Can’t Leave A Review On Etsy? It Might Be One Of These Reasons

Etsy usually starts reminding people to leave product reviews for their Etsy purchases fairly quickly, but sometimes a customer isn’t able to leave a review even though they want to! There could be a few reasons for that.

Some reasons why you wouldn’t be able to leave a review on Etsy could include:

  • Using guest checkout to place your order.
  • If the estimated delivery date hasn’t arrived or the package hasn’t been scanned as delivered.
  • If the review period has closed.
  • If you have an open case against the shop that involves the order.

(To read more about how long Etsy customers have to leave reviews, click here.


Why Can't My Customer Leave A Review On Etsy?

Table of Contents



Some of the links in this article are affiliate links that will pay a small commission if they’re used to purchase something. To see the entire affiliate policy click here.



verified buyer on a review

Why can’t people who use the guest checkout on Etsy leave reviews?

Etsy doesn’t let Etsy buyers who have checked out as a guest leave reviews because those reviews would be anonymous, and it could lead to abuse of the review system. There’s no connection between an account and a purchase for guest account checkouts, so anyone with an order number could claim to be the person who purchased something, and a lot of fake reviews would result.

Etsy’s policies are to verify purchases and reviews by linking the review to a registered Etsy user account. Without registering, Etsy can’t verify that the purchase was made with that account.

Guest order checkouts can be converted into registered user accounts with the order number claimed, but the customer has to do that to leave a review.

If you can’t leave a review, check to make sure that you have an Etsy account and that it was used when you checked out, because you might have checked out as a guest without realizing it.

I do that all the time if I’m in a hurry and don’t feel like searching for my passwords to sign in somewhere.

I’ll check out using the guest checkout to save a little time, but the downside is that there isn’t a record of my purchases when I go back later.

I wrote an article about how to leave reviews on Etsy, which includes a section on how guests can claim their purchases. You can read that here: How To Leave Reviews On Etsy (and How Guests Can)



How does Etsy estimate the delivery window for leaving reviews?

Etsy adds the seller’s processing time to the USPS estimated transit time to get a date range for an estimated delivery.

These estimates aren’t always accurate (read more details about Etsy’s estimated delivery times here).

It will depend on whether the seller sends the item faster than they estimated, and whether the post office delivers it within the estimated times they use.

If there are a few days’ difference on either of those, you might receive your order sooner or later than you expect.



What happens if you order something and get it before the end of the estimated delivery window?

You would think that Etsy would let you leave a review if you actually have the item, but they have to rely on the post office scanning something correctly to know whether you actually do have it or not.

I ordered a window cling from Lil Fox Designs on Etsy,Opens in a new tab. and I took screenshots of the messages that I got as far as the review process for the item went.

Estimated delivery dates on Etsy

The day that it was out for delivery, this is what the order information said. It said that I would be able to leave a review on the 14th, and the estimated delivery was the 5th-13th.

So that means that the review window was going to open up on the day after the estimated delivery window.

etsy order with the tracking information

To make this more interesting, I received it, but the tracking didn’t update and it was still showing as out for delivery even after I picked it up.

That either means that it skipped a scan when they put it in my mailbox, or that Etsy’s tracking hasn’t caught up yet.

At that point, I still couldn’t access the review section because Etsy didn’t know that I had the window cling since the tracking hadn’t updated.




Can a customer leave a review after the review period is closed?

Etsy customers have a specific time frame to leave reviews for an item, and even though it’s a generous amount of time, it isn’t unlimited.

The review period on Etsy is 100 days from the time that the review window opens, which as we’ve seen above, starts when Etsy decides that it will start even if you’ve received the item. After the 100 days are over, customers can’t leave reviews for anything that they bought.

I wrote another article about the specifics of the review period because people seem to think that filing a case will pause the review period (it doesn’t,) and there are other things to take into consideration. Read that by clicking here: How Long Do I Have To Leave A Review On Etsy?

If the review period has closed, you won’t be able to leave a review.


To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.


Can someone leave a review if they open a case against the shop?

If a customer opens a case against a shop about a specific order, they won’t be able to leave a review until the case is closed. This is only fair, since the case could end the problem, and the review should reflect the entire buying experience.

If you open a case against a shop and the seller is able to fix it for you, that should be mentioned in the review if you decide to leave one.

Etsy sellers are able to respond to customer reviews, so when customers post negative reviews but leave out details, we often clarify what really happened in a response so that potential customers will understand that we did try to fix the situation.

Once a seller posts a public response to a review it locks it in, and the customer can’t edit it or remove it.


Of the main reasons why a customer wouldn’t be able to leave a review on Etsy, I’d guess that the most common ones are that they checked out as a guest, or that the review window isn’t open.

Other than that, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to review something.

If a customer says that they’re having trouble finding the order to review it, copy and paste the link to “your Purchases and Reviews” in your personal profile, and if they’re signed into their own account it will take them to their purchases and reviews page: Purchases and Reviews

Kara Buntin

Kara Buntin has run a profitable home-based business since 1999, and has a background in art, theater design, and cake decorating. She's a top Etsy seller with over 51,000 sales on Etsy and her own website, and helps other home-based business owners with their business goals and SEO. She founded the Artisan Shopping Directory website to promote the artisans who are members of her EShop Success marketing program.

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