Ship by date on new order is wrong

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

hi...I have had my shipping time set at 1 to 2 days for years and years. I have not touched it. I just got an order and it's saying I have to ship by tomorrow. It always gives me 2 days, or more if it's on a Friday. I'm not happy about this as I've been in bed with a messed up back and would have really appreciated having the 2 days just in case I need it

I don't know if I need to go in and change anything now because of this. My other options are 1 day and 3 days. But 2 days has always worked. Anyone else getting this problem today?

jamee

[FunkyJunkyVintage]

Unfortunately there's not an automatic correction for ship dates when it comes to holidays and sellers need to be aware of such dates, but you can go in an manually push out the date further. It only works one time so make sure you give yourself a reasonable extension due to whatever issues that you're having, along with adding a note to your buyer letting them know the ship date has been delayed however many days.

You can update your ship by date by clicking on those three little vertical dots on your sold orders page next to the item in question.

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Thanks for the help Yes I do know how to change the ship by date that we can do one time. I was going to wait until tomorrow to see how I'm feeling and go from there. I should be able to do it, I just don't want this to keep happening. I believe it is the second time.

Even though today is a holiday I still think Etsy is glitching, counting today as a regular day, the ship by date should still say Wednesday, not Tuesday.

[FunkyJunkyVintage]

Yes, I think they goofed on today being a holiday as my deposit went out instead of being held till tomorrow.

[VogueVixens]

FYI Etsy doesn't account for ANY holidays, no matter if you're in the USA or anywhere else.  As an international site, there are just far too many different holidays for them to keep track of, and program, so they don't.

So if you ever need extra time to ship, due to an upcoming holiday, keep that in mind, and edit your shipping profiles for the processing date before the holidays occur.  I try to do this every year for when we have 2 days canadian holidays affecting the same weekend; Good Friday & Easter Monday, and Christmas & Boxing Day. 

[PotteryUrns]

I have my shipping set at 1 to 2 days like you do. In the last few months I have the same thing happen that you just did.  It seems to mainly happen on order that come in late at night where I am still on today and Etsy is already on tomorrow. Another words it seems to be a time difference glitch causing it. Like you I really don't want to go to 3 day shipping even though I could still ship sooner as often my customers need the item in a hurry and are looking for items that ship quickly. I try to ship next day or even same day if order comes in early in the day, however like that extra day in case weather is bad or I'm sick or anything. 

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Come to think of it I do believe this is the 2nd time this has happened to me. But I don't remember if the order was in the evening. I'm in Hawaii..so the order was between 5 and 6 pm Hawaiian time, but came from Florida. Etsy may have already been in Tomorrow..but then that doesn't make sense because according to them, then that means the order is supposed to ship the same day. I still think it's a glitch.

[VogueVixens]

Sometimes there is a time glitch on orders for the hour(s) when Etsy's timezone is in a different day than you. My timezone is 1 hour later than Etsy's, so any sale I get between 11pm-1159 pm usually have the wrong ship by date, but get corrected by Etsy's system soon after Etsy's timezone and mine agree on "today's" date.

Edit to add: I'm central time, Etsy is EST. 

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

I could see this being the possible issue if my time was later than Etsy's...but I'm in Hawaii so they are way ahead of me. It seems that if it was 12 am the next day for Etsy..they would be saying it has to ship the same day. Unless I'm looking at it wrong.

[VogueVixens · Accepted solution]

There is a 7 hour time difference between your location and Etsy's, so that is why the delivery date is coming up earlier, because it's still Monday for you, but for Etsy it is Tuesday, so they are treating your order as if it was purchased on a Tuesday.

In my experience, your shipping date will be fixed, at this specific time (2am EST) after 5 more hours have passed, for you, when it is Tuesday for both of you. 

[AAANativeArts]

You can only change the ship by date once, and you have to do it before the day it is actually due to ship or it won't let you change it. If it says it has to ship by tomorrow, you will have to change it today. You can push it out up to 21 days. You don't really have to cut your shipping times so close. I routinely say it takes me a week to ship, although I almost always ship the same day or next day. It doesn't keep people from ordering from me, and if they are in a really big hurry, they will usually contact me to see if I can get it out faster. But most people don't comment on it at all. And I have my share of orders, so I don't think it keeps many people from ordering from me.

[VogueVixens]

She should wait first to see if Etsy's system fixes it, once the date is the same for both locations. Mine always get fixed.

[Spellbinderie]

You can ABSOLUTELY change the date the same day it's due to ship.  @AAANativeArts 

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Thank you for the awesome advice..certainly something to consider right now with my back issue. I also didn't realize that you couldn't change the ship by date on the day it is supposed to go out. so I will keep that in mind as well. Thankfully the issue adjusted and today, Tuesday for me in Hawaii it says it's due tomorrow instead of today...yay!

[FunkyJunkyVintage]

@JonaraBluMauiJewelry 

Sorry! I had the holiday weekend on my mind. When I actually reread and digested your question correctly I must say that, yes, this has happened to me and, in fact, just happened to me with a couple orders that came in just a few hours apart. One said that I had to ship out by tomorrow and the other said I could ship out by 5/31. I've got my shipping set for 1-3 business days so depending on my organization and motivation I have a little cushion on that.

Like my fellow sellers have said I believe it is due to the time zones and, yes, being closer to the West coast, not to mention Arizona doesn't do Daylight Savings time, it can be interesting noting those ship times.

FWIW, I sometimes, most often actually, ship out on that 3rd business day and a lot of my feedback mentions fast shipping so if you needed that extra day or two I think you should be ok.

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Oh no worries! I was all confused anyways thinking the time difference shouldn't have affected the situation the way it did..now I get what happened. We don't do daylight savings either...so it can get confusing!

Thanks for your experience with 3 day shipping, I'm seriously considering it esp right now because of my back. It's better than the 2 months I had to shut down completely.

[AnnaleasFinest]

@JonaraBluMauiJewelry 

firstly, all the best for your sore back!

You can extend the "ship by date" by clicking your order number and selecting "more actions", last possible time is the day before shipment.

It's too late once it says: Ship today.

You can explain to your buyer in the message that comes along with the update message to the buyer that they can cancel if they don't agree with this. Select enough days to give yourself time to heal!

I suggest you relax a bit and then extend all your processing times to 1-3, it can work for years, and then comes an emergency and it doesn't work and you have unneccessary extra stress.

[VogueVixens]

No, it's not too late to extend the shipping date if it says "Ship today".  It is too late if the last day to ship has already past.

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Thank you so much! I am most likely going to change it to 3 days...after I go through all my listings and change that it says 2 days in the description lol...thankfully I can do that from bed on my laptop

[WendyShrayDesigns]

Hope your back feels better soon! The ship date has always confused me and led me to change my processing time from 1-3 days to 3-5 days. Over the weekends I was getting too many orders that were all due on the same day, as it didn't seem to take weekend days into account, or even USPS holidays. And, even when printing shipping labels before the due date I would often get a notice saying that the order might arrive late. I still get my orders out in 1 to 3 days, and buyers comment in reviews that their orders arrived sooner than expected, so they seem happy. Even when I order from Amazon these days, it takes about 5 days for my items to arrive, so just to say that even Amazon doesn't ship as fast as they used to. I don't think it has really affected my sales volume too much, and I am less stressed. 

[Spellbinderie]

@WendyShrayDesigns 

The ship by date does not count weekends or holidays.  Etsy hasn't programmed in holidays for all sellers all over the world.  They expect us to adjust our ship by dates as needed.

[JonaraBluMauiJewelry]

Wow it wasn't even considering the weekend...that would def get stressful! Usually when I get an order on a Thursday it gives me until Monday to ship...and I have my shipping set at 1 - 2 days. But I"m def going to change that. Thank you for sharing your experience...it seems the extra shipping time is not hurting anyone's business...awesome to hear!

[VogueVixens]

@Spellbinderie On our Etsy orders, the processing time is by Business days, so Etsy does take Saturday and Sunday into account when stating tbe Ship date.

If I get 3 orders; 1 on Friday, 1 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday, if they have the same processing time (we have the same on all listings), the Ship by date is exactly the same on ALL 3.

So Etsy does count weekends, just not any Holidays. 

[Spellbinderie]

@VogueVixens 

I meant that holidays during the week (Mon-Fri) are not considered as days off so they are counted as business days.

While Saturday & Sunday are not counted since they are not business days.

Sorry if my post was confusing.

From Etsy for clarity for anyone following:
"Processing times and “ship by” dates are determined using business days and don’t include weekends, but may include holidays. If a “ship by” date falls on a holiday, you can update the date once per order."

[Spellbinderie]

I suspect there is some kind of timezone issue here.  I know you pointed out that it would appear that the buyer is actually a day ahead of you but you never know, maybe the buyer is shipping to Florida but doesn't live there or isn't there at the moment or there is some other reason for the glitch.  Look at the order's packing slip to see what date is listed there.  That one is usually accurate and will let you know if the date could change last minute.