eBay

retronmore · ‎05-14-2017

I am a top rated seller and I am now really considering dropping my Top Rated Seller status. I sell on average about 10 K per month (TRS discount use to be %20) and I would get a pretty decent discount at the end of the month and it would be "worth" it.

Since the update last year to extend the return days requirement to 30 days, I have had a few buyers that have waited nearly a month to return an item. Not enough to make me want to drop my status, but a couple of those items were $100 or more and in one case, I had a buyer return a $300 pair of shoes after 28 days "too tight". They were obviously worn out a handful of times but there is nothing I can do about it. Not only do I have to accept this obvious rental, the once $300 shoes are now worth about $200.

Now that eBay has increased performance standards, dropped the discount from 20% to 10%, and are telling us that if we don't offer 60 DAY RETURNS and FREE RETURN SHIPPING our listings will be buried at the bottom, even as a top rated seller, what is the point? I am really considering dropping the TRS by my name and offering 14 day returns (like what most clothing/shoe dealers should allow).

retronmore · ‎05-14-2017

This was not an opinion, it was a fact as stated in the summer seller update. What I DON'T like is people calling out someone without reading it for themselves.

retronmore · ‎05-14-2017

So you feel like offering a 60 day return policy is the norm? In your case, since you mostly sell media, should it take a buyer 57 days to decide that they just didn't like it? Maybe it's not such a big deal if the sale were under $5 or $10 but would you have the same opinion if you sold something with a much heftier price tag?

vintagecraze50 · ‎05-14-2017

Regarding bumping things up to a 60 day return window: absolutely nuts. In fact, most of these websites competing with each other on these long ridiculous return options are just as nuts. Zappos advertises a 1 year return policy, but has a disclaimer that pretty much cancels out their offer. I shop online all the time as well as a number of my neighbors, relatives etc etc. Nobody I know really WANTS a 60 70 80 180 day return policy. They want a reasonable amount of time to make sure the item fits, it works, it is what they really want, etc. Even with major electronics, frigidaires all things with moving parts you gotta know within a month if it is ok. Manufacturers have warranties and if a fridge conks on in a month you get a replacement with a warranty, computer, same thing. Not a seller having to accept a return beyond a certain point. Maybe I am nuts for thinking online merchants shouldn't do this to compete. Who Knows.

vintagecraze50 · ‎05-14-2017

The whole competition thing with websites offering these long return policies and trying to beat up each other with extending theirs to compete to me seems like a waste of time. Compete with pricing, great products, well presented listings, yes, offer a generous return policy, at least a month, but compete in other more logical ways.

retronmore · ‎05-14-2017

In the Summer Seller update:

"We’re increasing exposure of free 30-day and 60-day returns to buyers starting this summer."

No matter how you slice it, sellers that give in to this demand will be promoted (I am not saying that it is a bad thing). Those that do not implement this extortionate return structure, will fall behind. For some of us sellers (sellers of pre-owned clothing, shoes, media, antiques) offering 60 day returns with free return shipping will not help our businesses. They are trying to get us to fold in order to get more "exposure".

retronmore · ‎05-14-2017

"I will probably go for the 60 day returns w/free return shipping just to give myself an advantage. I will of course factor that into my pricing. If people want free returns, someone has to pay for it, and it ain't gonna be me."

By adjusting your price to factor in the possibly free return shipping, you might be pricing yourself out of what a buyer is willing to spend, unless your prices are already rock bottom.

tamaralea · ‎05-14-2017

Ask yourself this.....What type of person is going to search for 60 day returns?

lintbrush* · ‎05-14-2017

@tamaralea wrote:
Ask yourself this.....What type of person is going to search for 60 day returns?

Those who are trying to defraud you perhaps? Yes, the free returns comes with some alleged guarantees that you should be able to fight it if returned not in the same condition, but I'm not feeling confident eBay'll do what they say and just how many times you could enforce it before some unwritten policy is conjured up.

They'll get free return shipping on a SNAD but can only open just so many of them before they are out of the MBG.

auctionpet · ‎05-14-2017

@tweetystwades wrote:
Right they are putting in a filter, so buyers can search for sellers that offer 60 day returns and free return shipping. He said it wasn't mandatory for TRS to offer it now, but it would be to OUR ADVANTAGE to offer it so we would come up in the filter search. So what that means to me and most sellers here, we will get buried if we don't offer it.

Yah, just like we all came up so high in the search filter when they changed the hoop jumping circus criteria the dozens of other times! NOT!! I'd constantly see sellers without TRS, with no returns, with weak feedback and from China HIGHER in search!!

I've sold numerous higher ticker items recently, on another ID, with NO returns, NO TRS and NO problems! I've even had ppl wanting items that someone else already bought! I've had them sell quickly, anywhere from 24 hrs to a week after listing. So obviously, buyers had no problem finding them, they weren't buried or unsearchable. All the buyers have been extremely happy with their purchases! They knew that even with no returns, they're still covered by 'Buyer Protection'. I would never expect a buyer to keep an item that I erred on and missed something in description.

However, I'm not about to be a rental agency, an item supply source for another seller (yes, many will buy, try to resell within 30 days and know if they don't they can simply return and be out zilch), or a refund program for someone not sure and be expected to foot the riduclous shipping bill both ways. When you accept returns that's what you become, since ebay states you must accept them for ANY reason. At least with NO RETURNS, the reason is only not as described and one has a fighting chance!

Don't believe the hype. Ebay simply wants to force sellers back into taking returns, since they obviously lost a huge number of them!

partsalot1 · ‎05-14-2017

I certainly wont do a 60 day return. I think that is just asking people to rip you off. I sell a lot of parts to people who do their own repair work on machines. they do it wrong and the part works for a little while and then breaks because of user error or faulty instaliation then its returned 59 days later, un useable...... no way i'm falling for that.

My discount still says 20% though. I just checked. I thought the change to 10% was supposed to be may 1st

nowthatsjustducky · ‎05-14-2017

@tweetystwades wrote:
Right they are putting in a filter, so buyers can search for sellers that offer 60 day returns and free return shipping. He said it wasn't mandatory for TRS to offer it now, but it would be to OUR ADVANTAGE to offer it so we would come up in the filter search. So what that means to me and most sellers here, we will get buried if we don't offer it.

That filter could be a good thing for the rest of us in the long run. It will filter out shoppers who do their shopping with the intent of possibly renting instead of those who just want the products we are selling. The rest of us get the buyers who are simply shopping with the intent of using and keeping.

If it works, sell it. If it works well, sell it for more. If it doesn't work, quadruple the price and sell it as an antique.

-- Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #80

double2trouble · ‎05-14-2017

Hey eBay, it's not the return window that keeps me from shopping here, it's the fact that this is a gigantic low quality junk fest. The **bleep** I have ordered from suposed US sellers that comes from China, and is DOA on arrival. I don't want to waste time returning it, I want it to work. The moment eBay went public, and they are beholden only to the shareholders and quarter over quarter profits, was the beginning of the march downhill.

pantlandia · ‎05-14-2017

@retronmore wrote:
So you feel like offering a 60 day return policy is the norm? In your case, since you mostly sell media, should it take a buyer 57 days to decide that they just didn't like it? Maybe it's not such a big deal if the sale were under $5 or $10 but would you have the same opinion if you sold something with a much heftier price tag?

That was precisely my point...each seller is different. If it's not going to work for you, then it doesn't. Not sure why you're so defensive. I offer 30 day returns right now. If a buyer hasn't returned an item in 30 days, chances are they aren't going to return it in 60.

If I sold higher priced items, my business would be adjusted accordingly...hence the point of my original post.

yuzuha · ‎05-14-2017

@pantlandia wrote:
If a buyer hasn't returned an item in 30 days, chances are they aren't going to return it in 60.

Honestly, from my experience working retail? Probably about 98% of the returns we get at the store happen within the first few days after purchase. Once you get past the one week mark, chances of a return drop dramatically.

pantlandia · ‎05-14-2017

@yuzuha wrote:
@pantlandia wrote:
If a buyer hasn't returned an item in 30 days, chances are they aren't going to return it in 60.
Honestly, from my experience working retail? Probably about 98% of the returns we get at the store happen within the first few days after purchase. Once you get past the one week mark, chances of a return drop dramatically.

I found no increase at all going from 14 days to 30 days when I sold clothing (I've always been 30 day for CDs). In fact, the very few that I did get were within a day or two after it was delivered.