Unfortunately some people think they have to answer the question, and are not allowed to leave it blank.

Many buyers don't realise that their answer could impact the seller, and answer it without giving it too much thought.

We leave it blank if we can't answer yes - we would be unfairly impacting the seller in many cases, as we only have mail delivered twice a week, which quite often means that the item is "late" in eBay's terms.

Most of our items are sent in letter format, without tracking. We originally had 3 days handling (as we generally post twice a week), but since we have changed to 5 days, we're getting quite a few comments about "quick postage". Of course, we can't do anything about the 2 weeks Australia Post sometimes takes to deliver an item, but it's certainly helped our postage stars.

To answer your question, yes the seller can be penalised for late delivery and it's probably best to leave it blank if you can't answer yes.