Confused about Returns

[mysticallady]

I understand that to be Top Rated Plus you need to have 30 day Free Returns, etc. In doing so it opens the door for more buyers to send items back. What I am confused about is do ALL RETURNS count against us or is it just the SNAD ones? 

Thank You in advance for any and all info!! 

[castlemagicmemories]

AFAIK, all returns count.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, when you say do all returns count against us, do you mean do the other reasons for returns earn you a defect like SNAD?

Only a SNAD return has the potential serious consequence of a defect if found in the buyer’s favor. Remorse returns do not cause a defect, but recently eBay has alluded that all returns are being noted by the platform. Currently, however, eBay hasn't rewritten any policies saying that all returns will count against a seller’s metrics... yet. But it is believed by some to be coming.

Does this answer your question?

[pjcdn2005]

It is only the not as described returns that will be counted under the new service standards and that may cause fees to be higher.

• What are the consequences of having very high rates of "item not as described" or "item not received...

Item not as described

Item not received

An additional 4% fee in affected categories

Time added to buyer-facing delivery estimates for affected shipping destinations

You will only experience consequences if you have at least ten requests in the line of business and your "item not described" or "item not received" rate is greater than 1 percent.

• Why are only some return request reasons included in my "Item not as described" rate?

  Your "item not as described" request rate will help identify items that do not meet buyer expectations after the sale. All sellers must accept and resolve these types of return requests from buyers when valid:

  • "Doesn't work or defective"
  • "Doesn't match description or photos"
  • "Wrong item sent"
  • "Missing parts or pieces"
  • "Arrived damaged"
  • "Doesn't seem authentic"

  In instances where buyers ask to return items they simply no longer want or can’t use, the requests will not be included in your "item not as described" rate. Sellers decide when they list their items whether they want to accept these types of returns, and we encourage sellers to offer the best customer service they can to meet buyers' needs, including free returns.

  https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/selling-metrics-and-shipping.html#m2...

[futuretomorrow]

Personally I don't deal with return requests or other cases through eBay. I get a large amount closed by simply talking to the customer via the phone and in a few rare cases texting them. I've never gotten a negative for doing this and eBay is more than aware of the fact that this is how I have chosen to handle this process on their platform. 

Contrary to someone elses opinion and statement yesterday, which they are full entitled to but I should not have responded to at all, I have never gotten a tone from a customer or the idea that what I was doing was wrong. I think the person was posturing because they're online and they don't know my category well nor my customers. The reality is this is not how my customers behave. Over 90% appreciate the call and I have had some directly tell me that I went above and beyond their expectations of good customer service by calling and handling it the way I did. The cases are closed within 2-5 minutes of my call. The vast vast majority at least.

While I don't know your customers, your feedback and/or details of your store I'm only mentioning this because for the most part it removes a large part of the confusion about returns and what it does and doesn't affect.  As you can tell from my feedback, I've never told a customer I was going to take care of this once they closed the case and didn't. My word is my word and it will be resolved. Every request by the way is remedied before 12pm the next business day. If this means sending out the correct item, it's already in the mail.

When you are able to talk to someone and they can realize that their actions impact your business? 9.5/10 times they will work with you to close the case and get a resolution outside of eBay's problematic structure. Without bad mouthing the platform, this process is so bad that after you've done it long enough and can distinguish the genuine shock by most customers you not only realize how eBay is hurting your business, but affecting it negatively is the last thing I've discoverd most of my customers want to do. 

[fern*wood]

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@futuretomorrow wrote:

... Over 90% appreciate the call and I have had some directly tell me that I went above and beyond their expectations of good customer service by calling and handling it the way I did. The cases are closed within 2-5 minutes of my call. The vast vast majority at least...

---

I've had buyers close the SNAD cases due to figuring out the problem they thought they had was only their error.  They are still on my dashboard, and I assume, are being counted against me for this new metric that seems to be on the way.

I have no defects and do not involve ebay in my cases, but it seems they will now count against me anyway.  You claim you get your buyers to close the cases quickly but aren't they still on your record?

[futuretomorrow]

You asked a really great question so I went to my dashboard and had to end up calling eBay. Here is how it works.

1. The assumption they're being counted against you if the buyer closed them is not accurate. I was confused about this when I saw I didn't have a 0.0% return rate. Due to how eBay has designed their system, eBay is displaying data that they need to track on their end but sellers should not see. From a UX perspective:

a. I had to walk Lawrence through "out of sight, out of mind" and  reducing "cognitive load" on sellers. If it does not affect a seller, then it should not been shown, meaning they don't have to assume or worry about this or anything that falls under the same categorization of "information that only eBay needs".

b. In the instances where it does need to be shown, eBay will want to redesign and apply some deeper thinking to the nomenclature and how the UI is handled in this space. 

So it looks like I was correct in what I stated initially (would have been happy to correct it if I were dead wrong) and sellers who have gotten the buyer to close the return and handled it without escalation don't need to worry about the percentage or number they may see there.

That's also why if this is your situation and you click on it, you get an empty page that says "you don't have any returns for this period". Ultimately what we would want is that it should say 0.0% and 0 returns. I would treat the UI and UX very differently so there's no confusion but I don't work for eBay.

[fern*wood]

I'm hoping you are correct, but the explanation of escalated to ebay returns are the only ones that count, sounds more like the current defect metric and not the new this fall higher FVF for returns metric.   I even recall someone stating this is similar to the system used when defects were first started when all returns counted, since it shows some type of unhappiness with the buyer--whether resolved or not.

When I click on my returns, it says none for this period, but if you look up to the right of the scrolling sorting choices and click on closed returns and replacements, they are all listed.

I'm not confident yet that the phone in ebay reps actually know how this will play out, but I hope you are right and my fears are for naught.

[futuretomorrow]

I haven't kept up with what's coming down the pipeline for Q3/2018 because I'll be gone by then. I hate to put my ignorance on a matter on display like that but it would be worse to lie and pretend I'm deeply invested in how eBay has chosen to direct the course of their ship. I've simply asked them to drop me off at the next port if they don't mind.

Now as far as that list, I still believe that's also a part of what eBay needs and we do to a lesser extent but that it's not affecting our overall account health. As I look at it, I can see how me or a researcher would make some key UX suggestions and improvements based on the bucketing of the reasons for returns.

"Reason", "Status" and whether a refund was issued Yes or No (or amount specifically), appears to be the main metrics here eBay may be keping close tabs on but again these can also benefit sellers if they know what to do with the data.

If eBay has automated and tagged the metrics on this page correctly, the system can move an account up and down automatically or have it create other actions based on a compiled score card without an eBay employee needing to lift a finger.

[mysticallady]

I am concerned that ALL returns will count against us and cause us to lose our TRS and our discounts. I have people return because they say it either doesn't fit or they just didn't like it when they received it. I have only had a couple SNAD's when I had "Buyer Pays Return" because they didn't want to pay and they knew how to work around it.  

[mysticallady]

Thank You for clarifying. I greatly appreciate it!!

[pjcdn2005]

As fern mentioned, you are referring to the current metrics, not the ones that start up in September.  Past returns are tracked but not counted against sellers. SNAD returns will be counted against us in the fall and according to ebay staff on the boards, that will include false snads as well.

[futuretomorrow]

I'm genuinely sorry to hear that because there are too many good sellers here who could have handled this through their own process. The flip side of that is I don't know how many bad sellers helped to make that a justifiable decision but I've been burnt on both ends of the candle. As a buyer and seller.

As I did mention to @fern*wood above, I'll be gone by September and appreciate everyone and everything I've learned here. As someone reminded us all recently, all good things must come to an end. It's now time for me to move on to the next chapter and while it will be tough because of the exposure these platforms give us, I'd rather later say it was close to 100% my effort why I succeeded or failed and not the ever changing landscape of a platform I have no say in. Thanks for your comment.

I appreciate you...