Buyer requested late shipment - star seller status penalized

[layeredpeaks]

My buyer was not home at the time of order and requested a late ship date.

Upon ordering, I updated the ship date on Etsy to the latest possible date, which was one day before the buyer arrived home. That day, I contacted the buyer to confirmed that they would be home if I shipped it this weekend, and they agreed it was now OK to ship (they're still not home, but it should take a day or two in the mail). 

I then created shipping labels on the date it was due, and boom, "late shipment" and a hit to my star seller status. 

I contacted Etsy support chat and they were unhelpful and re-iterated policy saying it the shipment was late.

Is there a way to escalate / dispute this?

[CryzalisDesigns]

Did you dispatch the same day you created the shipping label?

[PSJewelryCollection]

I've seen others post about this. As far as I know  they don't make a provision for buyers who want to delay shipping.

[CryzalisDesigns]

A customer asked me to delay shipping by 3 weeks due to a trip a few months ago, it did not affect my stats (it was shipped and scanned the day before the extended shipping date)

[Thedinkydoodlestudio]

It would be nice if buyers were allowed to delay their shipment dates.

That would be a great feature.

I have had to delay once before as my customer was shifting and did not want the item to arrive at the wrong time.

Local couriers here send a prompt about when an item can be expected and we can ask for a reschedule very easily.

[CappuccinoLace]

I then created shipping labels on the date it was due, and boom, "late shipment" and a hit to my star seller status. 

Star Seller stats are in UTC time, Depending on when you created the labels, it may have already been "overdue" in UTC. I see you're in Washington state, which would be 7 hours behind UTC.

[layeredpeaks]

Yes, it was "overdue" in UTC. I understand Etsy's policy, but I shouldn't be penalized for going out of my way to accommodate a buyer request.

[CryzalisDesigns]

unfortunately it is all UTC calculated, so Etsy will not change it

[Adorabilities]

Etsy isn't looking at the particulars of any transaction -- they see either an on-time shipment, or a late shipment.
Did you extend the shipping date when the customer asked for a later shipment, to make sure that your shipping date fell within on-time range?

[SugarTaffySoap]

@layeredpeaks  What Star Seller status? You realize you're not a Star Seller right? As for the shipping percentage it will re-adjust at some point. Unfortunately, there's no way to dispute it. 

[layeredpeaks]

As a new seller, there is a dashboard that shows progress towards start seller which I was tracking towards. 

With this shipment being "late", I not need to have 20 total orders to achieve star seller status vs the 5 total orders I was on track for.

[QuirkyAntiquesStore]

self deleted i didn't read properly

[TBQSC]

Buyers who request a delayed delivery date should really be putting their mail on hold with the USPS (et al carrier).  While it is a nice gesture of the seller to accept this request, ultimately it is NOT the seller's responsibility to hold onto a package for the buyer.  As others are finding out, rescheduling an extended shipping date can mess up your Star Seller metric.  Sorry this happened to you.  Cool art, by the way!