eBay

itsmrfixer · ‎09-03-2025

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?

powell-collectibles · ‎09-20-2025

@soh.maryl wrote:
From the information you've posted here, it seems like your wife is just refunding on NAD claims without requiring a return. If that's her business plan, she's never going to make any money here.
Does she understand that?

Most can provide refunds without requiring a return and make money. My INAD rate cant be more than 0.1%. Losing 0.1% or even 1% isn’t a huge issue. And why would I want something back that I might not be

able to resell or might have to dramatically discount? Would I even trust the buyer to pack the item correctly? And there is something to good customer service and eventual repeat customers.

mam98031 · ‎09-20-2025

@powell-collectibles wrote:
@soh.maryl wrote:
From the information you've posted here, it seems like your wife is just refunding on NAD claims without requiring a return. If that's her business plan, she's never going to make any money here.
Does she understand that?
Most can provide refunds without requiring a return and make money. My INAD rate cant be more than 0.1%. Losing 0.1% or even 1% isn’t a huge issue. And why would I want something back that I might not be
able to resell or might have to dramatically discount? Would I even trust the buyer to pack the item correctly? And there is something to good customer service and eventual repeat customers.

So you are saying if a buyer purchased a $50 or $100 or $200 item from you and filed an INAD, you would just refund it without requiring a return? Or do you have a maximum threshold that you will just refund the buyer without requiring a return, if so what is it?

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you." Quote from Edward I Koch

powell-collectibles · ‎09-20-2025

@mam98031 wrote:
@powell-collectibles wrote:
@soh.maryl wrote:
From the information you've posted here, it seems like your wife is just refunding on NAD claims without requiring a return. If that's her business plan, she's never going to make any money here.
Does she understand that?
Most can provide refunds without requiring a return and make money. My INAD rate cant be more than 0.1%. Losing 0.1% or even 1% isn’t a huge issue. And why would I want something back that I might not be
able to resell or might have to dramatically discount? Would I even trust the buyer to pack the item correctly? And there is something to good customer service and eventual repeat customers.
So you are saying if a buyer purchased a $50 or $100 or $200 item from you and filed an INAD, you would just refund it without requiring a return? Or do you have a maximum threshold that you will just refund the buyer without requiring a return, if so what is it?

I’d never have a hard and fast rule. It all

comes down to the following:

1) how much would I net from return and resale

2) would I want the item for myself

3) do I believe the buyer

4) do I expect enough goodwill would be created that id get some repeat sales (that wouldn’t turn into false INAD’s)

i deal in items that attract a good group of buyers. Never had an issue with any order in the hundreds of dollars. So, I’ve never really been faced with a tough decision.

regardless, the point was that if your return rate is low enough (almost regardless of margin), you can absorb the loss of refunding without returns easily.

itsmrfixer · ‎09-20-2025

When ebay gets involved, you lose that $100-$200 as it goes back to the buyer. You also have to pay both the shipping to AND the return. When you sell a larger item that has $60-$80 or more shipping, your profit goes out the window.

broto_64 · ‎09-20-2025

I will tell you my own experience, at one time I too was selling anywhere from 3 to 7 items a day...
And in those days (we are talking over 10 years ago) I'd get 1 maybe 2 returns per 100 orders and really I've seen it as low as 3-4 out of every thousand. Life was good then.

And I'm not sure what happened but the abuse started at some point 5? to 8 years ago or so.
I noticed a slow and steady uptick in returns.
The reasons were always INAD and broken / defective and such, yet the items returned were in perfect order.
It drove me nuts, I would ask these buyers questions to try and get to the bottom of what was causing these returns but I could never get a straight answer.

To the point with a few items I was getting return rates of 3-4 for every TEN orders.
It was outrageous.

I should mention these were all MQ items.

One day I caught on...
I saw one of my items for sale on another site.
My title, my pictures, my description word for word, but not my listing!
I did more searching, specifically on high return ratio items and found more!
I found them on Amazon, Walmart, Ebay.
Tons and tons of items that I sell, these groups of prolific dropshippers had ordered my items...
Duplicated the item, copied the listing, set up their own sale, and returned the item they ordered from me for a refund.

Don't you just love it?

I learned about VERO and DMCA, and how to file complaints and have some of them removed but it is a tedious process and not always rewarding.

I also learned about TRS+ and certain refund policies.
I also started selling more and more OOAK items, and as stock ran out on certain MQ's I stopped resupplying that. Today I have a lot more OOAK items than MQ's, sadly it takes considerably more effort for the reward with OOAK vs MQ's.

And I got tough on abusive return buyers, and I can't elaborate but my sales suffered too (and I knew it would, there is no way to completely prevent friendly casualties).
But that stopped the nonsense.
I'm back to my old returns ratio.

The negative experiences selling online have certainly taken a lot of wind out of my sails.

soh.maryl · ‎09-21-2025

Good point about you being able to absorb the loss if your return rate is low enough.

However, from the OP's original post, it seems that his wife's return rate is "alarmingly high", 1/5 is 20%. And that's part of the OP's message, wants to know how to cut that down. Makes sense.

Have a very strong feeling from other information he's provided that she is overwhelmingly just refunding without requiring a return.

powell-collectibles · ‎09-21-2025

The percentage of buyers that file for returns is the issue – not the decision to refund without a return. If someone has a 20% return rate, that’s a huge issue. It really doesn’t matter if that Seller refunds without a return, or requires that return. That seller would be much better off focusing energy on sending out Items that aren’t going to disappoint buyers.

itsmrfixer · ‎09-21-2025

Just curious, how would you have listed the tank only auction? To get the least amount of issues?

aproudparent2010 · ‎09-21-2025

@itsmrfixer wrote:
Just curious, how would you have listed the tank only auction? To get the least amount of issues?

For parts

This is a posting/buying ID

My seller ID has over 50,000 feedbacks

soh.maryl · ‎09-21-2025

Doesn't it seem like the problem that the OP wrote about was that his wife was getting a high rate of returns and evidently was routinely refunding all of them without requiring a return?

powell-collectibles · ‎09-22-2025

Correct. That’s why I indicated that it isn’t a big money losing issue if a reasonable quality seller refunds without requiring a return. Absolutely, if the seller is really at 20% – which seems to me like a huge percentage for INAD’s – that’s a killer. But the problem is that seller is sending out stuff that will eventually get the INAD - that’s the real issue.

cabofan1 · ‎09-22-2025

No Returns Does Not Mean No Refunds......that says it all

mam98031 · ‎09-22-2025

@cabofan1 wrote:
No Returns Does Not Mean No Refunds......that says it all

@cabofan1

IF only it was that simple.

The return policies options are as follows.

No Returns
30 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
60 day returns w/ buyer pays shipping
30 day returns w/ seller pays shipping, AKA Free Returns
60 day returns w/ seller pays shipping. AKA Free Returns
14 Day returns in certain categories

With option number 1, No Returns the seller can completely deny taking a return for a Buyer's Remorse Return Request. Or if they want to, they can accept the return and have the buyer pay the return shipping. If the seller so chooses, they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping] when it is time to refund the buyer.

On options 2 & 3 the buyer is responsible for the return shipping on a Buyer's Remorse Return. Plus, if the seller so chooses, they can withhold the original shipping if it was separately stated on the listing [not free shipping] when it is time to refund the buyer. As of October 1st 2019, sellers that are TRS have some additional protections as well as they can issue partial refunds if they use options 4 or 5 as their return policy.

On options 4 & 5 above, they are also known as Free Returns. If a seller that has either of those policies, they will pay the return shipping even on a buyer's remorse return. A seller can withhold the original shipping value from the refund if the shipping was separately stated in the listing [not free shipping]. Also, Seller’s offering options 4 or 5 have the ability to do partial refunds in certain cases if the item arrives back damaged, missing something or in a condition less than what it was sent to the buyer in, see the policy for more details, the link is below. In the cases where a deduction in the refund is taken due to damage or other authorized reasons for a partial refund, Ebay will protect the seller from negative or neutral feedback.

ALL OPTIONS [1, 2, 3, 4 and 5] are required to process SNAD claims without exception. Even if they are improperly filed and should have been a Buyer’s Remorse claim.

All return policies by sellers must meet or exceed what is stated in the Money Back Guarantee Policy!

14 day return policies are allowed in certain categories: Jewelry & Watches, Collectibles & Art, Cameras & Photo and Medical, Mobility & Disability Equipment.

For those with Free Return and/or TRS members with 30 day return policies, there are some added protection benefits, one of which is the ability to do a discounted refund under certain conditions.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you." Quote from Edward I Koch

soh.maryl · ‎09-22-2025

Sorry you cannot elaborate on your statement that you got tough on abusive return buyers.

I am sure that's a secret that every seller here would like to know.

To the best of my knowledge, any time a buyer opens an item not as described case, the seller has limited choices: 1. Send that buyer a prepaid return label and refund in total upon receipt of the return or 2. Refund in full and let the buyer keep the item. Guess the seller could fight the return, but doubt if that's ever effective.

Again, if you have a #3 here, we would like to know about it.

albertabrightalberta · ‎09-22-2025

@itsmrfixer wrote:
And I am posting because my wife has had enough. This is my last ditch effort to try and fix things before we just say goodbye to this place.

I saw the following and assumed that you both sold on "her" account as a team, especially after referring to the latest feedback as one "we" received.