Warning: No seller protection with basic shipment tracking (letter/small parcel)? My experience!

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Summary: vulpius1 warns others about the problems with eBay seller protection when using basic shipment tracking. Even if the status shows 'successfully delivered', buyer protection can still decide in the buyer's favor if a buyer claims not to have received the item. vulpius1 describes that eBay requires additional proof, but even when this documentation is submitted, it still does not grant seller protection. A reply from bootyooty points out that proof of delivery is always necessary and refers to the terms of eBay and Deutsche Post.

Hello everyone,

I want to warn you about eBay seller protection in practice when it comes to basic shipment tracking (letter/small parcel) and ask,

have you had similar experiences?

It’s about the case where a buyer reports a “Item not received” claim even though the shipment was successfully delivered according to tracking.

The background:
A shipment was paid for by me on Aug. 11, scanned on Aug. 12, and delivered according to tracking on Aug. 13.

The shipping was handled entirely through the eBay Shipping Manager.

As is well known, eBay has for some time now promised full seller protection for DHL letter shipments with basic tracking (and since 01/08/2026 also for DHL small parcels)

if the shipping was booked through eBay’s own Shipping Manager and the status shows “Successfully delivered”.

The reality: a trap for sellers
In practice, this protection gives private sellers a false sense of security.

As soon as the buyer opens the case and it is escalated to customer service after 4 working days, the following happens:

Automatically, the system immediately gives you a positive rating for this transaction (“Order delivered on time and without issues”).

Nevertheless, customer service decided the case in favor of the buyer.

The absurd support explanation:
“As we cannot confirm successful delivery, we are now closing this case and will fully refund the buyer’s purchase price.

To continue selling successfully on eBay in the future and benefit from our seller protection, I recommend that you always choose a shipping method with tracking.”

The receipt madness:
Before that, support had requested additional proof: “the original postal receipt showing the buyer’s delivery address. Please take a photo of the receipt.”

I then uploaded the original PDF postage label with matrix code, shipment number, date, recipient and sender address.

This document was not accepted. Apparently, support expects a printed DHL branch receipt, the kind you only get with parcels.

The fact that the shipment number is already permanently and automatically linked to the recipient address through the eBay Shipping Manager (and contained in the matrix code) is completely ignored. Shipping to a different address is technically impossible with this label (with this shipment number). The parcel could only have arrived at the buyer’s address.

Conclusion:
There is NO seller protection with basic tracking for letters and DHL small parcels!

If the buyer claims that nothing arrived despite the shipment status “Successfully delivered,” the eBay customer service will reverse the purchase price + shipping costs to the buyer. And advise the seller: “To continue selling successfully on eBay in the future and benefit from our seller protection, I recommend that you always choose a shipping method with tracking.”

The legal situation in Germany:

As a private seller, according to the legal basis: “A shipment sale between private individuals (§ 447 BGB) only requires me to prove that I properly sent the item. When selling from private to private, the transport risk passes to the buyer as soon as the seller hands the item over to the shipping company.

If the buyer claims, despite the proof of shipping, that nothing arrived, they can legally demand neither replacement nor a refund from the private seller.

But since when does eBay care about laws!