EBay changes cancellation policy rules

EBay has changed its cancellation policy rules giving shoppers more flexibility to cancel their purchases. From now on, they can cancel an order as long as the seller has not marked it as shipped. The company describes this as a simplification and benefit for both shoppers and sellers.

The new policy will take effect on August 28. EBay has informed its sales partners in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. When customers press the ‘Cancel order’ button, they can retract their purchase, and the seller will be notified. The seller then has three days to accept or decline the request. The company says that on paid orders, eBay will automatically decline the request after three days, but it encourages sellers to respond quickly.

EBay also encourages sellers to be sympathetic towards cancellation requests. When possible, it’s recommended they accept the request, especially if it is sent within minutes or a few hours of when an order is placed. Doing so has shown to discourage return requests or ‘item not received’ cases and encourages the buyer to return to eBay for their next purchase.

On acceptance, eBay promises to automatically issue a full refund to the buyer and fee credits to sellers in accordance with their fee credits policy.

EBay buyers used to only have one hour to cancel an order after placing it. The company, which continues to implement improvements for both commercial and private sellers, justifies the policy change with the results of the tests conducted. These tests show that the number of cancellation requests increases only slightly with the introduction of the new policy – from 0.9 to 1.1 requests per 100 transactions. According to eBay, this is offset by a 25% increase in customer satisfaction.

EBay also promises to protect sellers who decline a cancellation request by removing negative or neutral feedback on these orders.