eBay UK Seller Release: Boosting seller protection

There’s good news for sellers in the latest eBay UK Seller release, eBay are making it easier to report buyers for unreasonable behaviour and requiring buyers to contact sellers before referring a case to eBay.

Report a buyer

From October there will be a new option in the feedback flow making it easy to for unreasonable or abusive behaviour. Based on reports from sellers, eBay will check up on buyers and if they see a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, they’ll be able to take action which could include buying restrictions or suspension.

eBay say that by reporting problems with buyers you’re not only helping to protect your seller account but also helping to create a fairer trading environment. It should be noted that whilst eBay won’t tell you what specific action they’ll be taking, they will notify you of all the protective actions they’ve taken on your account in a monthly seller protection email.

Simplifying case filing

This is something that sellers have been asking for for years and eBay have, at last, listened. Buyers will be required to for items not received or significantly not as described!

This means buyers will have to talk to you as a seller and you’ll have the opportunity to resolve any issues before the buyer files a case which will count against your seller performance. You’ll have eight days (ample time in my opinion to resolve any situation) from the time the buyer first contacts you before they can refer the case to eBay.

Once this comes into effect, only queries referred to eBay and found in favour of the buyer will be included in your seller performance metrics. Also, if a buyer asks when they’re likely to receive their item, eBay will display a message based on your handling time and delivery method saving sellers time dealing with superfluous questions.

Item Condition Field

I like this change. eBay are introducing a useful feature to help sellers better describe their items. From October you’ll be able to which aren’t new. This will be displayed to buyers on the View Item page and should help set expectations for products which aren’t in perfect condition.

Anything which sets out clearly any faults with an item, (especially above the fold without the need to dig deep into a long item description) has to be a good thing both for buyers, and for sellers who should have less post-sales issues to deal with as a result.

Blocking checkout comments from buyer

You’ll be able to choose whether to show the or not by deselecting the option in My eBay. This is great news, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve shipped an item just to see the message “Can you ship this to a different address” or “Please don’t post until next week as I’m on holiday”. Blocking messages means no upset buyers because your automated software spews out orders which you never get a chance to read before your warehouse has shipped the item!