How to report inappropriate buying and selling
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We investigate and try to resolve instances of inappropriate buying or selling. If you encounter something that violates our policies, we want to know about it.
What to report
If you see a suspicious listing or if a member's behavior appears to violate our policies, first review our rules and policies to make sure that the offense is something we investigate.
You can also look at:
If you see a listing you think violates a policy, click Report item on the right side of the listing page. We review your report and take appropriate action.
For other types of violations, follow the directions on the page that describes the relevant policy.
Don't use the Was this page helpful? area on this page to report violations. We won't investigate issues reported this way.
What we'll investigate
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Feedback violations
Feedback extortion: Members aren't allowed to demand goods, services, or positive Feedback by abusing the Feedback system. Feedback removal: Feedback can't include profanity, abusive language, or other text that violates our policies. We may also remove Feedback in other situations.
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| Buying violations
Buying practices: We don't allow unfair or unsafe behavior from buyers—such as making unreasonable demands of sellers or taking advantage of our protection systems. Unpaid items: Members must pay for items that they purchase. If you're a seller and a buyer hasn't paid for an item, report the unpaid item. Shill bidding: Members can't use bidding techniques to increase an item's price or desirability artificially.
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| Selling violations
Shill bidding: Members can't use bidding techniques to increase an item's price or desirability artificially.
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| Contact information and identity violations
Misrepresentation of identity: Members can't pretend to be other eBay members or eBay employees. While members can have multiple user IDs, those user IDs can't interact with one another. For example, members can't bid on or buy their own items or leave comments on their own Feedback profile.
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| Other violations
Sending spam: Members can't send unsolicited or commercial messages to other members. Email threats: Members can't send threatening messages to other members.
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What we won't investigate
We don't investigate simple misunderstandings, members who won't communicate with each other, and personal disputes between members.
Here are some examples of what we won't investigate:
The eBay community calls placing a high bid in the closing seconds of an auction-style listing "sniping." Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid, even if a bidder places the bid one second before the listing ends. Learn how to
avoid being outbid.
If you don't receive your item, or if the item arrived but it isn't as it was described in the listing, you may be covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee. If your purchase is eligible for the eBay Money Back Guarantee, you can get a refund for the purchase price plus original shipping. Learn more about the
eBay Money Back Guarantee.
Per our
user agreement, we won't remove these comments. We only remove transaction defects and Feedback related to defects in certain situations. Learn more about the
defect removal policy.
Results of an investigation
Because we respect the privacy of our members, we don't discuss the results of an investigation in detail. However, we might contact you to tell you that an investigation is complete.
Before we take action against a member, we consider the circumstances of the violation and the member's buying and selling record. Our actions may include removing listings and range of other actions, including limiting buying and selling privileges and account suspension. Out of fairness to our members, if a complaint can't be proven, we don't act.
