See, still learning after all these years. 🙂 I always mark 5 stars for communication. I buy, pay instantly, they mark it as sent within hours and it turns up in less than a week. Perfect as far as I'm concerned. :8}

I don't mark item posted until I am ready to actually post but if a buyer of mine does not receive the item in 4 days I usually get an email. Just last week when the flooding was going on in qld and NSW I had about 10 INR emails (just through ebay not cases opened) less than 7 days had passed.

The free postage thing isn't really a blockout because you shouldn't be able to use it. There is nothing to block.