The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

Chapter 33

Troubleshooting for eBay businesses

Running an eBay business can often be a full-time job. As you increase the number of products you sell and your customer base, you also increase the probability of encountering some common problems. Don’t panic! These issues are all par for the course and there are simple solutions in place to help you solve them and get on with running your profitable business.

My buyer lodged a resolution claim against me

Buyers may lodge resolution claims against you with either eBay or PayPal. Most buyers are diligent in contacting you first to resolve problems, but a few are less aware of the protocol and will go straight to one or other company. In this case, always react calmly and assume the buyer did not know how to contact you or was unaware of the convention to do so. All of your communications with the buyer should be courteous and professional, even if you feel what they are asking is unreasonable.

My attitude with buyer complaints is that investing in solving today’s problem could well result in increased sales tomorrow (either from that buyer or through positive word of mouth). You can access the resolution centre by clicking My eBay at the top of any eBay page, then click Account then Resolution centre.

I need to end a listing early

You may unexpectedly run out of stock of a product or have miscalculated the available quantity, or perhaps you have another reason for wanting to end a listing early. You can end fixed price listings ...