The Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) issued a public statement last week about eBay's new dispute policy, known as Item Not Received. INR, as it is also called, is eBay's new procedure that allows buyers to file a claim after not receiving an item or receiving an item that is significantly different from what was described in the listing. Buyers may file dispute reports even if they have not yet paid for the item.

When eBay first announced the new procedure, many sellers complained that 7 days was too early for a buyer to make a claim, and eBay changed the time a buyer could initiate a claim from 7 days to 10 days after the listing closes. Formerly buyers had to wait 30 days before filing a claim.

PESA released a study about the new INR dispute policy. The PESA press announcement states, "The INR/SNAD process that is scheduled to go live in January is simply a reporting mechanism with no protective value to the consumer. It does nothing to curtail improper practices from occurring; only reporting after the fact."

PESA made recommendations on how eBay could prevent problems in the first place, by verifying the address and identify of sellers, and by placing restrictions on selling activity until certain criteria are met. "A new seller should not have an issue providing a verifiable name and address before listing 50 plasma televisions or laptop computers," the PESA statement read.

The study, found on the PESA Website, says in part, "The members of PESA believe that the changes from the INR process are purely cosmetic and only seem to add a greater reporting burden on high volume sellers without any improvement in the integrity of the eBay marketplace."

PESA has issued other statements over the last several months, including one released in January over eBay's fee increase that goes into effect on February 18 (http://www.gopesa.org/fees_stmt.cfm). The Professional eBay Sellers Alliance is an organization representing many of the highest volume merchants on eBay. PESA says its members conducted more than 70 million transactions and over $1 billion in merchandise sales on eBay in the past 12 months. The group has held two summits since it was formed in August 2003, with a third scheduled for March in Atlanta.

http://www.gopesa.org/inr_stmt.cfm