CAUSES FOR POSSIBLE SHIPPING DELAYS: TRACKING INFORMATION UPDATES  Due to the COVID 19 and my location shipping takes significantly longer than it is supposed to according to the timeframe it normally would take for a certain shipping method to get delivered. The length of a delay varies significantly due to the destination, shipping method plus delays with updating the tracking information add to the confusion.    I do my best to ship orders as soon as I can and I take trips to the post office every Monday or Monday and Tuesday of every week. When I bring packages to the post office, I am required to leave them in the designated area made for pre-paid Mail, so the postal workers can scan those orders later the same day.  Sometimes I stay on line to have the orders get processed by a postal employee by scanning the barcode on the label.   However, I noticed that even the orders which were scanned and accepted at the post office in front of me do not receive updates of the tracking information provided on Etsy and are shown as being in “pre-shipment“ stage, which is when only a label is printed for that order, but the actual package was never taken to the post office.   It says that “USPS is currently awaiting for the item“.  This information is INCORRECT, because know that I did ship those orders a few days earlier, but there is no corresponding change in the tracking information registered by the system.  It is worse with those packages that I had to leave, because those take even longer to start moving probably due to being accepted and processed not on the same day as they are supposed to be, but a day or two later. There is no way to know if a certain order is in transit or is sitting at the post office after being dropped off.....   On average the tracking information gets updated 2-7 days late and sometimes more than that....All this time the item can be anywhere: in transit, at the post office still unprocessed or experiencing an actual delay due to the covid 19 fallout.....   ————————————————- Another issue I need to bring your attention to occurs with the INCORRECT ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATE provided to you in the email you receive from Etsy which also contains the tracking information. This notification is automatically sent after I print out a shipping label, and the date estimated to be the date of delivery is calculated automatically based on standard shipping times, which do not take into account shipping delays, holidays or any other specific details.  I print labels in advance, so I am asking you to please DISREGARD THE ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATE  - it is wrong, and only brings in more confusion into the whole mess with the delays during transit.  You are NOT GOING TO RECEIVE YOUR PACKAGE ON THE DATE PROVIDED BY ETSY IN THE EMAIL. Period.   If you have any specific deadlines you should always let me know when you place your order, so I can take care of your order in advance.  I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TRYING TO ENSURE DELIVERY ON THE DATE PROVIDED BY ETSY without taking into account anything else that might be taking place, so PLEASE DISREGARD THAT ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATE as soon as you see it.  —————————————————  The actual shipping delays can last a few days, but with the added uncertainty of the lack of the reliable tracking information there is no way to tell how many days an item has been in transit until it is delivered and the entire tracking history becomes available at once.    The issue with tracking information has become such a persistent problem, that I need to let people know that this is what has been going on for a long time, and this is completely out of my hands: I will take responsibility for something that I did or something that I can do to change the situation and make it better, but in this case there is NOTHING I CAN DO. I have to wait and keep checking the status of every order I shipped and just make sure that eventually it would get delivered to you. And hope that you read this information and not will not attribute all of these issues to the level of customer service I provide on my end.   It is very frustrating issue to deal with, because in a buyer’s eyes it appears that this is caused by me since the post office doesn’t show a single update or the initial scan made when I bring the orders to be shipped.   I am asking you to please be patient and allow the situation with COVID 19 to resolve itself, so that mail would start moving at the same rate as it is supposed to according to each shipping method. Then the problem will be limited to the lag in updating the tracking, but at this time it is a mess.   I am upgrading my shipping method to Priority mail on some of the orders due to this situation with shipping delays, and I hope this will help a little bit to get the orders delivered faster for now. Please be patient and let me know if you don’t see updates on your tracking information for longer than a week.