If it still has not arrived

You should assume it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send a replacement if you have one or give them a full refund otherwise. If the item has been damaged in the post, you must offer to replace it or take it back for a refund without hesitation. If the item does not match the description, take the item back for a refund, and edit your description if you need to, to make any confusing points extra clear.

Offering a refund will make almost any problem go away, and it really will cost you less in the long run. Remember, one piece of negative feedback will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like owning a bar of solid gold. You should always handle customers' complaints before they complain to eBay.

In fact, you should email them pre-emptively to ask if they have any complaint. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you, and is downright unnecessary. The higher the price of the items you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you.

Trying to make excuses for complaints is not the only thing you need to avoid. There are a lot of pitfalls that you need to avoid if you do not want to kill your business before it is even started properly. Some of the jargon is obscure, and you cannot be expected to understand it until someone has told you what it means.

Even the most common jargon is only used relatively rarely. You will find more specific jargon related to whatever you are selling. If you cannot figure one out from your knowledge of the subject, then type the term into a search engine, followed by the word 'eBay'.

The chances are that someone, somewhere will have seen fit to explain it. While it is good to be able to understand others' jargon, avoid using it unless you really need to. Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if you write a load of gobbledegook all over your auction.

While you can sell most things on eBay, quite a few things are banned. If you try to sell any of those things, then eBay will remove your auction and all bids will be void. Almost everything that is on the list is there because there is law against selling it.

Some of the reasons, though, are a little strange. eBay will remove any items that it believes violate copyright law, but they do not have that many people to monitor the site. You will generally only find that your auction gets removed if someone decides to report you.

And even then, they might not get around to it. Really, buying and selling on eBay can sometimes feel more complicated than it really is, thanks to all the rules surrounding it, not to mention the jargon. If you know what you are doing, the easier you will find it to be found.

Be specific. Where you can, though, leave off the type of item altogether and title using brand and model. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.

First off, you need to know what it is you are going to sell. You will do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You will not get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.