Thanks to eBay's new streamlined return policy making fraud as easy as clicking a button, I'm done with returns because buyers changed their mind or decided they didn't need the item they purchased.
I've been selling used auto parts for Land Rovers for years on eBay, starting way back in the spring of 1999. I've been a top rated seller since the program was started. My feedback hasn't ever been below 99.6 (typically it's between 99.8 and 100%) with almost 20,000 transactions under my belt. But, sadly, I have been plagued lately with buyers who have fraudulently returned items. To put it bluntly, they've taken the parts I shipped them, installed those working parts, opened up a return request (ranging from "changed my mind" to "defective") and sent back their broken parts. Sometimes, they don't even bother to safely package the parts!
One example that is particularly egregious was an item that had been painted with an identifying mark before it was shipped in an effort to insure that, should there be a return, I would be able to confirm that the part was, in fact mine. The buyer claimed the part was defective and sent it back. The part did not have the paint marking that had been put on it before I shipped it. Essentially, the buyer installed my part and returned their broken part for a full refund included shipping both ways.
Another was where the buyer purchased a part, the kind of part that, if it's broken, your vehicle is not running. They got the part and within a few days opened a request for a return because they had "changed their mind." I find it curious, if your truck isn't running and you order a part to fix it, why, after receiving the part would you suddenly "change your mind." Well, I test all the electrical parts I ship out right before I put them in the box. This particular part was a solenoid so it was really easy to test with 12 volts.
On Monday I got back a box that had a part banging around in it like a child's rattle. It was the part the buyer had changed their mind over. No packing, no protection, even the box was closed using silver duct tape! Are you at all surprised that the part didn't have my usual enamel marking on it. Would you be surprised to learn the part failed the simple 12 volt test. Would it be reasonable to suspect that the buyer took my working part, installed it on his vehicle, got it running and used it to bring his broken part in the box with no packing to the post office to return for a full refund?
The third return involved another electrical part that is essential for a vehicle to run. The buyer bought it and before he even received it requested a return claiming they "no longer needed it." The part was a genuine Bosch part with Bosch markings all over it. What did I get back in the return? It was a cheap knock off from China with no markings on it at all. I'd never even seen one so poorly made before. Do you think the buyer might have thought he was saving a ton of money by purchasing a cheap Chinese part (probably for less than the cost of shipping my genuine Bosch part) only to find that those parts have a high failure rate. So, to solve his problem he bought the genuine part from me, installed it, got his vehicle running and drove it to the post office where he mailed off the Chinese knock off for a full refund.
In just three transactions I've lost my Top Rated Seller Discount for two months. Does eBay care? Of course they don't. They would rather believe a buyer who's been on the site for six months with a dozen feedbacks (all positive because a seller can't even hint at malfeasace when leaving feedback) than a seller for 19 years with almost 20,000 positive feedback ratings.
The treatment sellers receive on this site gets more and more insulting every day. So from here on out, no more easy returns for this seller. I'm done being the welcome mat for every perpetrator of fraud eBay seems to court on their "platform."
