Once you've sold a product on eBay and shipped it, the last thing you need is for the buyer to contact you to complain. If this happens you now have to spend extra time exchanging emails and trying to please them so they don't leave negative feedback or insist on a refund.

Follow the points below and you will protect yourself against complaints and potentially messy refund/return situations.

(1) Be completely honest in your description

This is the most important defence against complaints. If you have listed every possible problem, glitch or blemish on your product in the description in clear terms, the buyer will not have much reason to complain.

Also, if they complain to eBay, you can simply point eBay to the description and they will see you pointed out the problem.

If you are selling a DVD and it has slight scratches on the disk, say so.

If you are selling a porceline doll and it has a hairline fracture on the bottom, inform potential bidders in the description.

Hiding problems with your item will results in problems. There is no point selling an item, packaging it carefully and shipping it to the buyer quickly only for them to return it within days for a refund. You've wasted their time, your own time and your own money sending it to them.

A simple sentence in the description will avoid problems and can be a reference point to alert any complaining buyers to.

For example:

I recently listed an 8 VHS video set on eBay but tape 5 was almost unwatchable. To cover myself I simply added the following to the description:

"PLEASE NOTE: Tape 5 of this set is not in very good condition, it was shipped in this way and a replacement could not be sought. Most of the tape has bad audio and it is hard to pick up what [the presenter] is saying although the picture is fine. All of the other 7 videos are in excellent condition. Please do not bid if this is a problem."

If the buyer complains now, I can point him back to this text in the listing (which, by the way, was written in red text so it stood out!)

(2) Make it clear where you can ship to

If you are selling in the UK and do not want to ship abroad, make it perfectly clear that you only ship to the UK.

i.e. put in the description "UK bidders only please. Sorry but I cannot ship this item outside the UK"

Also, eBay allows you to state in the options where you ship to. Make sure you choose the "United Kingdom Only" option.

(3) Justify the postage costs and make sure they are stated

Nothing annoys a buyer more than winning an item and then being charged what they see as too much for postage.

eBay's stand on postage is that you can charge a reasonable fee which covers the postage and packing charge as well as any "handling fee".

The problem with this is that a buyer will not be happy to have an extra