Star Seller ranking may have a serious bug with shipping...

[Frostwytches]

I ship every item next day, always have.

For some reason my shipping ranking is at 87%??

I use Etsy labels every time, there are tracking numbers assigned automatically. Yet somehow I have 5 items that are being flagged as not shipped on time or something thus disqualifying me for star seller once again. Im disabled and I spend a LOT of energy getting to the post office at 8am to make sure items go out next day. I even ship on Saturdays instead of waiting until Monday. What can be done to adjust my account and give me credit for all these items I DO ship immediately? Look at my reviews, customers rave about the fast shipping. 

HELP?! 

[AnniebelloPaper]

You need to contact Etsy and get them to look into it. Sounds like a glitch.

Moving forward... please stop stressing over that pissy purple star. It actually gives you nothing more than anyone who doesn't have it. Look at your reviews. You're doing the right thing by your customers and they know it. You are a grown up business owner. Do you need a star from Etsy to confirm what you already know? 

[Frostwytches]

That "pissy purple star" as you put it, shows buyers we are reliable sellers.  Things like this add value to our sites and can help with sales.

It's a marketing tool I'd like to use. No I don't need it but as we PAY fees to use this site I'd expect all the functions and info listed on our stores to be accurate. This feature shows inaccurate data which is misleading. People  buy more from top sellers. Top seller badges show a certain level of professionalism and buyers feel more comfortable buying from sites with this.

I work hard to qualify and yes I want that stupid star because I've earned it. My stats should reflect this reality.

So this needs to be fixed if it's a feature. I have tried contacting support but the redirect link states an error message and goes nowhere. Another broken site issue. So contacting them isn't possible anyway.

Let's not lecture each other here please. We're all working hard to sell our products and mutual support can be very valuable. 

[TheVioletGoat]

Well said. 

[ChantillyAvenue]

@Frostwytches 

I agree with you & think it's inexcusable for there to be any bugs in this system.  That said, there are so many resellers who Etsy promotes as star sellers, it doesn't show buyers that we are reliable sellers; it simply promotes the illusion that we are.

[AnniebelloPaper]

@Frostwytches so our 5-star reviews and many sales don't show buyers we are reliable sellers? Some of us will never get the purple star because we don't have access to cheap tracking or tracking that Etsy recognises, or we don't make enough money according to Etsy, or have enough sales according to Etsy ... yet there are plenty of 'professional' resellers and counterfeiters with that purple star. 

All  sellers like the OP are stressing out over it and it gives you nothing extra. If you read my comment, you would see I'm trying to support them. 

[JDTotesnDolls]

Not lecturing but pointing out that you may need to reassess how you complete your shipping. We all can have slipups where we think we are fine but honestly we miss something.

Earn it?  Not really if this is the way you always conduct your customer service.  Just an added little carrot from Etsy.  I haven't changed the way I run my business yet I get the badge.  I also know I can lose it easily simply by the nature of what it requires.  It's not changing how I run my business.

[NuWaveSeaGlass]

Unfortunately though, the purple star is also on many shops that are selling infringing items as well as other items that are not Etsy legal.  Yes, maybe they are getting more sales due to this but should they be?  I do agree that things like this that Etsy puts in place should work properly but many of them just don't.

[Frostwytches]

Which is exactly why reputable sellers should use this system and get credit for providing good service. The resellers with a star get business and we don't,  which isn't fair. So to fight back we ALL need whatever marketing perks we can get. Then maybe one day we can get rid if those shops who DON'T  follow the rules!

[SugarTaffySoap]

You can try chat support. 

Dashboard > Community & Help > Contact Us >Selling on Etsy >Manage Listings, if none of those topics apply, go to the bottom and click  "I Still Need Help"

Good luck with your shop. It's awesome! 

[Frostwytches]

Thank you! I'll give that a try too. And thank you for peeking at my shop!

[MalionneHair]

I think with star seller shipping, it doesn't matter if you've just marked it as shipped or it's in pre-transit. It has to be fully "in-transit" for it to be considered shipped, even if you did print the labels or drop it off at the post office. If it wasn't scanned, it's not considered shipped, sadly. We learned this the hard way as well & sorry you're going through this! 

[Frostwytches]

That's very true which is why I wait in line and watch them scan everything.  Yes, ridiculous I know but thought maybe that was safer. Apparently Etsy isnt satisfied or something. I always ship  next day so I'm determined to find a solution to this nonsense.  Then if I do I'll share with everyone here. Hopefully that happens as we can all benefit I'm sure

[crossstitchnerd]

But what about shops (like mine) where 100% of my sales this year have been Digital Downloads?  That way, the buyer is directed to download the files once their payment has cleared, this there is NO shipping involved! Since most of my sales are of items that the individual sales price is less than $10, I feel like the last minute addition of shipping is yet another way that Etsy can keep a small shop like mine from ever being able to achieve Star Sellers Status or even a measly little badge despite all of the efforts that I have made to undo some of the damage that had been done to my business reputation when my ex-significant other of 18 years had arranged to have my business laptop stolen and also refused to turn over to me my backup hard drive so that I could access my Etsy shop and fill the orders that did come in during the more than three years that it took for me to be able to regain control of my Etsy shop!!

Not only do I feel as if Etsy has pulled the good old bait and switch tactic on me, but despite my attempts to let Etsy know that they are not formatting the spreadsheet that they use to calculate the message response times, has a glaring error in it! The column that contains the dates received and responded to are NOT formated as "Date" cells, which had resulted in a few of my response times being some time in the future, or the lapsed time has ended up being months after the initial message had been received!! This has been extremely unsettling for me for the reasons just discussed!

So, briefly, for an award involving customer service practices, Etsy appears to be unresponsive to MY concerns and problems with the accuracy of the calculations that they use which is resulting in poor customer service on their part and has made it appear that I have not corrected the issues that had resulted in my negative reviews before I regained control and reopened my shop about a year ago!! VERY unprofessional, ETSY!!

Linda Adams McGuire

The Crossstitchnerd 

[designsbydieter]

@Frostwytches, were you able to download the CSV file and  see which of your orders are being counted as late/not shipped. If you are able to see those orders you could put the tracking number into USPS /UPS (whichever you use) and see the shipping date and if they have been delivered.  Then you would have the information that Etsy would need to update your account.  Hope this helps.

[moonbeamgifts]

You mention going to the PO - are you buying postage there and then updating tracking from the receipt?   If so, the issue could be something as simple as if you aren't entering the number soon enough.   If you're using Etsy labels or a service like PirateShip which automatically updates the order status, then you will want to contact Etsy directly to open a ticket - support staff doesn't sift through the forums for issues to solve.

And just as a side note in case you're not aware, you can schedule a pick up at your residence by your mailman during regular postal delivery for free if you're not feeling up to making the trip in every day.    I understand sticking to a  schedule may be important motivation for you and it does require a little bit of prior knowledge of a bad day but if you feel something coming on, you can schedule through usps.com.   Hope that helps if you didn't know.    :  )

[lovestrucksoul]

If you schedule a pickup just print a scan form, it includes all your packages and they scan it when they pick it up. If you go to the post office, just leave them on the counter with their scan form, you don't need to wait in line. Assuming they have prepaid labels...

[moonbeamgifts]

Scan forms are unfortunately becoming a hot topic in the PO.   Apparently with some of the scanners they have, if there's a sizeable quantity of packages, it can actually freeze the scanner and it's faster to just fly through the bar codes.    I knew my mailman preferred to just scan when he picked up but he's been at the location practically since it opened so I chalked it up to that.    

When I took a scan form in after a busy weekend to the PO, she pushed it aside and gave me the low down.   Again, might not be everywhere but there's definitely controversy!  :  )

[Frostwytches]

Hello!

I use Etsy postage labels with tracking,then I bring to the PO next morning at 8am, hand to clerk to watch her scan them. So every item should be eligible etc.

One feature I noticed is that if Etsy estimates the arrival date and it shows up after that its flagged as "late".

Maybe that's the issue. Which seems unfair tbh.  

[BeachFleaMarket]

double check your shipping profiles for the range of days to ship. The listing I looked at showed 1-3 days so that seems safe. Holidays are included in the shipping date range even with the post office closed. That's why I use the longer option also. I don't have to adjust the shipping time frame for every holiday.

[Frostwytches]

Yeah I thought of that so changed all to 1-2 days instead of 1 day. 

Even though I ship next day I'm thinking a longer window for Etsy may trip their algorithms a bit.

[PatCahillMetalworks]

Did you download the csv file to see which orders were marked as not shipped on time?  This might be helpful for when you converse with Etsy.

Good Luck

Doh edited to say that someone already suggested this.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Are you setting the day you ship to the day you go to the post office?  If you don't change that to the day USPS gets your item, the system can glitch. 

I don't think Saturday can be selected now as a shipping day any longer.  I haven't looked in a couple of days. I do ship on Saturdays or did but as I said I haven't looked.  But anyhow, the day you actually ship should be the day you mark on the Etsy label.  You can only do that for 3 days.  

You have a 2 day processing time frame.  Are you making a label the last day of your processing but not taking it to the next day?  If so then Etsy considers that not shipped on time.  You have to ship within that 2 day processing time frame.

You may need to reassess your shipping practice.  I have disabilities too which I had to take into account so I set my processing time frame accordingly so I can work within my processing time frame.

[Frostwytches]

I print labels until midnight, same day as order. Then drop off next morning at 8am so time frames not an issue. I watch the clerk scan them too as this little PO had issues throwing everything in a bin and scanning whenever last year. So trying to make double sure alls well. I think the glitch may have been the estimated arrival time Etsy assigns. If item arrives a day later than their predicted date, THAT might be the issue.

From what I can tell on my download there were 2 items shipped to Europe that took longer than expected. That's likely the issue.

Which of course we have no control over.