I’m sorry to read of those issues. No one is disputing that eBay doesn’t treat every seller equally; there are hijacked accounts traipsing about merrily on eBay, and scammers who have automatic positive feedback wrapped in green… and accurate reports of sellers breaching the rules egregiously being dismissed.

And you’re both right (in my view) and wrong about small sellers on eBay. I constantly receive inducements via email / message on eBay to sell. $15 voucher, percentages off, special promotions… Next they’ll be offering me tea with the king. eBay don’t want those small sellers all leaving in droves, but they do want to use them for their own purposes. That’s another topic for another day.

What they will do is punish smaller sellers who act in ways outlined in the policy / help pages as attracting sanctions.

For instance, choosing out of stock when cancelling… It will earn you a drop in seller performance and if your level goes down too much (easy to do if you’re not a large seller), the hits start to come.

The best way to avoid this is to be fully on top of your stock levels. You can’t afford to take your eye off the ball.

You must get those items out within your stated time. Late shipment is going to ding you… 

If you have buyers wanting to return items on the basis of not as described, you must resolve the requests within the timeframe stated in the MBG. In almost every case, there’s little point in arguing even if you’re very suspicious about the buyer.

If you can raise your prices by just a little (20 cents? whatever works out best for you), that extra can be put aside as self-insurance for the inevitable cases of dodgy buyers or even cases where you may have missed something…

Good luck.