New return policy

[u2bella]

This is so unfair to sellers , you now have to offer free returns for 30 days no matter what even mistake by a buyer and you foot the bill for your shipping and you pay buyer shipping back absolutely ridiculous!! I can not belive ebay thinks this is a good idea , I will be looking to other sites to sell ,and will reduce my selling on ebay , I just had a buyer open a case after they told me in email it was there mistake and ebay said I still had to pay both shipping cost because they are no longer close cases even when they know it is buyers fault and policy will go into affect on June 2018. Small businees will be hurt I am not amazon and people will abuse this and sellers will pay!

[motikuti]

eBay does not seem to care about fareness of their policies to sellers. Neither do they offer sellers options with  bid blocking of certain users with history of returns or other issues. eBay says they manage those buyers if they have bad habits but how do we know?. Sellers have no control of anything. eBay makes it very difficult to contest the buyer wanting to return the item even if your policy says “no return”. Now anyone can wear a piece of clothing for a party, them return it and even get paid for their returned shipment. I had a buyer who received a DVD player and could not figure out how to use it. He said the player did not work and even though after he returned it and everything worked as expected I could not prove to eBay there was not fault of mine. They made me pay for the return shipment.

Big retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart do not feel the pain of returns because of huge volume and it is small businesses and households selling used goodies that will suffer the most.

eBay knows that sellers would do anything to avoid a negative review and take advantage of it. 

Note that buyers have  always been protected by eBay from getting a negative review from the seller. 

No question this discriminative eBay  policies need to be corrected. The more sellers move away from eBay the sooner eBay understands that sellers also matter to them. Anyone knows about the alternatives?

[thegolfingmachinellc]

Can anyone of us "small" businesses afford to pay for return shipping... This expense comes off our bottom line which is "small" to start. Our companies shipping is the lowest USPS offers, however, we cannot afford to lose $8.00, every time a buyer wants to return a book. How do we make that $8.00 expense?
Joe

[ilovenewyork076]

I totally agree. I once sold a Chanel bag for $4250 and the buyer waited until the 29th day to open a return request. I was beside my self. I have stopped selling on Ebay and started selling on Poshmark and other websites that only allow buyers 3 days to return item. A lot of buyers are abusing their privilege and it’s so unfair to buyers. Ebay is going to lose a lot of seller beyond their return policy. 

[stuff4divas]

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@stuff4divas wrote:

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. There really is no quarentee here that you will be able to have an influence on a  return judgement. Most of this is in Ebay's ballpark, SO use the free returns for the main purpose of attracting more possible sales and as I said earlier, you must adjust prices to control for loss.  If you are offering free returns and get hammered, then maybe it's not a good business plan. If you are using the free returns and you dont get many of them then that is a good business plan. The website is lacking in risk management that sellers can enforce themselves. If you want the traffic that Ebay offers you then this is what you must do. Personally , it has not been a bad situation for us. If it should turn south then we would have to reconsider a different strategy, as far as the free returns. Some items are just magnets for returns, like clothing with fit issues. Shoes. fit issues.  Plan based on your current return rates.

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So true on what is sold. I don't know what you sell, but as for me, 99% of my items are new. I sell designer shoes, handbags, clothing, jewelry and these items don't fall under the up to 50% partial refund we can offer if item is returned damaged, worn, opened, etc., so I would lose too much to have to pay shipping for someone to send back a damaged item and then give them a full refund 😞

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7.27.19 UPDATE:

I have been offering free returns for just over a year now and it has been OK.

The buyers don't lie about the reason for the return since it doesn't cost them anything to return it.

And, I AM able to deduct up to 50% of the purchase price if the item is altered in any way.

Have had a good experience with the free returns policy. The 10% credit for these TRS+ listings covers the shipping cost of the returns and then some.

[kev55423]

They will not be protecting Sellers, I was told by Ebay to accept a return for a new Power Supply that I had tested before shipping. The Buyer opened a return saying it did not work, So I suspected that It was a scam and when I got the part back it was the Buyers old broken one and the serial numbers did not match the one sent.

I caller Ebay to report that I had a fraudulent return and said I have the Photos to prove it. This has happened to me a couple times and I have lost money having to pay the shipping both ways plus the cost of the item.

Their response to me was that the return case was closed in the Buyers favor and they wound be getting a refund.

I asked why? as there was still 2 days left until it auto closed in the Buyers favor and was told they will not be dealing with return problems anymore. So I asked where is my seller protection as I have ample proof of a fraudulent return. 

Then I was told that because I was a registered seller and would have to deal with it on my own outside of Ebay, either thru Paypal or the USPO or another source. I told them that I was not a registered company and was not LLC , so they told to be a registered company you need to have 100 Ebay sales and was on my own because of I was well over that and should just write it off as a loss on Taxes.

Next I re-argued my point of them telling me to accept the return and costing me even more money and finally was told that they would do a one time deal of refunding me the money as well as the fraudulent returner their money, but this was the last and only time this would happen and they would not deal with any more return issues. So they are trained to Weasel their way out of dealing with fraudulent returners and will try to pawn their responsibilities onto other companies. Their is not any seller protection anymore!

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began, we have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread here.

Thanks.