Workflow
Message the buyer before the delivery date passes, not after
Two sellers, same slow parcel. One got a five-star review. One got an Item Not Received case.
The only difference was who spoke first.
When a buyer has to chase you, you've already lost the frame. They're anxious, they feel ignored, and the next click is Open a Case. When you reach them first — "hey, your parcel is running a couple of days behind, here's the tracking, it's on the way" — the exact same delay becomes a story about a seller who's on top of things.
Same parcel. Same delay. Opposite outcome. The variable is timing, and the timing hinges on one date almost nobody watches: the estimated delivery date, read before it passes.
Why the window gets missed
Because the EDD lives on the AliExpress side and your buyer lives on the eBay side, and nothing sits between them counting down. The order isn't late yet, so it doesn't look like a problem, so it doesn't get looked at — until it's late, and now it's a case.
Fetch Order Tracking pulls the estimated delivery date into the same row as the buyer and the order, so the orders approaching their deadline are visible as a group. That's the message list: the parcels that will be late soon, while there's still a "soon" to work with.
You don't need to automate the apology. You just need to see the countdown before it hits zero.
Check your open orders for any EDD landing in the next two days. Those are the messages to send this afternoon.
Send them first. Stay the good guy.