eBay Offers Seller Protections for Shipping Delays to Puerto Rico Due to Hurricane Fiona

eBay is offering seller protections for shipping delays to and from Puerto Rico due to most of the island experiencing flooding and power outages from Hurricane Fiona.

USPS has reported that it was forced to close over 30 postal facilities on the island until further notice. This is significant as most eBay sellers likely use the US Postal Service to ship to and from Puerto Rico.

UPS and FedEx have not issued service alerts for Puerto Rico. But considering the flooding and issues around the island, it’s hard to imagine they are not impacted as well.

The San Juan airport remains open and flights continue to operate, including cargo and package courier services.

eBay Seller Protections

eBay issued a notice to sellers that they do not need to worry about their seller performance rating being impacted by weather-related issues, including Hurricane Fiona.

Businesses impacted by this natural disaster we will automatically have their seller performance rating protected, including:

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

eBay will also remove any associated negative and neutral feedback and these cases will not impact a seller’s service metrics rating. There is no need to contact Customer Service at this time the company said.

However, we suggest monitoring impacted shipments for any negative ratings and if necessary contacting eBay if it is not removed quickly.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.