Sorry to vent, but I think I'm pretty much done with selling on eBay, at least for my business. My goal is to close it down by the end of the year.
Over the years eBay has stepped on the heads of good sellers by raising their fees, imposing over friendly buyer policies that hurt sellers, allowing scams to perpetuate, outsourcing customer service, doing nothing about listings I have reported as fraudulent... the list goes on.
This most recent transaction and refund request was the last straw for me. I guess I missed the memo on the fact that eBay now issues a full refund, including the shipping costs for even buyers remorse return requests. About a year ago, I moved away from free shipping because we'd lose too much on return requests. I guess I don't understand what the difference between free shipping (adding the shipping cost to an item price) vs. charging for shipping. I guess it's just a smoke and mirrors marketing ploy.
So, here's what happened -
Buyer purchased item on July 9th. They received item on July 14th. Request return on July 20th. Waited 17 days to send it back, and of course it arrives while I'm out of town for 3 days and eBay requires I inspect and issue refund within 2.
I call eBay to let them know I cannot inspect the item until I return. They issue a 5 day hold on the return request. On the 4th day, I pick up the item at our return PO Box, inspect it (it's fine) and go to issue a return. I can't because eBay has this 5 day hold on it. The following morning, I get an email from eBay stating they issued a refund on my behalf. I'm told they charged me the final value fees since they issued the refund. This makes no sense because I was still within the 5 day hold and I couldn't issue the refund when I tried. In all of this, I also find out I'm charged the $10.55 we charge for shipping - so now, I'm out $21.51 on an $80 item.
I call them and they give me a long runaround, tell me what's up and nothing they can do about it. I'm really having a hard time accepting that someone can buy an item, return it because they have buyers remorse and I have to incur this kind of loss.
Before anyone thinks this is a knee jerk reaction, I have been selling for 25 years and have watched sales decline over the years so much that it is not profitable. It would be easy to blame the products, but we sell a lot our products on other sites with far fewer issues. I cannot fathom taking a risk for more expensive shipping items - I used to sell vintage furniture that shipping costs were $300-1000. That would be an incredible loss. With all of these policies, the overly complex listing process with an ocean of subcategories, attributes, item specifics, etc. makes this a nightmare to navigate any longer. I used to manage a business here, now I am treated like an eBay employee who is charged to work for them, while also not getting any of the benefits of working for them.
