I expect eBay to toughen up TRS standards soon ...

[orangehound]

With eBay's recent announcement that they will begin allowing TRS sellers to withhold up to 50% of refunds that are returned in a deteriorated condition AND get return shipping credits up to $6 for false SNADs, I suspect that eBay will also  need to make TRS a more restrictive designation, with tougher standards.

[orangehound]

Why?

Because there are a lot of high volume, dishonest TRS sellers (who falsely claim to be based in the US).  You can see the abuse they are putting on our shared customers by all the negative feedback that these dishonest TRS sellers get ... they are sending counterfeit items, showing item location misrepresentation, selling cheap China junk that doesn't work out of the box, product substitutions.  TRS requirements are not that difficult to achieve.

Since returns are now going to be costing eBay money (and profit), I think we should start to see the TRS requirements become much more restrictive toward the end of the year, and maybe as soon as the Summer Seller Update.

[hioctane62]

I also expect that by the 2020 spring update, they will make free returns a requirement to qualify for "seller protection" 

Sorry, I can't even type those 2 words without laughing.

[zamo-zuan]

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@orangehound wrote:

Why?

Because there are a lot of high volume, dishonest TRS sellers (who falsely claim to be based in the US).  You can see the abuse they are putting on our shared customers by all the negative feedback that these dishonest TRS sellers get ... they are sending counterfeit items, showing item location misrepresentation, selling cheap China junk that doesn't work out of the box, product substitutions.  TRS requirements are not that difficult to achieve.

Since returns are now going to be costing eBay money (and profit), I think we should start to see the TRS requirements become much more restrictive toward the end of the year, and maybe as soon as the Summer Seller Update.

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This wouldn't be an issue if they did what they claimed they would in the spring update, and actually counted it as a violation when they ship from China yet have a US zip code. 

There's still obvious cases where sellers are ordering from other eBay sellers, and dropshipping directly to customers. One of our employees placed an order recently and had this exact thing happen. Yet it seems they are still appearing on top of search, so obviously no penalties for this.

I do see your point , that if they offer anything with TRS they might make it harder to achieve. At the same time, TRS doesn't seem to have nearly the amount of benefits it used to. So this may indicate less influence based on it... same as what happened with descriptions and feedback.

I guess time will tell!

[dhbookds]

I think they will give it at least 6 months........to get as many as they can in the program to actually see how it works for them.........  As said, they do have some experience with the sellers who already use free returns....plus it may help them clean out some of the abusive buyers......

[zamo-zuan]

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@dhbookds wrote:

I think they will give it at least 6 months........to get as many as they can in the program to actually see how it works for them.........  As said, they do have some experience with the sellers who already use free returns....plus it may help them clean out some of the abusive buyers......

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We'll see.

Based on the statistics they shared, I don't exactly buy what they're selling about "abusive buyers". They claim hundreds of thousands of them already had feedback and metrics corrected. Yet in thousands of orders and hundreds of return cases, we haven't been protected a single time. 

I mean, let's look at the policy itself. How does so much feedback and metrics get removed based on abusive buyers, if the feedback/metrics are NOT removed retroactively...? 

[uniwarehousewares]

no doubt, you are one of best contributor on this community, but let me say this too, good sellers have suffered a lot because of false SNAD and other kind of games from scammers, now its time to fix this so seller can have some relief, i had so many false claims by buyers and as result to keep my rating goods i had no choice to resolve the matter with bad buyer choice. TRS requirements are already strict, the sellers who are selling in high volume, its already a challenge for them to maintain TRS, TRS for small sellers are easy to maintain, low sales less problems, high sale more challenging to deal from all aspects.

[pburn]

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@orangehound wrote:

You can see the abuse they are putting on our shared customers by all the negative feedback that these dishonest TRS sellers get ... they are sending counterfeit items, showing item location misrepresentation, selling cheap China junk that doesn't work out of the box, product substitutions.

---

This is the main reason that I, as a buyer only, don't pay any attention to the TRS banner. To see a TRS banner on a listing by a seller who has a 94.6% feedback ratio, it doesn't exactly instill confidence in the designation. I don't not buy from a TRS seller, but I'm not "enticed" by them, either.

[zamo-zuan]

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@pburn wrote:

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@orangehound wrote:

You can see the abuse they are putting on our shared customers by all the negative feedback that these dishonest TRS sellers get ... they are sending counterfeit items, showing item location misrepresentation, selling cheap China junk that doesn't work out of the box, product substitutions.

---

This is the main reason that I, as a buyer only, don't pay any attention to the TRS banner. To see a TRS banner on a listing by a seller who has a 94.6% feedback ratio, it doesn't exactly instill confidence in the designation. I don't not buy from a TRS seller, but I'm not "enticed" by them, either.

---

My question is, how do they manage to keep TRS despite such low feedback scores? Typically poor experiences lead to closed without seller resolution and/or cancellations/etc? 

There's violations which typically lead to negative feedback in terms of "legit negatives". It makes sense that the ship from locations may not match as that's not measured in the TRS metrics. But it's hard to add up how some of these sellers keep TRS despite ridiculously low feedback scores.

Sadly, new buyers aren't aware of how feedback works and tend to discover too late, after htey've already had issues.

[buyselljack2016]

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@orangehound wrote:

With eBay's recent announcement that they will begin allowing TRS sellers to withhold up to 50% of refunds that are returned in a deteriorated condition AND get return shipping credits up to $6 for false SNADs, I suspect that eBay will also  need to make TRS a more restrictive designation, with tougher standards.

---

Apparently I have been napping. Is there some official announcement about such a policy?

Is this a policy (50%) that will be allowed for all TRS sellers, or just a continuation of the policy for those offering "free returns"

[buyselljack2016]

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@uniwarehousewares wrote:
no doubt, you are one of best contributor on this community, but let me say this too, good sellers have suffered a lot because of false SNAD and other kind of games from scammers, now its time to fix this so seller can have some relief, i had so many false claims by buyers and as result to keep my rating goods i had no choice to resolve the matter with bad buyer choice. TRS requirements are already strict, the sellers who are selling in high volume, its already a challenge for them to maintain TRS, TRS for small sellers are easy to maintain, low sales less problems, high sale more challenging to deal from all aspects.

---

This is a misconception.  One OOS per 197 transactions can knock a small seller out of TRS.

[equid0x]

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@orangehound wrote:

With eBay's recent announcement that they will begin allowing TRS sellers to withhold up to 50% of refunds that are returned in a deteriorated condition AND get return shipping credits up to $6 for false SNADs, I suspect that eBay will also  need to make TRS a more restrictive designation, with tougher standards.

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Well I can't wait to get $6 back on my $40 worth of round trip shipping!

[equid0x]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

I also expect that by the 2020 spring update, they will make free returns a requirement to qualify for "seller protection" 

Sorry, I can't even type those 2 words without laughing.

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There already is no seller protection, so I doubt that will matter to any of us who are still here by then. 

[drinkwine1204]

It was announced at the ebay open in vegas-sellers do not need to offer free returns to get some protection from buyers who try (and break) our items. At least that was my takeaway. And sellers will get a $6 credit towards shipping the item back which will help with false snads (buyer remorse when buyers claim a snad). 

Not been officially announced in an update, just at the open.

[buyselljack2016]

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@drinkwine1204 wrote:

It was announced at the ebay open in vegas-sellers do not need to offer free returns to get some protection from buyers who try (and break) our items. At least that was my takeaway. And sellers will get a $6 credit towards shipping the item back which will help with false snads (buyer remorse when buyers claim a snad). 

Not been officially announced in an update, just at the open.

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OK, thanks.

We just had a return as a SNAD that actually was not. It was not a deliberate "false snad", as it was just buyer ignorance with no admission of it being remorse/mistake on buyer's part, so I expect that there will be no relief in such instances.

It was a "doesn't match description/photos" when it was just a mistake on the buyer's part not confirming with the photos that the item was not correct for their application.