I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN WITH FREE RETURNS FORCED ON US AND TAKING AWAY TOP RATED DISCOUNTS

[bonus-deal]

I posted this months ago, that they would force us ebay sellers to do free returns!  this is wrong.  No other marketplace does this, and ebay is trying to claim that all marketplaces do this.  Also do NOT LET THEM TELL YOU AT EBAY, That it will increase your sales!  THIS IS 1000% FALSE AND JUST FOR THEM TO PUSH THIS.  They tie you up and force you to do something. 

Ebay is the worst company now.  I can bet 10000%  that ebay stocks will drop drastically.  Does ebay not know of the Fraud that just happened with Walmart and Amazon.  These people are doing $2 million in returns fraud, and now ebay is going to facilitate this for these fraud people.

Get this, ebay 3 months ago, tried to state free returns will increase your sales 300%.  THIS IS 1000% FALSE ADVERTISMENT.  DO NOT LISTEN TO EBAY REPS.  YOUR RETURNS WILL GO THRU THE ROOF, AND CUSTOMERS WILL STILL SELECT DEFECTIVE, THEN STILL CAUSING MORE WORK FOR SELLERS TO SORT THRU THESE STUPID FRAUD RETURNS!

I told ebay 3 months ago, i can see what there doing.  They lied to me.  I told them i see that you took away 10% top rated discount, and they stated because they are going to help sellers with returns and such and make it better, but that was 100% lie.  They are trying to remove the Discount completely!

I can bet 10000%  that by end of year, there will be no more Top Rated discounts.  No more Top rated badge.  And watch how all the fraud guys on amazon and walmart come to ebay and fraud the ssystem.  and then watch sellers dissappear AGAIN! and then ebay stocks will definitly fall drastically.  Only reason why ebay is still up and running is because they are the place to shop for generic items.  Ebay doesn't get it yet, but what there doing is forcing all the good sellers to move away from ebay, and all that's left is the generic **bleep** sellers, who screw everyone, and all the negative **bleep** that comes from them, falls on us good sellers.  I have to say ebay your a piece of work for lying to me on the phone, for trying to lie 3 months previously when i called you out on forcing 30 day free returns!  

EBAY - SOON, YOU'LL BE NOTHING.  your stock shares is going to drop by half.  I can guarantee you that. 

[djd16]

IF you talk to a E-bay rep. They will disagree with this statement.  You the seller are not a customer even though you pay e-bay.  The Customer is the end purchaser? 

But what E-bay does not understand, is no matter how many people visit e-bay. If there are no sellers there is no business or if there is no sellers for what people are looking for there is no business. 

E-bay was and should always be for the the Odd and unusual.  Not for the everyday mundane.  I do not buy anything from E-bay that I can buy at target or off amazon.   I look on E-bay for hard to find things that are not easily found elswhere.  Maybe someone at E-bay should Read this.

[carlmarxx]

---

@djd16 wrote:

IF you talk to a E-bay rep. They will disagree with this statement.  You the seller are not a customer even though you pay e-bay.  The Customer is the end purchaser? 

But what E-bay does not understand, is no matter how many people visit e-bay. If there are no sellers there is no business or if there is no sellers for what people are looking for there is no business. 

E-bay was and should always be for the the Odd and unusual.  Not for the everyday mundane.  I do not buy anything from E-bay that I can buy at target or off amazon.   I look on E-bay for hard to find things that are not easily found elswhere.  Maybe someone at E-bay should Read this.

---

I have  talked with  number  of  Reps and  even  2  U.S. COO  employee's  types  on the phone  since   2008  when  Bane capital  guy  JD   was running  ebay until 2014   . I  talked about  the need for ebay to stay  with  hard to find  type of items and collectibles   a long with none maine stream items   not being sold on other online sites .   I also talked about need for  ebay to butt  out  on seller return policys .The need to keep control of  buyer fraud  down   and  return abuse  under control .    The big thing of issue  was  the   MBG  Made easy Snad  dispute  and their  MBG  doesn't  fit  for every thing sold  here  and in fact  has no place on ebay   at all .  What  ebay needs is same google check out  buyer protection  policy . Also  number of  stuff sold on ebay should not be subjected to return  and refund after the buyer opened it and used it. 

[firestorm59]

You are correct that we don't work for Ebay, but they treat many vendors like employees.  When they control the money, then they control us.  If a buyer changes their mind and Ebay happily prints them a return label and bills it to us, then that is total **bleep**.  We are not Costco or Amazon and if you think that we should simply bend over and take it, then you are sadly mistaken.  No business can thrive on giving something away for free with no return.  The only reason that many of the large retailers today show they are thriving under this model is because they are using phony NON-GAAP accounting that allows them to show the revenue growth and ignore the charge-offs.  This has been going on for about five years now and has kept he stock market up.  Small vendors don't have this luxury and the management at Ebay better wake up before they find out their best sellers have left.

Buyer's need to take responsibility for their own actions and if you change your mind, then you should pay the freight on both sides.   Taking away the restocking fees was a major slap in the face to all vendors.

[twnpopcards]

---

@firestorm59 wrote:

You are correct that we don't work for Ebay, but they treat many vendors like employees.  When they control the money, then they control us.  If a buyer changes their mind and Ebay happily prints them a return label and bills it to us, then that is total **bleep**.  We are not Costco or Amazon and if you think that we should simply bend over and take it, then you are sadly mistaken.  No business can thrive on giving something away for free with no return.  The only reason that many of the large retailers today show they are thriving under this model is because they are using phony NON-GAAP accounting that allows them to show the revenue growth and ignore the charge-offs.  This has been going on for about five years now and has kept he stock market up.  Small vendors don't have this luxury and the management at Ebay better wake up before they find out their best sellers have left.

Buyer's need to take responsibility for their own actions and if you change your mind, then you should pay the freight on both sides.   Taking away the restocking fees was a major slap in the face to all vendors.

---

Actually that is starting to catch up with Ebay because they still have to issue their Financial Statements in conformity with GAAP and when they do so they must reclassify the returns as well as the discounts they have taken from sellers and claimed above the line for WAll Street reporting purposes.  But Ebay made a decision at the end of 2017 to take a huge accounting change loss which took a profitable year and turned it into a loss for the entire 2017 fiscal year.  This was all completely legal and above board, but it drew additional attention to Ebays numbers and suddenly Ebays stock dropped and has continued to drop or stay stagnant waiting to see what is going to happen going forward.

I don't think it has helped Ebay that the Q & A session of the shareholders meeting suddenly lost the audio so that nobody could hear what the shareholders wanted to ask Wenig and a few others. None of that information has made it out on the internet in any shape, form or fashion which tends to make me think that once again Ebay is afraid of what that information is going to do to their share price.  

Ebay recently had a layoff but unlike most other publicly traded companies has decided to not release any real information as to the number of employees affected or the locations affected, instead choosing to leave it to speculation and rumors as to who got let go and why they were chosen.  Most companies get rid of dead wood during layoffs and hopefully Ebay did the same, but my gut feeling is that they also got rid of a lot of top quality staff who were no longer yes men and not 100% behind the direction the company is headed.  Time will tell as that information will be out shortly when the 10Q is released and even more informative will be the disclosures released in the audited financial statements for the 2nd Qtr.  The 10Q is their dream version of what is happening and the Audited Financial Statements are reality that the CEO and CFO must sign and attest are not only in conformity with GAAP but that there are no significant undisclosed liabilites or other significant issues that Ebay has not disclosed to their auditors like happened at Enron and Worldcom.  Some of the games and wording of things by Ebay is beginning to make me wonder how close they are to crossing those lines just like Enron did.  

I guess time will tell.

[times-a-changin]

Unfortunately, that will not stop buyers from claiming SNAD even when the item was accurately described and pictured. Ebay does not care if the buyer reads the description. They file SNAD, seller is required to pay return shipping. Fight it and most likely lose AND get nailed with a strike from ebay. Sadly, free returns are already the reality. I've been burned by 2 such scammers....one even stole my photos AND description and made the item utterly glorious trying to resell to make a buck.

After 28 days with no sale, they had the nerve to claim "not genuine" and I was forced to pay for a return. I did of course report the buyer and block his worthless butt and even called ebay and made them look at his still ACTIVE listing of the item he bought from me using my photos and description and made them log it. He had history of doing same with other sellers and knows the system.

just got another one...failed to read and also a flipper. Sadly "right" is utterly 1-sided with ebay and it's rarely with the seller.

[julee]

They may not be "forcing" us, but I refuse to offer free returns on pre-owned clothing. So, I suffered a drop in sales due to a drop in search ranking, of THIRTY PERCENT! I also lost my badge and my discount. So, no, it's not forced, unless you want to eat.

[julee]

Just to follow up from yesterday, I got a request from one lady today, to return THREE skirts she's bought from me. She says they are just "not right" for her. This makes over TEN returns since last month for NO FAULT ON MY PART. I can't continue this without actually LOSING money. I have NEVER had 10 returns in a YEAR!!!!!!

[beckteam]

I feel the same way- 20 years, have complied with everything they asked but the free returns have cost me so much money. We just did our P&L and we should not even be selling on ebay anymore as it's costing us more money than we are making. But we have all this inventory we are sitting on and need it gone!  Going from selling $500 a day to $75 a day-that was with the free returns and being a TRS. Now you can't even put stuff on sale unless you wait 14 days from any relist, listing or price change!  So I think we will finish out the year and move forward without ebay!  

[btmach1]

I completely agree with this statement:

---

@plumbingspecials wrote:
@WATERBED
Not one single glitch that occurs during their platform-wide updates will ever be in the favor of a seller. The emails they send for promotions are not for the benefit of the seller, it is merely a pretty package to entice sellers to conform. Always a catch.

---

[btmach1]

Needful:  VERY well put! 

---

@needful_little_things wrote:

Really ??. Should I throw a huge party for the "gains" mentioned for 2018 !! -

a) two new store levels ---- has absolutely no benefit at all in reducing losses for fraudulent returns.

b) a new store design that is MUCH more mobile friendly -- It is in ebay's interest to ensure THEIR site is user friendly with mobile devices considering we pay fees for an "up to date" site. Still has absolutely no benefit at all in reducing losses for fraudulent returns.

c) the ability to withhold 50% of refunds for free returns to combat buyer-abuse ---- Great, sell an item for $200, receive back a broken/different item and after 50% refund still out $100 and shipping both ways. Plus, how long before ebay removes the ability to withold "up to 50%", we've seen similar "benefits" removed before.

d) Terapeak pricing tool ----- Has not happened yet so cannot be a benefit

Sorry but nothing ebay has done can sweeten the pot when they allow buyers to run rampant with fraud/theft against the sellers.

It should also be noted there are a lot of huge Retail companies not offering ebay Free Returns, because it is simply financial disaster.

Once again the ebay "one size fits all" does not apply.

---

[sonoranboutique]

Yeah I think they went too far this time.  It's going to drive a lot of sellers away or out of business.  This means item prices for buyers will go up, while item selection will go down.  Considering EBay was criticized specifically for driving sellers away in their recent stock analysis, this isn't going to help.  Personally I already find EBay has poor selection and pricing for the things I want to buy.  There's a lot of stuff I used to go to EBay for that I now have to go to Amazon.

Free Returns is the most gregarious example of hurting sellers I've seen.  It's a pure profit loss, and doesn't reflect the policies of the rest of the online marketplace.  It's a money-losing proposition which is why no one else does it.  EBay thinks they can push that on us, but the end result is going to be less sellers which means higher prices and poorer selection for buyers.

Personally I'm looking to be one of the sellers ousted by these recent policy changes.  Since these announcements the past couple months, I've spent most of my free time building my other business.  When I leave, the selection of Clothing and Shoes on EBay will be a fraction worse.  Not having my stuff on here means a lower supply of Clothes and Shoes, which means items in these categories will be a fraction more expensive for buyers.

[oddnends1]

I get messages from ebay about every 3 days pushing me to do free returns also. I sell small priced items, so paying for returns puts me higher than every same item seller. If i return something (undamaged) to any real store. After they give me a refund and then I ask for gas money for returning. How many do you think will do it?

[crownsfieldcellular]

Im sorry but that statement I cant agree with...Based more on sales volume?? Really??? From what I see on that dashboard, sales volume is the lowest thing...You can do 100 transactions and 1000 and sales and get the badge, but try jumping through the rest of those hoops..I'm actually very surprised to hear you say that being that you are a TRS and obviously work very hard to keep your stats up...