Buyer requests delayed shipping; When to call eBay and request Late Shipment Defect removal?

[mangorunner]

Sold an item today and received a note from the Buyer (attached to the Order) requesting a shipping delay of four days.  (My normal handling time is one day.)   I responded to Buyer saying I will be happy to do so.

Review of similar threads show that eBay's policy is to fulfill the buyer's wishes and then a call to eBay Customer Service may be necessary to remove a "Late Shipment" defect, once it hits my account.   According to the Shipping FAQ:

"What should I do if my buyer asks me to delay shipment because he or she is out of town?  

We know this happens sometimes, and that you’re doing the right thing by adhering to your buyer's wishes. Just make sure you have proof of your customer’s request through member-to-member communication. If your shipping performance is negatively impacted as a result of the delay in shipping, you can contact eBay Customer Support and we will review and remove the late shipment if we find that it was a result of the buyer’s request."  

(See threads  "Buyer paid for item but wants me to delay shipping" and "I have a customer that wants a delayed shipment.")

I just made a preemptive call to eBay Customer Service and here's where I'm confused.  The eBay Customer Service rep insists that I should not make a call to eBay about the defect until August 21, that day after the next Seller Evaluation (August 20).  She said that they will not be able to remove it from my account until after the Evaluation.   I do not understand that.  Unfortunately, our telephone call got disconnected mid-conversation (cell phone) and I was not able to get more clarification... and Reps never call you back when that happens.

It makes more sense to me to call Customer Service just as soon as the defect hits my account so that my account is clean and in order when the Seller Evaluation date arrives.

Can anyone clear this up for me?  Thanks!

[pjcdn2005]

It does sound odd...I would have thought that it best to call once you see the late shipment ding.  The evaluation on Aug 20th is only for items sold July 1-31 so that late shipment wouldn't affect that evaluation.  Hopefully, someone else knows more than I do about this.

[nmemoryof]

When I'm asked for delayed shipment, I ask for delayed payment.  If they have paid, I cancel the transaction and ask them to repurchase without payment.  The risk is that they will change their mind and never pay.  It's better than getting a defect for late shipment.

This does not happen very often.  In fact, it has only happened once or twice. 

I suppose you could call and have CS remove the defect.  Only I thought the goal was to not have to involve CS at all - as much as possible anyway.  Sometimes we have to.  But contact costs money which means higher fees.

[peter-green]

I just went thru this yesterday.

I can not believe some people

below is his exact message to me, read it Monday morning

Note to seller
Hey there, I need to ask a favor, I want this item to be delivered on the 10th of August instead of the estimated 9th of August that eBay is stating if that’s ok with you.

well its not OK! ................................no soup for you

call me hostile,  whatever.

below are my terms of sale,cant miss them,no way Jose

DOMESTIC SHIPPING DELAY Once a watch is paid for in the USA,it will need to be shipped.I can not hold watches after they have been paid for.Ebay keeps track of all late shipments,once a watch is paid for,it is going to be shipped,there will be no vacation delays,please hold off on payment if you need a delay.

[labs118]

Just so you are aware it will affect 2 things on your dashboard
1. Tracking uploaded on time and validated
2. Late shipment rate
They can & will remove the Late shipment rate But can't remove the one for late tracking upload on time so this stays with you for awhile . I lose my 100% on this because I like you refuse to tell my buyers I won't hold a shipment .
Since I upload on time I am not in danger of falling below on my tracking upload & for me the buyers request is so  infrequent it isn't an issue for me.
I call when it hits the Dashboard & direct them to the ebay message.

They don't go in and remove each request one by one they do a purge so it may not happen while you are on the line . If your lucky enough to get a USA CS that understand policies & not just script reads they would explain it to you better. 

[charity_scents]

When I called in about this same thing, they refused to take it off unless it pushes my metrics down to where it impacts other things (fees, etc). If that happens then call back and they can see request in the messages that buyer sent. Another instance of total baloney. I'm guessing I got two lazy CS people in a row. 

[mangorunner · Accepted solution]

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@labs118 wrote:

Just so you are aware it will affect 2 things on your dashboard
1. Tracking uploaded on time and validated
2. Late shipment rate
They can & will remove the Late shipment rate But can't remove the one for late tracking upload on time so this stays with you for awhile . I lose my 100% on this because I like you refuse to tell my buyers I won't hold a shipment .
Since I upload on time I am not in danger of falling below on my tracking upload & for me the buyers request is so  infrequent it isn't an issue for me.
I call when it hits the Dashboard & direct them to the ebay message.

They don't go in and remove each request one by one they do a purge so it may not happen while you are on the line . If your lucky enough to get a USA CS that understand policies & not just script reads they would explain it to you better. 

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I now better understand the reason that Customer Service said to delay the call until after August 20.  When you look at your Current Seller Level in your Seller Dashboard, it now shows your performance metrics for the month of August 2019, which will be evaluated on September 20, 2019.  This defect occurred in August so it didn't appear on my evaluation screen until after the evaluation of July, which was performed on August 20, had passed.

I did not have any tracking upload delay as I printed the label (with the Buyer's requested ship date) as soon as I received the order. 

I called Customer Service about the Late Shipment Transaction and had it removed without any drama.  I directed the Rep to the Buyer's request message, attached to the original Order.  A minute or two later, the removal was complete.

Thanks, especially, for your heads-up that the correction is done via a system purge.  The Rep said the same thing - that it might take 24-48 hours for the defect to be removed from my account.  It has been 20+ hours and it is still there but remaining patient.

I don't believe that I have ever been connected to a USA CS Rep but I have always received excellent service when I have made calls to eBay CS.  I have been very blessed!

[mangorunner]

Update:  It's been 36 hours and the Late Shipment has still not been removed from my account. 

[lja440]

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@peter-green wrote:

I just went thru this yesterday.

I can not believe some people

below is his exact message to me, read it Monday morning

Note to seller
Hey there, I need to ask a favor, I want this item to be delivered on the 10th of August instead of the estimated 9th of August that eBay is stating if that’s ok with you.

well its not OK! ................................no soup for you

call me hostile,  whatever.

below are my terms of sale,cant miss them,no way Jose

DOMESTIC SHIPPING DELAY Once a watch is paid for in the USA,it will need to be shipped.I can not hold watches after they have been paid for.Ebay keeps track of all late shipments,once a watch is paid for,it is going to be shipped,there will be no vacation delays,please hold off on payment if you need a delay.

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My reply would be:

I'm sorry but I can not guarantee delivery on the 10th, delivery dates are just estimates. Nor can I delay the shipping. I do have a solution for you though. You can put a hold for pick-up order in with your Post Office for your packages. Or you can put in a short mail hold with the resumption of delivery on the 10th, 3 days is the minimum.

[mangorunner]

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@mangorunner wrote:

Update:  It's been 36 hours and the Late Shipment has still not been removed from my account. 

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Update:  It's been 72 hours (3 days) and the Late Shipment has still not been removed from my account.

[mangorunner]

It has now been four days and the Late Shipment has not been removed.  Therefore, I called Customer Service - again - to inquire about the status.  (What a colossal waste of time.)  Today's Representative told me that the prior Representative did not have authorization to remove Late Shipment defects.  (What?!)  So of course, that prompted me to ask, "If I didn't call again today, was it never going to be removed?"  I got a muddled reply something about if it was not removed, it would be escalated to the right group or team ... but when, or how, I'm not sure... I couldn't understand him clearly... so I am not sure if that was eventually going to happen or not. 

At the close of today's conversation, I was advised again that it should be removed within the next 24-48 hours.   So, stay tuned, folks!  (Or not.  But I will be back with an update when this is finally resolved, for the future benefit of others.)

[thanhcon-77]

Why don't you ask buyers to cancel orders?

[dunguyen_39]

You should cancel that order, ask the buyer to order it later

[mangorunner]

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@thanhcon-77 wrote:

Why don't you ask buyers to cancel orders?

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Yeah, why don't I?  Next time, my friend, next time.  It was a learning process.  First time I have been down this path.  Now that I see the tremendous amount of time that is wasted trying to get my account corrected (and following the exact procedure prescribed by eBay, I might add), I will certainly take the other path next time.

[mangorunner]

Finally!  After another 48 hours have passed, it appears that the second Customer Service Rep got the job done.  The transaction has finally been removed from my Late Shipment report.

Lesson learned!