eBay is a marketplace - a platform where sellers and buyers can meet and trade. eBay never sees, takes possession of, inspects, or authenticates any of the goods for sale. Therefore, you should follow the guidelines provided below and always apply the same common sense to online transactions that you do in your everyday life offline.
- Use our guidelines and your common sense
- Review a member's eBay reputation - eBay Feedback
- Get to know your Buyer
- Your buyer may want to know more about you
- Create payment confidence
- What to do if something goes wrong
- eBay provides a feedback system, trust & safety advice and openly available information and tools - it is important that you use all of this advice and the tools to make sensible trading choices.
- Learn the ropes from experienced sellers on our chat boards which you can find by clicking on Community at the top of any eBay page.
- To be protected by eBay's safety measures including the Buyer Protection Programme, it is essential you always complete your transaction on the site - do not trade outside of eBay with people you meet at eBay.
- eBay is a friendly and open community so it is important you treat everyone with the same integrity you expect to receive from others.
- In the spirit of providing openly-available information, eBay members can leave Feedback about a transaction after buying or selling. This Feedback is posted on each member's Feedback profile and is a key indicator of their reputation.
- Checking the buyer's Feedback rating and positive, neutral and negative comments provided by other members of the eBay community can help you evaluate the buyer's previous trading history and gain an understanding of their reputation.
- Research your item and its fair market price both off and online.
- Provide a thorough item description and clear terms and conditions in your listing, including payment options, postage costs and return policies.
- Provide clear and accurate photographs showing your item's condition.
- Be prepared to answer any buyers' questions about your selling policies and the quality and condition of your item.
- Offer as many payment methods as possible so that buyers can pay with a payment method they are comfortable using.
- Bidders and buyers will be especially cautious if the only payment methods accepted by a seller are money orders or instant cash transfers such as Western Union. If you accept these payment methods make sure you also provide buyers with alternative options.
- If your payment address differs from the item location, advise buyers why this is so as it could decrease buyer confidence.
- You should first contact your trading partner and try to resolve the problem. Most buyers are honest and reliable, and often the cause is a simple misunderstanding or lack of communication. Request your buyer's contact information and give them a phone call.
- Remember to encourage buyers to use postage insurance for valuable or rare items so you can claim if something goes wrong in transit.
- You can also be assured that eBay assists law enforcement officials in their investigation of any suspected criminal activity when appropriate.
Protect your online accounts
- Exercise caution when receiving communications from outside the eBay community.
- Select a secure password that is a combination of letters and numbers to protect your account information - never choose an obvious word such as 'password', your email address, your name, your family's names or birth dates
- If you receive a request to update your personal information and you do not feel comfortable about the source of the email, do not click on links in the email - simply open a new browser, type www.ebay.com.sg, sign in, and use the Site Map to navigate the site.
- Watch out for "spoof" emails. A spoof email may appear as though it has come from a trusted company (including eBay) - if in doubt, do not click on links from emails. Learn how to protect yourself from spoof emails.
- Exercise caution if an email requests personal information such as credit card details or passwords. In the same way that you never tell anyone, even the bank teller, your PIN number, you should always protect your private information, including passwords.
- Regularly check your account and preferences to make sure there is no unauthorised activity.