Ebay new policies are a poorly disguised attempt at forcing higher fees on sellers

[carpe_diem_jedi]

So nowadays eBay forces seller to have more than generous free return policies.

In turn buyers, know they can return anything anytime for any reason and will abuse the protection program and return items after 29 days because they know they can return it for free and get a full refund. In other words you have buyers who simply use eBay as a 30-day free rental service.

Since eBay has implemented their new policy where you have to offer free 30-day returns on your listings to remain a top rated plus seller, my return rate has more than doubled.

In turns eBay now threatens sellers with higher selling fees if your return rate is above a certain threshold.

And voila!

By forcing seller to offer free returns for 30-days eBay has intrinsically doubled the number of returns. By increasing the number of returns, they not only made it harder for seller to turn on profit on the sales themselves but they also artificially increased the fees on these same sellers due to no fault of their own.

eBay has self engineered a crisis for their sellers.

There is nothing ethical about this company, their only goal is to generate maximum revenues for themselves regardless of what happens to the sellers.

I think my days selling on eBay are counted. It has become more trouble than it is worth.

[adkhighker]

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@carpe_diem_sooner wrote:
Top Rated Plus status helps your listings display very high in the ebay search engine. If you are not in the first page then you won't sell much.
Your sales will literally explode when you get TRP status. I agree the 10% is not much of an incentive but the increased sales definitely are an enormous incentive.

In addition, the buyer pays return only forces the buyer to pay for the return if they have a change of heart. If the buyer claim that the item is defective or not as describe, wether it is a false claim or not, the SELLER THEN HAS TO PAY for the return shipping.

My items are made in China but the quality is actually very good, the factory tests them and so do I. The failure rate is less than 0.5%. More than adequate.

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"Top Rated Plus status helps your listings display very high in the ebay search engine. If you are not in the first page then you won't sell much."

Maybe that's true if you're selling something similar to what many other sellers are offering, but if you're selling something unique that few other sellers have, then TRS Plus means little because hard to find items have no problem being seen in any search. Whenever I list something that's unique or hard to find, the buyers have no trouble finding it in their searches, whether I'm a TRS or not, so the key for me is to find and sell saleable items that few others are selling. Besides, most buyers nowadays search by  "Price + shipping lowest first" when they're looking for something that's available from many different sellers.

[mam98031]

If you don't offer free returns then buyers will open a "item not as described" or "defective" case and you will have to pay for the return shipping anyways.

Yes, it is true.  However I think that when a buyer sees Free Returns it has a different affect on a buyer than when they see 30 days w/buyer pays shipping.  Now we know what that means, but I think enough times buyers don't and they are concerned about having to pay return shipping and they don't want to do that.

If the buyer claims the item is defective, wether it's true or not, you are always stuck with having to pay for the return shipping label.

Yep!

So wether you offer free returns or not, you basically always have to pay for the return shipping because buyer will always claim that the item is not as describe. The worst part is that now you are also stuck with a high rate of "item not as descibed".

Yes I get it, but that isn't my point.  I think it has an affect on buyers.  I've had too many sellers say that with 30 days w/buyer pays shipping that they have less returns than when they offered Free Returns.  Now I can't say that would end up being the same for you or someone else.  I'm just saying there are plenty of us out there that it works better for than Free Returns.

It's not a catch 22, it a complete scam whereby eBay maximizes their profits while screwing over the sellers.

I don't know if I quite feel that way about it, but I certainly don't like how Ebay is currently handling falsly filed SNADs.  That I can tell you is completely wrong.  Even with clear evidence via Ebay's own records that the buyer filed a SNAD when it should have been Buyer's remorse Ebay will NOT change it anymore.  And they are open about the reason.  It is because of the Service Metrics.

[castlemagicmemories]

@carpe_diem_jedi

Did some more research on this, my apologies, apparently this is something that the Board has frequently posted, but is incorrect.  You do not lose TRS if you don't offer free returns.  Apparently many had the same incorrect understanding that I did.  Again, my apologies.   Thank you for your patience and understanding.  There are threads by those that thought they would lose TRS if they didn't offer free returns.

dtexley3
Re: WILL LOSE TOP RATED IN JUNE (REFUSE TO OFFER FREE RETURNS)
in reply to lovett-1000 04-20-2018 08:34:34 AM
dtexley3
You do not lose Top Rated Seller STATUS if you don't offer free returns. This is incorrect information that's being spread around.



If you have listings that qualify for TRS+ those listings will no longer have the TRS+ badge. Your Seller Rating will remain unchanged.

[mam98031]

Yes, you are correct.  Which is one of the pitfalls about repeating stuff you have read that is posted anywhere without support as a fact.  I posted the written policy on this subject back a few posts.  You may find that of interest.

[jason_incognito]

if there is a potential buyer that is unsure of buying my stuff, and the fact that i will pay to have them return it is what pushes them to buy......

i don't want that buyer.

[suande-87]

You need to look at what's being returned. If it's the same product line, maybe you should drop those products.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

if there is a potential buyer that is unsure of buying my stuff, and the fact that i will pay to have them return it is what pushes them to buy......

i don't want that buyer.

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That makes sense.  They're going into it with doubts, and maybe not giving proper consideration to the purchase since they know they can return it at no cost to them, which could greatly increase the chances they will return.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

@carpe_diem_jedi

Just want to add that I did some more research because I always feel a responsibility to  post correct info~that is very important to me, as others know.

Did some more research on this, my apologies, apparently this is something that the Board has frequently posted, but is incorrect.  You do not lose TRS if you don't offer free returns.  Apparently many had the same incorrect understanding that I did.  Again, my apologies.   Thank you for your patience and understanding.  There are threads by those that thought they would lose TRS if they didn't offer free returns.

dtexley3
Re: WILL LOSE TOP RATED IN JUNE (REFUSE TO OFFER FREE RETURNS)
in reply to lovett-1000 04-20-2018 08:34:34 AM
dtexley3
You do not lose Top Rated Seller STATUS if you don't offer free returns. This is incorrect information that's being spread around.



If you have listings that qualify for TRS+ those listings will no longer have the TRS+ badge. Your Seller Rating will remain unchanged.

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[mam98031]

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@suande-87 wrote:
You need to look at what's being returned. If it's the same product line, maybe you should drop those products.

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This is always GREAT advice if you have a certain product that gets returned more than others.  But often times it just isn't that clear.  Since buyers can now easily get a buyer's remorse reason returned as a SNAD, the simple fact the buyer changed their mind is a real problem for many sellers.  None of us can control that and the product usually has no fault in the process.

[pjcdn2005]

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@mam98031 wrote:

You get NO search boost for having a TRS + badge on your listing.  The ONLY benefit the TRS+ badge offers a seller is the 10% FVF discount for domestic sales.

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It is not only on domestic sales. You should receive the discount on all sales even if you don't have trs status on other sites.

[mam98031]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

You get NO search boost for having a TRS + badge on your listing.  The ONLY benefit the TRS+ badge offers a seller is the 10% FVF discount for domestic sales.

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It is not only on domestic sales. You should receive the discount on all sales even if you don't have trs status on other sites.

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The TRS discount has never been on international sales, however I should have qualified that a bit better.  For sellers that are qualified as a TRS seller in the US, then it only applies to US sales.  If you are Global TRS, that may make a difference, I've never been a Global TRS seller that I remember as I just don't do enough international sales to qualify.  

Thank you for the correction.  I should have said that when you are TRS in other countries or Global.

[ripcityresell]

I don't think t hey are poorly disguised at all. I think they are out and in plain sight for all to see.

[luckythewinner]

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@carpe_diem_jedi wrote:

So nowadays eBay forces seller to have more than generous free return policies.

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No they don't.

That is simply not true.

I have been on eBay for almost 20 years and I have never offered free returns.

[epartshighway]

And they will downplay the number of buyers who are gaming the system.  I've had a huge spike as well, and they make up 45 percent of my not as described returns.  No matter how many times you bring this up, they don't care.  And it will only get worse as time marches on.  And ebay will assume that these fraudulent buyers are anomolies. Pathetic.

[pjcdn2005]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

You get NO search boost for having a TRS + badge on your listing.  The ONLY benefit the TRS+ badge offers a seller is the 10% FVF discount for domestic sales.

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It is not only on domestic sales. You should receive the discount on all sales even if you don't have trs status on other sites.

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The TRS discount has never been on international sales, however I should have qualified that a bit better.  For sellers that are qualified as a TRS seller in the US, then it only applies to US sales.  If you are Global TRS, that may make a difference, I've never been a Global TRS seller that I remember as I just don't do enough international sales to qualify.  

Thank you for the correction.  I should have said that when you are TRS in other countries or Global.

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 I don't believe that is true.  If the item is listed on .com, you should receive the trs discount on that sale, regardless of who buys it. I've always believed that to be true and if it's changed,  I haven't been able to find it written anywhere that discounts are only for items sold to domestic buyers.