eBay's non-existent seller protection
Summary: speakerguy reports difficulties selling on a platform, especially due to two cases: an internationally shipped item that was refunded unfairly, and a purchase that remained unpaid. perfect-sally criticizes international selling and explains the process in cases of nonpayment. speakerguy defends international handling and complains about how the platform has changed since 2022. roter_rauch agrees that long shipping times are often problematic and stresses the need to improve the platform's processes.
Hi everyone,
I’m slowly no longer understanding why it should be worth it to sell things on this platform.
I’ve now had two cases again that are really infuriating.
Case 1: Buyer purchases an item from another EU country. It’s a Portuguese island that’s far away from the mainland. The item is handed over to DHL on time for shipping, with the note that shipping will take longer because of the island conditions (Vila do Porto, Portugal). The buyer opened a case straight away saying the item had not arrived, while the package was still in transit. eBay Support agreed with the buyer and refunded the money in his favor. That left me out a good three-figure amount + shipping costs. Of course I filed an appeal, which was also rejected by eBay Support. 3-4 days after the rejection, the item arrived with the buyer and was delivered. And yes: the tracking number was stored and had also been mentioned to eBay Support in every message.
Case 2: Buyer wins an auction and doesn’t pay. The purchase is canceled by eBay. Why does the buyer not have to pay, or isn’t it forcibly collected, like happened to me in case 1?
As someone who has been selling on eBay with this account since 2014, and was active before that since 2008, I have to say, it’s terrible what this platform has become.
Has anyone experienced similar cases?
perfect-sally
·Aug 7, 2026 at 1:46 PMIn case 1: why do private or supposedly private sellers have to sell abroad at all costs? Doesn’t anyone here read our “warnings” about this? Do you think we recommend against shipping abroad for fun? You can see almost every day what comes of it.
In case 2: how was the case closed by ebay? If a buyer doesn’t pay, then after at least 4 days the seller can cancel the purchase due to non-payment, and not ebay.
And a purchase contract exists between you and the buyer, and if you want to collect the money then you have to initiate that yourself. Ebay is not the fulfillment agent in such cases.
speakerguy
OPAug 7, 2026 at 2:11 PMAs for case 1: with my ~5 annual transactions, I’m more of a private seller. Your question, "Doesn’t anyone here read our 'warnings' about this? Do people really think we recommend not shipping abroad just for kicks and giggles?" The answer is no, and I’m sure that’s true for many people. Until today I didn’t even know the forum existed, and on top of that I hadn’t even had a reason to use it, because the platform was still reliable until recently. That only changed once the platform and process structures started changing in 2022. Up to now I’ve regularly sold to other EU countries, because the EU isn’t the problem — the process in eBay itself is.
By now eBay always decides in favor of the buyer, no matter what the issue is or whether it’s an EU sale. For example, I sold a module that the buyer had obviously connected incorrectly without any expertise, which, amusingly, was described to support in exactly the same way. Even here, eBay ruled in the buyer’s favor and refunded the money.
As for case 2: "eBay is not the vicarious agent in such cases." Then why did eBay act as the vicarious agent in case 1? That’s the paradox of the whole thing. eBay steps in as the vicarious agent, but only when it’s in the buyer’s interest.
"}roter_rauch
·Aug 8, 2026 at 2:52 PMExactly, an enormous annoyance (for sellers), brought up here over and over, and absolutely completely unnecessary, unfair and illogical.
Sellers have no influence whatsoever on shipping times. Not even the shipping companies themselves give specific delivery dates, it’s all just "expected". But Ebay simply says that, even across the EU (just under 4.5 million km² !! ), delivery will take place within a few days. Even though tracking still says in transit – I could also give a few examples of the actual shipping time, e.g. to Italy, Finland, Greece … etc.
Excluding international shipping doesn’t really help much. Here it can be just as stupid if packages get stuck somewhere. The only difference is that it may be easier to make some civil-law claim against a nasty buyer who has pocketed both the goods & the refund. But that also costs nerves, time & money. With an uncertain outcome.
It would be easy to modernize the shipping deadlines accordingly. Two weeks minimum inside the EU is realistic across the board – not four or five days like now. That’s how long shipments already take within Germany.
So, full agreement. Only something still needs to change. ;-)