I seem to be having technical issues with etsy and shipping my items. I am trying to understand what is going on and if its something on my end or error on etsy's end.
On my listing I have 3-5 days processing time and I am using USPS Ground Advantage to ship my orders which is 2-5 days (the shipping is free ont he customers end). On April 9th I received 3 orders all which needed to be shipped by April 12th and were all expected to be delivered by April 17th.
Issue number 1 is that this completely ignores my 3-5 days processing time and gives me only 2 days. So I process the orders as fast as I can. These are laser cut and hand made items and I have my own website outside of etsy where I get most of my orders from so I like to give myself enough time to process all of that. This did not allow for that but I prioritized etsy anyways as I don't typically use etsy and listed stuff here just to see how I would like it. I have other issues with etsy like the amount of fees they take from offsite ads etc but that's another complaint for another time.
Issue number 2 is that when I went to ship these orders and buy labels from etsy it immediately told me the items would be arriving late to the customer. I selected USPS Ground Advantage 2-5 days, it would not allow me to checkout and instead asked only let me select a quicker obviously more expensive shipping option. I ended up buying the same labels through paypal for 10¢ cheaper and the items will arrive on time despite etsy saying the same exact shipping setting would not arrive on time.
I had another order placed last night (April 14th) and then my account was put on a reserve, 30% is held until the item is shipped or 45 days pass...extremely annoying but ok. This order states I have until April 19th to ship out. I processed and shipped it today but my concern is that it says customer expects it by April 23. Now if I took the full amount of time to process this order and mailed it on the 19th that gives it 4 days to get there even though USPS Ground Advantage can take up to 5 days...that would make Etsy consider the package once again LATE.
I am not understanding what etsy is doing but this setup they have creates confusion for the seller and disappointment for the buyer if it does not arrive on time. Does anyone have any feedback on how I can approach this for a better experience for the customer? If I get any busier than I already am I wont be able to keep up with these kinds of deadlines. I'm not sure if this is a glitch I'm experiencing or the natural way things function here.
