Service metrics policy

Every month we take a look at how many times your buyers reported that they didn't receive an item or requested a return because their item wasn't as described. We count all opened cases because even if you resolved the issue promptly, it indicates that the transaction didn't go as smoothly for the buyer as it could have.

There are many factors which can influence the number of cases in your service metrics (such as types of items or seasonality), so we don't set limits for these. Instead, we take the average rates from other sellers with similar sales activity – or "peers" – as a benchmark to evaluate your performance. We also have some safeguards in place to protect sellers and ensure fair evaluation.

It's important to check your service metrics regularly so that you can see how you compare to other sellers. Use the button below to see details of your service metrics, including your projected rate for the next evaluation. Note that this projection may change if more cases are opened.

View service metrics dashboard - opens in new window or tab

If your rates of 'Item not received' or 'Item not as described' have increased, or are considered high compared to your peers, it's important to focus on minimising these issues as soon as possible – this will help to improve your rating at the next evaluation. For more help, read our article on Monitoring and improving your seller performance.

We'll only calculate service metrics for you if we have enough data. Depending on how much you sell, you may not see service metrics for all your categories, or we may not show any data in your service metrics dashboard at all.

What is the policy?

Sellers are expected to minimise the number of times that their buyers either:

• Report that an item hasn't arrived
• Request a return because an item doesn't match the listing

Rather than simply measuring these as a percentage of your sales, we compare your rates to those of sellers with similar items, prices, postage options and terms of sale on the same eBay site.

Your service metrics are evaluated on the 20th of each month to determine whether your rates of buyers reporting a problem are Low, Average, High or Very High compared to your peers.

Other eBay members can't see your service metrics. We may place some limitations on your selling activity, including extended delivery dates or higher final value fees, if you are evaluated as Very High.

Service metrics are provided for your listings on eBay.co.uk as well as a number of other eBay sites. For more information about how your performance is evaluated when selling internationally, please read our Global seller performance policy.

How we benchmark seller performance

On the 20th of each month, we take a look at your recent transactions to work out your service metrics and peer benchmark.

To make sure we're getting a fair picture, we'll adjust how far we look back (the "evaluation period") depending on how much you've sold recently:

• If you had more than 400 transactions in the past 3 months, we'll count all those transactions
• If you had fewer than 400 transactions in the past 3 months, we'll count all your transactions from the last 12 months

To help understand how evaluations work, please see our calculation examples below.

Service metrics and peer benchmark

For your service metrics, we count how many times your buyers have either:

• Reported that an item hasn't arrived
• Requested a return because an item doesn't match the listing

Peer benchmarking means we look at how your rates compare with those of other sellers who have similar sales activity, items and business policies.

Postage categories

When comparing 'Item not received' rates, we take into account where sellers are sending their items:

• Domestic: The item location and delivery address are in the same country
• International – Matured region: The delivery address is in one of the following regions:
  • United States and its territories
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • Taiwan
  • Japan
  • New Zealand
  • South Korea
  • Israel
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Singapore
  • Most European countries and British Territories
• International – Emerging region: The delivery address is neither 'Domestic' nor 'International: Matured region'

Calculation examples

These examples illustrate how we compare and evaluate sellers for each type of service metric.

What the service metrics ratings mean

Your service metric ratings for 'Item not received' and 'Item not as described' give you an indication of how well you're preventing buyer issues, compared to your peers.

What happens if your rating is Very High

If your service metrics evaluation on the 20th of the month shows that your 'Item not received' and 'Item not as described' rates are significantly higher than your peers, we may put measures in place to help manage buyers' expectations when ordering from you. To see what you can do to bring your rates back down, read our article on Monitoring and improving your seller performance.

Some limitations are applied straight away after the evaluation, while others take effect from the 1st of the following month. If your service metrics rating improves at a future evaluation, the same time frames will apply for limitations to be removed.

Very High 'Item not received' rate

Directly after the evaluation:

• For the postage categories where you are evaluated as Very High for two consecutive evaluations, we may add extra time when showing buyers an expected delivery date for your items
• Funds from your orders may be placed on hold until tracking information shows that the item is on its way to the buyer
• You may be unable to deduct an amount from the buyer's refund if an item is returned used or damaged

Very High 'Item not as described' rate

Directly after the evaluation:

• You may be unable to deduct an amount from the buyer's refund if an item is returned used or damaged

From the 1st day of the month following the evaluation:

• You may be charged higher final value fees. For full details, please see our fees pages:
  • Final value fees for business sellers

Fair evaluation, seller protections and appeals

Our service metrics are in place to protect the interests of all users, and are intended to look at your performance in context, rather than being specific to individual transactions. We understand that some types of items will see more returns than others, and that international deliveries usually take longer than domestic ones. Peer benchmarking helps us identify sellers whose rates of 'Item not received' reports or 'Item not as described' returns are statistical outliers.

Fair evaluation

To ensure your ratings are based on valid statistics and fair comparisons, and that we only place limitations on selling activity when significant differences are identified:

• We only benchmark you against sellers with similar sales activity, items and business policies (see How we benchmark performance)
• We may adjust a rating in certain circumstances so that it won't affect your account. When we do this, you'll see a message in the service metrics dashboard. For example:
  • Your sales have grown and you've changed from a 12-month to a 3-month evaluation period and peer group. If this results in your rating becoming Very High, we'll adjust your rating and limitations won't apply for one evaluation cycle
  • A service metric rating is High or Very High, but the rate of reports/requests is less than 1% of transactions
• A Very High rating won't affect your account unless it involves at least 10 reports/requests with 10 unique buyers

Seller protections

We have safeguards in place to protect your ratings and help you in case you have a problem. For example:

• If we determine that a buyer has violated our Abusive buyer policy, we'll automatically remove any 'Item not received' reports or 'Item not as described' return requests they had filed from service metrics
• We may extend expected delivery dates and/or remove 'Item not received' reports from service metrics when things happen that cause widespread delays, such as severe weather or carrier disruptions

While these protections are available to all sellers, some of our other protections are dependent on meeting specific eligibility and/or seller performance criteria. Learn more about our seller protections.

Appeals

We'll only remove 'Item not received' reports or 'Item not as described' return requests from your service metrics when they fall under our automated seller protections.

As described above, your service metrics ratings need to be statistically meaningful and substantially worse than your peer group in order for limitations to be applied, so individual reports/requests shouldn't adversely affect your account standing.

If you believe a buyer is not following our policies, you can report the buyer - opens in new window or tab and we'll look into it.