Over the past 2 days, I've had 2 customers (one from Canada the other USA) querying the shipping info. they're seeing in their purchase history on their Etsy accounts.
Both orders were shipped from the UK via Standard International Royal Mail (not tracked) using Large Letter Etsy postage labels.
The USA customer sent a screen shot from her 'order history' page showing the correct details of the order etc. but it looked like it also had tracking info, in that there were 3 fields: Shipped/Out for delivery/Delivered.
Her order was showing 'shipped' (which is correct, it was shipped on August 22nd 2024), but at the top of the window it had the word 'refunded'.
No refund has been issued and as far as I'm concerned, the order is on its way as per normal. The customer contacted me again to say that she'd now spotted other orders showing 'refunded' on the shipping info in her order history, despite no refunds being requested nor issued and those orders having been delivered successfully.
I contacted Etsy chat. It turns out Etsy is sent info from Royal Mail, via the label's reference number (which Etsy is calling a 'tracking' number) and that Royal Mail insert 'Refunded' by default and Etsy can't remove it. (I'm wondering if it might refer to a refund request from the seller for the shipping label itself, but it doesn't appear to be an optional field which can be selected or deselected by RM, which I would have expected to be the case).
As far as the 'shipping date', 'out for delivery' and 'delivered' fields go, this is info which Etsy receives from Royal Mail but we don't see it. The fact that customers are seeing it is unexpected and the chat team member said she'd report this to the relevant department.
I wondered if perhaps only the 'shipped' field is completed on non-tracked orders, but the second customer (in Canada) is seeing 'Delivered'. It was shipped on August 14th 2024, NOT tracked and is estimated to be delivered any day now, but it hasn't been delivered. I'm asking her to confirm that the address is accurate and that the package hasn't been left with a neighbour etc. but from experience, I'm not expecting to hear the address was wrong, or it turned out to be with a neighbour. (I'm happy to refund/replace as a lost package is a rare occurrence for me).
Hopefully Etsy are now aware, but I'm wondering if other UK sellers are aware that overseas customers are seeing tracking updates (or at least 'Shipped' 'Out for delivery' and 'Delivered' info) on non-tracked Standard International RM items?
