Advice for your eBay account in response to the Covid-19 outbreak

Note:  This page was last updated on 1 October 2020

Customer Service Waiting Time 

Like many of you, we’re currently adapting to new ways of working in order to do what is right for the health and safety of our employees. Please be aware we are unable to help with PayPal specific problems. We would advise members to review PayPal’s statement on their services here

In the meantime, we are here for you in other ways, please visit: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/home. 

Seller Help, our new tool that allows you to manage and resolve all of your selling issues in one place, is now available. Go to Seller Help to get started.

What you need to know:

• We’ve provided some useful links below with the latest information from shipping service providers, organisations and authorities.
  
  
• Your account will be protected from being downgraded from the 20 March Seller Performance standard evaluation until the 20 June evaluation. Plus, we’ve taken the necessary measures to ensure your Seller Performance is not affected should there be delays or interruptions of postage services.
  
  
• From 23 March 2020, we’re heavily restricting the sale of all Face Masks, Hand Sanitisers, Paracetamol, Cleaning Wipes & Pads, Toilet Roll, Baby Formula & Milk, Nappies, Baby Wipes and Tampons on the platform. Private sellers will not be permitted to sell these items.
  
  
• For parcel drop-offs, please note Government advice that post offices, grocers, newsagents, storage and distribution facilities (including delivery drop off points) are retail premises that are permitted to remain open.  Official guidance states that “Online retail is still open and encouraged and postal and delivery service will run as normal.” A full copy of the guidance is available here.
  
  
• We have been working with our delivery service provider Packlink to lower the prices on collection services for domestic deliveries.These prices match prices from drop off services from UPS and Hermes. You can now sell products and have your parcels collected for delivery within the UK safely and comfortably. More details below...

The consequences of the worldwide spread of the Coronavirus has had a huge effect on our everyday lives and may also have impacted your sales. We are monitoring developments very closely and are in close contact with the relevant authorities to keep you up to date. We will protect your Seller Performance if there are delays or interruption to shipping services.

How to sell safely

Whenever you drop-off a parcel or meet with a buyer to complete a transaction, please respect the social distancing rules as highlighted here by the government. To minimise contact with other people please consider taking the following steps:

• If you normally visit your Post Office or parcel drop-off point, please make sure that you follow the new in-store processes. Learn more
   
• Remember: Before you travel to the Post Office or drop-off point, please make sure you check the opening hours. They may have been changed. You can check them here. 
  
  
• If you normally pay for postage in the Post Office, you can buy and print postage labels yourself via eBay. For non-tracked Royal Mail services, just drop the packaged item into a letterbox or parcel postbox - you don’t need to visit the Post Office. Learn more
  
  
• Use Click & Drop from Royal Mail to prepay for postage and drop off your items. Learn more
  
  
• Use collection services (see below)
  
  
• If you are struggling to dispatch your items due to the current situation, you can adjust your dispatch time on each listing.

Where is the nearest post office or drop-off point?

You can still drop off parcels at the post office and most parcel shops.

You can find your nearest post office here

Find the nearest drop-off point here:

• UPS
  
  
• Hermes

Please note Government advice that post offices, grocers, newsagents, storage and distribution facilities (including delivery drop off points) are retail premises that are permitted to remain open. Official guidance states that “Online retail is still open and encouraged and postal and delivery service will run as normal.” A full copy of the guidance is available here.

Use Collection Services

In the event that you can no longer personally deliver your consignments to a delivery service, consider the parcel collection services listed below. eBay has been working with our delivery service provider Packlink to lower prices on collection services for domestic deliveries. These prices now match the prices from UPS and Hermes when these services are purchased on eBay.co.uk. This offer will run from now until 30 June 2020. 

You can book a collection service through eBay delivery powered by Packlink on eBay.co.uk by  selecting ‘Print Postage label’ in Sold items

Hermes

• Parcels up to 15 kg with prices from £2.85
  
  
• Collection: Monday to Friday from 8am to 8am
  
  
• Delivery time: 3 days

UPS

• Parcels up to 15 kg with prices from £7.00
  
  
• Collection: Monday to Friday with 2 available slots - from 9am to 3pm or 12am to 7pm
  
• Delivery time: 1 day

DHL

• Parcels up to 15 kg with prices from £7.32
  
  
• Collection: Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm
  
  
• Delivery time: 1 day
  

Up-to-date information on postage and delivery services

Please inform yourself about the current situation at delivery service providers due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19):

• UPS
• DHL
• Hermes
• Royal Mail
• DPD
• Yodel
• ParcelForce

Important official websites with the latest information on Covid-19

• Government website
• NHS
• Latest government advice on social distancing
• Latest government guidance on staying at home

Seller Protection for UK Sellers

We understand that things are difficult at the moment for many of us and you often can’t get an item out of the door as fast as you’d like or you may need to unexpectedly cancel an order. We want to reassure you and remind you of the measures in place to ensure your Seller Performance is not affected in case of delays or interruptions to postal services that are beyond your control.

Please note, this protection relates specifically to your Seller Performance Standards level and Service Metrics. If we observe activity on your account that needs to be verified, we may have to temporarily restrict your account privileges while we work on your case. The required verifications are a key element in helping to create a trusted marketplace and may include: proof of identity, address, inventory or order fulfilment.

Seller protections on Seller levels and performance standards 

• If your current account level is Top-Rated Seller or Above Standard, it will be protected from being downgraded to a lower level from 20 March until 20 June 2020.
  
  
• For your Seller Performance Standards level evaluation, we’ll automatically remove Late Delivery counts, Seller Cancellation defects, and associated Negative or Neutral feedback received for these specific transactions between 1 March to 30 June 2020.

Seller protections on Service Metrics

Your item not received count (INR) in Service Metrics and associated Negative or Neutral feedback will be automatically removed for transactions between 1 March to 30 June 2020. We will remove it on the condition that you uploaded valid tracking. The following conditions also apply:

• The item was delivered within 10 days of the estimated delivery date if both seller and buyer are in the same country.
  
  
• The item was delivered within 30 days of the Estimated Delivery Date on international transactions.

Things to remember

We’ll be processing Defect removals and associated Negative or Neutral feedback as quickly as possible. Please be aware that it may take up to a week for them to be removed. There may be a short period of time when this information appears in your account before being removed.

Your account Seller Performance Standards level for the 20 July evaluation will be evaluated based on transactions over the past 12 calendar months up until 30 June 2020 - minus the Defects that were removed. If you’ve sold more than 400 items in the past 3 months, you’ll be evaluated based on the last 3 months up until 30 June 2020 - minus the Defects that were removed. 

 As always, we want to ensure that we assist you in delivering the best possible experience for your buyers. It’s best practice to keep open and honest communication with your buyers. Please let them know if there will be a delay in delivery and try to ensure that your handling times honestly reflect the current circumstances.

For more details please see our announcement from 24.04.2020: here.

 Restrictions on items you sell on eBay

To stamp out unreasonably inflated prices of essential items during the Coronavirus pandemic, we have taken the decision to  restrict the sale of all Face Masks, Hand Sanitisers, Paracetamol, Cleaning Wipes & Pads, Toilet Roll, Baby Formula & Milk, Nappies, Baby Wipes and Tampons on the platform.

Please note, only a small number of selected business sellers will be permitted to sell these products on the UK platform with immediate effect. Private sellers will not be allowed to sell these items.

As a private seller,  you will find your listings blocked or removed and your account may be suspended if you attempt to re-list or create new listings for such items. 

The decision to remove listings that go against our policies will be final. Do not contact Customer Support as they will not investigate appeals.

We are monitoring the situation continually across a broader range of categories and additional restrictions may be applied.

Further details of our anti-price inflation policy can be found here.