We know that the great range of items and the chance to grab a bargain is what keeps people coming back to eBay, making us the number one ecommerce site in the UK.
We also know that there can be rare occasions when a transaction doesn’t go as smoothly as it could, and so we continue to work hard to ensure that a small minority of poor sellers are removed from the site. We also invest millions of pounds every year to ensure that our marketplace remains a safe and fun place to shop online:
1. Paying safely
To make sure buyers feel even more confident when they bid on or buy an item, we’ve made it compulsory for all sellers to offer PayPal as one of their payment options. We strongly recommend buyers use PayPal so that they are covered for the full price of the item on the rare occasion that anything goes wrong.
Buyers should never send money via a money transfer service such as Western Union or Money Gram. These are not safe ways to pay for items online and are banned on eBay.
2. Preventing fraudulent emails
Previously when buyers bid on an item, fraudsters could see User IDs and then send buyers an email in an attempt to defraud them. To protect our customers from this type of threat, we have now made User IDs anonymous.
3. Ensuring honest and accurate Feedback
Over time, we found that buyers had become reluctant to leave negative Feedback for a seller if they’d had a bad experience, for fear of receiving retaliatory Feedback in return.
To ensure that all buyers feel confident in leaving honest and accurate Feedback, sellers are now not allowed to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers.
Buyers can also leave Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) where they can rate a seller on their postage and packaging charges, how good they were at communicating, if the item was as described and how quickly it was delivered. This ensures that great sellers are rewarded for good customer service.
4. Working with police
In 2009, eBay trained over 1500 law enforcement officers in the UK and, in the last two years, has assisted officers in over 9,000 investigations, resulting in the arrest or conviction of more than 200 criminals.
5. Rewarding great sellers
To promote sellers who provide great customer service, those sellers with high Detailed Seller Ratings for their postage and packaging costs, speed of delivery, item description and communication will be more visible than sellers with lower ratings who will be demoted in search.
6. Closing dormant accounts
eBay accounts that have not been used for a long time can be at risk of being taken over by criminals to make fraudulent transactions on the site. In order to stop this and protect our members, we shut down all dormant user accounts so that they cannot be used in this way.
7. Recognised computers
We now require all sellers to trade on eBay from recognised computers. This prevents fraudsters from taking over an eBay account and listing fraudulent items from an unrecognised computer.
8. Member to member emails
We introduced a system which requires all emails between eBay customers to be sent via their eBay accounts. This means that we can decrease the risk of buyers being defrauded away from the eBay site.
Communication from eBay and eBay members will always appear in their ‘My eBay’ messages section. Users should never click on links in emails that purport to come from eBay. In particular, they should never log into their eBay account using those links. Instead, buyers and sellers should access their account by typing the eBay URL (e.g. www.ebay.co.uk) directly into a new internet browser window. If a user is ever unsure if an email purporting to come from eBay is genuine, they can send it to spoof@ebay.co.uk and we will respond immediately to let them know.
9. Returns
In accordance with UK law, we require every business that trades on eBay to show clear contact details. For eBay businesses that trade in fixed price items they are required to offer returns to their buyers (not applicable to auctions). This ensures buyers are confident that they can return the item if they are not happy with their purchase.
10. Live chat
We now offer our users a ‘Live Chat’ facility twenty-four hours a day. This ensures customers can get instant answers to their questions from a member of the eBay team and get their problem resolved in minutes.