How do sellers protect their assets from opening, manipulating or stealing?

[baydealz]

We know eBay allows anything to be returned, but even when you do allow it, what do you do to prevent use (opening, unpackaging, using) then wanting return?  What if it comes back, modified, manipulated or worn?  What if part is missing?  Seems there is no way for '20% restocking fee' as sites often do.  

Has ebay already become the Amazon or Shopify of vendors (we know that is where they are going) or is there anyway for seller of unique or individual items to protect themselves? 

[iamalwaysright]

Sellers cannot really do anything to prevent this from happening other than reporting the buyer IF they do this to you and hopefully they accumulate enough of these reports from sellers that ebay takes action on their account. It won't help you in the situation at the moment, but it will help other sellers in the future. As other sellers will be doing the same thing helping to protect you.

Most things other people might suggest won't really protect you from a buyer doing this to you, but rather it might scare or deter the buyer to do so. Such as making your own tamper proof stickers to seal certain areas of your product. There is one thing you can do to alleviate the impact it makes on your finances though. Set up your seller account to have ebay allow you to issue a "less than full" refund for when returned items come back in a different condition as you shipped it out. You can retain up to 50% of the item price. In SNAD returns you'll lose 100% of the shipping price, in remorse returns you can retain the entire shipping.  That's the only thing sellers have on their side when it comes to this problem. Photos, videos, documentation doesn't mean squat here so don't waste your time doing that.

[dhbookds]

With a no returns policy, there are not really any protections........  you should report the buyer for abuse if/when you get a damaged item returned...that will put them on ebay's radar and presumably eventually get them canned if they are serial abusers.  Frankly, ebay has no way of telling if the item was damaged before it was sent or damaged in transit, so in the event of a return, they side with the buyer. 

[inhawaii]

I'm a small, part time seller.

I sell approx. 100 items a month.

I can't even remember the last time something like that has happened to me.

Does this happen to you a lot?

[ittybitnot]

or is there anyway for seller of unique or individual items to protect themselves? 

@baydealz 

Short version, NO. 

There are a couple of "exceptions", but other than the sellers who qualify for withholding "UP TO 50%" for a faulty return, or sellers who ship to Freight Forwarders and know by reading here what to do, eBay does not provide any protection for false "item not as described" claims by buyers.  The buyers are not required to substantiate any claim.  It is all done by a bot action with the outcome determined the minute the buyer chooses the right reason from the "dropdown" menu. 

Sell locally for CASH, basically risk free. 

[caldreamer]

If you offer "free returns" EBAY allows you to deduct percentage for damaged returns. 

I simply attach a note to the item before mailing stating "we hope you love your item but if you are not satisfied you may return it within 30 days of receipt.  Please do not open box, remove tags, stickers or other attachments.  Package must be UNOPENED and in brand new condition".   I realize EBAY will not enforce this but it has solved my problem 100%.

And I include another note thanking them for their purchase and feedback.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Over many years of selling online, I have found the best protection for buyer bad behavior is not offering merchandise which is likely to be bought by buyers who are likely to behave badly.

There are many categories of merchandise that I have offered online which I will never list again, on any site. Items which a buyer will use once for a special occasion, items which are being bought to replace an identical obsolete item, items which are so poorly made that a buyer will try them and return them, and lots of stuff which appeals to people of a dubious ethical sensibility.`

Sellers who sell much higher volumes than I, and can absorb the loss rates these items always have can have this business.

Sellers who think that Ebay or some other marketplace will protect them from these buyers can learn for themselves that no one protects online sellers other than themselves.

Many sellers have admirable return rates and fraud rates because they choose what they sell wisely. Some even like their Ebay buyers and have continuing business relationships with them, and one of the key reasons is what they choose to sell.

Many sellers who come here looking for validation find that some posters, myself included, always seem to be concentrating on what they could do better. That is because the only area which can improved their results is a change in inventory selection.

[dhbookds]

I should add........been here 20 yrs.......not selling as much as Hawaii, but only had 2 instances such as you describe.....  I do think some categories are more prone to this kind of thing than others.  Electronics may be one of the worst........

[chapeau-noir]

---

@caldreamer wrote:

If you offer "free returns" EBAY allows you to deduct percentage for damaged returns. 

I simply attach a note to the item before mailing stating "we hope you love your item but if you are not satisfied you may return it within 30 days of receipt.  Please do not open box, remove tags, stickers or other attachments.  Package must be UNOPENED and in brand new condition".   I realize EBAY will not enforce this but it has solved my problem 100%.

And I include another note thanking them for their purchase and feedback.

---

If you are "above average" and offer free returns OR

If you are top rated and take returns (they don't have to be free).

[iamalwaysright]

---

@inhawaii wrote:

I'm a small, part time seller.

I sell approx. 100 items a month.

I can't even remember the last time something like that has happened to me.

Does this happen to you a lot?

---

For clothing I sell, there's different levels of this. The levels determine how much of the refund I keep.

There's total damage or salvageable. Total damage is when someone alters the clothing, cuts and tears cloth care label tags or the clothing itself, washes or shrinks the item, cigarette smoke. Those happen about 4% of the time for me, like 1 out of 25. Salvageable is when there's a bunch of animal fur or hair (no odor), non-stubborn stains, or non-stubborn fragrances which indicate it was worn out once. I'd say those happen about 1 out of every 8-10 times. 

[fbusoni]

@baydealz 

As I have noted on these pages previously, one really has to look at this particular problem philosophically.

To wit:  a seller who has had, say, one bad experience like the one you describe out of 300, should have made sufficient profit from the sale of his / her other 299 items to cover the potential loss of an item that has been returned damaged, missing parts, etc..

What stings the most is the idea that another human being would be so willfully malevolent to do such a thing. 

It's happened to me once in some 26 years of selling here.  Fortunately eBay allowed me to keep the funds from the sale.  

[m60driver]

For me as well returns are few and far between.  But I don't sell clothing on Ebay although I did sell clothing in my old retail shop.  We always got some returns for this reason or that reason.   And yea, I sometimes got ticked off with a return but I learned to mostly accept it as just part of the retail game and just move on.  

[baydealz]

Ittybitnot has been around...thanks for confirmation.  I agree and have opted for your suggested venue, even giving stuff away but I keep checking in to see if anything has been addressed.  We know it won't be, that's just the direction their going, little guys are a nuisance, they want Amazon and Temu business. 

[baydealz]

Fair enough, something always seems to happen, not that extreme case.  But it can and I know I'm defenseless against it, so it's an unnecessary risk.  There have been several extortion attempts, may not outright fraud. 

[baydealz]

how do you 'set up your seller account' to do that?