Item-not-received cases, auto-decide against you after 8 days no response.
At a glance
The live count of “Item Not Received” (INR) cases opened by buyers and not yet resolved. eBay’s clock starts the moment a buyer files an INR; if the seller fails to respond within 8 days the case auto-decides in the buyer’s favour, eBay refunds the buyer from your funds, and the case counts as a defect against your seller-standards tier.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your eBay data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US fashion seller running ebay.com only. Snapshot 28 Apr 26, 09:00 ET.
Five things to notice:
- Case 5400123 is the alert. It’s been open 6 days, the seller has 2 days left before eBay auto-resolves it in the buyer’s favour. The card is amber on this case alone; the others are within the safe response window.
- Auto-resolution costs more than the order value. If 5400123 auto-decides, the seller loses the 84.
- The fix is usually trivial. 80% of INR cases are resolved by the seller pasting the tracking number into the case message. Most “INR” cases are actually buyers who haven’t checked the tracking themselves; the seller’s response shifts responsibility to the carrier and closes the case favourably.
- The remaining 20% are real fulfilment issues. Lost-in-transit, wrong-address-keyed, signature-required-but-not-attempted. For these, the seller needs to refund proactively (case closes favourably if seller-resolved) rather than wait for auto-resolution (case closes as a defect).
- The 5-day card threshold is the right early-warning level. The 8-day auto-resolution clock is firm; aiming to respond within 5 days gives a 3-day buffer for warehouse / carrier round-trips. Sellers who treat the 8-day clock as the deadline regularly get caught by carrier delays.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
INR is one upstream input. Pair it with these to act:Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in eBay Seller Hub:Seller Hub → Orders → Cases (US) or the UK equivalent. Filter by Case status: Open. The count here matches this card 1-to-1 in real time.The “Resolution Centre” at eBay → My eBay → Resolution Centre is the legacy view; modern Sell-API integrations should reconcile against Seller Hub Cases. Timing, settlement, and reporting-lag table:
Why our number may legitimately differ from Seller Hub:
Cross-connector reconciliation against other connectors the same seller may run:
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What’s an INR case? INR = “Item Not Received”. A buyer files this through eBay’s Resolution Centre when they say the order hasn’t arrived. The seller has 8 days from case-open to respond (upload tracking, message the buyer, or refund) before eBay auto-resolves the case in the buyer’s favour. What happens if I don’t respond in 8 days? eBay auto-decides the case for the buyer. They get refunded from your funds, you keep the loss, and the case is recorded as a defect against your seller-standards. A single auto-resolved INR can flip a healthy seller’s defect rate above the 0.5% TRS cap. The card alerts at 5 days to give you a 3-day cushion. My buyer says they didn’t get the item but tracking shows delivered, what do I do? Respond to the case with the tracking number and the carrier’s “delivered” scan. If tracking shows delivery to the buyer’s address, eBay typically sides with the seller and closes the case favourably. If the carrier’s GPS scan was significantly off the buyer’s address (a common Amazon Logistics / DHL issue), the buyer may still win. Photo evidence of doorstep delivery (if the carrier captured it) usually decides the case in your favour. Are INR cases included in the defect rate? Only when they auto-resolve against the seller, or close as “Case closed without seller resolution”. Seller-resolved INRs (refund issued, tracking provided, replacement sent) do NOT count as defects. So responding fast keeps you out of trouble even if the volume of cases is high. Why are my INR cases clustered to specific dates? Almost always a fulfilment-side incident: a carrier hub delay (DHL, FedEx, Royal Mail), a warehouse mis-routing, a label-print failure. The INR Burst Alert card is designed to detect this pattern (more than 2 new cases in 24 hours = systemic issue, not random buyer behaviour). My multi-site count, can I see which marketplace each case is from? Yes, the card shows a per-marketplaceId breakdown when expanded. Different sites have different INR rate baselines: ebay.co.uk runs slightly higher INR rates than ebay.com because Royal Mail’s “delivered” scans are GPS-noisy and buyers often dispute. ebay.de runs lower because DHL Germany has very accurate scans.
Does Promoted Listings affect INR rate?
Indirectly. Promoted-driven orders are typically converting from clicks into checkout faster (less buyer reflection time), so promoted sales include more impulse buyers who may dispute small unmet expectations. Effect size is small (under 0.1% INR rate uplift) but measurable.
Why doesn’t this card show on Shopify or Amazon’s standard reports?
Because INR is an eBay-specific case mechanism. Amazon has A-to-z guarantee claims (similar concept, different SLA: 48 hours to respond). Shopify has buyer-initiated chargebacks but no equivalent “case” system, the dispute goes through the payment processor (Stripe / PayPal). Cross-platform reconciliation isn’t apples-to-apples.
My cases are open but the buyer hasn’t messaged me yet, do I still need to respond?
Yes. The 8-day clock starts at case-open, not at first buyer message. Many sellers wait for buyer dialogue and miss the response window. Best practice: the moment a case opens, post the tracking number and a polite “Hi, here is the tracking link, please check delivery scan” message. This shifts the case state from “Awaiting seller response” (counts against you if it expires) to a state where the buyer needs to act.