Experiences with the IBMS at eBay
Summary: ce-kra reports difficulties in filing an official complaint through eBay’s internal complaint management system (IBMS). Despite repeated attempts via customer service, he did not receive any confirmation that his complaints had been recorded. miriam@ebay from eBay explains that complaints are generally documented, but are not always answered with an individual response. It was clarified that ce-kra’s complaints were correctly recorded and forwarded internally, although this had been overlooked in a previous review. The discussion ends with the note that the user’s feedback has been passed on accordingly.
Hello everyone,
I’m currently trying to figure out how a commercial seller on eBay can actually submit an official complaint through the internal complaint management system – IBMS –.
On the relevant eBay help page, it says that IBMS is available to commercial users at any time, without restrictions, easily accessible, and free of charge. It also explains that a complaint can simply be submitted via eBay customer service.
In practice, however, I can’t find this described access.
The “Customer Service” link only leads to the general help homepage. There I can find neither a menu item for “IBMS complaint” nor any clearly designated form or special contact option for it. Even via chat, when I asked specifically how and where an IBMS complaint can be submitted, I did not receive any relevant information.
The background is a buyer protection case in which proof of delivery was sent to eBay on time and eBay confirmed receipt. Even so, the decision was made against me. In the subsequent contacts, different and sometimes contradictory reasons were given.
I repeatedly and explicitly asked for my submission to be recorded as an official complaint under IBMS. However, instead of a confirmation or an IBMS case number, I continued to receive general standard replies about the original case.
So in this post, I’m not primarily looking to reopen the discussion about the individual buyer protection decision, but rather asking the basic question:
How can a commercial seller verifiably submit an official IBMS complaint to eBay?
Has anyone here already successfully submitted such a complaint?
Through which exact menu item, form, or contact channel was it submitted?
Did you then receive explicit confirmation that the matter was recorded as an IBMS complaint — possibly with a separate IBMS complaint number?
Or does every normal contact with eBay customer service automatically count as an IBMS complaint, even if this is neither communicated nor apparent from the reply?
If there is an official way, I’d be very grateful for a precise description or a specific tip. Simply being directed to general customer service unfortunately doesn’t help if IBMS can’t be selected there and the matter isn’t explicitly handled as such.
Best regards
miriam@ebay
Hello @ce-kra - I checked on this again with internal departments. It was found that your complaints were correctly recorded by our customer service as such and forwarded accordingly.
Due to a recent system change, I unfortunately wasn't able to clearly assign the complaints during my previous review. With the help of a specialized department, this was now possible.
Please also note that not every customer complaint submitted is answered with an individual response. So the fact that no separate reply is given does not mean that a complaint was not recorded or taken into account internally.
The responsible department that deals with customer complaints was also informed about this community thread and the matter described here. Your feedback has therefore reached the right place - thanks for that.
Best regards
Miriam
ce-kra
OP6 days agoHello @miriam@ebay ,
thank you very much for looking into this again. That at least clarifies that my complaints were indeed recorded as such and forwarded.
However, one key point still remains open for me.
According to eBay’s own description of the IBMS, complaints are handled carefully, promptly, and effectively, and the commercial user is then informed of the result. Article 11(2)(c) of the P2B Regulation also provides for individual, clear, and comprehensible notification to the complainant about the outcome of the internal complaint-handling process.
The current information here in the community that my complaints were found internally and forwarded, however, is not a notification of the outcome of these complaints.
Some of my complaints now date back several months. So far, I have not received any individual notification about how these complaints were reviewed and what result eBay reached.
Therefore, I would still like clarification:
Are the complaints now found complaints within the framework of the IBMS under the P2B Regulation?
If yes: When and by what means will I be informed of the outcome of these complaints in accordance with the eBay IBMS description?
I do not want to learn any internal processing details. I am solely interested in the notification intended for the complainant regarding the outcome.
Kind regards
miriam@ebay
Hello @ce-kra and many thanks for your question.
Complaints can only be submitted via eBay Customer Service’s regular contact channels, in particular by phone or email. You can also find our contact details in the Imprint.
As soon as a complaint is submitted, it is documented internally. However, this does not mean that the person making the complaint receives a separate confirmation, an IBMS case number, or feedback on the content of the complaint. Documenting a complaint is therefore not associated with an obligation to provide an individual response or a separate complaint process.
However, if there is an explicit request to formally submit a complaint, Customer Service should confirm receipt of the complaint. Since this apparently did not happen in the present case, we will review the matter and, if necessary, use it as an opportunity for appropriate retraining.
You can find more information on the help page you already know: Help page: eBay’s internal complaint management system (“IBMS”).
I hope I was able to answer your questions.
Kind regards
Miriam
ce-kra
OPJul 16, 2026 at 9:39 PMHello @miriam@ebay ,
thank you very much for your feedback.
But that is exactly where the problem lies: I have already explicitly stated several times that I want to file official complaints – both in writing and several times by phone. Some of these complaints are now several months old. Yet in none of the cases I’m aware of was anything recorded or confirmed.
Instead, my concerns were repeatedly treated like ordinary customer service inquiries, answered with standard replies, or not addressed substantively at all.
In theory, internal documentation may be предусмотрed. In practice, however, it is not clear to the complainant whether a complaint was actually recorded. Without confirmation, a case reference, or a substantive response, a normal support request cannot be distinguished from an officially logged complaint.
Since you now want to review the matter, I therefore ask for a concrete answer:
Which of my complaints submitted so far explicitly were actually officially recorded by eBay and documented internally?
It would also be important to know whether your review only concerns possible retraining of customer service or whether my specific complaints, some of which have been unresolved for months, will also be reviewed and processed.
ce-kra
OP1 week agoHello @miriam@ebay ,
my last post has now gone unanswered for two weeks. Unfortunately, that reinforces the impression that this issue is not being pursued any further.
You had announced that you would review the matter and, if necessary, use it as an occasion for retraining. To date, however, I have neither learned whether this review took place, nor whether, and which, of my complaints submitted multiple times and explicitly actually were accepted as complaints and documented internally.
This is exactly what unfortunately confirms my previous problem: in theory, the IBMS is supposed to be reachable through customer service. In practice, however, you get no acknowledgment of receipt, no comprehensible processing, and apparently no information even when you ask specific follow-up questions.
Therefore, I am asking once again for a concrete answer:
Has the announced matter now been reviewed, and who at eBay is responsible for handling my officially submitted complaints?
Based on what has happened so far, I seriously have to ask myself whether the IBMS at eBay actually works reliably in practice at all, or whether in the end nobody feels responsible for the complaints submitted.
Referring me again to the general help page unfortunately does not answer these questions.
Kind regards
miriam@ebay
Hello @ce-kra - In my previous reply, I answered the matter from my point of view, because as already described, submitting a complaint in most cases does not lead to an individual response or information about the internal processing. Therefore, I also cannot tell you which of your complaints were documented individually or how they were processed internally.
As stated, we have reviewed your note about the missing confirmation of an explicitly submitted complaint and passed it on to the responsible staff members. They have been informed that in future the receipt of an explicitly submitted complaint should be confirmed accordingly.
Best regards
Miriam
ce-kra
OP1 week agoHello @miriam@ebay ,
thank you very much for the clarification.
However, only my note about the missing confirmation was reviewed and passed on to the employees. My actual concern remains unanswered.
I didn’t just want to know whether employees should confirm complaints in the future, but whether my complaints, which I had already submitted explicitly several times, were even recorded and processed as such. Some of them are now several months old.
If eBay neither confirms which complaints were documented nor says whether they were reviewed at all, it is still not understandable for the complainant whether the IBMS was actually used in practice or whether the submissions were merely treated as ordinary customer service contacts.
I had understood your original statement that the matter would be reviewed to mean that my specific complaints would also be checked. From your current reply, however, I take it that only the missing confirmation of receipt was addressed.
Therefore, my key question remains:
Were my expressly submitted complaints actually recorded as complaints within the IBMS and subjected to a substantive review – yes or no?
What I am concerned with here are not the internal details of the handling, but first of all the fundamental determination of whether the complaints were properly recorded and processed at all.
Kind regards
miriam@ebay
Hello @ce-kra - since we can’t rule out that your previous complaints were not recorded as such, we’d like to ask you to contact our customer service by phone again and explicitly ask them to document your issue as a complaint. This way, we can make sure your issue is recorded correctly.
If there’s anything else with which we can continue to support you via the community, we’re of course happy to help.
Best regards
Miriam
ce-kra
OP1 week agoHello @miriam@ebay ,
Hello Miriam,
to be honest, I can't make sense of this answer.
I have already pointed out to the phone customer service several times that I want to file an official complaint. Nevertheless, eBay apparently still cannot determine to this day whether these complaints were recorded as such at all.
I have also contacted eBay in writing several times, including impressum@ebay.de, and explicitly stated that I want to file a complaint. I also received no confirmation that this was documented as a complaint.
Referring me again to exactly the same phone customer service, even though it apparently did not correctly record my previous complaints, does not solve the problem. It merely repeats the process that has already failed several times.
If there is another reliable way to submit a complaint officially and in a verifiable manner, please let me know this specific contact channel.
Alternatively, I ask that my complaints already on file be forwarded by you to the responsible department and properly recorded there. All cases and attempts to contact have already been documented.
The crucial question remains:
How can I submit a complaint to eBay in such a way that its receipt is actually confirmed and it is not once again treated merely as a normal customer service inquiry?
Kind regards
miriam@ebay
Hello @ce-kra - I understand that this situation doesn’t satisfy you. There is no other way to contact us besides the options already mentioned for submitting a complaint within the framework of IBMS. Through the Community, we also have no way to forward individual complaints to the responsible office or to retrospectively check to what extent these were recorded internally.
If something didn’t work with payment processing on eBay as a seller, you can also send a complaint, including by post, via this route.
I’m sorry I can’t offer you anything more at this point. If you need further support with general questions about eBay, we’ll of course be happy to help you here in the Community.
Best regards
Miriam
perfect-sally
·1 month ago@verena@ebay can you say something about this? Thanks a lot
ce-kra
OPJul 15, 2026 at 8:58 PM@perfect-sally , thanks for the tag
So far, it doesn’t seem like anyone from eBay feels addressed. Unfortunately, this gives the impression that the issue is being stonewalled. Precisely because eBay itself describes an easily accessible way to the IBMS, a specific answer would be important as to how and where it can actually be reached.
perfect-sally
·Jul 15, 2026 at 9:21 PMIt seems like lately, unfortunately, it’s happening more often that the markers aren’t reaching the staff members.
Best to report back again tomorrow morning, then we’ll mark the staff member who’s present again.
perfect-sally
·Jul 16, 2026 at 6:16 AM@alena@ebay since the mention of Verena a few days ago apparently didn’t work, I’d ask you to take a look at this and reply to the member. Many thanks
miriam@ebay
Hello @perfect-sally - I can confirm that there are no problems with the @-mentions set in this topic, however I took over here for my two colleagues. Thanks for the inclusion! 😊
Best regards
Miriam