@coffeebean832 wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
Thanks velvet@ebay and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here- but point 2 wasn't about clarifying the current policy. It was about the **bleep**
Thanks **bleep**
eBay announced a change in **bleep**
velvet@ebay said she'd post an update to the chat thread- I hope she'll also post the update here **bleep**
Hi @coffeebean832! I heard back as to where this was announced and it can be found here if you go to the FAQ's section. I'll include a screen shot below too. Thanks!
velvet@ebay wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:Thanks velvet@ebay and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here- but point 2 wasn't about clarifying the current policy. It was about the **bleep**
Thanks **bleep**
eBay announced a change in **bleep**
velvet@ebay said she'd post an update to the chat thread- I hope she'll also post the update here **bleep**
Hi @coffeebean832! I heard back as to where this was announced and it can be found here if you go to the FAQ's section. I'll include a screen shot below too. Thanks!
velvet@ebay thanks for replying to this and my post in the chat. However, it seems like something is still getting lost in translation here.
What you linked to is the Spring 2020 update. At the time that update came out, sellers here in the community requested clarification on what "sufficient time" meant and were given the same answer that you show in your screenshot.
Both that answer and your screenshot match up to the first image I provided in the chat.
For clarity, the screenshots below are of this specific eBay Help page:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115
The first image is what this page looked like according to the internet archive on April 10 2020.
We can see it is in line with exactly what the Spring 2020 Seller Update said.
The issue is that sometime later in the year, eBay changed that specific page without notice.
Here is that same page from the internet archive on November 11th 2020.
In case the highlighting doesn't make it clear - you can see that in the first one for eBay generated labels it says:
We may close the return request if the label is not printed within 10 business days. We may also close the return if the label is printed but we don't see tracking scans showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided.
According to the internet archive, that part of that page looked the same through at least August of 2020, but changed sometime between then and November 2020 to say:
eBay or seller-provided labels: If an eBay label was automatically provided or you provide non-eBay return labels and upload tracking, we may close the return if we don't see tracking scans or signals from the buyer showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided. If tracking is not uploaded, we may wait up to 35 business days before closing the return
eBay combined the policies for eBay generated and seller-provided labels and did away with the policy of closing a return if the label was not printed within 10 business days for eBay generated labels.
That means the current policy page does not match to what was stated in the Spring 2020 update and the link/screenshot you posted.
So I'm going to try my question from the chat again and be as explicit as I possibly can.
In regard to the specific help page shown in those screenshots, located at https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115 -
When exactly did that page change and why were sellers not informed of it through an announcement?
@valueaddedresource wrote:
velvet@ebay wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
Thanks velvet@ebay and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here- but point 2 wasn't about clarifying the current policy. It was about the **bleep**
Thanks **bleep**
eBay announced a change in **bleep**
velvet@ebay said she'd post an update to the chat thread- I hope she'll also post the update here **bleep**
Hi @coffeebean832! I heard back as to where this was announced and it can be found here if you go to the FAQ's section. I'll include a screen shot below too. Thanks!
velvet@ebay thanks for replying to this and my post in the chat. However, it seems like something is still getting lost in translation here.
What you linked to is the Spring 2020 update. At the time that update came out, sellers here in the community requested clarification on what "sufficient time" meant and were given the same answer that you show in your screenshot.
Both that answer and your screenshot match up to the first image I provided in the chat.
For clarity, the screenshots below are of this specific eBay Help page:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115
The first image is what this page looked like according to the internet archive on April 10 2020.
We can see it is in line with exactly what the Spring 2020 Seller Update said.
The issue is that sometime later in the year, eBay changed that specific page without notice.
Here is that same page from the internet archive on November 11th 2020.
In case the highlighting doesn't make it clear - you can see that in the first one for eBay generated labels it says:
We may close the return request if the label is not printed within 10 business days. We may also close the return if the label is printed but we don't see tracking scans showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided.
According to the internet archive, that part of that page looked the same through at least August of 2020, but changed sometime between then and November 2020 to say:
eBay or seller-provided labels: If an eBay label was automatically provided or you provide non-eBay return labels and upload tracking, we may close the return if we don't see tracking scans or signals from the buyer showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided. If tracking is not uploaded, we may wait up to 35 business days before closing the return
eBay combined the policies for eBay generated and seller-provided labels and did away with the policy of closing a return if the label was not printed within 10 business days for eBay generated labels.
That means the current policy page does not match to what was stated in the Spring 2020 update and the link/screenshot you posted.
So I'm going to try my question from the chat again and be as explicit as I possibly can.
In regard to the specific help page shown in those screenshots, located at https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115 -
When exactly did that page change and why were sellers not informed of it through an announcement?
@valueaddedresource The teams I've been working with have clarified that the help page was simplified and the policy itself hasn't changed since the April 2020 Seller Update (aside from the short-term Covid extensions that reverted back to normal at the end of summer 2020) where we introduced earlier automated return closures on what would be considered an abandoned return.
As you noted, we combined the eBay and seller-provided label scenarios from the old help page in that attempt to simplify things. They are closely related and we found that labels are often printed, even if not used, so sellers are typically waiting up to 15-business days for a claim to close out anyways. You'll notice the wording now says, 'within 15-business days' though, as they can still be closed earlier than that, per the FAQ in the April 2020 Seller Update.
I'd like to take this one step further though, as I see some believe we added the 35-business day timeframe to eBay provided labels, and that's not the case. eBay generated labels are automatically uploaded to the claim, so that 35-day timeframe shouldn't ever apply in that scenario. It's only possible in the seller-provided, or no label provided scenarios.
Ultimately, there has been no policy change since what was announced in that April 2020 Seller Update, just a simplification of the Returns help page and our automating more closures for abandoned claims. It's unfortunate that our attempts to simplify things caused so much confusion and worry though, and I hope this helps to finally clarify things.
velvet@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
velvet@ebay wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:
@coffeebean832 wrote:Thanks velvet@ebay and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here- but point 2 wasn't about clarifying the current policy. It was about the **bleep**
Thanks **bleep**
eBay announced a change in **bleep**
velvet@ebay said she'd post an update to the chat thread- I hope she'll also post the update here **bleep**
Hi @coffeebean832! I heard back as to where this was announced and it can be found here if you go to the FAQ's section. I'll include a screen shot below too. Thanks!
velvet@ebay thanks for replying to this and my post in the chat. However, it seems like something is still getting lost in translation here.
What you linked to is the Spring 2020 update. At the time that update came out, sellers here in the community requested clarification on what "sufficient time" meant and were given the same answer that you show in your screenshot.
Both that answer and your screenshot match up to the first image I provided in the chat.
For clarity, the screenshots below are of this specific eBay Help page:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115
The first image is what this page looked like according to the internet archive on April 10 2020.
We can see it is in line with exactly what the Spring 2020 Seller Update said.
The issue is that sometime later in the year, eBay changed that specific page without notice.
Here is that same page from the internet archive on November 11th 2020.
In case the highlighting doesn't make it clear - you can see that in the first one for eBay generated labels it says:
We may close the return request if the label is not printed within 10 business days. We may also close the return if the label is printed but we don't see tracking scans showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided.
According to the internet archive, that part of that page looked the same through at least August of 2020, but changed sometime between then and November 2020 to say:
eBay or seller-provided labels: If an eBay label was automatically provided or you provide non-eBay return labels and upload tracking, we may close the return if we don't see tracking scans or signals from the buyer showing the item was shipped within 15 business days of when the label was provided. If tracking is not uploaded, we may wait up to 35 business days before closing the return
eBay combined the policies for eBay generated and seller-provided labels and did away with the policy of closing a return if the label was not printed within 10 business days for eBay generated labels.
That means the current policy page does not match to what was stated in the Spring 2020 update and the link/screenshot you posted.
So I'm going to try my question from the chat again and be as explicit as I possibly can.
In regard to the specific help page shown in those screenshots, located at https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115 -
When exactly did that page change and why were sellers not informed of it through an announcement?
@valueaddedresource The teams I've been working with have clarified that the help page was simplified and the policy itself hasn't changed since the April 2020 Seller Update (aside from the short-term Covid extensions that reverted back to normal at the end of summer 2020) where we introduced earlier automated return closures on what would be considered an abandoned return.
As you noted, we combined the eBay and seller-provided label scenarios from the old help page in that attempt to simplify things. They are closely related and we found that labels are often printed, even if not used, so sellers are typically waiting up to 15-business days for a claim to close out anyways. You'll notice the wording now says, 'within 15-business days' though, as they can still be closed earlier than that, per the FAQ in the April 2020 Seller Update.
I'd like to take this one step further though, as I see some believe we added the 35-business day timeframe to eBay provided labels, and that's not the case. eBay generated labels are automatically uploaded to the claim, so that 35-day timeframe shouldn't ever apply in that scenario. It's only possible in the seller-provided, or no label provided scenarios.
Ultimately, there has been no policy change since what was announced in that April 2020 Seller Update, just a simplification of the Returns help page and our automating more closures for abandoned claims. It's unfortunate that our attempts to simplify things caused so much confusion and worry though, and I hope this helps to finally clarify things.
velvet@ebay thank you again for the clarification - your explanation does help to clear things up, however I would suggest that if what you are saying is accurate, that help page needs to be re-written ASAP to more clearly communicate what you are explaining.
Lumping eBay generated and seller provided labels together was a bad idea if the goal was to avoid confusion.
I'll go further and say if nothing in the policy and how it is enforced actually changed, why change the page at all? I don't recall there being a huge outcry of mass confusion from sellers on this issue any time between April and November. I have to wonder why there was such a pressing need to "simplify" this page but apparently it wasn't so urgent or critical that it would warrant any kind of notification that it had been changed.
Understand from the user perspective, removing the reference to 10 days gives the *appearance* of a policy change, regardless of eBay's reasoning behind it. Remember, sellers don't have access to the data eBay does like "we found that labels are often printed, even if not used, so sellers are typically waiting up to 15-business days for a claim to close out anyways."
We have absolutely no way to know that unless eBay tells us! I understand from eBay's perspective this may have seemed insignificant and "simplified" but when things like this are not communicated it leaves us all groping in the dark for answers.
For what it's worth - the original version of the page was much more simple and less confusing, in my opinion. Maybe eBay should put out a seller survey on this one?
