Reselling Guides
eBay Buyer Says Item Not Received: How to Respond and When You Are Protected
An eBay item not received request gives you 3 business days. Here is what counts as proof of delivery and how to keep the defect off your account.
You packed it, you shipped it, you moved on. Two weeks later the buyer says it never showed up, and the tracking page on your screen says delivered. Now you are supposed to argue with a stranger about a box neither of you can see.
The good news is that eBay does not actually want you to argue. An item not received request is scored against a short list of facts, and if you have the facts, the case is close to automatic.
The clock does not start when the buyer gets impatient
A buyer cannot open this request the moment they get antsy. eBay only lets them report a missing item once the estimated or actual delivery date has passed. Before that, a worried message is just a message, and the right reply is the tracking link.
Once the request is actually open, your window is short.
| The rule | The number |
|---|---|
| Earliest a buyer can report it missing | After the estimated or actual delivery date passes |
| Your time to respond | 3 business days after the report date |
| When either side can ask eBay to step in | From 3 business days after the report date |
| Latest eBay will step in | 21 business days after the report date |
| Orders needing signature confirmation | $750 and up, counting shipping and tax |
| Window to appeal a closed case | 30 calendar days |
Business days, not calendar days, which gives you slightly more room than a payment dispute does. Do not spend it. A hold can land on your funds while the request is open.
Four ways to answer, and only one of them is wrong
eBay gives you four buttons: add tracking details, refund the buyer, send a replacement, or message the buyer. Three of those resolve the request. The fourth button, the message, does not close anything on its own, and this is where sellers quietly lose.
A friendly reply saying you will look into it feels like action. It is not a resolution. If three business days pass with nothing but conversation in the case, the buyer can hand it to eBay, and eBay decides with whatever is on file.
What eBay counts as proof you delivered it
This is the part worth memorizing, because it is a checklist and not an opinion. To prove successful delivery, eBay wants all of the following:
- A tracking number from a carrier integrated with eBay, uploaded to eBay, showing a shipping scan before the latest estimated delivery date.
- A delivery status of delivered, or of attempted delivery.
- A recipient address that matches the order, by zip code or by city and county.
- Signature confirmation, on any order totaling $750 or more including shipping and tax.
Miss one line and the protection gets shaky. The shipping scan is the one people overlook. A label you bought on time but dropped off three days late can show a first scan after the estimated delivery date, and that gap is visible to eBay.
When tracking says delivered and the buyer says it is not
This is the common version, and the answer is simpler than it feels. Add the tracking to the case and let it stand. If delivery is scanned to the right address and the order met the requirements above, you are usually protected, and eBay closing the case is not something you need to negotiate your way to.
What you should not do is refund out of politeness while the case is open. You can be kind in the message and still let the evidence do the work. Plenty of packages marked delivered turn up with a neighbor, behind a storm door, or in a mail room, and a buyer who hears that calmly will often go look.
Keep the whole exchange inside eBay messages. A text thread or an email you forward later is a screenshot. Messages on the order are a record.
When the package is genuinely gone
Sometimes tracking stalls out in a sorting facility and never moves. No delivery scan means no protection, and no amount of explaining changes that. Refund the buyer or send a replacement, then go collect from the carrier instead.
That is what the insurance built into most services is for. USPS Ground Advantage and Priority Mail include a base level of coverage, and a claim on a lost parcel is a separate conversation from the eBay case. Settle with your buyer on eBay's clock, chase the carrier on the carrier's clock, and do not make the buyer wait on the second one.
The defect is the real cost
Losing the money stings once. The mark on your account lasts longer.
If eBay steps in and decides you are responsible for the refund, the case is recorded as closed without seller resolution, and that counts against your seller performance level. Those are the same metrics behind Top Rated status and its fee discount, so one closed case can follow you into your next hundred sales.
The way to avoid it is to resolve the request yourself, even when you are resolving it by refunding. A refund you issue is not a defect. A refund eBay orders is.
If a case does close against you and you have something new, you have 30 calendar days to appeal with that new information. New information means a document or a scan that was not in the case, not a better-argued version of the same story.
Build the proof before you need it
Everything on eBay's checklist is decided at the packing table, not in the case.
- Buy labels through eBay so tracking posts to the order automatically and eBay can see it without you pasting anything.
- Ship inside your handling time so the first scan lands early, not on the deadline.
- Ship to the checkout address only, no matter how reasonable the request to redirect sounds.
- Add signature confirmation at $750 and treat it as a cost of that sale rather than an upsell.
- Answer every case on day one, even if the answer is just the tracking number.
What to remember
An item not received request is a form, not a fight. Open it the day it lands, check your tracking against eBay's four-point list, and pick one of the three buttons that actually resolves it. If the proof is there, say so and stop. If the proof is not there, refund fast, keep the defect off your account, and take it up with the carrier.
Working cases is one piece of the order-to-payout routine we walk through step by step inside The Income Lab, along with the packing and record habits that make most of these never happen.
Photo: Meanwell Packaging, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
