Guides 7 min readUpdated 10 October 2026
eBay seller standards: late shipments, defects and cases
In short
eBay evaluates every seller monthly as Below Standard, Above Standard or Top Rated, from three measures: late shipment rate, transaction defect rate, and cases closed without seller resolution. A shipment is on time if a carrier scans it within your handling time or it is delivered by the estimated date. A defect is a sale you cancelled for lack of stock. Your own figures are in Seller Hub under Performance.
An account is rarely closed for one bad sale. It is restricted because a percentage crept past a threshold over three months.
Knowing exactly what each percentage counts is the difference between managing it and being surprised by it.
The three measures
| Measure | What counts | What causes it when a supplier ships |
|---|---|---|
| Late shipment rate | No carrier scan within handling time, and not delivered by the estimated date | Slow dispatch, or tracking eBay cannot follow |
| Transaction defect rate | Orders you cancelled because the item was out of stock or you could not fulfil | Stock on eBay that the supplier no longer has |
| Cases closed without seller resolution | A request the buyer escalated and eBay decided against you | Not answering in time |
Where your own figures are
eBay sets different thresholds by country and by how much you sell, and changes them from time to time. Your current figures, the thresholds that apply to you, and a projection for the next evaluation are in Seller Hub, on the Performance tab, under Seller level.
Look at the projection, not just today’s level. It tells you what next month’s evaluation will say while there is still time to change it.
Late shipment, precisely
eBay treats an order as shipped on time when tracking shows a carrier’s acceptance scan within your stated handling time, or when it shows delivery by the estimated delivery date. Either one is enough.
With a supplier, the first is often out of your hands and sometimes invisible to eBay. So the second has to be reliable: an estimate the parcel really beats.
- Choose a handling time that covers the supplier’s processing, not the shortest eBay offers
- Use a delivery service in your postage policy whose estimate matches real transit
- Upload tracking the moment the supplier has a number
Defects: the one you fully control
A defect is recorded when you cancel a sale because you cannot supply it. It is the most avoidable of the three, because it comes entirely from a listing showing stock that is not there.
Check stock against the supplier daily, set a listing to zero the moment the source is empty, and do not list a supplier’s last unit.
What Below Standard does
- Listings are shown lower in search
- Final value fees rise
- Selling limits may be reduced
- Repeated months can lead to restrictions on the account
Questions
- What counts as a late shipment on eBay?
- An order with no carrier acceptance scan within your handling time that was also not delivered by the estimated delivery date. Meeting either one makes it on time.
- Does a buyer-requested cancellation count as a defect?
- No. A cancellation the buyer asked for does not count. One you make because the item is out of stock does.
- How long do defects stay on my account?
- They count within eBay’s evaluation period, which looks back over recent months, the exact length depending on how much you sell. Seller Hub shows the period used for your account.
- Can a late shipment or defect be removed?
- eBay removes some automatically, for example when a carrier delay or a buyer’s own action caused it, and you can ask for a review through Seller Help.
Read next
- Tracking numbers eBay cannot follow, and what to do about them
Why Cainiao, 4PX and Amazon TBA tracking numbers do not scan on eBay, what that costs you in an item-not-received case, and the options: last-mile numbers and conversion.
- Keeping eBay prices and stock in step
What happens when a supplier raises a price or runs out, why manual checking does not scale, and what a sync should and should not change on its own.
- Returns and “item not received” cases when a supplier ships for you
What to do when an eBay buyer wants a return or says the item never arrived and your supplier sent it: who refunds whom, the deadlines, and how to recover from the supplier.