Buyer requests delay in shipping

[thingsinherited]

Greetings,

  A buyer wants me to wait 2 weeks to ship a item until he returns home.  I will of course honor their request, but can I get the late shipping ding removed? 

  I have found a few old posts about this but nothing current.

Thanks in advance for any current knowledge,

Ron     dba    thingsinherited

[wastingtime101]

No way to avoid a late shipment mark. You should be shipping within your handling time and advising buyers they can file online with USPS to put a temporary hold on their mail if they're out of town.

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

[martin2001 · Accepted solution]

I get a few requests like this. I do watch my late shipments stats so if I am still well within the required 5 % I will mail whenever the buyer wants me to mail.

If it is getting close to 5% I explain the situation to the buyer and propose to them, that instead of mailing the actual items, I will mail them the letter confirming the arrangement about their requested delayed shipment. I mail this letter and upload the tracking number to ebay. I also make sure they understand that when they get a message that their order was mailed, it is the letter not the actual order that was mailed. I also let them know that on the requested date I'll mail the actual order and message them the tracking number.

So far every single buyers has been very happy with this arrangement.

In addition, I don' t get a late shipment penalty and the only extra cost is the postage for the letter.

[thingsinherited]

Thanks for the information.  I have no dings for anything in a very long time, years in fact. 

  The idea of sending a letter with the tracking number is something I will store in the brain in case I ever need it.  I sell a small fraction of what I did for years and have had exceptional luck with shipping and buyers who are good.

Thanks again,

Ron     dba    thingsinherited

[vividmotion]

How sad is it that eBay has no option for this? Maybe they figure unscrupulous sellers would abuse it? Either way, I'm in the same position and must go through extraordinary measures to circumvent ebay's policies to meet a customers needs. Inconveniencing the customer by asking them to hold their mail will cost me the sale. Just another example of eBay caring less about the seller's needs.. 

[cellguy215]

I would suggest cancel/refund and relist with a 14 day handling time and have them buy that listing. Explain the situation to the buyer that you will get an extremely harsh defect if you ship late. If you just ship it after 14 days, Ebay might or might not remove this defect, their policies aren't very consistent and it depends on who you talk to. 

[lepke1979]

I think a couple sellers were able to get support to extend handling time on their end. But it's probably safer to just cancel and either have them rebuy with extended handling time or just have them buy when they get back.

Also, what is it with buyers that leave for long periods of time and don't just have the PO hold their mail? If anything, they might be able to enable that via the USPS website.

[buyselljack2016]

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@lepke1979 wrote:

I think a couple sellers were able to get support to extend handling time on their end. But it's probably safer to just cancel and either have them rebuy with extended handling time or just have them buy when they get back.

Also, what is it with buyers that leave for long periods of time and don't just have the PO hold their mail? If anything, they might be able to enable that via the USPS website.

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Agree, but not all shipping is done by USPS.