I wanted to share my recent experience with eBay regarding "Cases Closed Without Seller Resolution" defects and how I was able to get them removed. Hopefully, this helps others who might run into a similar situation.
A few days ago, I spoke with an eBay rep on the phone about three defects that had appeared on my account related to two separate lost shipments I believed I had shipped through eBay International Shipping (EIS). The tracking showed they reached eBay’s hub, but I still got stuck with the refunds under eBay International Standard Delivery (EISD), which offers fewer protections for sellers. This was confusing because, in the past, I’ve always been covered by EIS and never had to pay for lost packages. The rep agreed something seemed off and manually submitted an appeal, but after a few days with no response, I followed up through eBay’s internal messaging system to document everything.
To make sure I had all my facts straight, I used ChatGPT to dig through eBay’s policies and community forums. It also helped me write a solid appeal letter that laid everything out clearly and concisely, which I think made a difference in the rep who reviewed it understanding my problem. Time was running out because these defects were close to hitting the 90-day threshold, after which they couldn’t be removed and my next Global Program evaluation would be Below Average. The defect twelve month cycle doesn't start on the date of the defect, but on the date of the transaction. These defects were just added, but the transactions occurred almost three months prior. So, I had only a few days before they hit 90 days. Given the potential negative actions eBay could take and the near impossible ability for me to "sell my way" out of the Below Average status, I kept reaching out through any channels I could find. I reached out to eBay's Twitter and Facebook accounts. The eBay Facebook agent was able to remove the defects, and later that same day, I got an email from another eBay rep who received my appeal letter. He confirmed that he would also take care of it. So, in the end, persistence paid off, and my seller status was safe.
Like many online platforms, a lot of eBay's policies are vague or confusing. There’s not a lot on eBay's site that makes it clear how a seller in EIS ends up in EISD. The fact that they have two competing programs with very similar names adds to the confusion. The best conclusion I can find is that if a seller in the EIS program offers additional international shipping options (even if a buyer doesn't use the other option), they get defaulted to the lesser-protected EISD program. I realized, after researching, some people on this forum were aware of this. However, I do find it lacks clarity and is open to misunderstanding, especially when you have two concurrent programs providing the same service.
I hope this helps anyone who searches the forums about these programs as well as ways to deal with navigating eBay's challenging customer service system when trying to remove defects. It's not impossible to get them removed. I believe that persistence and perusing multiple avenues is important. I just wanted to share this.
Joe
