Do I have to honor an old Etsy free shipping coupon a buyer used?

Hi! You’re not “required” to take a loss just because an old Etsy coupon code still works, but if you can’t fulfill the order profitably you should message the buyer and cancel the order with a full refund (including shipping) rather than trying to change the shipping cost after they’ve paid. On Etsy, the buyer used a valid code at checkout, so you generally can’t retroactively charge them the shipping you meant to charge—your clean options are honor it or cancel/refund.

If you want to cancel and have them reorder, do it like this:

• Message first (politely): explain it was an old free-shipping promo that was mistakenly left active and that shipping exceeds the item price, so you’re unable to complete the transaction as-is.
• Cancel the order in Etsy (before you ship) and issue a full refund.
• Offer a solution: invite them to reorder and say you can help by (a) creating a custom listing, or (b) confirming the correct shipping option/total before they place it again.

A simple message you can copy/edit:
“Thanks so much for your order! I’m really sorry—an old free-shipping coupon from years ago was accidentally still active, and it zeroed out shipping even though the current shipping cost is higher than the item price. I’m not able to fulfill the order at that total, so I’m going to cancel and fully refund you right away. If you’d still like the item, I’m happy to help you reorder with the correct shipping (or I can set up a custom listing for you).”

After that, go into your Marketing/Coupons area and deactivate/delete the coupon (and consider adding an expiration date to any future codes). If you’re worried about where they found it: if a code is active, it can spread via coupon browser tools or be reused by anyone who has it—so it’s best to treat active codes as “public” unless you’ve locked them down with clear limits.