We recently received our first late shipment defect. We use almost exclusively large letter so no tracking.

An item never arrived so after discussion with the buyer we sent out a replacement item.
When it arrived the buyer was happy and left us POS FB but answered the arrival date question with NO.
Of course they were correct as the original did arrive late, in fact never at all..

I contacted the buyer about it and of course they were unaware that answering with NO issued the seller a defect.
They apologised profusely as they were very happy with the way we had handled the lost item.

So on the off chance that ebay might take the messages between us into account I contacted CS about removal of the defect.
As expected really without tracking they simply refused to do it.

Here is part of the conversation....

*********************

Me: So you simply 100% believe the buyer when they answer the question as NO?

CSR: Yes we do.

Me: But you don't believe me, a seller with a 100% feedback track record and no other late shipment defects, when I click the Posted On Date button? Even with the supporting messages?

CSR: That's correct ... yes.

End of conversation right there. So as a seller you have no chance of being believed it seems.