Buyer demanding faster processing time?

[betus-uh20c4]

On Monday, I sold an item and the buyer paid very quickly. After receiving payment, I get this message:

"Please ship this out tomorrow w/ tracking, and do not include the receipt with the package. Thanks a lot."

I only offer 3 day processing time because this is just a way for me to make a bit of extra money for school aside from my other job. I tell the buyer as much:

"I will not include the packing slip as requested, however, I do not guarantee one day handling time. All orders will be processed within 3 business days as stated in the product description."

I don't hear anything back from him at first, then today I get this message:

"What is my tracking number? If you were not able to ship today, please at least buy shipping online and send me the tracking number today, and then drop the package off tomorrow. Thanks a lot."

Any of you buying shipping labels through eBay know you have 24 hours to print off the label after purchasing or you have to void it, wait up to 3 weeks for a refund which could potentially be denied, then buy another one. I don't own a printer and am not able to visit the print shop every single day so I wait until I am already in town with items that need to be shipped out all boxed up and ready to go before I purchase shipping labels and then send them out the same day. Keep in mind that this was purchased on Monday and eBay states that the item needs to be shipped by Thursday. Though the buyer didn't respond to my last message, I just sent them another trying to explain the situation: 

"As I stated previously, I do not guarantee one-day or two-day handling time. The handling and processing time is within three business days as stated on the item's listing when it was purchased. I don't buy the shipping label immediately because it must be printed then within 24 hours of the purchase or it will have to be voided and printed off again. My shipping labels are printed off at a print shop so I purchase the shipping labels immediately before shipment."

Since they didn't respond to my last message I have no idea if they are even checking for correspondence from me. I will not be able to visit the print shop and ship the item until Thursday, which is again the guaranteed sent by date from eBay based on the handling time I promised when the item was sold. I am concerned though since I am not a large seller and have very little feedback that if this person decides to leave negative feedback that I will find it very difficult to sell anything else. Is there anything I can do in that situation? Like I said they don't seem to be answering me, I don't even know if they're reading my responses

[lewisburggold]

We would still block the buyer.  There is no reason they cant be nice.  Didnt seem like they were trying too.   Best regards

[a_c_green]

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@retrose1 wrote: 
And printing a label on the first day to ship on the third day will not work.  The label is only good for 1 business day.

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Not at all; it's no less valid in the coming days than it would be today. Consider that some prepaid items put in the drop box late on Friday might not even get looked at until the following Monday.

In addition, if you're concerned about the mailing date on the label anyway, you're allowed to print a label that's dated 2-3 days in advance. For example, I went to my Shipping form just now, and the pulldown menu for Mailing Date is offering me date choices all the way up to and including Saturday, April 14.

The reality is that the USPS isn't going  to go squinting at the exact date shown on the label, as long as it's prepaid for the correct weight, shipping method and so on. That mail-on-print-day concept is more for home/office postage machines that print a date on the envelope but do not get an Acceptance scan, and thus the cancellation date is assumed to be the date that it entered the mailstream. Packages don't have a similar need for accurate label dating since they have actual tracking to monitor their travel.

[mycarolinavintage]

I hope you have found resolve by now. You mentioned the buyer requested no receipt in the box. Not necessarily the same as a packing slip. It is advisable to always include a packing slip with ship to address, your return address and the item number at least. If you continue to sell on ebay, you will eventually find it beneficial to get that printer ans a scale if you don't already have one. Shop the sales. You won't need anything but basic. You can then print your labels yourself and if using USPS either have the pkgs. picked up and the postal carrier will scan them or drop them off at the post office on a counter without going through a line usually. Not sure if other carriers provide this service. I personally mostly deal with the post office except for really large pkgs. Except for the rare pkg. that tours other states before getting to the buyer, they have been very good to me.

Energy flows where attention goes.

[fossil_diver]

My PO has refused to accept my packages because postage was more than 24 hours old when i tried to drop them off.

Some have let it pass but some don't. If the postage is more than a day old i drop it in the box from now on. They dont serm to check those ones.

M

[a_c_green]

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@fossil_diver wrote: 
My PO has refused to accept my packages because postage was more than 24 hours old when i tried to drop them off.

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Clueless clerk. That's what the Acceptance scan is for: to mark the actual entry of the package into the mailstream. The date on the label doesn't matter, and they've already got your payment, after all.

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Some have let it pass but some don't. If the postage is more than a day old i drop it in the box from now on. They dont serm to check those ones.

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That works too. 

[ymeagainlord]

I wonder if your buyer(possible seller) is aware that they can't use the same tracking # on THEIR sale if you upload it to your sale before they do?

[calntom]

I get these at least once a month:

Buyer's note: Please ship as soon as today with an updated tracking ID. Also, please do not include any marketing material or a packaging slip. Thanks

My typical response is:

Understood and shipped as per your instruction. Tracking number is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. 

[ymeagainlord]

Which is fine but yours apparently aren't asking you to inconvenience yourself to ship faster than your stated handling time.

[creoleorchid]

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@fluffywhip78 wrote:

I think you handle it well and professionally.

One idea, if you really wanted to print the label now.  In Chrome browser you can print the label to PDF then email the pdf to yourself or put on a flash drive to take to the printer store.  if you don't have chrome you can install cutePDF writer or Foxit reader.

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I do that all the time when I'm at my "other residence".

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@fossil_diver wrote: 
My PO has refused to accept my packages because postage was more than 24 hours old when i tried to drop them off.

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Clueless clerk. That's what the Acceptance scan is for: to mark the actual entry of the package into the mailstream. The date on the label doesn't matter, and they've already got your payment, after all....

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Not clueless; just persnickety:

4.6.2 Mailing Date Accuracy and Mailing Periods

The date or period when mailers may deposit or present metered mail for mailing is controlled by the mailing date in the indicia under the following conditions.

1. Complete Date. Mailpieces bearing a complete date in the indicia must be deposited or presented on that date, except that pieces entered after the day‘s last scheduled collection from the Post Office or collection box may bear the actual date of entry or the date of the next scheduled collection from the Post Office or collection box. When authorized by USPS, presort mail accepted after midnight may bear the previous day‘s date.

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/604.htm#ep1080496

As noted above, it's possible to choose an actual shipping date to print on the label that's about 3 days in advance; but that doesn't help the OP who can't print the postage within the 24-hour limit.

[sin-n-dex]

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@annsattictreasures68 wrote:

If you sell quite a bit,wouldn't your"problem" be solved by purchasing a printer? As fr as the buyer,simply re-state your terms as listed-done!

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Not necessary. I do eBay on the road all the time without a printer. I print all my labels and packing slips into PDFs into a folder, and print them when I can.

Cheers, C.

[pam9876]

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@sam9876 wrote:

There is no requirement to print a label within 24 hours.

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You misdirected the original question to a convoluted and false argument.

[pam9876]

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@sam9876 wrote:

I will be testing the label printing process and let you know what I find.

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Have you ever printed a shipping label?

[betus-uh20c4 · Accepted solution]

I didn't expect to see all these responses, thank you everyone for your help.  To clear things up, I know I can print out a shipping label and then ship it the next day if I select that from the drop-down menu, but the seller was demanding the product not just have a tracking number but also be shipped by Wednesday, which I knew would not be feasible due to my schedule. Even if I were to save the label as a PDF I knew the product would not ship within the buyer's requested time limit. 

I actually didn't know that the seller's handling time did not appear within the product page by default, but it is on my seller page and as many of you have pointed out it does default to being within 3 business days unless otherwise stated, and this buyer had enough transactions on their account as both buyer and seller that I feel they would know this, or as someone mentioned, if they had a special request they could have contacted me before purchase and I could have cleared this up very easily. From now on, I will state handling and processing time within item descriptions explicitly to avoid confusion.

In the end, I feared that the buyer would still purchase the item and then leave poor feedback since I wouldn't be able to accommodate their request, but they finally responded to my messages and we just agreed to cancel the transaction, they received a refund, and I relisted the item. It is a bit of a pain but nothing too terrible to deal with in the end. 

[a_c_green]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote: 
4.6.2 Mailing Date Accuracy and Mailing Periods

The date or period when mailers may deposit or present metered mail for mailing is controlled by the mailing date in the indicia under the following conditions.

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Right, but that's for metered mail; what we're printing for our packages is referred to as "PC Postage." Section 4.1.2 ("Product Categories") explains the differences.

The clerk is within his rights to reject metered mail showing the wrong date, but PC Postage doesn't have the same restriction, as it will be getting an Acceptance scan and subsequent tracking to show its actual date of mailing (and later delivery, etc.).