassure 3 customers in the span of 2 hours that no, your package hasn't been delivered yet, and no, I can't do anything about this because it's ok Etsy's end and not something I have control over.

All I can do is direct them to the Norwegian post service web sites which shows the correct tracking. I even ended up sending a message to all my most recent customers to disregard any delivery messages received from Etsy.

[Artlysian]

I now select PostNord as the shipper and put Sporingsnummer (only numbers), not Kollinummer. I put an after-shipping note to buyers where I explain where they can track packages. After I complete the order, it says pre-transit. I keep star seller status, and there are no notifications that orders are delivered. Complicated, but works for me.

[CarnivorousThings]

I have had similar problems when I ship internationally (From the USA) that once the item crosses a border, it often gets marked as delivered.

I have better luck taking the tracking number to a 3rd party tracking service like 17track or parcelsapp, and I often get a more up-to-date and accurate tracking that way.

International orders will be handled by more than one courier service, and they don't always pass along numbers or updates to one another, but a good third party tracking site will usually follow a package across all of it's couriers.