Royal Mail International Shipping from U.K. has totally inaccurate delivery dates on Etsy

[#1]

I have reported this repeatedly to no avail via “chat” so am trying again here. There needs to be 2 different International Shipping rules for overseas from U.K. or a system to allow us to specify the delivery timeframe. 

My international sales are predominantly to the USA. Royal Mails delivery “aim” to the USA is 5-7 working days. In reality, it often takes up to 10 working days. Etsy constantly advises my customers of totally unrealistic delivery dates - often as little as 3 working days! 

In an attempt to preempt angry customers, I message every overseas buyer to explain that the delivery dates they are given are entirely inaccurate and to give more realistic dates. Of course, not every customer reads this and I inevitably get penalised for “late” delivery.

Etsy has told me that they use information given by the shipping provider but that simply can’t be the origin of this information. As I said, Royal Mail International (which is what my profile is set to) aims to deliver to the USA in 5-7 working days and within Europe, it aims for 3-5 working days. At the very least, if Etsy is drawing from this information but not differentiating between destination country, Etsys “Royal Mail International” profile should then surely allow a window of 3-7 working days?

However, I can have 3 orders within minutes of each other, all with the same “dispatch by” date (they all share the same shipping profile), all going overseas and they all have different (wildly inaccurate) delivery dates! Why? Today, I even have one to the U.K. which is showing a longer delivery window than one going to the USA! How would that possibly happen?

PLEASE can someone from Etsy look into this. It’s driving me mad.

I have been on Etsy for 6 years and know my way around shipping profiles and processing times - it is definitely not an issue with either, at my end. It is an Etsy fault/bug and I would be extremely grateful if someone would PLEASE look into it. I can’t believe I am the only UK seller experiencing problems with this.

Thank you in advance, Kim

[TheUniqueChocolate]

Original Post here is - "Royal Mail International Shipping from U.K. has totally inaccurate delivery dates on Etsy" it's not "how to complain on Royal mail ".

This is what most of the sellers are talking about, it's not about Royal mail or other supplier - it's about wrong estimate delivery dates on Etsy. And it's a issue for most sellers.

What is the reason for arguing with so many sellers here - if the problem with Etsy estimated times exists and it's visible on many threads on the forum.

[MischiefWarren]

Thank you

[ParusHome]

Sorry bu this looks like they not deliver only my orders from your words - "If Royal mail are not delivering to their times FOR YOU, complain to them and/or change your shipper" Have a look on the forum and you will see hom nay sellers are in the same situation.

I don’t really understand why I should complain to Royal Mail if they aren’t the ones writing on Etsy estimated deliveries to customers.

Please stop unreasonably shielding etsy. 

Thank you

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@ParusHome 

etsy picks up the days for delivery from Royal mail 

Royal mail says standard delivery to USA is 5-7 working days,

I am not a shielding type of person, no idea where you get that from, etsy has a LOT of things wrong with the site, it's just this isn't one of them.

If you don't like ROYAL MAILS delivery times that you are experiencing, contact them, or use a different shipper

[ParusHome]

Unfortunately you dont understand (or ignore) the main issue here - we do not need to change the shipping or contact royal mail (let us decide what we need to do) - we need to indicate the RIGHT shipping times, etsy dosent allow us to do it - and is showing the wrong things to customers.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

etsy is showing 5-7 days, that is the RIGHT number of days, as supplied by Royal Mail

If  Royal Mail are not delivering in their quoted  5-7 days, then it's Royal Mails problem

contact Royal Mail, and find out why yours are not being delivered in their times

[ParusHome]

It seems like you're repeating your previous points multiple times, and I believe we've reached the limit of constructive discussion on this matter. While I respect your perspective, I feel there’s insufficient evidence or arguments to support the claim that Etsy is in the right here. Let's conclude this discussion, as it feels unproductive at this stage.

I encourage you to review the experiences shared by other sellers and form their own opinions. It's important to respect differing viewpoints without imposing them on others. We are all capable adults capable of making our own decisions on what exactly we need to do. 

Good Luck

[MyOublawness]

That problem persisted already in 2016. I had set the Royal Mail profile (3-7 days) for USA as that time I saw no other options on Etsy (I was indeed sending with Royal Mail). Of course the package didn't arrive on time. Had an angry customer who demanded money back and I had to pay. Then I contacted Royal Mail office and they confirmed that never ever parcels can be delivered in such a time frame. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

look at my tracking above, mine are delivered in the 5-7 working days

nit just tat one, nut 99% of them

[KanjaniCraft]

99% of not a lot though, let’s be perfectly honest here. Statistically speaking your numbers are too small to generalise. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

99% is 99%

arriving in ROYAL MAILS times

my numbers are reasonable

yours might be greater, but if you are having more than 1% with a problem, there are 3 choices

1. contact royal mail to find out why
2. if there is not a suitable answer, use a different shipper
3. live with it.

[LoraLanee]

Royal Mail state their delivery times as an "AIM" . Do Etsy do the same? Of course Royal Mail states also that delivery can be anytime up to 28 days, after that you can make a claim for a lost package.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@LoraLanee 

Royal mails days are for on time delivery,

they have other dates for lost, but this is not about lost

Etsy's promise is for late

[LoraLanee]

Hi Crafty

But Royal Mail don't say delivery is 5 - 7 days, they say that this is their "aim"  to deliver with 5 - 7 day? So sellers cannot complain to Royal Mail if delivery isn't within that time because Royal Mail actually say delivery can be anytime within 28 days? 

It looks like Etsy tell customers that delivery is within 5 -7 days. But that's not true.. even according to Royal Mail that's not true. I think that's where the problem stems from, even if lots of items do arrive within that time! 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@WishesontheWind 

Royal mail doe not say it is their aim, they say that's when it's DUE

Royal mail say they will deliver in 5-7 days, they actually say it is the DUE date

So, after it's DUE date, it is late

and 25 days after the DUE date, they will pay for LOST

Etsy says when it is DUE - according to Royal mails times, and they refund when it's past DUE

[WishesontheWind]

The time frame of 5 - 7 days is very optimistic, a lot of mail arrives later than these dates. I have a load of packages in the system arriving later, some stuck in customs.  I am in the UK.  In the past etsy used to word estimate arrival dates, this has changed now to buyer expects delivery.  

Also the dates provided by etsy are simply wrong

one example I have to the US with a 5 - 7 day lead time states dispatch by 6th Jan, yes that is correct

Buyer expects delivery by: 07-08 Jan, ( in the past was worded est arrival date) that is inaccurate and does not account for royal mail 5 - 7 days mail time.  Mail will not arrive to the US in this time frame, that is just crazy.  

and another example to the US.  mail by 2nd Jan

Buyer expects delivery by: 04 Jan

No date range just will arrive in 2 days, now that is wildly innacurate!

So another order going to the UK purchased same date so mail by 6th

Buyer expects delivery by: 03-09 Jan

arrival to the UK later than US.  Mailing same date, this is the problem.  There is a clear problem and yes it has been going on for some time. I think over Christmas season it becomes more worrisome and obvious of course.  

Dates revert back to your set profiles after mailing which just causes more confusion.  Customer saw one date after making order, date changes after mailing. 

In the past, not that long ago I could communicate to customers in the US that their packages can take 4 - 6 wks sometimes longer, most were happy with that, of course cant do that now.  

[MischiefWarren]

Exactly. Thank you.

[KittyGiftsCompany]

CraftyCornishMaids has no clue what those who do higher volume than her experience so just automatically dismisses everything as 'well I've never had a problem so it must be you'. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

I did not dismiss them

In fact, I actually offered ways around them,

the advice is for anyone who has problems with Royal mail delivery dates

[WishesontheWind]

My focus is not on royal mail time frames but in examples shown above etsy time frames, showing unrealistic dates when customer places order, then flipping back to the correct time frames once mailed.  This is where the confusion lies for both customer and seller.  My profiles are set accurately.  Same profiles used for above examples.  These dates are  proof of a clear problem, that is a fact.

If I were to focus on royal mail time frames then as mentioned the 5-7 business days is very optimistic, many orders arrive later especially  more so during busy season.  

[maisiev]

There is a definite problem here with Etsy's projection of R.M. delivery dates, particularly with overseas orders. Okay they may garner the info from said carrier,and sometimes the delivery is within that timeframe. CraftyCornishMaids advice is to live with it or change carrier ...... why? Living with it does not solve the problem and all carriers, especially at this time of year (and other peak buying times), are under immense pressure owing to volume and adverse weather conditions. Customs become overloaded, flights can be delayed, we as sellers can fore warn customers of this, the big 'BUT' is Etsy have advised otherwise ...... hence only they can fix it.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

the poster was complaining about the 5-7 days,

that is not etsy days, that's Royal Mails due days for USA

It is not etsy's to Fix, they are Royal mails due dates

[PedalSilver]

Is this why I’m getting lower ‘on time shipping’ scores…even though I’m shipping them on time!? This is potentially affecting Star Seller status?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

no

this does not affect on time shipping with tracking scores

this is about actual delivery to the customer, not posting off on time

[BagmakerSupply]

@PedalSilver: Customer Satisfaction and Star Seller are based on 'shipped', not 'delivered'.

If your percentage has gone down, you need to check the applicable CSV file on your Customer Service page (last review period for February star) to see what Etsy thinks is late or otherwise has something wrong with it. In particular make sure that *Had processing time?* = yes, *Ship by* has a date, *Tracking/label date* has a date, and *Shipped on time?* = yes. Remember that Star Seller dates / times are in UTC not your time zone.