Thanksgiving holiday buyer awaiting payments - time away

[legacylaptops]

i have a buyer who has not paid for their item yet (I accepted their offer on Monday morning at 8 am ) its now Wednesday and with thanksgiving tomorrow we will be out of the office until next Monday morning. after today i do not have access to the building and the item belongs to the owner of the shop that i work at so i don't want to be responsible for the item outside of the store (you never know what could go wrong) . so i don't want to take the item with me during the holiday break.  if I cancel I will get a defect if I don't ship it on Friday if he pays after i leave today I will get a defect for late shipment. (our policy is 1 day shipping on all our items due to the bonus eBay throws in for having that)  

my question is what should i do in this situation? i went ahead and messaged the buyer already explaining that we will be out of the office until Monday after today due to the holiday . however it seems like no matter what the account will end up getting dinged or I have to be responsible for an item outside of our store which i do not feel comfortable with 

P.S

also it means i will have to make a trip to the local post office where they pick the item up from our store normally

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

A ding for late shipment won't end you. You need to keep 95% of your transactions shipped on time. I'm guessing 1 late shipment will not drop you below 95% on time shipment rate?

I wouldn't cancel, I just wouldn't ship til Monday. Not sure if you have other options...

[titipeo]

Buyers have 4 days to pay, though eBay is slowly eliminating this with auto pay. Guess that was not the case for this one. If buyer pays, print the label, and continue on Monday. If not comfortable with this, just cancel. 

[4pawsup*]

Why would the owner not be able to access his store on friday if the buyer does not pay today?

[legacylaptops]

it's a holiday weekend , many people go out of town during this time of the year to visit people in other city's / states .. etc. I can send it today if they pay today however after today we are all gone for the 4 day holiday weekend  also it's not really the owners responsibility as I'm the person who manages the account 

[4pawsup*]

Sorry to differ with you but it is not a 4 day holiday. Many people have to work on friday & saturday . Now if all your responsibility"s are covered then take the 4 days.

[legacylaptops]

sorry , I think you may have misunderstood , the business as a whole is closed on Friday so it's a 4 day weekend for us as we get thanksgiving off and a lot of the employees take the time to go spend time with families  we are always closed for the weekend. 

[ebooksdiva]

@legacylaptops 

Don’t send the buyer an invoice, invoicing will only prolong your option to cancel. 
After 96 hours you can cancel the transaction cutting buyer didn’t pay. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

As it stands now, if the buyer pays on Thursday (or really late today) then you can't ship until Monday so you'll get one late-shipping ding.  As noted above, just one late-shipping transaction probably will have no effect on your seller status; you'll just forfeit that little 10% FVF credit for that transaction.  

Certainly a ding for late shipping is preferable to a defect that you would get for canceling the transaction. So I recommend that you try to relax and enjoy the holiday, and just hope that the buyer doesn't pay during that vulnerable interval when you'll get the late-shipping ding (i.e., payment between later tonight and midnight tomorrow).

Hindsight being 20/20, it would have made sense to anticipate your Friday closure by switching items to 2-day handling just for this week.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@ebooksdiva wrote: ... After 96 hours you can cancel the transaction cutting buyer didn’t pay. 

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But the transaction was on Monday morning, so 96 hours means Friday morning.  If the buyer pays on Friday, then 1-day handling means Monday shipping, so here is no problem and the seller might as well give them the whole weekend to pay.

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @legacylaptops 

-What is your Handling time?  If 1 Day and it is paid for today (Wed) and you ship Monday you will get a late shipping defect. 

-If you have more than 1 day handling and it is paid today then ship Monday, no late shipping defect, Friday is the next Business day and after that Monday the next Business day

-If you have Auto-cancellation turned on then I believe Friday after 8 AM the transaction will be cancelled.

-You have advised the Buyer of the situation ... they too may be traveling and not have access to their buying account

-If you ask the Buyer to message you to cancel you can do that without penalty and Relist once you both are back and ready to do business.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@mr_lincoln wrote: ... -What is your Handling time?  If 1 Day and it is paid for today (Wed) and you ship Monday you will get a late shipping defect. ...

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The OP clearly states, "our policy is 1 day shipping on all our items due to the bonus eBay throws in for having that)".  Yes, they'll get a late-shipping "defect" if they are paid today or tomorrow but ship on Monday. If their handling was more than one day, this thread wouldn't exist.

[12345jamesstamps]

Email the buyer not to pay until you return.

Send out an invoice to buyer which gives buyer an additional 4 days to pay...you can do this more than once.

And state to buyer why you sent out the invoice so he doesn't have to pay until Monday.

It sounds like the buyer doesn't want to pay right away anyway.

[wastingtime101]

As others said @legacylaptops one late shipment should not kill your performance ratings.

This is what I would do:

If the buyer pays tomorrow, purchase the shipping label (if you can) on Friday. It will get scanned on Monday when you ship. Buying the label Friday will satisfy "tracking uploaded on time" and a scan at any point along the way will satisfy "and validated".

Then, as long as the item arrives before the EDD which usually has a window extending a few days, you will not get a late shipment mark.

[legacylaptops]

the buyer responded to my message and mentioned that he did not have the funds right now so i went ahead and canceled the sale as "buyer asked to cancel" and told the buyer to repurchase when he had sufficient funds available to him so i guess i was freaking out over nothing after all