buyer wants to delay delivery. How do I do that?

[myexcusetoplay]

Hi My buyer wants to delay the delivery until mid-Jan! Anybody know how to do that? (She says it's been done for her before.) Thanks for the help.

[gloryglorygifts]

The only way that I'm aware of is doing it through the post office. Her local one will hold it for up to 30 days. 

Not sure you can do it on here anywhere, so I'm interested to see some responses.  You certainly can't sit on it for a month without defects to your account. 

[frodobagginskennedy]

you can push out your handling time on that one item to 30 days.  Then you will not have to ship until the 30th day.  She can also do a hold at the Post office.  OR if you do not have issues with late delivery metric you can just hold it and have a ding on your metrics.

[albertabrightalberta]

@myexcusetoplay 

You need to ship within your handling time. 

If the buyer cannot have her mail held, you should ask her if she wants to cancel the purchase and can rebuy it when she's available to take delivery (as long as it's still available). 

Should she choose the latter, you shouldn't take the item down and hold the item because she may never follow through on the purchase in January and you'll lose out on another potential buyer who might want it. 

[aproudparent2010]

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@frodobagginskennedy wrote:

you can push out your handling time on that one item to 30 days.  Then you will not have to ship until the 30th day.  She can also do a hold at the Post office.  OR if you do not have issues with late delivery metric you can just hold it and have a ding on your metrics.

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Buyer has already purchased item I assume so handling time adjustment won't be affective on it.

[simba6]

eBay has never offered lay -a way service.   The only way you could do that within eBay rules is they cancel the purchase and buy it again when they want it.  Trying to " weasel " around the rules could lead to real problems for you.

[a_c_green]

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@myexcusetoplay wrote:

Hi My buyer wants to delay the delivery until mid-Jan! Anybody know how to do that? (She says it's been done for her before.) Thanks for the help.

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Mid-January is six weeks off. As the hold limit by USPS is only 30 days, I would just tell her as an alternative to set up mail forwarding to a deliverable address (which it sounds like she would need to do anyway, given her extended absence). After all, what else was she planning to do?

Tell her that's the best you can do, given her extended absence from that address, and tell her that she can cancel without penalty (*snort*) if she can't work out another solution.

[legalbeagle52]

@myexcusetoplay 

That's kind of a big ask of her, to have you hold it for that long.  This is Dec. 2 and she wants you to hold it until mid-Jan?    As mentioned earlier, we've never had a layaway plan on eBay - and you're not a store either.    I would first explain that if you do hold it, your account will get into trouble as we're required to mail out within a certain period of time.  (She should have asked you prior to buying).

Then I would put it back onto her and explain that she can ask the post office to hold it.   I would say something to the effect of ..  I appreciate your business and while I would love to accommodate you, it isn't possible given eBay's current policies ...   She will probably bring up that the other seller did it.    But who knows it could have been a one time seller that didn't care or didn't know better.   And let her know that she can cancel without any issues.   I wouldn't wait for her to come back either to list it again, as they often don't come back.  That's how I would handle it.    I've done it like that several times for different reasons and they've all been understanding

I always try to accommodate my buyers as much as possible, but within reason.    And to me this isn't within reason.  ~ Good luck!~

[dbfolks166mt]

     Not sure why she want's you to delay but as others have mentioned you cannot delay for that long without impacting your metrics. Little bit more detail and why she want's to delay and may be able to provide some better advice. Has the buyer already paid? 

     If the buyer has paid, as others stated, you need to work this out within your handling time to avoid the defects. If you cannot get her to agree to canceling the order my best suggestion would be to cancel anyway either due to buyer requested or problem with shipping address depending on whether they respond to you. 

[az93]

We're not supposed to do that. All I can think of is once someone chose local pick up and never showed up.  Eventually said that he couldn't pick it up so please mail. It had been months  and I never got into any trouble with ebay.

[bonanza125]

Don’t hold the item and wait that long for shipment. You will get a defect. Agree to cancel and have them purchase whenever they get back.

[gloryglorygifts]

the only problem with making it 30 or even 40 days handling time is that it might turn off other potential buyers. It may be best if she had the customer cancel this order, and then create one listing with the longer handling time and the other her regular one. Maybe change up the price or title a bit too, so it isn't a duplicate listing. She can give her customer the new item number with the extended period. 

[iamcara]

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@myexcusetoplay wrote:

Hi My buyer wants to delay the delivery until mid-Jan! Anybody know how to do that? (She says it's been done for her before.) Thanks for the help.

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I believe the way to do this would be to say "No"

[mam98031]

@myexcusetoplay 

Any seller that agrees to delay the shipment of a paid order only HURTS themselves in doing this.  You will get a Defect for a late shipment.  You are required to ship within your stated handling time on that listing.  

Now the buyer has options which allows you to ship on time and not hurt the health of your selling account.  Your buyer can ask a neighbor to pick up their mail or ask the PO to hold their mail for up to 30 days.  Either of those should be what you respond to your buyer with.  

They can hold their mail easily online.  I've done it a few times personally and it works great.

https://www.usps.com/manage/hold-mail.htm

But unless you don't mind the Defect, this is not something a seller should agree to do.  And you don't know if your buyer is telling you the truth about other sellers doing this for them.  It is just likely something they are saying in hopes that you will do it for them.  Most sellers know it will hurt their selling stats.