Is Top Seller worth it if you have to give free returns ?

[sandyshops4u]

My top seller rating is in jeopardy. I need to sell a lot and fast. But I hate the idea of free returns. Any input?

[nobody*s_perfect]

Free returns are not a requirement for Top Rated Seller status.

A TRS listing must offer 30-day free returns in order to get the TR-Plus badge and to get the 10% final value fee credit (in most categories).  But you can offer that selectively, for instance you can offer 30-day free returns for most of your items but not for items with really expensive shipping costs.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/seller-levels-performance-standards/seller-levels-performance-stan...

[reallynicestamps]

Will this actually make any differenceto your sales?

How many Disputes  did you have last week? Last year? In your entire career on eBay?

If less than 1% of your transactions were Disputed, that's about normal.

Not normal for eBay alone, normal for all sorts of retail.

If you are having more than 1% problems, review your business plan.

Keep in mind too, that the Free Returns just makes more public what has been eBay's policy for many years.

If your customer in 2015 made a Not As Described Dispute, you had to pay return shipping.

Which is what the Free Returns policy means too.

If your customer makes a Buyer Remorse return** and you accept returns** the Buyer had to pay return shipping. No change there either.

The seller does not have to accept returns.

The seller ** STILL** has to make ** REFUNDS**.

You can further protect yourself by using Cookie Jar Insurance.

This is just self-insurance, based on your Dispute rate.

On every sale, put a few virtual pennies into a virtual Cookie Jar to cover the costs of an occasional Dispute.

Use the Cookie Jar to pay for return postage on Disputed transactions.

Never allow a buyer to keep a Disputed item.

NO refunds without Return.

And you get the item back to resell.

Most sellers report that the Cookie Jar actually becomes a profit centre with more premiums going in than money coming out.

So are you in the 1%?

[hioctane62]

I don't want buyers who will only buy listings that offer free returns. They are thinking "return" before they even buy.

[threshold.sales.group]

OP, depends on the type of items you sell.  Heavy, large cube items where the shipping makes up a signicant % of the total sale price (especially lower gross margin items) are different than light weight shirts and phone cases. 

[reallynicestamps]

I'd like to add:  This is business, not personal.

A return request is not a criticism.

Usually a return is because the customer really is unhappy with her purchase.

Like those jeans you are offering after wearing them once.

They just don't fit you comfortably. Even if they look really cute and all the measurements match.

They go in where you go out. The rise is a little high and cuts into your waist. They make your bum look like the side of a barn.

Stuff happens.

So you are selling them on eBay.

Another buyer might just ask for a return for refund.

Stuff happens.

Of course, if the items you sell are expensive to ship, fragile, or high fraud, consideration must be made of those factors.

[tellmemama]

---

@hioctane62 wrote:

I don't want buyers who will only buy listings that offer free returns. They are thinking "return" before they even buy.

---

More importantly, now that eBay is counting all  returns and comparing them to their nebulous returns of our "peers", to me it seems like just putting yourself on the fast track to 14% FVFs. 

Nope.

<edit: spelling>

[luckythewinner]

---

@sandyshops4u wrote:

My top seller rating is in jeopardy. I need to sell a lot and fast. But I hate the idea of free returns. Any input?

---

You do not have to offer free returns to be a Top Rated seller. 

You only have to offer them if you want the Top Rated Plus discount. 

Ther are other benefits to being Top Rated - in fact, for me the shipping discount is far more valuable. 

[tamaralea]

I was in the same position as you.  I was dropping below 100 items and I don't want to have to pay for returns.  It was the perfect time to give up my top rated status.  

[reallynicestamps]

You still have to pay for returns.

If your buyer opens a Not As Described dispute you can refund immediately, or you can send return postage and refund on delivery.

The only difference is the Free Returns banner.

How many Disputes did you have in the past year?

How much did you actually lose in postage costs ? Were you able to resell the returned items?

Would you prefer to have paid for the return of those shoes than to have a negative FB for the next 12 months?

[hioctane62]

I've had 5 returns in the past 12 months, all business and industrial items, all remorse or buyer error, and all with the buyer paying the return postage. That's $75-$100 out of my pocket if I were opted into free returns (hypothetically, I know free returns didn't exist for all of those 12 months). Some of these were businesses who ship every day, so they were returned on the company's account.

[reallyhardtofind]

Free returns depend on what you're selling, we all accept free returns if we make an error. I will always accept returns if a buyer changes their mind but at the buyers expense. I'm however reluctant to offer free returns under these circumstances. These excuses are ridiculous.

[mam98031]

---

@sandyshops4u wrote:

My top seller rating is in jeopardy. I need to sell a lot and fast. But I hate the idea of free returns. Any input?

---

As other explain, offering a 30 or 60 day return policy with seller pays shipping is NOT required to be TRS.  I think what your problem is that you need to sell more stuff because you haven't had a lot of sales in the past year.  If I understand what you are actually asking, that is what you are really saying.  The return policy change isn't likely to make a huge difference in the number of sales.

However what you really need to do is have MORE listings.  Clean those closets out.  Create some listings and start posting.  I don't think you are running enough listings consistantly to maintain TRS, so you need to concentrate on getting stuff ready for sale.  Just my observations.

[tamaralea]

Yes, I've decided that even having one negative feedback is worth not having free returns.  My return problems seem to primarily be in clothing and now shoes.  I pity anyone who sells in those categories exclusively.