How about a "Sick Day Button"?
I was sick recently and it came on so sudden that when my shipping day came around I had several orders that needed to be shipped. I had no time to think about "Time Away" functions.
If ebay wanted to help sellers what would really be helpful (Especially in the age of covid-19) would be an "Emergency Delay Function". Something where if a SUDDEN onset emergency hits a seller can suspend sales and also automatically notify buyers that their items "shipping will be delayed but that if they wish to cancel the transaction and get a full refund they are welcome to do so."
This would allow the seller an easy way out of worrying about ebay punishing them for not shipping on time while also protecting the buyer from having to wait for something. If the buyer doesn't like waiting they can get a refund no questions asked and the seller doesn't have to deal with buyer abuse.
A function like this is long overdue. There's no reason why we can't have something like this when emergencies hit all the time for any and all reasons.
Just a suggestion for ebay of a function that would ACTUALLY HELP SELLERS! How about something like that for an update instead of just telling us how we're going to pay more fees?
az93
·3 years agoOn another site i sell on i can put things on hold. I like this becau
toybrats
·3 years agoThat would be a great idea. Perhaps allow 2 or 3 in a year. Sure, it might get abused but very often, a good seller will enjoy the benefits of this. If you get sick and need more than a day, then use the vacation mode setting, or get someone to help you or end all of your listings.
simply-the-best-for-you
·3 years ago@chapeau-noir Have your sales picked up 😄?
simply-the-best-for-you
·3 years agoI'm sorry to see that you had bad sales today. I'm confident it has nothing to do with your post. Other than a handful of people who are Id'd as such, nobody here is an eBay employee. Nobody did anything to your acct b/c you posted something others disagreed with. You can even post negatively about eBay & it won't affect your account. We're in the after-Xmas doldrums & I have had very up & down days for the last 2 weeks too.
I don't think your idea is a bad idea. It COULD be helpful in emergency situations, but eBay is not going to implement something like that, so it's irrelevant in many ways. Even if everyone thought it was the greatest idea of all time, we could not get eBay to implement it. I don't personally think it's that different from what Time Away does. I DO see the appeal of a 'press 1 button', but with Time Away you're pressing 2 buttons if memory serves me right, so it's pretty simple to set up.
I don't recall if it was you or someone else who brought up HEPA (sic), it's actually HIPAA & it has absolutely no bearing here, as it is a law that affects primarily medical providers, institutions. the US Govt in relation to Medicare, etc. It does not apply to private individuals or corporate entities (except in some cases directly related to your medical care).
No one is attacking you, they are disagreeing with your idea, which is NOT an attack on YOU. I have not seen any ad hominem attacks, only people critiquing your IDEA.
Corporations do not have "heart", "compassion" or "empathy". A corporation is not a sentient being. Corporations are run by people, though certainly the culture of a company can/does have an effect on policies. I think if this was 20 years ago, when eBay was a privately held company & Meg Whitman was telling us all that eBay was going to give sellers a health insurance option, something like this would have had a much greater chance. Sellers were viewed more as partners, by those people, a generation ago, under a completely different online marketplace scenario & corporate structure. The world is a different place now, online shopping is radically different, so the corporation's priorities will be different. Also, eBay is now a public company, which means they have one master (it's not sellers OR buyers) & for those and other reasons, it's simply not going to happen these days. We could all agree with you & it still wouldn't happen.
I hope your sales pick up. Mine too, while I'm at it.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoI had this exact scenario- 6 years ago. Massive Stroke, unconscious for 3 days. When I awoke, 1st thing is get my son to bring laptop so I could walk him through how to sign on, where to find vacation etc. (I couldn't see).
The 10 or so orders that were outstanding, I build to order but luckily my son knew enough to finish the orders and get them out, and also luckily this happened on a Thursday and I have 5 business days set up; so he was able to get things out while we stopped any future orders.
But would've been much easier if the 10 orders were just 'held with offer to customer to wait a few weeks or refund'.
inhawaii
·3 years agoMy "negative comment".
If you're not unconscious or in a coma, you should be able to handle existing orders or have someone handle them for you and put your account on a temporary time away until you can figure things out.
I went through this myself recently.
If you are unconscious or in a coma, then perhaps your ebay metrics should not be a major concern.
I hope you're feeling better.
movieman630
OP3 years agoSo this wouldn't have made your life easier? ALL it is, is time away with no sales and ability for pending orders to be delayed or refunded at buyers choice.
inhawaii
·3 years agoYes a "sick day" button would be great to have.
It's just too complicated and I totally understand why we don't have it.
Who gets to use it?
How often do we get to use it?
How long is it for? 1 day? 3 days? 1 week? 1 month?
What reasons qualify? Do you have to be sick? What about injured?
What about a house fire? What about a death in the family?
What about a car theft? What about a flat tire?
How do we keep sellers from abusing it?
Once you waive the rules for a "sick day" then you open up the floodgates to every other excuse in the book, legitimate or not.
So I respectfully disagree with you.
Please don't dare say that I lack compassion!!!
After what I went through I have so much compassion for everybody who experiences a sickness or illness.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoI would say:
a.) Can be used once in a 12 month rotating period
b.) Only by Top Rated Sellers
c.) Reason doesn't matter as 'by law' can't be asked anyway (Hepa and all)
d.) Lasts until you, the user, turns it 'off'
Current unshipped items will be refunded with a message to the buyer regarding some type of 'emergency.
New orders won't happen because all listings will be hidden (just like using 'away' with the box ticked for 'don't show my items)
This is beyond simple and should be there for all GOOD sellers. Better than what DOES happen to sellers that, when they return, are now paying more fees or not allowed to list/sell at all anymore.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoThe implementation wouldn't be difficult, what I see as difficult is overlapping areas of responsibility and accountability in what's essentially contractual law and how this marketplace is structured. The OP mentioned 'overtime' and 'pay raise, but eBay doesn't pay us - the two issues are completely different and it comes down to our being independent contractors.
But, eBay has loads of lawyers - may be they could figure out how to open this big can-o-worms.
inhawaii
·3 years agoExactly! It is a big can of worms and I don't think ebay is willing to open it.
Nothing against @movieman630 for suggesting it or @stainlessenginecovers for agreeing with it.
movieman630
OP3 years agoI was being sarcastic when I mentioned "overtime". I was using an example of real world stuff. Like if we worked in a factory and such. People arguing against something that benefits them.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoYou actually proved my point with that example.
inhawaii
·3 years agoGreat suggestion. I just don't see it happening.
It benefits a small group of sellers and does not benefit buyers at all.
As a matter of fact, it hurts buyers. It's a hassle to make them decide "delay" or "cancel".
Also, I see one flaw in this system. If you've been around long enough, you know that many buyers don't read their ebay messages. Heck many sellers don't evan read their ebay messages.
What do you do when a seller ignores or does not respond?
What's the default? Delay or cancel?
Again, too complicated.
movieman630
OP3 years agoEbay could choose to refund if the buyer doesn't respond in a certain amount of time or let it go until they finally feel like complaining and ebay explains they should have read their messages.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoThat seems to also be a simple fix.
No message gets sent. Customer is just refunded with a 'notification of a seller emergency' in their messages. If they get a cancellation/refund and don't check their messages- ah well, that's on them.
But, you are correct. If does only 'help' a few sellers and does NOT help buyers at all. The site may not be 'into doing it' just for that reason, but either way, these things happen and buyers are 'dissappointed' even MORE because they have NO CLUE what happened.
They now have to wait past the last estimated delivery date to open an INR, then ebay sends a message and gives the seller XX days to 'respond'- which they won't; then close the case and refund the buyer.
This buyer is STILL not happy having their $$ tied up with NO explanation.
Also, from a 'legal standpoint'- that is easily fixed.
It's an "emergency".
Heck, a seller that gets in this position or dies while selling, that buyer is STILL NOT EVER getting their 'thingy' from that seller anyway- so at least they would get a message with some type of explanation.
Win Win Win!
movieman630
OP3 years agoThanks. You get it.
stetbooks
·3 years agoHmm. I think that depends on the seller. Since we are "independent contractors" in the eyes of the (ahem) law, and have no benefits, I don't see a legal way to police 1 use per year. Especially when some folks can make an argument for possibly needing it more. I was caring for my mother during the final part of her cancer journey + Hospice, while being an active cancer patient myself. Emergencies between the two of us popped up more than one time, and I felt beholden to eBay to "man up" and work through it anyway.
The alternative would have been to put my store in Away Mode. For a year and a half.
movieman630
OP3 years agoIt would be no different from the old vacation mode where it was literally a switch you turned on and suspended your sales. You just simply turn it off when you're ready.
It's not rocket science.
Turn off store, No sales at all. Only you can turn it back on when you're ready. Minimum 24 hours.
All Pending orders are notified of emergency situation with either an ebay form letter (if your not available) or you can personalize the message to let them know what happened. Then the buyers have the option to either wait or refund.
If they wait you could just give them an estimate of when you think you'll be back. The whole time your off they have the option to refund.
It's a pretty simple concept. It's just a way for a seller to protect their metrics and give buyers an option in how they'd like to respond. It's not for BIG business. Like Amazon. It's a more "Mom and Pop" approach but that's who many of us are.
I really don't see the abuse in this option. Sorry but I don't.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoSounds like a real good idea.
Limit it to:
a.) Top Rated Sellers
b.) 1 time a year
movieman630
OP3 years agoThanks for at least backing me up. I'm literally under attack here. Nobody is backing me up against all these attackers.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoNo one is 'attacking' you - many simply disagree and are saying why.
maxine*j
·3 years agoNever mind. I literally got lost and replied to the wrong thread. 🙄
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earthdreamer
·3 years agoI just wish to thank you for starting this thread, as it has really brought home to me how unprepared I am for any unforeseen emergency.
Will now endeavor to write detailed instructions on what to do with my ebay store if I am unable to attend to it.
The only challenge is finding someone who cares enough to do it, as it is difficult to communicate to others how crucial it is to fulfill one's obligations as a seller on ebay.
movieman630
OP3 years agoThat's exactly my point. Why can't you just hit a button and shut it down? It really is that simple. You don't need to teach your "neighbor" how to pack your items and ship them out for you. You don't need to ask your Mother in law to take them to the post office. You don't need anyone else. Just your phone. Emergency - one click.
coolections
·3 years agoGet yourself a backup and don't rely on Ebay to do your work.
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoI know this isn't the OP's intention, but basically your Sick Day Button will be seen as a "Get out of Jail Free Button" to many sellers. It's a nice concept though. Bad apples ruin it for everyone.
movieman630
OP3 years agoDon't call it "sick day" call it "Emergency"
harafkac0
·3 years agoI unfortunately have to agree with the abuse scenario, and please read through before you reply...
Just casual observation over the past decade or two has shown me that every single feature that can be abused, will be abused, and by the vast majority of sellers.
The vast majority...
Look at variation listings, where there is variable pricing...
Most every last one of those is abused.
They will list a $100 widget in a listing for $10-$120 because they cleverly included a $7 charging cord as the very first option (and of course it's $10 and not $7)... The $100 widget itself is the $120 option and what makes it so annoying is these listings show up HIGH on the "lowest price first" type of search.
Not to mention every single one of those listings sells overpriced items (at least in terms of lowest priced).
There is more, there is so much more, wise guy sellers are like a plague of locusts around here.
movieman630
OP3 years agoName a way in which it would be beneficial for a seller to "abuse" the emergency option?
Mandatory, you make no sales during this period. All listings are shut off.
All "pending shipping" orders are now at the mercy of the buyer. If they choose they get refunded in full at your expense.
So HOW could someone "abuse" that and benefit? It's literally a function that you can use to "shut off" your store. People come here to make money right? To SELL right? So how does NOT SELLING benefit a seller?
It doesn't. It benefits a person who is UNABLE to sell. As I said previously. If I could have cancelled and refunded my orders when I was sick instead of ship them I would have. I would have been giving over $1000 in refunds. I was that sick. I'd rather have given $1000 in refunds then process those orders that day. But I didn't want to hurt my store and reputation. So I suffered through it.
My option, allows for you on THAT day. To declare a state of emergency and shut off your sales, and notify your pending orders that you're having an EMERGENCY! They can refund or wait. It's up to them. That's not a function someone will willingly "abuse". You can't benefit from that.
dhbookds
·3 years agoThat's not a function someone will willingly "abuse". You can't benefit from that.
Sure you can..........I'm out of stock.......If I admit that, I will put my account in jeopardy, so I'll claim illness to try to delay (or cancel the sale) so I won't get dinged.......
movieman630
OP3 years agoYOU CAN'T SELL ANYTHING DURING THE EMERGENCY! NOTHING!
ALL YOUR CURRENT ORDERS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR IMMEDIATE REFUND! Not just your "out of stock" items. So you're saying that someone is out of stock on Widget A and they get a new batch in a week. They'll shut down ALL THEIR SALES FOR THAT WEEK?? And risk refund on all pending orders?
Makes no sense.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoThey will if they are in danger of going to Below Standard Status and being hit with penalty fees and having their items demoted in search. Makes PERFECT sense.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoName a way in which it would be beneficial for a seller to "abuse" the emergency option?
1) A seller is out of stock, and waiting for his supplier to replenish his stock.
2) A seller is out of stock, and one more defect will put him into Below Standard so he wants the buyer to ask for a cancellation instead of taking the out of stock defect.
3) A seller knows he is going to miss his shipping time while on a weekend vacation, and does not want to lose Top Rated Seller status.
jameshen1
·3 years agoI used to be a seller on here under a different name. Closed that account about 2 years ago and now strictly buy on here. Find myself buying less and less on here actually. If I buy and I get hit with "The seller had an emergency. Do you want to cancel and get a refund, or wait for item to arrive once the emergency is over?" more than once or twice, I am gone. Why would I want to deal with that as a buyer?
I honestly think your idea would be abused by sellers and drive buyers away for good.
movieman630
OP3 years agoFIne, if you're buying something you can get somewhere else. But ebay sells a lot of collectibles and antiques that you might not find anywhere else. One would dare even say that that's pretty much ebay's base line. It's where people go to find that "can't find item".
You don't want to buy here, then don't. If you're the type of person who can't imagine a person having an emergency and needing some more time then you aren't someone I would want to do business with anyway. Take your modern impatience to amazon.
femmefan1946
·3 years agoThere is a Time Away function which hides all listings for up to a month,and can be used several times in a row if necessary.
It is best in my opinion to make the items invisible rather than tease potential buyers by showing them something they cannot buy.
There has been a lot of discussion about backup plans and the busier the seller, the more important it is to bite the bu llet and set something up in case of illness or accident.
But eBay is not our mommy.
movieman630
OP3 years ago"ebay is not our mommy" I can name plenty of cases in which they act more like they're running my business than me. So that's not a valid argument.
It's a function that could save peoples accounts. That's the bottom line. Ebay doesn't make money from a 20 year seller who closes their store because they were in the hospital for weeks and couldn't run their business. When their orders weren't shipped on time and were eventually refunded at the sellers expense what benefit did ebay get from that? Nothing. Instead they lost a 20 year seller and all the money that seller made for them because they couldn't close down for an emergency.
dhbookds
·3 years agoSellers need a back up........as pointed out by many..........that's their responsibility to set up......
If one worries about possible problems, has conditions that can crop up........use an 3 day/more handling time.......which would give the back up plan to kick in.
I agree that the button suggestion would be abused and would equate, at least to some sellers, as a "get out of jail free" card........
harafkac0
·3 years agoThen again as a seller this issue is first and foremost on my mind anytime there is a delay.
It's like this, if I'm having a heart attack there is a really good chance I am deciding whether I should run by the house to shut off my ebay first... I'm not joking, ebay wants stellar service and I provide that, the bonus is my prices reflect this level of dedication.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoI'm the same way.
Went to the DR. and they told me to go straight to the hospital for another blood transfusion.
My daughter got mad because I had to go home and get a couple packages ready to ship and shut things down before I passed out.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoAn alternative would be to ask your daughter if she would be willing to step in and ship your packages for you next time, and show her how to do it.
iart
·3 years agoPeople working for paychecks often get a set number of days per year to call in sick, or otherwise 'personal days'.
We're in for one-day shipping and sometimes it's a struggle. But we don't want to degrade the account because of illness 4 or 5 days a year.
Good idea.
maxine*j
·3 years agoThe thing is, though, that as a customer of the business, an employee taking a sick day doesn't mean that what I've already bought and paid for won't arrive when it was supposed to arrive and when i counted on it to arrive. When someone in shipping is off sick, someone covers for him.
An order arriving late can be can be anything from a mild inconvenience to a major hassle for me as a buyer. Ditto a cancelled order, no matter who cancels it.
And, frankly, I think OP's "Sick Day Button" would be abused left and right, just based on reading posts to this forum for the past few years from so many uncommitted, unprofessional, often downright flippant, sellers.
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iart
·3 years agoI agree that prior commitments should be taken care of. I assumed we were talking about a day or two off that would either put sales on hold or provide a note saying delayed shipping on the item page.
And, again, only for a set number of days per year. 5 to 10, which is pretty much a corporate standard.
movieman630
OP3 years agoSo we limit ourselves to the worst case scenario? We allow the worst users to dictate how we operate? And as I said, those who abuse, won't make money because their account is shut off from sales during this period and any "pending" sales can be automatically refunded at the buyers request. If I ordered something I "need right away" and it's readily available from many sellers. I can cancel the order and buy from someone else.
Your "Major Hassle" of having to re-order from another seller doesn't hold weight against a seller's "hassle of being hospitalized or in dire straits." Sorry but it doesn't.
The point IS a GOOD seller's reputation and account shouldn't have to suffer for having an unforeseen Emergency of any kind.
And the "Employee sick day business must go on" response is great if you're Amazon. But for those of us who are a one man operation. There is NO EMPLOYEE TO TAKE OVER FOR US!
Some of these rationalizations to counter an idea with very little downside is amazing. There are a lot of people out there who just like to be contrarian for the sake of doing so.
maxine*j
·3 years agoIt would be unfair to buyers, who are increasingly hard to attract to eBay in part because of the unreliability of sellers. Buyers are not concerned, nor should they be, with whether they're buying from a "one-man operation" or a big business but should expect each of eBay's millions of sellers to all be held to the same performance standard, regardless of the size of the enterprise.
It would be unfair to sellers who make contingency plans that sellers who do not make such plans can fail to meet their obligations and do so without penalty. And heaven help small sellers if buyers saw that the official policy of eBay allowed small sellers to bunk off in ways that larger ones would not.
Considering how many sellers come here and admit that they routinely abuse cancellations reasons to avoid penalties, and how many sellers come here with the attitude that buyers are more or less the enemy, there would doubtless be a lot of abuse and misuse of the "Sick Day." There is much abuse of sick leave in the "real world," and it would be far worse here because of the essential anonymity.
Anything that lowers buyers' confidence and expectations hurts all sellers.
As for my hassles not equating with your illness or dire straits, in my eighty-odd years I have dealt with
death, illness, financial crises, fire and flood, so please do not think I lack sympathy or empathy. But it is because everyone must travel through the Dire Straits, and usually more than once in a lifetime, that I have the opinion I have about this.
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movieman630
OP3 years agoStill not a valid argument against protecting the accounts of sellers who have an emergency. If ebay loses good sellers because of that, that's a bad business decision. There is a way to make it work and avoid "abuse" which I can't see because you don't make money and can lose money if you use the function. There's literally no benefit to using it unless you have an emergency.
You can't leave your listings visible during either. It's essentially "time away" without visibility and sales. It's protection of your account. That benefits ebay and the seller. The buyer benefits because they're notified that the seller had an emergency and they can cancel and refund or wait. If I'm buying a "collectible widgit" I don't mind waiting a few days or a weeks. If I'm buying something I need right away, I'll just cancel and buy it from someone else. It wouldn't make me mad at ebay if I knew someone had an emergency. My first thought would be "Geez I hope their ok".
Have faith in people. Nobody is going to say "ebay's the worst" because some seller had an emergency.
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoI just had a thought that might improve your Sick Day button idea. The popular opinion is that the major issue with it is that this will be abused. Regardless if you agree or not with it, that's the part of the issue that needs to be addressed. Here's my idea(s).
1) Your account will enter a sort of Probation Period when you apply the Sick Time Away.
2) This Probation will have a lengthy minimum duration. Like 30 days. For 30 days minimum your listings will not be visible, nor can you make any sales.
3) You will not be able to create any new seller accounts within this Probation period.
4) Once your Probation period is up (30 days minimum) and you want to be reinstated, you'll have to go thru a lengthy and vigorous process that will include providing documentation. Once approved, all of your penalties caused by the sick day will be expunged and your previous seller level will be retained. If you don't try to reinstate your account, it will eventually be restricted or banned.
This plan I think is an improvement of yours. Sellers would have to decide if it's worth saving their seller level status to have ebay expunge their accounts. It may also deter abusive sellers using it nilly willy. Your thoughts? I doubt ebay would ever do this though.
movieman630
OP3 years agoSo your solution to a person who may have just had open heart surgery is to cause them undue punitive damages to their ability to provide for themselves and their family during what most normal people would call "desperate times"?
Seems heartless and without compassion.
I'd think perhaps charging them a % of the final value fees for all sales buyers choose to have refunded due to their situation would be a more fitting deterrent from "abuse". I hear "abuse" mentioned but still have yet to have anyone make a real argument about as to what that so called "abuse" could actually be.
There would be zero benefit to someone claiming false emergency unless they don't want to make money and possibly even have to give refunds.
We're all here to sell. Why would anyone shut off their ability to sell for no reason what so ever. And I argue this. What business is it of yours if someone has an Emergency? What if someone uses it when their child is being born? Not a classic definition of emergency but to that person, in their life, it warrants taking a day off.
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoCouldn't have said it better myself given the reception of this topic.
Contrarian: a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion
movieman630
OP3 years agoYou'll excuse me if I don't take advice from someone who has ZERO feedback and no listings.
I'm out.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoWe'll excuse you for not understanding that some people use a posting ID when they interact with the message board. I have six selling accounts, but you won't see any sales on this one.
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoLol. I'm also probably an ebay employee. 🙂
You'll excuse my previous brainstorming reply on your idea. I thought you were still here before you realized I'm on ebay's payroll.
movieman630
OP3 years agoI would have thought an Ebay employee could see the value in protecting Top Sellers from unnecessary punishments due to Emergency situations.
Honestly, something like this should have been implemented a long time ago. I've heard too many stories of people closing down their ebay store because they hit bad period and their stats took an unnecessary hit.
inhawaii
·3 years agoCan you please turn on my switch!!! 😉
ed8108
·3 years agoI agree
movieman630
OP3 years agoI found myself suffering through processing orders (that I would have gladly refunded to avoid doing if it wouldn't impact my ratings) during a week when I was very sick.
I kept asking myself. How could this have been avoided? If I just didn't do it my shipments would have been late and my account would suffer negative impacts. If I refunded and cancelled the orders I would have suffered negative impacts from that. THAT IS A LOSE LOSE. So I suffered through the process of shipping out orders, and greatly. I should have been in bed.
Other than a feature I'm proposing how else could this have been avoided?
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoCreate that "feature" for yourself. I call it having a backup person. Years ago during my hospital stay I too wasn't able to handle my orders. Luckily I had a very good friend and fellow ebay seller/rival whom we made an agreement to take care of the daily matters in a situation like this for the other. At the hospital, I told my mom to call my friend and tell him I'm in the hospital, he'll know what to do.
You can make your backup plan as simple or as complicated as you want. Something as simple as putting a time away and sending out a mass scripted message to your purchased items, to more complicated to include cancelling orders and throwing back into your inventory systems, to even just running the day-to-day operations and fulfilling shipments and answering messages without even having a time away at all running business as usual.
It just depends on what you want to teach your backup helper. Nowadays I have multiple people who can contact my backup helper without my authorization. My mom, wife, and sister.
movieman630
OP3 years agoI hear what you're saying. But you're not making it EASIER to have an emergency. The main reason is, you have to involve OTHER PEOPLE.
What I'm proposing is that a major tech company like Ebay, provides their MAIN source of income. TOP SELLERS with stores the ability to declare they have an emergency with one button.
Hit the button and it
- SHUTS DOWN ALL FUTURE SALES AND HIDES LISTINGS
- GIVES PENDING ORDERS ABILITY TO REFUND OR WAIT WITH AN AUTOMATIC NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO PERSONALIZE WITH DETAILS OF YOUR "HEARTBREAKING SITUATION". THEY CAN REFUND IN FULL OR WAIT
It literally simplifies a problem that you're dictating to other people and relying on them knowing exactly what to do. Take the other people out of it.
There's no benefit to "abusing" this. There are ways that I haven't thought of where this "abuse" could be reigned in. Perhaps even allowing that ebay gets to keep some of the FVF's for any of these refunded sales. So that would solve the problem of people "abusing" it.
As I said. I was so sick I was willing to refund $1000 worth of sales to not have to ship them. If I was willing to do that. I'd certainly be ok with Ebay charging me for the ability to do that.
Anyone who's ever had an Emergency knows they'd be willing to pay to not have to do certain things during that emergency. It's a sacrifice. Not a reward.
yuzuha
·3 years agoExactly. I have had my mom take packages to the post office for me to make sure they were shipped on time when I had a very bad migraine and was unable to go myself. Both of my parents know how to put my account on "Time Away" if needed.
Every business needs a backup person who can handle immediate matters if needed, be it an online business or a B&M one.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoI think the phrase "all the time for any and all reasons" is exactly why eBay has been wise not to add the feature.
This method of "helping sellers" at the expense of the overall buying experience would be helping sellers in the long run.