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Anyone Filed A Dispute With Ebay Legal in Utah and Gotten No Response? What Next?
Per Ebay's User Agreement there's a form, address and instructions to follow for filing a dispute with Ebay. I filed a dispute regarding action they took on my account that I believe was in error. (Details of that are irrelevant to my question here so don't bother trying to play lawyer and ask for additional info to pass your own judgment on - it's not about financial transactions they made related to my account.)
The Terms of Service say they will respond within 30 days. The Ebay Terms of Service say they will respond within 30 days. Which they haven't (coming up on 50 days.) It seems stupid to keep sending correspondence to the same dead end. Also, I anticipate this will be resolved fairly easily not requiring some court battle. There's no money at stake really. So paying a lawyer $200 an hour to do something I can do myself doesn't make sense. Although maybe that's what it will take to get a response in that case it will become at minimum a monetary claim for my attorney fees. I'm sure they, like I, would prefer to avoid that.
My best guess is I need to send a demand letter for a response, providing a reasonable deadline and what action will be taken if no response is received. This may be a waste of time though especially if I send it to the same Utah address. It seems maybe I need to skip that and file a case in small claims court in my county then have them served (I saw you can pay a fee to have them served at an address in California.) But then now I'm racking up expenses in court/serving fees and it becomes a monetary claim for the fees at minimum.
Aside from the obvious wise guy answer "you need to talk to an attorney" I'm just checking out there if anyone has gone through something similar and what route they took and if they'd do it differently or do the same thing again?
I know curiosity always comes up and people want to dig into the nitty gritty behind the dispute and then give their opinion on the dispute itself. But as I said, I'm not asking for opinions on the details/merits of the dispute itself. If you don't have experience with this process please don't bother replying. Thanks.
kh-tuna
·10 months agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
broto_64
·10 months agoI'm not even through the second page and I can tell you, just looking at the hassle anything under a few to several thousand actual dollars simply isn't worth my time... And you are right, maybe they do hope most people will give up and go away, but then how much of my time would I be spending chasing wild geese?
Is it worth it to you?
You state there is no financial incentive, I can only guess then it's an account issue OR it's all out of principle.
I don't do principle, so if that is the case I can't help you.
If it's an account issue I may suggest going through social media channels.
deh36158
·1 year agoWhat was your outcome? Im currently in the same situation, filed a dispute (form had an email address) and no response. I've emailed it over and over with no reply. Curious what happened with your dispute. Did you pursue arbitration? Did you get eBay to pay?
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoThe American Arbitration Association is a non-profit organization focused in the field of alternative dispute resolution, providing services to individuals and organizations who wish to resolve conflicts out of court, and one of several arbitration organizations that administers arbitration proceedings. --Wikipedia
Sounds like this organization is pretty much the same as the Better Business Bureau, with nothing to back its decisions but the agreement of the parties involved.
carlmarxx
·1 year agoback around 2020 on the old power sellers board from seller that posted about wasting their time to use arbitration with eBay . and that the OP never got any response during the time frame given and as stated . It was a interesting thread back then . some folks that posted on that thread said ebay's use of Arbitration into the UA was nothing more then smoke and mirrors to deal with the newbie members that didn't know better . I belong to couple of private buyer /seller groups that we member's that went through same issue as the OP .
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoYou have Binding Arbitration and you have Non Binding Arbitration. With eBay it will be Binding Arbitration. With Binding Arbitration the decision of the Arbitrator is fully enforceable in a court of law. In other words if the decision is not honored then you would have sue in court to have the decision enforced. It would become very expensive to the loosing party.
The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is no longer in the User Agreement. That was one of the changes to the Legal section.
The arbitration is now administered by National Arbitration & Mediation ("NAM").
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agohttps://www.namadr.com/services/arbitration/
tex-421
·1 year agoIt’s my understanding that, by and large, online e-commerce user agreements with arbitration clauses are enforceable
monroe67
·1 year ago"It’s my understanding that, by and large, online e-commerce user agreements with arbitration clauses are enforceable"
Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe you could file a Request for Arbitration with eBay and tell us how it works out for you.
tex-421
·1 year agoI don’t have a beef with eBay, that usually is a prerequisite to filing a claim.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoYep, that is exactly what I understand as well. It is implied consent when you click the box that says I Agree. Of all the legal terms I have ever read I have never seen one that did not allow for a Small Court Hearing in lieu of a Arbitration Hearing.
All Legal Terms from the ones I have read, including eBay's.
monroe67
·1 year ago"Of all the legal terms I have ever read I have never seen one that did not allow for a Small Court Hearing in lieu of a Arbitration Hearing."
eBay's recently revised Arbitration policies do allow for small claims court resolution of disputes.
Here's the appropriate section, with highlighting:
[Start of Quote]
B. Agreement to Arbitrate
You and eBay each agree that any and all disputes or claims between you and eBay (or any related third parties) that arise out of or relate in any way to this or previous versions of the User Agreement, your use of or access to our Services, the actions of eBay or its agents, or any products or services sold, offered, or purchased through our Services, including the scope or applicability of this Agreement to Arbitrate (each, a "Dispute") shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration, rather than in court. The exceptions to this Agreement to Arbitrate are: (1) you or eBay may seek relief in small claims court if such claims qualify and remain in small claims court; and (2) you or eBay may seek equitable relief in court for infringement or other misuse of intellectual property rights (such as trademarks, trade dress, domain names, trade secrets, copyrights, and patents). For purposes of this Agreement to Arbitrate, "Dispute" will also include disputes that arose or involve facts occurring before the existence of this or any prior versions of the User Agreement as well as claims that may arise after the termination of this User Agreement, unless those disputes were noticed prior to this User Agreement.
[End of Quote]
In order to qualify for Small Claims Court, the dollar amount in dispute cannot be more than whatever limit your own state specifies. In California, that's currently $12,500.00 for individuals; if you are suing as a business or other legal entity, it's $6,250.00. In New Mexico, the limit is $10,000.00.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoI do not get what point you are trying to make. Small Claims Court has always been a option. eBay has always allowed for Small Court Hearing in lieu of a Arbitration Hearing. Even before the new User Agreement they allowed for Small Court Hearing in lieu of a Arbitration Hearing.
itsjustasprain
·1 year agoNot speaking for @monroe67 here but I think perhaps it was that your wording kind of implied that you had never seen a Small Court Hearing disallowed until NOW - that is until Ebay came along.
papincpapinc
·1 year agoThe post office in Draper, UT advised me a certified letter I sent to the litigation department at 583 West eBay Way is no longer a valid address. Post office advised their new address is 173 West Election Road in Draper, UT 84020.
The 583 West eBay Way location was sold by eBay last summer and is being converted into a school campus.
I can find no update when searching and only see the old address showing up.
I emailed a Notice of Dispute to the email address shown on eBay's form and got no response. I emailed again a week later and again got no response.
I then sent a certified letter to Samantha Wellington, eBay's general counsel in San Jose. About three weeks later I got the return confirmation postcard returned but have gotten no response from eBay.
Today I sent a USPS Priority Mail envelope to eBay Inc.'s registered agent in my state to be forwarded to eBay. It contained the information previously sent to which I have not gotten any response as well as a request for arbitration to be held in the county and state in which I reside (according to eBay's policy).
By the time eBay gets the information from their registered agent there will be less than one week remaining to come to any type of dispute resolution satisfactory to me (which is also what their notice of dispute form states) so I requested arbitration to be paid for by eBay in accordance with their own policy.
I've lost patience talking with eBay customer service agents who are probably sitting at home in their underwear reading from a manual about what can and can't be done.
I also noticed from eBay's last annual report they incurred over $300 million in transaction losses resulting from disputes between buyers and sellers and eBay's own guarantee policies.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoeBay recently changed their User Agreement effective as of May 16, 2025. One of the changes to the agreement is the Legal Disputes. It is rewritten and changed from paragraph 18 to paragraph 19. Since this is a new agreement and the Legal Section is extensively rewritten you would think that they would put the correct addresses of where to send legal notifications.
It does not make sense that a newly written (less than a month old) User Agreement would have the incorrect address. That could be cause to void the arbitration clause.
You have done your part and sent proper notification, now decide how far you wish to go with the matter.
If you are intent on going to arbitration, then do it. Don’t be waiting on eBay to pay the fees. You pay the fees and get the process initiated. As part of you Demand Letter you ask for the fees to be reimburse. You will find out that this is just going to be dragged out longer and longer until you initiate the arbitration procedures. Until the fees are paid, the arbitration process is not started.
When you say “By the time eBay gets the information from their registered agent there will be less than one week remaining to come to any type of dispute resolution†are you allowing 45 days from the first attempted delivery?
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behavior-policies/user-agreement?id=4259&st=12&pos=1&query=User%20Agreement&intent=arbritration&docId=HELP1313#18
User Agreement
For users who agreed to a prior version of our User Agreement, this agreement is effective as of May 16, 2025.
To initiate Informal Dispute Resolution, a party must give notice to the other party in writing in a valid Notice of Dispute ("Notice"), which may be downloaded at this link. Such Notice to eBay should be sent by email to DisputeNotice@eBay.com or regular mail to our offices located at 583 W. eBay Way, Draper, UT 84020.
The Informal Dispute Resolution process lasts 45 days and is a mandatory precondition to commencing arbitration. The statute of limitations and any filing deadlines shall be tolled while the parties engage in Informal Dispute Resolution.
If Informal Dispute Resolution does not resolve satisfactorily within 45 days after receipt of a Notice, you and eBay agree that either party shall have the right to finally resolve the Dispute through binding arbitration.
A party who wishes to initiate arbitration must provide the other party with a demand for arbitration (the "Demand"). A Demand to eBay should be sent by mail to eBay Inc., Attn: Litigation Department, 583 W. eBay Way, Draper, UT 84020.
carlmarxx
·1 year agoEbay has to have a written signed agreement from their members customers agreeing to arbitration . Which they don't have . the Fact they added in to the agreement doesn't make it bidding . couple years ago a couple tried to sue AT&T lost do fact they had signed written paper agreement to arbitration the Judge ruled and dismissed that couple's case . there are plenty case's to google regarding arbitration . they all came down to the company's getting their employees and customers to sign on Paper Only Binding written agreement to arbitration .
papincpapinc
·1 year agomy notice of dispute was sent on april 30, 2025 by email. 45 days from sending the notice of dispute would be around june 14 +/-. don't expect my letter to ebay's registered agent will get in their hands until june 2 or 3. by the time they forward it on to ebay, inc it won't get to california until around june 5 or 6. by the time it gets to somebody who will actually read it there will probably be less than 5 to 7 days remaining out of the 45.
in my particular state, the small claims limit is $2,500.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoHave you received eMail confirmation that the Notice of Dispute was received?
There is nothing in the rules that says eBay must respond to the Notice of Dispute. The rules only say that you must give them a opportunity of 45 days to try and resolve the matter. After the 45 days then you may proceed to arbitration or court.
I am a firm believer and I have faith that if eBay sees anyway possible that they can resolve your issue without a formal arbitration or court hearing then they will. There is no purpose to drag it out with a hearing unless they feel very strongly that you are wrong.
papincpapinc
·1 year agono email confirmation notice was received by either draper, ut or san jose office. however, i did get certified mail confirmation notice of dispute was received by the san jose office.
agree there is no point in dragging anything out but seems if ebay was really interested in resolving this matter they would at a minimum acknowledge the information i sent has been received and they are looking into the matter before getting back with some type of attempt at resolution.
20+ year history with ebay and a 100% positive feedback profile. they claim they are interested in protecting sellers but not feeling particularly protected on this matter.
small claims court can not order specific performance, only can award damages. i'm looking for specific performance in my particular issue.
carlmarxx
·1 year agoWell at some point eBay will get hit with a law suit . And the arbitration will be raised to see if it is legal ,Since they never got their customers to sign on paper agreement.
papincpapinc
·11 months agoNeglected to mention that eBay sold its corporate campus in Draper, UT to the Canyons School a year ago last May.
In eBay's current User Agreement which was effective August 2025, eBay still directs that a Notice of Dispute be sent to 583 W. eBay Way in Draper, UT, the location they sold over 15 months ago!
According to the Draper, UT post office, eBay's new address is 173 West Election Road, Draper, UT.
papincpapinc
·11 months agoI did receive email confirmation the Notice of Dispute was received. Both in Utah as well as to eBay's general counsel in San Jose. No response from either. Also sent information to eBay's registered agent requesting it be forwarded to eBay and requested arbitration. Again, no response.
Since eBay's policy indicates they will pay arbitration fees if the dispute process is followed I figured they would either reach out or initiate arbitration. They did neither.
I read an account online of another user who filed for arbitration, paid for the process to be opened, and waited around two months before hearing from the arbitration entity that eBay failed to pay its part and the case would not move forward.
I filed a small claims actions against eBay on Monday of this week requesting damages to cover the cost of opening the arbitration, the administrative cost, and a fee for a "reasoned decision". That hearing is set for the middle of October.
Since the initial notice of dispute was sent at the end of April, and all other correspondence has been in excess of 45 days, I am expecting to be awarded the damages requested at which point I will open the arbitration to be heard "in person" in the county in which I reside.
Maybe eBay will now reach out since litigation has been filed, don't know, but I am ready to proceed and don't feel eBay has much of a leg on which to stand.
papincpapinc
·10 months agoMy small claims case against eBay was held today and I was awarded damages in the amount of $1,045.00 plus court costs of $91.54. The damage award was to cover the NAM administrative fee of $115.00, NAM's arbitration hearing fee of $660.00, and NAM's Reasoned Decision Fee of $270.00
eBay did not show up for the hearing or respond to the summons so I received a default judgment.
Now will have to wait to see if eBay pays but in any case will now pursue arbitration.
The damages were awarded since eBay did not respond to my Notice of Dispute sent twice by email to the litigation department in Utah, by certified mail to the litigation department in Utah, by certified mail to eBay's general counsel in San Jose, and by certified mail to eBay's registered agent.
There was no response by eBay to any of this correspondence which was the basis for the breach of contract claim for money damages I made in small claims court and for which I was awarded the damages noted above.
dhbookds
·10 months agoSo were those other fees covered by the judgement? 660+115+270= 1045.........did you get anything?
stephenmorgan
·10 months agoSo you have been awarded the Fees it cost to file the Arbitration Claim. Good for you. Now like you say you will have to wait to see if eBay pays.
Good luck with getting your Arbitration Hearing started.
Hopefully once eBay receives the Court Order for the damages you have been awarded they will make time to try and resolve your issue with them.
luckythewinner
·11 months agoI would assume that amount includes the fees that eBay must refund to a buyer when a seller fails to fulfill an order, or when a seller sells a defective product that is returned.
papincpapinc
·11 months agoIn my particular case, I was the seller of an item which went through the authenticity guarantee. It was authenticated an determined to be "as described" in my listing.
The buyer opened a return request (my listing stated "no returns") and eBay reimbursed the buyer "on my behalf".
The buyer evidently returned the item to the authenticator without the authentication tag and the authenticator returned the item to me with only a packing slip which said "item not as described"
eBay's policy states if the authentication tag is removed the item can not be returned. So much for policy.
There was no documentation from the authenticator showing the item being returned was the item I sent. The authenticator was required to reinspect the item and they did not do that which leaves me in the position of not knowing if the item returned to me was in fact the item I sold, had authenticated as matching the listing description, and then returned to me as not matching the listing description.
Would have expected at a minimum the authenticator would have commented on this disconnect.
theteamsetguy
·1 year ago@cristco ,
It sounds like it is time for you to lawyer up my friend.
Bot 3675309
albertabrightalberta
·1 year ago"There's no money at stake really."
One would assume you're suing for damages. But if there's no money at stake, what damages would you be claiming?
inhawaii
·1 year agoEbay's terms of service pretty much say that can do anything they want to any seller at any time for any reason. What could you possibly want to dispute?
stephenmorgan
·1 year ago................
youn2240
·1 year agoSounds like they are stonewalling you. I think the movie Erin Brockovich would be a good place to start about getting information on what it takes to fight this battle.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoHere is what the eBay user agreement you acknowledged says:
"we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion"
This basically says that eBay can pretty much ignore any of its polices any time it wants, and take action against your account at its discretion.
That aside ...
"The Ebay Terms of Service say they will respond within 30 days"
If they do not respond after 30 days, you can file for arbitration. Have you done that?
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThey could be ignoring because they simply don't want to answer and then you can continue jumping through hoops until they are 'forced' to respond? (guessing since they probably get 10,000 'complaints' a day about peoples accounts being booted and because they are not a government entity, they don't need to respond)
ed8108
·1 year agoAre your written communications sent by both regular & by certified mail ?
Good luck
dhbookds
·1 year agoI've always had luck (not ever tried it on ebay) addressing a problem to the CEO of various companies via snail mail....Have always gotten an answer as I presume they have a staff to handle stuff. Mine have usually been complaints about a product... I never "threatened" anything, simply stated the problem along with my "disappointment" that the faith I had in the reputation of company was apparently misplaced. I can't remember anyone not replying and all either replaced the product or gave a refund.
Can't tell from your description what the problem is or how solveable/reasonable it is. Some complaints we see are, my opinion, the fault of the poster......but wouldn't hurt to try it......
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoWithout knowing what it's about, it's hard to say if anyone else has gone through it.
12345jamesstamps
·1 year ago'small claims court'...In my past I was being sued by a biggie company which had a court date for me to attend.
I do remember responding to it a week before sending it and paying something to make sure the company got it.
As I neared the court date...the company delayed the date to attend and extended a new court date.
And I responded to it and got it dismissed eventually.
The problem is there will be delays and such and some time dealing with it.
cristco
OP1 year agoI just brought up the original dispute form. It says at the end if it's not resolved in 30 days you can file for arbitration. I see the game they are playing. The arbitration filing fee is $2,500 I think if I remember. That's going to eliminate a lot of people that don't want to fork out the money not knowing if they will win for sure.
The user agreement does say you can forego arbitration and go the route of small claims court which would be way cheaper. I would guess they won't show up but then I'd probably need a lawyer anyway to sue to get the judgment enforced at that point I'm a lawyer may take the case to sue for damages including their fees if Ebay doesn't comply with the judgment.
luckythewinner
·1 year agoThe user agreement says this:
"If you complied with the Notice of Dispute procedures of Section 3 of this Agreement ("Arbitration Procedures"), and the value of the relief sought is $10,000 or less, at your request, eBay will pay all administration and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration."
I did not see anything about the $2500 arbitration fee you mentioned. And since you said there is no money at stake really, I assume it is less than $10,000.
cristco
OP1 year agoMissed that clause. Thank you very much!
The $2,500 (or around there) is the fee the American Arbitration Association asks for on their website if you try to initiate an arbitration case.
So I guess then my question becomes, how do I both start an arbitration and have Ebay pay the fees if Ebay is unresponsive to begin with?
cristco
OP1 year agoAhh ha.
Sell it Forward User Agreement
Any request for payment of fees by eBay should be submitted by mail to the AAA along with your Demand for Arbitration and eBay will make arrangements to pay all necessary fees directly to the AAA.
Back on track...
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoIf you are filing as a Consumer the fee is not $2500.
cristco
OP1 year agoThat chart is confusing. My Ebay account is a business account (an individual sole proprietorship.) It says "$0 if filed by business" and then there are business fees below that are not $0?
So this technically, since my Ebay account is a business account would be a business filing against a business. I'm not so sure this falls under "Consumer Arbitration" then?
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoYes it is somewhat confusing but if you were filing as a Individual then the fee is $225. I may be wrong but I understand it to mean that if the Consumer initiates the case then they would pay $225. If the Business initiates the case then the Consumer would not pay anything because the Business will pay all the costs.
The fees under Business is what eBay would be responsible for.
As long as it is not a frivolous case, it is pretty much standard practice that if the consumer agrees to arbitration then the business will pay the fees of the consumer. Some will offer to pay these fees upfront if asked. Myself I would not do that. I would want the case to get scheduled as soon as possible so I would pay the fees myself and ask to be reimbursed afterwards. Asking the business to pay first is just delaying the process until the fees are paid. In other words the case is not filed yet so there is no requirements of the business to meet the time lines established by the AAA.
You can call the AAA and they may advise you on how you should file as there are many categories a case could be filed under. They won't advise you on anything legal to do with your case.
Do you already have an account with the AAA?
https://www.adr.org/aaa/faces/register
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoYou take a zero off that figure and you will be a lot closer to the fee that needs to be paid by the consumer. By agreeing to arbitration eBay agrees to pay the consumer fees if asked. eBay is required to pay fees that are much higher than the consumer.