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Publish Percentage of Times a Buyer Returns an Item
eBay should publish the percentage of times a buyer returns an item. They can start this count/stat after 10 or 15 purchases. Sellers should be able to exclude Buyers based on this criteria, and/or the percentage of times a complaint is raised against the Buyer. There are a small number of buyers who will go to any means to avoid paying fees of any kind. In addition, there are serial shoppers who buy and return items. Given the rising costs of delivery, most major retailers are starting to flag 'abusers' shoppers.
(I get it, some buyers might just setup new accounts. At least they have to start over again).
It's bad enough when I have to argue with a person that the item they bought is a size 36 - being that size myself - or when a large is really a large. I'm waiting for the day when I get in an argument with a person over whether the colour blue is actually blue and I have to accept the return (paying both return and original delivery costs). Don't get me started on loose treads. Oh no - it's a killer thread on the loose!!!
Like all aspects in society, there are always a few rotten apples that ruin something for the rest. eBay has to find more ways to fight this.
Most laws were enacted in the situation where the seller was a big, faceless company. With eBay, you have sellers who are simply individuals, trying to potentially earn a little money on the side during these trying times. Unfortunately they are the ones eBay treats the worse. The buyers is always right, and those same buyers believe that either insurance or some other means will cover the buyer. Well, it doesn't.
I find it strange posting on this forum, since it seems to be facilitated by eBay. Equally, based on some of the regular comments to the more serious topics raised, it seems eBay uses this to either bully or downplay the concern through a regular group of so-called 'feedback experts' So be it.
And if you are monitoring this eBay, please, please, please, stop sending that survey after a return/refund has taken place. You clearly appear to be doing nothing with this feedback information. As well, stop telling your reps to say to a buyer that everything will be 'okay' when the next day you £$£$£ them over. Just be honest. Finally, do a better job of training buyers. Ask them if they read the instructions carefully before the purchase. You're just turning people (sellers, yes, we are people), off eBay. It's as simple as that.
kh-samyak
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
majorblair
·1 year agoCompletely agree. The buyer reviews are not reflective because sellers are scared to post a negative review and receive a negative review from that buyer in response.
I rarely sell but I had a buyer with six total reviews return an item (25 year old vintage shoes) for a minor infraction (I think he wanted to bargain an reduction instead but I was not going to give him the luxury). I could tell this buyer was seasoned at returning on eBay with the language and knowledge he had. Whether he is a scammer or rather a serial returner I don’t know but I would never sell to him if I knew he was a seasoned returner.
inhawaii
·1 year ago@majorblair
You replied to a thread that is 3 years old.
djvp53
·3 years agoIt's a tough problem. If you screen buyers too tightly, then buyers simply leave the platform and there is no one to sell to. If you protect sellers too much, the site attracts scammers, buyers leave, and there is no one to sell to. If competing sellers offer free shipping and free returns, buyers are more likely to buy there. In any of these cases, market share and sales volume drops. On the other hand, if eBay makes buyer protections too tight, sellers leave for other platforms or just stop selling altogether. Sales volumes drop and market share drops. Right now, eBay seems to be losing sales and market share. Is it because they protect buyers too much? Or sellers too much?
I don't think they are protecting sellers too much so I agree with your general thesis that they are protecting buyers more than is probably optimal for them. But eBay is trying to compete with Amazon (or really, to set policies that allow sellers on the platform to compete with Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.). Those retailers can cheaply and conveniently process returns. Individual sellers on eBay will never have their ability to process returns as efficiently or limit their losses by restricting sales to the least profitable customers (which Amazon certainly does).
Part of it is an agency problem. eBay is supposed to act as our agent and, more or less, in our best interests to some extent but they get only a very small part of our gains by doing an exceptional job so they aren't as motivated to protect sellers' interests as sellers would like. Target bears the cost of its bad customers so it weeds them out when it can. Sellers on eBay bear the cost of eBay's bad customers but eBay has less incentive to weed them out so it simply doesn't try as hard.
majorblair
·1 year agoI agree but eBay sells a lot of unique or used items while Amazon is more new and commodity. After my experience with a seasoned returner I won’t bother selling much to anything on eBay anymore.