... if they don't sell on eBay there's no reason why they would.
That's the issue - the buyer is going on holiday, and they want to line up stuff that they need when they return. Quite reasonable - they're not going to sit there under a sunshade, timing their eBay orders for their return date. I receive orders from my website that say don't deliver before [x] date because I'm away, and it's not a problem.
With Etsy, I can move the delivery date so, again, it's not a problem, although it might be if I did it frequently, but I've never had any kickback from Etsy the few times I've needed to do it.
On eBay, there's no function to allow a delay at the buyer's request. The only thing the seller can do is mark it as despatched, and lay themselves open to an INR. As a business seller, payment isn't a problem to me, but it would be to a private seller.
It's yet another example of the eBay app designers not thinking through all the scenarios that can surround a sale and writing the tech spec to incorporate them. Bang-bang-shoot-'em-up development.
