mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Thanks for joining us for the Weekly Chat with eBay Staff. We don't have a specific topic this week, so feel free to share any general buying or selling questions you may have.
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@dentalsales4u wrote:
Will eBay ever look at not allowing buyers to return medical/dental devises if the manufactures seal has been broken?
These products are FDA regulated and once the seal is broken, you can't return it to the manufacture.
Texas, along with many other states charge a hefty price to have a license to sell used/open returned products, $2,000 a year for us.
If you do have this license, you still can't sell said products until to send it back to the manufacture to be recertified/refurbished which is another large expense.
I've had multiple returns this last month regarding this.
Some were used, 1 for almost an entire month. Others had the manufacture's seal broken.
I did deduct a portion of the refund, but in order to cover my costs for the shipping to and from the manufacture plus the recertification/refurbished cost, I would need to deduct the full 50% allowed.
If I did this, all buyers would have an absolute fit and eBay would probably sanction me for doing this as often as I would need to do. A $2,899 product gets returned without any of the original packaging. I now need to send back to the manufacture. This item cost nearly $100 to ship one way plus the manufactures cost would be close to $1,000 to check it out, re-box and send back to us. That means I would need reduce the buyers refund by $1,200.
Buyers returned due to didn't like or didn't fit, but sent back opened and/or used. eBay makes us take these returns due to the MBG. My return policy states product must be returned in same condition as received, but that means nothing.
I know there's a cost of doing business, but in this field, returns are not allowed if the seal is broken. Most dentists can contact a local dealer to get demos first, but they don't do this. It's easier to buy and return if they don't like it.
This needs to be addressed if at all possible.
Hi @dentalsales4u I appreciate the time you take to give us all the specifics, it's helpful for us to fight for you when we have all this info. I can't make any guarantees but I'm more than happy to keep passing this along. If we get any updates I will let you know for sure. Thanks!!
I agree but it just isn't happening. And to top it off one of my sellers was able to get the FB I posted removed within a couple minutes of me posting it. Now I know the FB rules pretty good and my FB did not break any of the rules, yet it was removed. I don't understand that either. It is simply bewildering. I know Ebay wants to improve it's reputation, but if they really want to do that, they just can't let this continue.
If they are responding to and fixing the sellers I have reported, imagine how many others are not getting any special attention either. There is no good excuse for it. If it is lack of staffing, the get the staff in the department so they can adequately function.
@postcardcountry wrote:
First, I need to apologize (to make myself feel better I guess) for all the terrible things I was saying about ya'll when I couldn't find the community chat. I knew it should be open, checked my times etc and still couldn't find it. Of course not....this was yesterday, Tuesday....
Does anyone ever undertake to understand the amount of work involved with item specifics?
Did you know that when a larger number of people are searching on an 'additional' specific it is then moved to 'recommended'?
Guess what happens next.....yup, all those items listed when it was an additional and not filled in renew and bingo! You have more items under the "needing item specifics". And you get messages from eBay about items specifics needing to be filled in. Doesn't matter that is rarely used because the specific is almost impossible to answer (manufacturers did not provide that information). When 15,000 use it to search, it's additional info, but when 17,000 use it becomes recommended. When that fall back to 15,000 it will move back to 'additional' and the cycle begins again when it moves back up in importance.
Somebody needs to get a handle on this....I am sure my little area of the system isn't the only one with this type of problem.
No worries @postcardcountry! Jasmen and I didn't see terrible things so you're good to go. 😄
As for the item specifics moving between Recommended and Additional, it will continue to happen. This was designed to be dynamic so there's no more needing to wait for Seller Updates to make changes to listing info. Keep in mind, that anything that doesn't apply or you wish to leave blank outside of the Required section, is fine to do so. Not all fields need to be filled in, marked with N/A, etc.
You should also have the option to turn off the notifications about needing to update item specifics. I know you contacted us in the past about having the ability to do that in bulk and you're feedback was passed on at that time.
There is the rub. The one Sheila has been trying to help me with is NOT a volume seller. They are just a small seller and it makes no sense as to why they have this FB protection. The other seller that defrauded me is a large seller and they too are still actively selling. The proof I had on them was crystal clear as Fedex gave me all the information in an email.
Same with Used make up. There are Health issues in reselling used make up and in fact you aren't suppose to do it. But sellers can be force to either refund and let the buyer keep the product or take back a product they can't resell.
@cstpos wrote:
Good afternoon.
Could you clarify why ebay keeps charging us higher FVF than they say they will? Every order over $2500.00 has been charged at the full 12% for the last few months. This is from the ebay website:
We charge one final value fee when your item sells, and you don't have to worry about third-party payment processing fees. This fee is calculated as a percentage of the total amount of the sale, plus $0.30 per order.
The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, the shipping service the buyer selects, sales tax, and any other applicable fees. If you offer 1-day or international shipping as well as a cheaper or free option (like domestic shipping), the total amount of the sale is calculated based on the cheapest domestic option you offer. If you only offer 1-day or international shipping but no cheaper option like domestic shipping, the total amount of the sale is calculated based on the service the buyer chooses.
If you're in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, or Vietnam and your item isn't located in the US, the total amount of the sale is always calculated based on the shipping option your buyer chooses.
An order is defined as any number of items purchased by the same buyer at checkout with the same shipping method
.
Most Business & Industrial categories, except:
- 12% on total amount of the sale up to $2,500 calculated per item
- 2.35% on the portion of the sale over $2,500
We have disputed over $1000.00 in FVF because the reps kept saying that the FVF is calculated PER ITEM. The box above says Per Item , but the text before that says it will be calculated on the Total Amount of the Sale. So, each item has to cost at least $2500.00 to come in at the lower rate? They have refunded (eventually), but it is aggravating and time consuming to have to keep calling. And every rep assure me the refund would be issued. The last refund was for around $350.00. I had to call 5 times over 4 weeks to get refunded.
If you could tell me what the terms actually are, we can go forward and only list 1 of each item, then offer to create a custom listing if a buyer wants more than 1 item (for high-priced items).
Sorry this was so long, but it is really starting to add up.
Thank you
Hey there @cstpos
Sorry to hear you're running into this, what's listed on the help pages is correct. If it's not being billed properly then it sounds like you've already taken the right steps to work with CS to get it rectified. Unfortunately we won't be able to help here since it's account specific. If you'd like you can reach out to eBay for Business so they can take a deep dive as well!
He also said that he knew that we needed improvements within the rules on returns, yet here we are still waiting and waiting and waiting.
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Any ETA for these two promised features:
1. Social Media Referral Discounted FVF?
2. Livestreaming? (ebay is rapidly falling behind on this, as even a quick glance at ebay reseller YouTube influencers demonstrates....MANY are using livestreaming options provided elsewhere....and are now encouraging others to do so as well)
Hey @my-cottage-books-and-antiques! We have this page on the Terms and Conditions for the social media referral discounted FVF you've noted here. It's just available to sellers who use eBay's quick listing tool. They'll see a prompt to "Share Your Link" or "Share Listing." As for it expanding past that, we have no additional info at this time.
We also have no info regarding Livestreaming either. We always appreciate the feedback and should we receive news to share about it, we'll be sure to do so.
Thanks for joining the weekly chat this week - it is now closed from further replies but we will continue to work through to ensure that questions receive a response.
