Buyer Request to delay shipping

[watersedgepickinandcrafts]

I have a buyer who has requested we delay shipping until she returns from vacation.  Is there a way to prevent any dings for late shipping?  Thank you!

[slyders_finds]

Personally I would ship it and send the buyer a message that they need to put a hold on their mail. I am not talking a ding on my account for them. 

[fbusoni]

She can put a hold on her mail.  Or you can ship with signature receipt.  

I would not ever delay shipping.

You are not responsible for her vacation plans OR for her lack of executive function.

[klhmdg]

There is no way to prevent late shipment dings if you hold the item.

I would offer to cancel and she can rebuy, if it is available, when she returns or

you can also suggest she have her mail held at the PO or asks a neighbor to pick up once it is delivered.

[jerseyboymusic]

I'm going to reiterate what others have said...

Do not delay shipping. When someone asks me to do that, I reply something like this:

"Thanks for your order. Unfortunately, I have a (XX amount of days)  handling time commitment with Ebay to get this sent out. I cannot alter that. I can either cancel the order, and you can re-order when you are able to receive it, or you can place a free mail hold with your local post office and they will hold all your mail until you return home."

It is not my responsibility to hold someone's mail for them. 

[brightlightbookseller]

To confirm, no, you cannot avoid the ding.  We've willingly taken the ding in a few cases where customers asked because we ship a lot of orders and a few late ones won't hurt us, but that's much harder if you're not selling a bunch per week, and it's not reasonable for customers to just expect you to ignore eBay policy.  They can deal with the post office (assuming you're shipping USPS), and not hurt your metrics in the process.

[dentalsales4u]

I had one just the other day. Buyer wanted me to hold and ship on a specific date (about a week later).

I contacted the buyer and politely let them know, that per eBay policy, I must ship within a certain time frame.

I let them know that I had to ship. If this didn't work for them, I would gladly cancel their order and they could repurchase at the time frame they needed.

Buyer was fine with this. I canceled without any problems.

Most buyers don't know that the seller needs to ship within their handling time. Don't be afraid to let the buyer know this.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I do it, it doesn't bother me.  You cannot avoid the ding, BUT if you have proof in the form of eBay Messages that the buyer is the one who asked, they will remove the ding.  Unfortunately, the ding is in 2 metrics & they can only remove it in 1 of the 2.  The other one comes directly from USPS.   Both metrics though have a threshold & if you're not in the habit of getting late dings, 1 is not going to cause a problem. 

[ryry-jj]

Is there anything wrong with printing out the label but not dropping it off at the USPS until later?  Not sure how that would play out as far as "dings" go as it would upload tracking number and read as "shipped"

[adamcartwright]

@ryry-jj 

Simply printing the label won't work.

It needs an acceptance scan to be considered "shipped." Otherwise, all tracking shows is that you paid for postage and the Post Office is waiting for the package.