Well we have now tried the free returns since its inception, and went from three returns in three years, to a return department and constant open returns, same products, new policy, huge shipping loses beyond the top rated discount. we are done and migrating ads back to our old policy that was profitable to us. I plan to put a paragraph in our ads to explain why we gave up our top rated status, and how that makes our product a better value to our customers. And it does, good customers end up paying more to cover our shipping loses, we gotta eat. I knew in my gut it was a bad idea, now i know in my wallet too, I've had people buy things on their smartphone without even reading the full ad, why bother its free shipping both ways. I had a heavy item that i bought for almost nothing, sold for $109, heavy item though and put a teaser shipping rate of 21.95, knowing it would cost over $40 to ship, Idiot didnt realize it wouldn't work for him because he didn't bother to read the ad. paid another 40 to get it back, came back scuffed because they packed it wrong and fedex poked a hole in the box, relisted for a little less due to new condition, sold in two days, another teaser loss on shipping. Thank God i get to break even after paying ebay and paypal on an item that should have been a home run. Old policy buyer would have eaten the return shipping and probably read the ad first and not hit the buy it now button to begin with. Our overall sales returns and losses have been running about 25% of gross sales every week. Jethro can do that math! 3 returns in three years, multiple weekly returns now, same products, same quality ad descriptions, extra work and less profit, genious move Ebay, keep your top rated status, go ahead and move our products down in the page ranking, we can't afford to be at the top anymore.
