I have been switching my items to 30 returns, but it still wants me to update to free returns. I believe that is just wrong to let someone return something with me footing the bill. do i have to go along with that, because it still has a choice for me paying or the buyer.
My understanding is you don't have to offer free returns or, returns at all. However those listings will not be eligible for any discounts on FV fees you may get and, I suspect, your placement in the "Best Match" search will be downgraded. Of course, all a buyer has to do is say the item is not as described and ebay will deduct the return shipping anyway.
It is important to understand the differences in the policies that are available for you to choose from. YOu may want to study this a little closer.
If you are asking do you have to offer a 30 Day Free Return policy, the answer is no. It is an option or one of a handful of choices. A free return policy would mean that a return for any reason would be returned on your dime.
Now lets say you have a 30 day return policy. IF YOU CHECK the box that says Buyer Pays Return Shipping, then if a buyer opens a Buyer's Remorse claim, you can have the buyer pay for return shipping. But no matter what your return policy is, even a No Return policy, if the buyer files a SNAD, you will be paying for return shipping. That is Ebay's policy.
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
Even if you switch to free returns, they are not indexing. I switched most of my listings on June 11. None show up. A week ago I spent 2 hours on the phone, half on hold, have running through my list of problems. Thats the special phone number for anchor stores that sell 50k a month. Our actual average is 45k a month and always over 1000 a day and in the 2000's frequently. Today we had our first complete loss. We havent sold one thing and a customer is returning $150 part for just dont like it, color isnt right. Weve sold these things for years , never one return and photograph under thousands of watts of photo lights. So literally the first negative day possibly ever.
Sorry I digress, the free returns, I was told that they didnt index for some reaason to try it again. It says free retruns on the listing but not showing up in search. I have 4900 listings and have to add them all and then remove big heavy items and really expensive items by going back in and clicking through the store. I did it anyway as our sales are at about 30% since they made the markdown change. Were losing tons of money and we sell in demand, high end new old stock almost exclusively. Were literally the biggest store on ebay of what we sell and people will by 10+ items and kit to finish an entire bike. Look at out store and solds, they went off a cliff in June 25th. Were not just complaining , blaming ebay yet we selel few trinkets. We were heading for 600k in sales this year and have sold over 40-45k a month for at least 18 months. Business also picks up this time of year usually for us. People buy vintage bikes in the summer and they need parts to show them off.
I can assure you this not a case of fix your photos, fix your store. Its a case of ebay being broken on multiple fronts. Overnight we went from killing it to no security here and we are litearlly the biggest seller in this category by multiple times.
On top, Last night we had an other first. We have a request for refund from a package not delieverd from China. The problem is, I blocked China a long time ago and check "apply to all listings". So we never sell to china even though there are a lot of collectors there these days. I am the one who checked the box, the person purchased and my wife is the shipper, as we dont discuss every little thing as there is no reason someone from China should be able to buy with a block on the country. Now were out $240 for an item shipped to a country we dont ship to. I checked my preferences and China was blocked. I then went and selected China in a listing and it came up as having shipping options. One of which was first class at $21. The problems are myriad, China is on my blocked list in preferences but doesnt come up in the listing. The other problem is that China says there is a first class option, yet when you open the listing, china is not selected. it has its own check box and Ive never offered a first class option there even when we shipped there years ago. So a new problem, ebays block preferences are screwed up or they got around it and I hope im not holding the bag.
I knew there would be a bunch more problems that would come up. How does a business go from selling a dozen items a day with an everage of a $150 to zero items and something being sent back for color that is photographed very well and has never been returned? How are we out a couple hundred dollars for a package that was sent to China when we have a block on china?
Everything ebay has asked us to do, we have. W eare offering free returns but apprently are still being hidden in the listings. Its not acoiincidence. This week was $4400, we havent had a week that low in a few years. Over 10k and around 12k a week is typical. We are absolutely consitent. Our photos are good, our dashboard is 100%. Hell, our titles are so good that they are stolen word for word capital letter for letter in order constantly. China was using using our listings just last year rapid fire to rip people off. Stealing the entore listing and photos for months. It was all over bike geek forums. We found hundreds of fake listings using our stuff. The point there is its not our store that is the problem. Sure everyone could use a sprucing up of something here and there. Were abinafied high end niche with 10 years and millions and sales and ebay is killing us now. Im not just crying, im moving elsewhere but I see no reason to oust someone who brings in $45,000 a year in fees.
One more fun note that had me pulling my hair out is someone on this board mentioned monthly store fees being charged as monthly not yearly. I look at my account and sure enough, we are being charged $349, the monthly rate but we opted into the yearly $299 a long time ago. Well, back in october or so, there were a lot of issues and ebay was kind enough to give me a free month of store credit for doing all the work to fix their mistakes. Well, first , I received only half the money credit and had to call next billing. I thought, many they really make you work for those credits. I find out last week, the way they did that was to give me apromo which unbeknownst to me, ended my store yearly subscription. I didnt notice as I am always working on making the store better and putting out fires so I call and cs gives me $450 credit for 9 months of overcharge. this wasnt out of the kindness of their hearts, you have to opt out of the store subscription. Yet they made my heart drop when instead of checking with the higher ups first, they let me know that maybe they couldnt do anything and I should have noticed it earlier, the it may be different. yeah big oversite on my part indeed but we shouldnt have to watch constantly for things that are contracted changing. The proper thing to do would have been to go talk to your superior before putting the negative in there. It was a no brainer in my eyes and I was due the credit but it had to become negative first.
The point is if we selling over 500k a year this year so far can have zero sales, we who have twice now offered free returns (its being used to send stuff back but not to show in search), we who have unique items, many that noone has and there is a serious group of well healed collectors of this stuff can have zero sales and even worse negative days. I think there is more blood to come.
Everything that has happened in the last couple years has been negative for us. Many times, you cant find our stuff by searching in our own store so Id imagine buyers who havent live doin ebay for the last 10 years arent finding it either. Weve only had a small handfull of negatives in 24,000 sales and now neutral and negatives hustling for more stuff are not being removed and our returns have tripled.
This is how I wake up now. Building an awesome business on ebay that was doing more and more sales regardless of the flaws for 10 years until now, nothing I can do will bring my sales up. unless thats what they want, maybe they want me to pay for promotions. Which I wont, I already pay 4k a month and am paying in all the extra work fixing issues and calling in. I guess my fees will be low this month which means they wont take in the revenue and wont get it elsewhere for what we sell. Noone just fills in the items, almost noone has them.
Ironically, i just opened my email and did I get a sale? No. I got an invite from an official ebay partner
"The new tool to grow sales on eBay 3D sellers". Another glitchfactory of fees for what we were already doing I'll assume. What a great time to roll that out.
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
