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Does eBay even have live customer support anymore?
Summary: sligeriii expressed frustration over the lack of live support on eBay while seeking advice on selling an expensive item. *vyolla* and other participants discussed the risks associated with selling high-value items, emphasizing the limited protection eBay offers to sellers, especially against fraudulent claims by buyers. Suggestions included selling locally for cash or using recorded delivery with serial number documentation. red_magpie provided detailed insights into the challenges sellers face with eBay's policies and protections, highlighting past negative experiences. In the end, sligeriii questioned the feasibility of selling on eBay due to previous issues with scams.
Thinking of selling quite an expensive item on eBay, want to ask them a couple of questions about how I can best protect myself and make sure everything goes well.
I have seen the message 'Live support is currently unavailable' numerous times now and the AI assistant is terrible. Utterly useless anything outside the most obvious things that we probably already know and can give you a proper answer to save its life I just really want to know if the postage on the listing that you select fully insures you for whatever you're sending. But I can't find that out & it's utterly infuriating.
The one question I asked it was when will live support be back? It was completely incapable of answering this! It's fit for purpose and I assume set up just to annoy people and make their lives a little bit more difficult because it certainly doesn't do anything else.
john1297576
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 2:39 PM · EditedYou do not give the value but using Simple Delivery provides cover up to £750, but there are exceptions I am sure and some items are excluded.
Above that you would need Special Delivery if using Royal Mail.
As I thought there are exclusions - Excluded items
Motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, motorbikes, boats, aircraft, industrial construction machinery, real estate, websites, businesses for sale, classified ads, services, digitally delivered content, travel tickets and vouchers, NFTs including physical items combined with or attached to NFTs
red_magpie
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM · EditedIt would have been pointless to ask eBay customer support how you can best protect yourself when selling an expensive item. Because you can't, but they wouldn't be able to tell you this. (Unless it's a motor vehicle, when you can protect yourself by requiring payment in cash.)
You can follow all the common-sense precautions, use a tracked and insured delivery service etc. However, what you can't protect yourself is against the risk of a buyer inventing a false claim under eBay's money back guarantee that the item is not as described. Especially now that payment can only be made through eBay checkout, ensuring that almost every purchase is covered by buyer protection schemes.
eBay would almost certainly accept the buyer's word against yours, and require you to refund them in full and send them a prepaid label to return the item. If you didn't accept this, they are liable to find in favour of the buyer and enforce a refund without the item having to be returned. So refusing a return isn't really an option, but there is no guarantee that the buyer won't return the item damaged, or even swap if for another one. eBay never even sees the items involved in disputes, and many sellers have told us that eBay has simply found in favour of the buyer.
If a buyer can't get their way through eBay, depending upon how they paid they can potentially claim through PayPal or file a chargeback request through their payment provider. You would have no meaningful right of appeal against their decision as buyers now pay eBay, not the seller. The refund claim would be made against eBay and you would have to accept eBay's decision if they decided to accept the claim. (Unlike the buyer, who could appeal to the financial ombudsman if their claim was rejected.)
The fact is that eBay has become a risky place to sell things, especially anything of value. I'm not saying that you shouldn't sell it here; plenty of valuable items are sold every day without problems. But it's important for sellers to understand the risks.
sligeriii
OPAug 7, 2026 at 1:37 PMThanks for the reply. I was hoping with all the postage running through them these days, I would be afforded a little more protection, but should have known really. In the past three or four years I've been scammed twice, avoided the scam twice, and been messed around severely once. Bearing in mind I only send sell around 10 to 15 items a year, that seems quite high & historically I haven't been overly impressed with eBay's protections. So I doubt whether I'm going to do this but I may have to.
*vyolla*
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 1:01 PMeBay's Simple Delivery covers you for up to £750, how expensive is your item?
In a nutshell though, all electronic payments are reversible and if somebody sets out to part you from your item and your money it can be done. I'd only ever list what you can afford to lose on any online platform.
sligeriii
OPAug 7, 2026 at 1:34 PMAround £3000, maybe a little over.
*vyolla*
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 1:54 PMIs it something that has a serial number on it?
sligeriii
OPAug 7, 2026 at 2:36 PMIt is, it is a graphics card.
*vyolla*
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 2:42 PMOkay, well you'd have a little protection in that if you add a photo of the serial number to your listing and the buyer swops it for a different one you can argue the toss with eBay, but how it will end up I couldn't say. I agree with the other responders here, it's a risk that only you can decide whether to take, or not.
tobiasd4
MentorAug 7, 2026 at 1:54 PMTBH.
If you are worried about selling it on ebay, may be best to sell locally or site that allows cash on collection.