Free returns for auto parts is a joke.
Not to mention how much now gets put into the umbrella of eBay motors.
Aviation parts is under eBay motors.
Boat parts is under eBay motors.
Racing apparel is under eBay motors.
Don't need to know the part fits or not. Why bother asking the seller, who can verify fitment? Just return it, on their dime.
Worried a part might arrive late? No problem, order the same one from 5 sellers, and return the 4 that arrive after the first, all on the seller's dime.
Packaging material? What's that? Just toss it in a polly mailer, why waste a few cents on packing material?
The seller has to eat the cost. If they deduct it from the refund eBay just pays the difference anyway. Who cares if the seller can't resell the item now because it looks like it was hit 500 times with a sledgehammer?
eBay wants you to be just like Amazon, but Amazon has billions to cover return losses, you don't.
Oh and despite every company on the planet being allowed to recharge a restocking fee, even Amazon, you can't recoup the money you shelled out for the free return shipping.
Makes you wonder who paid eBay to force returns to root out competition. What pushed eBay to do this?
smilekc
·5 months agoeBay is trying to compete with the dominant player in online auto parts sales, Rock Auto.
Buyers main complaint about Rock is the hassle of returns if you order the wrong part, or if Rock makes a mistake & sends you the wrong part. You can try & return the part, but you will be the one paying to send it back & hope you will get a refund. eBay sees this as a weakness they can exploit to take some of Rock's market share. The good thing as eBay sees it is they force this on sellers so it won't cost eBay anything, although they claim they will pay part of the return shipping.
What eBay doesn't understand is that the "mechanics" that will buy parts on eBay don't have much of a clue as to what they are doing & are parts swappers randomly replacing parts hoping to "fix" what is ailing their vehicle. The parts that don't fix it go back in the box after they are tried out & are returned (for free) to the seller. The seller then gets to eat the parts. Rock does it right, make it difficult for parts swappers to return parts.
Rock is so vastly superior to eBay Motors for auto parts in every way (catalog, pricing, ease of use, brand availability) I take my chances with Rock. I don't even look for new auto parts on eBay, even though I sell there.
fullers_uk
·5 months agoWhy did ebay invest so much in redoing and marketing autoparts, there is less and less an owner can fix themsleves on cars now and its only going to get harder..............
grann-4629
·5 months ago@fullers_uk I can't imagine what it would cost to ship a new battery from Germany to Canada to fix an electric BMW. wrt misfits, wrong part, etc., in the computer age of new cars good luck trying to find the right plug in module to fit that Chinese electric vehicle that is no longer made.
fullers_uk
·5 months agoUp until about 20 years you would see cars jacked up in the road perched on old railway sleepers with owners working on them, others chatting about how to fix them, going to the local parts dealer, slapping the part they want on the **bleep**er and asking for a new one, those times are over, even the price of collectable cars you can actually work on is falling like a stone, my mig welder hasnt been used in ten years to weld patches on a rotten chassis, now they dont want to get there hands dirty, and theres no way they would understand a haynes workshop manual. Ebay has backed a loser with car parts.
smilekc
·5 months agoOver the past few years eBay has said that Motors new parts sales has been where they have seen huge sales growth. How long that will continue for the reasons you mention is hard to say....
In my area we have 4 large national chain parts stores & 1 large regional chain parts store in a 2 mile stretch of road. I can't see them all surviving as cars become harder & harder to work on. But the chains keep building stores all over the area, sometimes right next to each other.
bonanza125
·5 months agoThis is all part of business where buyers are ordering parts and they don't fit or claim "not as described." Sellers and even local businesses depend on the buyer to purchase the correct part which fit. Unfortunately there is no "As-Is No Returns/No Refunds." That doesn't exist. If it did then sales will drop cause there is no assurance that the part is going to fit or even work correctly. Then the buyer gets upset and leaves the platform or doesn't do business again with the local store. You are running a business and returns are part of business.
bashort
·5 months agomy opinion is that ebay is not the place to buy or sell new parts that can be had at one of the chain auto parts stores where you are very unlikely to buy a counterfeit and get really good warranty that is easy to collect on.
ebay is a great place to buy and sell used and hard to find parts
caldreamer
·5 months agoEBAY only cares about "their bottom line" and doesn't care about the hardship it causes the Sellers. If EBAY Corporation was forced pay for "free returns" they would put a stop to this program immediately.
kibble-net
·5 months agoI feel like this gets complained about daily. Maybe at this point you should stop selling auto parts here. Vote with your feet, as they say.
quadcitypickers
OP5 months agoThere isn't really any other place to sell them unless I want to wait months to sell them.
meme6253
·5 months agoFlea markets would be one possibility, Although the right people looking for your particular parts would have to be there.
grann-4629
·5 months agoThere are open markets and meets where only car/truck parts are bought and sold. That would be the best place to sell parts.
umccars
·5 months agoI worked at an auto parts store for over 8 years. There's no way I would ever attempt to sell them online.
baantiques
·5 months agoI stopped selling replacement parts after a brief experiment about 12 years ago and focused entirely on vintage parts (1910-1970) because the customers are totally different. Buyers of parts for classics are better informed and very rarely need to return something. Buyers of replacement parts are not well informed and often don't do anything beyond reading the title - not even looking at the pictures much less reading the description. So then when they buy the wrong thing I get the "I bought the wrong thing and it's your fault" message.
Unfortunately it's gotten more difficult to find good classic parts so I'm back to selling newer replacement parts. My returns are up over 500% and account for about 10% of my monthly expenses now. Not surprising. Want more of something than you need or want? Make it free. Thanks Ebay.