eBay Canada is Protecting Performance Ratings for Sellers Impacted by Record Flooding in Western Canada – Updated 11/23/2021

Record flooding in Western Canada has forced officials in British Columbia to declare a state of emergency as many roads remain closed or are limited to one-way traffic.

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Canada Post, UPS, and FedEx have issued service alerts warning of delays and limited service in Western Canada with delays expected to continue for some time.

Canada Post Accommodations

Canada Post has now offered businesses and residents in Merritt, Yarrow, Quilchena, and Abbotsford that are affected by the flooding Free Mail Forwarding service for up to 12 months. Residents with FSA V1K, V2T; or postal codes V0E 2R0 and V2R 5E0 are eligible for the Free Mail Forwarding service.

Customers can request the free service until December 21 using one of the following options:

• Go to a Canada Post Office Location with government-issued photo ID (mandatory). Proof of authorization is required to request the free service on behalf of another person. 
• Register at canadapost.ca/mailforwarding using a credit card to authenticate identity and while Canada Post will charge for the service initially, it will refund eligible customers within 20 business days.

eBay Canada Original Accommodations

eBay Canada issued a bulletin to impacted sellers advising them they do not need to worry about their seller performance rating. Furthermore, eBay Canada offered tips for sellers located in impacted areas:

• Communicate with buyers to advise them of the situation.
• Extend handling time on listings if sellers anticipate delays.
• Consider using a tool like Time Away to pause sales without needing to end any listings.

eBay Canada said it will automatically protect seller performance ratings, including:

• Late shipment rate.
• Valid tracking upload rate.
• “Item not received” requests due to late delivery as long as sellers uploaded tracking and the shipment received a scan from the carrier before the request was opened.
• Defects resulting from transactions canceled by sellers for being out of stock or unable to fulfill the order.

Additionally, eBay Canada said it will remove any neutral or negative feedback left for impacted transactions, as well as Service Metric ratings associated with Item not Received requests.

While eBay advises sellers they do not need to contact customer service in order to receive these protections, sellers should monitor their selling account to avoid negative impacts that eBay may have failed to remove automatically as a result of the natural disaster.

New eBay Canada Bulletin

In a new bulletin issued Monday evening, eBay Canada updated its users with the following statement:

“For inbound and outbound shipments in British Columbia, we will automatically protect your seller performance from being impacted by late shipments, seller cancellation defects, Item Not Received cases, eBay Money Back Guarantee cases closed without seller resolution as well as related negative or neutral feedback when you:

• Upload valid tracking from an integrated carrier within your handling time for your shipped items AND
• Your uploaded tracking shows a carrier Acceptance Scan within 2 days of your handling time

If you have had an Item Not Received case result in eBay refunding the buyer but the shipment has been delivered, you can start an appeal by following these steps:

1. Go to your Seller Dashboard.
2. Expand Closed without seller resolution.
3. Select See cases and find the item in the list.
4. Select See details and then send us an appeal.

For more information about appealing a case, visit our Help Hub.“

Shipments to eBay Buyers in Western Canada

Canadian and international sellers should monitor orders to recipients in Western Canada for delays, which for international sellers could mean not seeing any tracking update for days once the shipment enters Canadian customs.

Sellers suspecting their seller performance rating was negatively impacted due to a delayed shipment into the affected area, should immediately contact eBay customer support to have this defect removed.

While eBay will typically do its best to catch these automatically, it is always a good idea to monitor potentially affected shipments.

We will provide any new updates to this situation from eBay or carriers as they become available.

US sellers sending items to Western Canada can also check our USPS International Service Status and Disruptions page for updates.