Returns and buyer disputes: eBay vs. Facebook Marketplace
eBay’s Money Back Guarantee overrides your own return policy: any buyer gets 30 days from delivery to open a case if the item never arrived or doesn’t match the listing, even on a “no returns” listing. Facebook Marketplace covers far less — its Purchase Protection only applies to orders paid through Facebook’s own checkout, which excludes the local cash and Venmo pickups that make up most Marketplace sales. Below: exactly how each platform’s process works, the deadlines that actually bind you as a seller, and what to do when there’s no formal protection to fall back on.
Last updated September 2026
What is eBay's Money Back Guarantee, and can a “no returns” listing avoid it?
No. The Money Back Guarantee gives every buyer up to 30 calendar days from the actual or latest estimated delivery date to open a case if an item never arrived, arrived damaged or faulty, is counterfeit, or doesn’t match the listing “in any significant way,” per eBay’s Money Back Guarantee policy, and the buyer gets the item price back plus original shipping. Your own return policy — 14, 30, 60 days, or “no returns” — only governs change-of-mind returns, where the buyer simply doesn’t want the item anymore. It has no effect on a Money Back Guarantee case; eBay requires the return to be accepted either way.
How long does a seller have to respond to an eBay return request?
Three business days — weekends and national holidays don’t count — to accept the return, send a replacement, offer a partial refund, or provide more information, according to eBay’s own guide to handling a return request as a seller. Once you receive the item back, you then have 2 business days to issue the refund; miss that window and eBay can refund the buyer automatically and take the funds from you. If nothing is resolved after the initial 3 business days, either side can ask eBay to step in and decide the case.
What happens if a seller ignores an eBay return request?
It doesn’t sit unresolved for long. Once either party escalates to eBay after the 3-business-day window, eBay reviews the case itself and typically sides with the buyer on item-not-received and not-as-described claims when the seller hasn’t engaged — refunding the buyer from the seller’s funds. A case that reaches this point also counts against your seller performance metrics unless you qualify for one of the seller protections described below, which explicitly exclude a protected case from those metrics. Ignoring a request is strictly worse than responding, even with a partial offer.
Does eBay protect sellers from a false “item not received” claim?
Only if you can prove delivery, and above a specific dollar amount that proof has to be a signature. eBay’s signature confirmation policy requires signature confirmation on any order totalling $750 or more — item price, shipping, and tax combined, not per item — to be protected against an item-not-received claim or payment dispute, per eBay’s seller protections page. Ship a $750+ order with basic tracking instead of signature confirmation and you have no protection even if the package was, in fact, delivered. Below that threshold, standard tracking showing delivery is normally enough.
Does Facebook Marketplace have anything like eBay's Money Back Guarantee?
Only for the slice of orders paid through Facebook’s own checkout and shipped to the buyer. Those orders are covered by Purchase Protection, which lets a buyer file a claim within 45 days of delivery (60 days for an unauthorized purchase) if the order never arrived, arrived damaged or different than described, the seller didn’t honor their own stated refund policy, or the purchase wasn’t authorized. Sellers get a matching protection on those same checkout orders against fraudulent chargebacks, capped at $500 per order.
What protection exists for a typical local-pickup Facebook Marketplace sale?
None from Facebook. Purchase Protection’s own terms exclude local pickup and anything paid outside onsite checkout — cash, Venmo, or a price agreed over Messenger — and that description covers most Marketplace transactions, which are local and paid in person. If a buyer claims after the fact that an item was misrepresented in a cash local sale, there’s no formal Facebook claims process for either side; it becomes a small-claims or civil matter rather than a platform-adjudicated one. That gap is why an accurate listing and a documented handoff matter more on Facebook than on eBay, not less.
Is a seller legally required to accept returns?
Not by federal law. Per the FTC’s guide to buying from an online marketplace, there’s no general rule forcing any seller to offer refunds or returns — but whatever policy you do post, you have to honor, and a policy you don’t actually enforce can be treated as a deceptive practice. On eBay, the Money Back Guarantee sits on top of that as a platform-mandated floor you can’t opt out of, regardless of your posted terms. On Facebook, outside of Purchase-Protection-eligible checkout orders, there is no equivalent platform floor, so your posted policy and basic consumer-protection law are what actually govern the sale.
Does Reclaim handle returns or disputes for you?
No — Reclaim publishes under your own eBay and Facebook accounts, so eBay’s Money Back Guarantee and Facebook’s Purchase Protection apply exactly as they would if you’d listed by hand, and neither platform’s claims process routes through Reclaim. What Reclaim does affect is how often a dispute happens in the first place: it grades the item’s condition and writes the listing from the photo you take, which is the same accurate-description standard both eBay’s “not as described” bar and Facebook’s “different than described” bar turn on. See our guide to writing a listing description that holds up.
The short version
On eBay, the Money Back Guarantee is a floor you can’t opt out of: 30 days for the buyer to claim, 3 business days for you to respond, 2 more to refund once the item is back, and signature confirmation above $750 or you’re unprotected against a false item-not-received claim. On Facebook, that same level of protection exists only for checkout-processed, shipped orders — a local cash sale has none of it, on either side. Compare the platforms more broadly in eBay vs. Facebook Marketplace, see how to avoid scams selling online for the buyer-side version of this problem, or read our safe meetup guide for the local-pickup transactions Facebook doesn’t cover. Browse the full library of selling guides for more.
Start from an accurate listing
Reclaim grades condition and writes your listing from a photo, so what you publish matches what you’re sending — the best defense against a dispute either platform recognizes.
Check your item’s value