Seller Centre

Seller Centre

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

Last updated: 14 January 2021

Customer support update

You may experience longer than usual waiting times for Customer service at the moment. Please read the page below for the latest updates on Covid-19 virus before calling the team.


PayPal

We are unable to help with PayPal specific problems. We would advise members to review PayPal’s statement on their services.


Seller Help

If you can't find any answers to your queries below, visit Seller Help where you can manage and resolve all of your selling issues in one place.


Royal Mail service update & seller protection measures

In response to limited Royal Mail deliveries to some areas, we’ve extended our buyer-facing delivery estimates for the following postcodes:

  • Ashford (TN23-TN27)
  • Barnsley (S70, S71, S72, S75)
  • Basildon (SS13, SS16)
  • Bow (E3)
  • Bury St. Edmunds (IP28-IP33)
  • Chelmsford (CM1-CM3)
  • Christchurch (BH23)
  • Daventry (NN11)
  • Debden (IG7-IG10)
  • Enfield (EN1-EN3)
  • Grays (RM16-RM20)
  • Hampton (TW12)
  • Highbury (N5)
  • Hornsey (N8)
  • Horsham (RH12, RH13)
  • Ilford (IG1-IG6)
  • Leeds City (LS1-LS5)
  • Lewisham (SE13)
  • Magherafelt (BT45,BT46)
  • Margate (CT7-CT9)
  • Rugeley (WS15)
  • Somerton (TA11)
  • South Ockendon (RM15)
  • South Woodford (E18)
  • Upper Holloway (N7)
  • Wandsworth (SW18)
  • Wellington (TA21)
  • Widnes (WA8)


Further Seller protection for Royal Mail services

Late Delivery rates will be automatically adjusted and we’ll automatically remove Late Delivery counts and any related Negative or Neutral feedback received for Royal Mail shipments to and from the postcodes above between 4 – 31 January 2021.

Item not received (INR) counts in Service Metrics and any related Negative or Neutral feedback will be automatically removed if you uploaded valid tracking before the delivery was scanned for Royal Mail shipments to and from the postcodes above between 4 – 31 January.

We'll be processing Defect removals and any related Negative or Neutral feedback as quickly as possible. Please be aware that it may take us a little time to remove this information from sellers’ accounts.

Please note, even though we may protect individual service metrics from affecting sellers’ standard ratings, if delivery performance drops below an acceptable level or if we observe unusual activity on accounts, we may have to remove account privileges while we investigate the matter.


Seller Protection

We may at times put seller protection measures in place in case of systemic interruptions to postal services that are beyond your control. It's always best practice for sellers to be upfront with their buyers and let them know if delivery delays are expected. It’s also advisable that sellers set their handling times to reflect their current circumstances. You now have the option to manually set your handling / dispatch times for each day of the week.

As always, we want to assist you in delivering the best possible experience for your buyers. Uploading tracking numbers to your transactions allows your buyers to see where their item is and you’ll be better protected in the event of carrier delays or if a buyer opens an Item not received case.

The following seller protection measures have been put in place when evaluating your Seller Performance Standards level:

Your Late Delivery rate will be automatically adjusted. We will automatically remove Late Delivery counts and any related Negative or Neutral feedback received for:

  • Domestic transactions between 14 December to 31 December 2020
  • Cross Border transactions between 7 December to 20 January 2021

Your Item not received count (INR) in Service Metrics and any related Negative or Neutral feedback will be automatically removed if you uploaded valid tracking before the delivery was scanned for:

  • Domestic transactions between 14 December to 31 December 2020
  • Cross Border transactions between 7 December to 20 January 2021

We understand that things are difficult at the moment for many of us and with interruptions of services at some borders you may need to unexpectedly cancel an order. We want to reassure you that if you have to cancel a cross border transaction, we will remove those defects from your seller performance evaluation.

We’ll be processing Defect removals and any related Negative or Neutral feedback as quickly as possible. Please be aware that it may take us a little time to remove this information from sellers’ accounts.

Please note, even though we may protect individual service metrics from affecting seller standard rating, if a seller’s delivery performance drops below an acceptable level or if we observe unusual activity on accounts, we may have to restrict account privileges while we investigate.


How to sell safely

Whenever you drop-off a parcel or meet with a buyer to complete a transaction, please respect the government's social distancing rules as detailed here.  If possible, ask your buyer to agree to the social distancing rules in advance. 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. 
  • 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. 
  • 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.
  • Royal Mail launched a Parcel Collect service where you can book a collection of up to 5 items from your door. Available nationwide.
  • 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.
  • If selling locally, please observe the government’s social distancing rules.


Where is the nearest Post Office or drop-off point?

You can still drop off parcels at the Post Office and most parcel shops.

Find the nearest Post Office and drop-off point here:

  • Post Office
  • UPS
  • Hermes

Please note the Government advises that post offices, grocers, newsagents, storage and distribution facilities (including delivery drop off points) are permitted to remain open.


Parcel 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. 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 £2.89
  • Collection: Monday to Friday from 8am to 8am
  • Delivery time: 3 days


UPS

  • Parcels up to 15 kg with prices from £7.19
  • 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


Estimated Delivery Day(s)  

We're actively working with carriers and International logistics providers to understand and monitor their operational status and performance. We’ll make changes to buyer-facing delivery estimates as we deem necessary.  


Domestic delivery

Time has been added to buyer-facing delivery estimates to account for any delays that may be experienced in the delivery network. We are actively monitoring the situation and will make any changes as we deem necessary.


International delivery

Due to the current challenges being experienced with goods moving to and from Europe, time has been added to buyer-facing delivery estimates to account for any delays for international delivery. We are actively monitoring the situation and will make any changes as we deem necessary.  We are actively monitoring the situation and will make any changes as we deem necessary.

We've also suspended exports for non-GSP listings to any country based on suspensions as seen on Royal Mail’s International Incident Bulletin which means that buyers in those countries may not be able to view your listings.


Find the latest information on your preferred postage and delivery services

Please inform yourself about the current situation at delivery service providers:


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


Time Away settings

Sellers can activate Time Away settings and either hide fixed price listings in eBay search until they return or keep them live with extended times. Auction-style listings will continue to run for the set duration.


Restrictions on items you sell on eBay

To stamp out unreasonably inflated prices of essential items during the Coronavirus pandemic, we’ve restricted 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 are permitted to sell these products on the UK platform. Private sellers are not permitted to sell these items.

As a private seller,  your listings will be 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.