Proper technique to listing..

[itsmrfixer]

Hello all and thanks in advance.

My wife has an ebay seller account and she has been selling 3-4 items a day.  It has been as high as 10-12 items so it's somewhat worthwhile.

Her problem, the returns are going sky-high.  IT seems like 1 in 5 things the buyer wants to return.

She offers free shipping on some items, so she will have paid the initial shipping, then the return shipping, PLUS have to return the money.

We've been told complete contradicting answers on how to follow a policy etc.

What techniques can she use to gather some sort of protection?  

We've tried the no refunds, no returns, that ended poorly, we've tried just about every way I can think of and it doesn't seem to matter anymore.  She is changing from a profitable hobby to a sinking waste.  

Ebay is or was an auction site.  Auctions used to be as is, or at least have some sort of seller protection.  How can anyone get ahead with such poorly thought out policies?

Walmart is Walmart

Amazon is Amazon

Ebay is neither Walmart nor Amazon, and with its current direction, will never be.

What methods should I educate myself with to stop this pandemic of returned items and people keeping the product and the money?

[inhawaii]

20% returns?

That is way too high.

My return rate is less than 1%.

[aproudparent2010]

---

@itsmrfixer wrote:

Well here's another one....

Buyer bought a seat.  Claims it won't fit his truck although it has too.  Wants his money back.  

She has buyers pay shipping.

Now her only options are "full refund", "partial refund", there is no getting the seat back which is what we would want.

She's lost another $200.

So now the buyer has the truck seat, his money, and we are out everything. 

We basically paid for him to have a seat.  We can't even break even, we go right into the red.

---

There should be an option to return for full refund. If she is refunding before getting the item back then that is on her.

[newlifece]

It’s ironic you mention Amazon. Amazon’s return rate average 5-15% across all categories and cost them $40-88B annually. This problem is also not unique to Amazon, as across the retail sector that number shoots up to $890B just in 2024. 

A great starting place for your return issue is to establish some baselines: for instance, we have decide to not accept returns. The reason for this, is just as you describe - Ebay is a unique marketplace, where buyer’s want something for practically nothing. They often don’t want to pay for shipping and are often blind to how much selling an item actually cost US as sellers. Additionally, if your item is not unique, high-demand or has other sellers that are implementing cut-throat pricing, this is only going to make this situation worse. Beware, that buyer’s can still technically return items under the buyer protection policy, but if you’re listing items accurately and with detailed listings and accurate descriptions/pictures it’s harder for buyer’s to “win” these claims and you can counter buyer protection policy abuse by filing a seller protection claim. 

The second thing I’d look at is the reason for returns. If it’s commonly just buyer’s remorse, than I would go back to point #1 and decide if it’s worth it to continue to accept returns in the first place. If the items that you are selling new you’re selling near or below cost anyways, they’re not goin to resale BETTER now that they’ve been opened/used so this is not sustainable. If it’s item not as described, then I’d be paying attention to the feedback you’re getting and dialing in item conditions, using the comment box for anything not new to be more descriptive as to flaws/defects and making sure to take better pictures with more angles and highlighting defects/flaws so you have them both in text and picture form.

[itsmrfixer]

When she clicked on full refund she only had the options for full or partial.  It did not have an option for printing a label and returning it.  She just said keep it.  Not the correct thing to do but she's tired of it.

[mam98031]

---

@itsmrfixer wrote:

When she clicked on full refund she only had the options for full or partial.  It did not have an option for printing a label and returning it.  She just said keep it.  Not the correct thing to do but she's tired of it.

---

Why would she if she clicked on "full refund"??  Has she ever read the policy on how to process a return request?

I would strongly encourage both of you to read through this policy.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115

[aproudparent2010]

---

@itsmrfixer wrote:

When she clicked on full refund she only had the options for full or partial.  It did not have an option for printing a label and returning it.  She just said keep it.  Not the correct thing to do but she's tired of it.

---

Should have been somewhere to accept the return if she didn't do that and just clicked full refund then yeah you don't get the item back.

I've been selling on eBay for 22 years and never had a case where I didn't have a place to click return for refund.

[itsmrfixer]

She didn't have that option on her phone.  The reason was "does not fit his truck, doesn't match photos or descriptions."

Below that it said, "full refund" 

Then below that it said "partial" give a portion back".

There was no way to print a label or anything else.  So again being defeated, she just clicked the button as she doesn't like to leave things sitting in limbo.

[itsmrfixer]

She did.  It wasn't there.

[toysaver]

"Buyer bought a seat.  Claims it won't fit his truck although it has too."

It should but it doesn't have too.  If the vehicle has been in a fender bender fit can affect all manner of parts.  Chances are people go online as a last ditch effort because nothing has fit and never will without some modifications.

[itsmrfixer]

Or people know that they can just say doesn't fit, inad and usher in free product.  I know both my account and my wife's account look fairly new, but we were on ebay since it was created. 

[soh.maryl]

My hope is that I am wrong here, but this latest message of yours is cause for concern.

Per the eBay Money Back Guarantee for buyers, which I hope you've read, if a buyer feels that an item is not as described, that buyer can open an NAD case with eBay.  When that happens, the seller will be required by eBay to send the buyer a prepaid return label.

Now here's the important part, are you withholding the refund until the returned item is received?

That's the way it should work, but your recent message makes it sound like you're refunding and letting the buyer keep the item.  "Now the buyer has the truck seat, the money and we are out everything."  WHY?

[soh.maryl]

You state that you've "decided not to accept returns."

If/when a buyer opens an NAD case, refusing to accept that return is not an option.

But I assume you know that, right?  

[jonathanbrightlight]

---

@itsmrfixer wrote:

She didn't have that option on her phone.  The reason was "does not fit his truck, doesn't match photos or descriptions."

Below that it said, "full refund" 

Then below that it said "partial" give a portion back".

There was no way to print a label or anything else.  So again being defeated, she just clicked the button as she doesn't like to leave things sitting in limbo.

---

She wasn’t the one returning it, she’s the seller it would be returned to, correct? She wouldn’t be printing a label. It sounds like the return was automatically accepted and she only needed to wait.

[soh.maryl]

You were "on eBay since it was created", yet you seem to lack knowledge about how to correctly/successfully handle an NAD?

[powell-collectibles]

Come on – I don’t understand the goal in belaboring the point. I don’t understand the desire to try to make somebody feel stupid for not knowing something.