Alert I got from Ebay...Returns too high. Anyone else struggling?

[the.archive]

I sell clothing, and people return clothing items constantly. I don't have a problem with it--they're mostly fit issues (even though I provide measurements). I accept returns automatically and count it as the cost of doing business. However, since buyers have realized that if they click 'not as described' they don't have to pay return shipping I'm starting to get quite a few of these now.....I.E. "color is a little darker than the pic" or "since this item was from the 80's, I thought it would have shoulder pads". It's annoying, but ONCE AGAIN I just move on, and consider it the cost of doing business.

Well, I got a message from eBay today that my returns are too high (5%), and that can affect the visibility in search rankings. Which is obviously a HUGE bummer, since I feel eBay's policy already rewards buyers for misusing the return system. If I fight the return, they always side in the buyer's favor anyway...and I've lost half a day. It's just not worth it to fight a buyer for a $25 item.

Anybody else having this issue or resolved this issue for themselves? I'm just looking for some advice or perhaps to be made aware of something I'm failing at miserably.

[luckythewinner]

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@emerald1830wrote:

It seems just about every seller got that email...look at the boards, flooded with the same post as yours..even one seller had a return rate of 1 percent! lol!

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Does anyone know if buyers are also getting an email, saying that their return rate is too high?  🙂

[nhfd4976]

Hi,

I got the same thing .64% that it will effect my sales and visability and since I got that email yesterday I sold 4 Items.  Maybe they can send the email again to me today.  3 of the sales were auction that had no bigs till the last min.

Jeff

[terrycanarsky]

Ours for "not as described" is 1.57% - which, according to eBay, is astronomically higher than our competition's 1.22%  (Business & Industrial). ........ except we've only had 1 'not as described' since Dec (when this report starts) out of the whopping 10 returns on the report.  All right there on this handy report for our perusal.  Why eBay focused on the least of all the returns is anyone's guess. 

So while the message may seem that eBay's just trying to keep sellers aware, the information included as being a report of our "account health" remains not-quite correct and unhelpful.  Since we watch the dashboard reports generated by eBay anyhow to catch both their glitches and any other issues proactively, this message is useless. 

(Example:  Today, just when we're celebrating 0% defects in all categories, we're hit with a "tracking not uploaded at all" defect --- on an item shipped yesterday with a tracking number clearly present on eBay and showing tracking progress.  Merchant Support was baffled, and we were told to wait until the system updates on Thursday before they could remove the ding.)

Same stuff, different day on eBay.

~M

[hop.hol]

Same Here. Had me very concerned. In most cases the item did not fit... yet it mentioned something about items concerned about being non authentic

[hop.hol]

Right!!!

[timemachine777]

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@vintagecraze50wrote:

Everyone seems to have gotten this metric today. It's just one of those--LOOK at what went wrong and try to improve--the email also has the best practices to avoid returns for NAD . Just Ebay keeping everyone on their toes as usually, and maybe some people NEED to keep on their toes.

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Hard to improve when eBay is training more and more buyers to borrow clothes and then return them when your done on the sellers dime. Not a seller friendly site anymore.

[emerald1830]

LOL!

I'm strictly a buyer and have only done one return in 20 years here over 2500 transaction or more, since I have two accounts....even the seller admitted it was his mistake..

But bad buyers should also get a report like the one the sellers got yesterday. That way they can feel the "other" side..

I so appreciate my sellers..just hate the (c)rap they have to go through...

[lewisburggold]

We got the same returns too high.  Sometimes they just dont like it after they get it.  We pay to ship there we pay to ship back.  Sounds like every one got that message.

[tamralynn]

I'm pretty sure that this is a move to get us to all have Free Return Shipping - although I have read on some Facebook groups that even sellers who currently have free return shipping get INAD returns when they are certain they are not INAD. I find it easier to just accept the return and refund the buyer when I receive the items back. The message I received make me want to fight my INAD returns instead of auto-accepting them. If it's going to hurt my visibility on search results, then it would be worth taking up Customer Service's time to fight each one.

[hendleys-emporium]

I hear some people saying take this as information, but in my case (1.6% vs 0.98%) it seems to have affected my sales. Over the last 3 days I've had only 5 sales when I usually average 7 per day. And the lowest 3 consecutive days since the last time I used the 'vacation mode'.

So three questions/issues:

1. Is eBay using this new report to throttle or drop our visibility already ? It appears from the language in the email that they are . 

2. Has anyone from ebay made an official comment or statement on this ? 

3. At some point today I will push my pencil using the  rusty statistics corner of my brain to see if and when any of these numbers are even significant . 

With the buyers using INAD to avoid return shipping and justify their mistakes  the data is certainly not correct. Perhaps it's informative on a gross level  (like the how is your electric usage versus the neighborhood letters I get)  but that doesn't mean that it's significant enough to make decisions on. 

And comparing a seller of used vintage and specialty clothing (me) to all sellers of $50-100 in clothing and accessories including sellers of mostly new goods seems completely obtuse - - like taking the average overall times at the Boston marathon and using it to grade both men and women. 

What is the best way to get our sales back to normal .. 

[the.archive]

I really had this same thought...that it was just the start of blanket free returns sitewide. I just hope we're wrong.....but what are you gonna do? If they implement it, I will try to be on board as long as I can.

[zyphers]

I'm just getting started with selling on ebay and I am finding the same issue is happening to me. I also have no returns accepted check off on the listing which I have to keep changing every time they relist the item and have found that out of the 11 orders I have received 4 have decided that they don't like the product. So I refunded 2 customers and the other two I told them that if they wanted to return the item I would charge them a 50% restock fee because I do not hold products nor accept returns to charge a restock fee and if I have to take the item back it would be a 50% of the items price. beside I think ebay listing and product sales fee's are high and I have been loosing out on these sales. Maybe I am not pricing the item correctly to pay all the fees and the product purchasing. I sold an item for $22.95 paid $18.02 for the product, then was charged $3.45 by ebay and $1.25 by paypal making the product allocation cost $22.54 what did I actually make on the sale? 0.54 cent and they wanted to return it because it had a slight fringe on the pants which clearly the image shows the slight fringe and expected a shipping label when the post stated no returns.

[b4b4b4b]

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@zypherswrote:
I'm just getting started with selling on ebay and I am finding the same issue is happening to me. I also have no returns accepted check off on the listing which I have to keep changing every time they relist the item and have found that out of the 11 orders I have received 4 have decided that they don't like the product. So I refunded 2 customers and the other two I told them that if they wanted to return the item I would charge them a 50% restock fee because I do not hold products nor accept returns to charge a restock fee and if I have to take the item back it would be a 50% of the items price. beside I think ebay listing and product sales fee's are high and I have been loosing out on these sales. Maybe I am not pricing the item correctly to pay all the fees and the product purchasing. I sold an item for $22.95 paid $18.02 for the product, then was charged $3.45 by ebay and $1.25 by paypal making the product allocation cost $22.54 what did I actually make on the sale? 0.54 cent and they wanted to return it because it had a slight fringe on the pants which clearly the image shows the slight fringe and expected a shipping label when the post stated no returns.

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You sold an item for $22.95 that you paid $18.02 for ???

50% restocking fee ???

[zyphers]

total actual cost of the sale was $22.54. and yes 50% restock fee because I am actually buying the product because I have to take possession of it and pay return shipping cost to the actual shipper.

[k-bar-ksaddles]

General response, not aimed at anyone in particular...

This thread made me look at my own dashboard a bit closer. 

It shows I've had 2 returns out of 43 items (Most of them saddles)... so I have a 4.65% return rate according to eBay.

Except...

I've not had any returns.  I had one person intiate a return, and then cancel it.  I've had no other returns at all. None. Nada.  No one has even asked (fished) for an adjustment on what they paid, on shipping, nothing.  If I click the 2 returns link to view them, it shows none.  If I adjust the time period to take in the last 18 months, it shows none. Nada. Zip. Zero.

What's up with that???