New: eBay Motors Guaranteed Fit

[michigancolor]

"Get the right parts or your money back

Search by vehicle to stay protected by eBay Guaranteed Fit"

"With eBay Guaranteed Fit, when you purchase an eligible automotive part or accessory, we guarantee it will fit your vehicle or you can return it for free."

"Most sellers submit a refund as soon as they receive the returned item. If the item has been returned to the seller and they have not given you a full refund after 2 business days, you can ask us to step in and help."

Is there any information on this change for sellers?  It's totally possible there has been and I've not been paying attention.

How's this work for sellers?  Is this another way a buyer can slide in a remorse return, making the seller pay return shipping?

Is this really different than what we had?  I figure many buyers would file an item not as described if eBay's tool said something fit and it didn't.

[partfinds · Accepted solution]

It has been discussed before  here https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-Return-Policy-Seller-Protections-For-Parts-amp-Accessories...

[caldreamer]

Wow, that's crazy.   EBAY comes up with all these "great ideas" and expects Sellers to "foot the bill".   Guess you will have to "raise your prices" to accommodate free returns for auto parts.   

[partfinds]

Bingo!. That is the reason why some sellers have prices higher than others. I used to offer free returns but the returns cost couldn’t justify  the benefit. I just switched to buyer paid. And bam! Ebay has a solution : remorse returns ship free. Can’t make it up. 

[valueaddedresource]

Sellers will want to carefully check out the FAQ on this one - especially if you sell large items like bumpers and engines.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/protections/ebay-guaranteed-fit

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@caldreamer wrote:

Wow, that's crazy.   EBAY comes up with all these "great ideas" and expects Sellers to "foot the bill".   Guess you will have to "raise your prices" to accommodate free returns for auto parts.   

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eBay will foot the return shipping bill for sellers- so that is NOT the case:

eBay Guaranteed Fit benefits to sellers

• Fewer returns. As buyers learn to provide vehicle fitment details to return better item matches in their search results, the risk of potential returns due to incorrect fitment is reduced.
• Free return label. In the unlikely event that a buyer needs to return an item because it doesn’t fit, eBay will pay for return shipping. Exceptions apply.
• Sales conversion. Enhanced buyer experience may help to generate more sales.

[partfinds]

I found warning about misusing the program and protections.

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@partfinds wrote:

I found warning about misusing the program and protections.

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That's obviously for abusers- sending a rock instead of a starter- just to cover their (ebay) bases. 

[partfinds]

@stainlessenginecovers I don’t understand how seller can misuse the fitment program.  Can you give some examples? That is not buyer protection but seller- this is seller excerpt. You misunderstood.

[michigancolor]

I am also confused by this.  I could think of a few extreme and convoluted examples though.  Customer needs warranty exchange several months after a purchase.  Seller says buy a new one, claim it doesn't fit, and return the defective one.  Or, seller purchases from themselves on a second account to send a part needing programming to a servicer, then claims it doesn't fit to get a return label to get it back once programmed.

[valueaddedresource]

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@partfinds wrote:

I found warning about misusing the program and protections.

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@partfinds if I had to guess, I'd say misuse is basically anything likely to cost eBay money. 😉

I could see misuse being things like entering incorrect fitment info or listing items that wouldn't usually have fitment in incorrect categories and/or with made up fitment info to get the "guaranteed fit" badge - we've seen this kind of thing happening in categories where eBay offers authentication where people find ways to game the system to get that guarantee on items that shouldn't really qualify.

Misuse could also possibly be not providing a shipping label to buyers for those exceptions mentioned above.

That's also general language they put in almost every policy page regarding seller protections, service metrics and/or feedback removal. My guess is it's there as a sort of "catch all" to cover eBay should they ever decide not to apply protections for any specific situation or reason, as likely determined in their sole discretion.

[redlinear]

MORE returns there will be.  
There is no difference to the return policy than what's already in place.  The difference is that eBay is now pushing/advertising that THEY somehow know interchange.  
eBay does not know interchange.  Hollander knows interchange on 30% of the parts on a vehicle. And there's 5% error in that 30%.  That leaves 70% of the parts on a vehicle with no interchange info.  (aside from matching a part number or maybe some sort of VIN cross reference).  
Problem is, most sellers don't know either, and there is an abundance of error entered by sellers just trying to comply with item specifics that have little or nothing to do with the particular part they are listing. 
BUYERS will be buying based on an eBay guarantee that eBay has almost NO control over. 
And returning items, blaming the seller for making the mistake. 

This has been attempted in the past by eBay.  I remember they tried to guarantee delivery time.  EBay tried to guarantee that USPS/FedEx would do their job as they claimed.  That didn't work out too well for sellers because sellers were getting blamed for something they had no control over.

So, here we go again. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@partfinds wrote:

@stainlessenginecovers I don’t understand how seller can misuse the fitment program.  Can you give some examples? That is not buyer protection but seller- this is seller excerpt. You misunderstood.

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There are scammers on ebay selling things. You buy a starter and the 'seller' sends out dead ones because they have 100's of them or?? or ??

So, to 'cover' the 'return shipping' cost that ebay is footing the bill for the seller, they have that exclusion stated. 

[redlinear]

Somehow, I don't see this lasting very long.  eBay showing so much confidence in sellers entering the correct information, that they will pay the return shipping cost?  I'll give it few months. 
OR, eBay is going to have to get it together with their "fitment options" (they are missing options on which to choose). 
I've always been equally afraid of the Initial shipping cost.  Do everything I can so that I'm not paying that for no reason. 
Not sure if the starter comment was sarcastic or not?  I sure wouldn't knowingly PAY to ship out a bad starter. Or pay to ship anything that I thought would be returned.  Losing the Initial shipping is fear enough for me. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

It wasn't sarcastic. There are sellers as well as buyers on all venues that are scammers.  A 'distributor' can get a 'bad batch' of starters and send one out- bad, send a replacement, bad and NOT do it on purpose, but it happens. 

Apparently, they'll cover shipping, until the same seller has 'too many' (which nobody will know what that magic number is) and then you're out.