eBay makes immediate changes to unpaid item policy

ebay

eBay has announced updates to their unpaid item dispute process which are set to have taken effect immediately. The move has been made with the intent of curbing friction that can all too often occur between a buyer and seller when, essentially, something goes wrong.

The announcement itself is about unpaid items, which are items for which a seller does not receive their money within a specified (and fairly decent) amount of time. The previous method of resolution was to have the users to contact one another and resolve the problems between one another, and then the process kicks in on eBay’s side if one user does not comply.

Actual changes to the dispute process include the following:

- Reducing the waiting period before a dispute can be opened from 7 days to 4 days
- Reducing the dispute resolution process from up to 60 days to around 30 days
- Reducing the period of time following the sale of an item in which a dispute can be filed from 45 days down to 32 days

Additionally eBay has indicated that there are fewer forms to be filled when lodging an unpaid item dispute. There is now also no need to liaise directly with the other party back and forth; the item seller instead determines how much communication they are willing to take part in with the buyer.

eBay has also taken the role of ‘middleman’ under the changes, authoring all emails between the buyer and the seller to give them a more neutral tone - a nice touch and something that people have asked for many times in the past.

Tags: ebay unpaid item