I figured out why Etsy makes up delivery times for cusomers

[#1]

It is been annoying the heck out of me for a while that often when I have an order and I manage to fill it the same day, that when I generate postage on Etsy for the order it will say something like "USPS Ground Advantage Recommended,  Slowest Estimated delivery Oct 19-23 (Buyer expects Oct 18-21)".
Seems Etsy likes to give the buyer an estimation of deliver time based on FIRST CLASS and there is NO WAY to adjust the profile to use Ground Advantage. So that makes the times different. Then to make matters worse, I have all my items set to up to 3 days to make, but I tend to make things in advance and list a few at a time, so I can usually ship the day of the order or the next. Because of this, etsy says "Your history: 1 day. This is based on your processing times over the past 120 days for shipped orders that used these settings.", so I think they use 1 day not my 3! And I have my processing schedule set to Your shop's order processing schedule is set to include: Monday–Friday, and all holidays, but Etsy's buyer shown calculations INCLUDE weekends so an order on a Friday with a 3 day estimate is claimed to arrive MONDAY!

COME ON ETSY! FIX your system for shipping delivery times or stop lying to our buyers!

[GlassyFields]

@BeJeweledByDEBORAH 

I do the same thing - customers ask if I can guarantee a delivery date and I tell them that the only thing I can control is my ship date but that I have no control over what the carriers do. I sometimes add that most deliveries are within the carrier's standard times but sometimes things go awry at the carrier end. On rare occasions, the customer will not order (and if the date is critical ... I don't want to be on the hook for something I can't control anyhow) but for the most part, this honesty hasn't affected orders. And in some cases the customer has asked to pay for a guaranteed delivery service.

As far as Etsy's calculated times ... I don't even look at these. I make sure that I get my orders to the post office no later than my ship date (I'm usually faster but I've built in some contingency in my processing times). That's all I can do and so far I've had very few issues.

And as for the various classes of service ... I use Ground Advantage as the default. I've seen Ground Advantage move faster than priority. The only classes of service that USPS guarantees are the very pricey services that say guaranteed. Every now and then someone pays extra for one of these.

[MyOnlyChoice]

I’ve experienced same issues. I also have set my shipping for 3 days. Recently my orders were coming with a note “ ship by tomorrow. I wondered why! 

[BlueBayerDesignNYC]

“ buyer expects delivery by …… “ I find it irritating.  When I set a ship date for two weeks for a ring I have to cast  and set stones in I mean two weeks.  Don’t go around me and promise them something I didn’t.  To please the investors phhhhh

[CoolCyberCats]

But the worst part (for me) is I have a 4 day processing time set up (gives me time to make something if I do not have it premade). I will get an order at 1pm AND I pack it and go to generate the postage at 3pm (SAME DAY) and it says it will be late!!

[memoreasykeepsakes]

I agree their estimated arrival times are inacurrate and even if i ship an order out the same day it'll say it's going to arrive LATER than when the buyer expects it...this is setting us up to tick people off.  My processing time is set correctly at 1-3 business days as well - they need to base the ETA on the 3rd day...not the first!  It's baloney.

[EccentricHandbags]

When ground advantage was introduced it lowered shipping costs for me.  The trade off is that everything takes longer to get there now.  I would say that more than half of my orders are late.  Etsy knows they will be so often when I go to print a label it defaults to priority hoping I'll pick up the difference.  I don't.  Not one buyer has complained yet.  If this is how the post office not operates then expectations have to change.

[ModKenneth · Accepted solution]

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