eBay to Protect Performance Ratings for Sellers Impacted by Winter Storm Izzy

eBay is extending seller protections to sellers impacted by Winter Storm Izzy that has impacted parts of the midwest, southeast and most of the northern east coast.

Check Out These Resources

• Do you need a business bank account for your online business? Take a look at our review of the five best bank accounts for sellers, some of which are free with no minimum balance or deposits. ^[sponsored]
• Boost your social media engagement with Publer. Learn how you can save time writing engaging content faster with AI. ^[sponsored]
• Could your online business use capital for growth? Here is a primer on revenue-based loans, and how they work.

Sellers that rely on the US Postal Service may get a little reprieve Monday as January 17 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and USPS is not open on federal holidays. However, this storm will likely continue to affect many sellers for days on the east coast.

“As a seller, you may be concerned about shipping delays for items already shipped or difficulties getting sold items to your carrier. We are closely monitoring the situation and providing you with additional support and protections during this challenging time. Please stay safe and take care of yourself, your family, and your community.”

eBay Statement

Sellers located in the impacted areas and are not able to ship orders are recommended to:

• Communicate with buyers to advise them of the situation.
• Extend handling times on listings if expecting delays to fulfill orders.

If a seller’s business is impacted, eBay will automatically protect the seller’s performance metrics, including:

• Late shipment rate.
• Valid tracking upload rate.
• “Item not received” cases due to late delivery as long as seller uploaded tracking before the case was opened and have a physical scan from the carrier.
• Defects resulting from transactions sellers had to cancel.

eBay to Remove Negative Ratings and Feedback

eBay will also remove any associated negative and neutral feedback and these cases will not impact seller service metrics rating.

The company said sellers may see late shipments due to this weather event on the seller dashboard, but they will be removed before the next seller performance evaluation.

While eBay says sellers do not need to contact customer service, we always advise tracking all shipments, including those that may travel through impacted areas.

When shipments are marked late but not removed, contacting eBay Customer Service may be necessary if the company didn’t remove the negative rating in time.

It is believed that eBay uses zipcode tables to automatically identify impacted areas, but sometimes there can be mistakes and there can be issues if the origin and destination zip codes are not included, but the package had to travel through the impacted area.