mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@sam9876 wrote:The buyer needs to file a SNAD complaint.
NO. In light of recent changes on Ebay, if a seller can resolve an issue with a buyer to the buyer's satisfaction through communication, there is NO reason to have the SNAD opened. ALL SNADs now count against a seller in evals. So this is just not a good idea if it can be avoided.
@laylajames9 wrote:Refunding in full through PayPal will trigger a defect on your account; you need to handle this through the returns system. Just tell the buyer to open the return request. Unless this is a common occurrence your service metrics will be fine. Almost everybody deals with an occasional SNAD claim.
When you get the dishes back check to see if the buyer's claim is valid. If it's not then report her to eBay for abusing the MBG.
You can avoid this by doing a cancellation in Ebay NOT a SNAD. You can file the cancellation for a buyer reason because it is the buyer that wants the refund because they returned the item. There use to be that option for a reason, but they took it away for some reason.
SNADs need to be avoided for the health of your selling account. So avoid them if you can and will provide proper customer service to your customer through communication.
@theoldladysattic wrote:I sold some dishes to a customer who claims they are not as described, and wanted a partial refund. I told her I do not do partial refunds but would be happy to refund in full, which she has now said she wants to do, with me paying for the return shipping. Not happy as I don't believe her, but I am willing to do so. I can't figure a way to send her a return shipping label without her opening a case through ebay (I would like to avoid return service metrics numbers), I also looked on paypal but don't see a way to do a label. Any suggestions?
You are doing a great job working directly with your customer. Keep up the good work. You are correct, you do NOT need to have the buyer open a SNAD. As long as you are working with your customer via communication, you are doing great.
It is pretty easy to get them a return shipping label. You can go to www.paypal.com/shipnow and create a label. Once you have it created, you can attach the file or pic to your email to you customer that contains the shipping label.
Once you get the item back, review it and then if you plan to issue a full refund, go to your resolution center, create a cancellation for the order using the reason as buyer's request. During the process you will be asked if you want to refund the buyer, just say yes and you are all done.
@tenbigdogs wrote:Hi @theoldladysattic, This is not a situation for a cancellation. Cancellations are for before the item is shipped, not after. Your buyer needs to file for a Return, then the return label option will be available to you. As long as you resolve the return, issue the return label, within 3 days of the buyer requesting the Return, and the buyer does not have to ask eBay to step in, a Return will not ding your account. See the eBay Help pages linked below. If after reading them you still have questions, please post back. Good luck!
Return Shipping Labels: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/return-shipping-for-sellers?id=4703
Returns generally: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/manage-returns-missing-items-refunds-sell...
Cancellations: "If at all possible, try to avoid canceling a transaction because you don't have the item to send – it's considered a transaction defect and may affect your seller performance level. The buyer will still be able to leave you negative or neutral feedback about the transaction."
The policy says NOTHING about ONLY using the cancellation process for something that has not yet shipped. In fact it says the exact opposite.
If you want your buyers to file a SNAD that is your decision to make. But it is NOT always necessary and there are other ways to handle it and still acheive the desired result of good customer service. There is not rule in Ebay that says a buyer has to open a claim nor is there one that says a seller can't take care of their customer outside of the customer filing a claim.
If you want to risk your seller search status and possible FVF penalties because you prefer that a buyer open a claim, that is completely your right to do. But others may not see things the same way as you do and as long as they are working within the rules of Ebay and in the interest of their customer, there is NOTHING wrong with taking care of your customer outside of the claim system. The claim system does NOT protect the seller, it does however have some protections for the buyer. But if the seller and buyer are working well together outside of the claim system, there should be no need for added protections for the buyer as the seller is willing to fix things for them.
You may want to read through this link to see if any of this helps.
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/buy-now/cancel-order?id=4004
Some excerpts are:
If it's been more than an hour since your purchase, or if the seller has already dispatched your order by marking it as shipped or uploading tracking information, you can't cancel your order by yourself. You'll need to contact the seller and ask them to cancel it for you.
If the seller agrees to cancel the order, they have 10 days to refund you through the same method you used to pay.
@tenbigdogs wrote:Hi @mam98031, I don't like to openly contradict other responders, particularly other Community Mentors, but almost everything you've posted to this thread misses the mark. Please read the Help Pages I have posted. Good luck!
Not a problem, I'm human and have been known to make errors. Let's get some additional imput so we may all better understand the issue at hand.
There was a time we had a reason for a cancelation as the item being returned. I know Ebay has narrowed the scope of reasons, but I'm not aware that they now take the position that it is against the rules to do so. There is no rule that says that a full refund must be accompanied by a claim. There is no rule that says a buyer must open a claim in order to get a refund from a seller.
As sellers we are responsible for providing good and proper customer service to our buyers. That is NOT only accomplished through having a buyer file a claim. It can be done without one as long as your buyer are communicating and the needs of the buyer are being met.
As for the links you provided. They are good ones and contain good information we should all know. As to shipping labels, yes they can be purchased through Ebay if a claim is active, IF the seller chooses to purchase it through Ebay. But there is no rule saying we have to do that. We can provide our own labels if we want to from whatever source the seller chooses.
I respect the fact that you have a different interpretation of the rules than I do and I think it is important that we all get this stituation correct. No matter who is correct.
@Anonymous
I tried to get more information on the Weekly Chat this week, but I'm still waiting for a second response. This is where we are at right now.
Here is Tyler's response to my posting above on the Weekly Chat.
Hi @mam98031 - encouraging everyone to provide great customer service is definitely one of our goals, as is ensuring a consistent experience for buyers. To that end we have created various seller performance standards to steer members towards those goals. These programs have been refined and developed over the years to more accurately pinpoint the behaviors we feel lead buyers to leave the site, as well as provide more leeway for members that already provide an excellent level of service (like yourself). Seller Service Metrics is a standard we feel more accurately compares you to the 'category' overall as opposed to systems in the past that judged you purely based on your volume and the number of low scores received (Detailed Seller Ratings, as an example).
Because we can compare your rates of return and not received requests to those selling similar items, in similar volumes, price range, region and with the same return and shipping attributes we can use more relevant comparisons in a particular category instead of holding your entire account to an arbitrary percentage point.
The cancellation process we have in place is for when a buyer requests a cancellation, there is an issue with their address, or if you are out of stock (Help Page here). If your buyer wants to return the item because there is something wrong with it, or they don't like it, our advice to you will consistently be to have the buyer open a return request.
There is no eBay policy that states you must tell your buyer to open a Not as Described return - but if a buyer wants to return an item we would inform both you and your buyer to open a return request, because that is what the buyer wants to do.
If you wish to handle your customer requests in an alternative way that's absolutely within your perogative. But from an eBay perspective I can't tell you that that's how we would prefer you to do it, nor would I sanction it as something that eBay approves of to tell others to do.
In short, while our ultimate goal is to ensure good buying experiences that will drive the success of our site and the sellers it supports, we do have certain processes in place for specific reasons and will recommend the appropriate process for the situation.
This is my response to the above post since the Weekly chat is closed for this week.
Tyler,
Very well said. I do disagree, but I don't want to take away from your very elegant explanation as it is well thought out and well written.
I do understand that the options in the cancellation process have been significantly reduced, but I wasn't aware that ebay was also changing the policy as the written policy has not changed by much over the years. And as I said before, we use ot have an option of the item was returned for refund or something like that.
So as I understand your response, while the cancellation process policy has not been updated to reflect what you have stated here, it is the policy nonetheless.
"There is no eBay policy that states you must tell your buyer to open a Not as Described return - but if a buyer wants to return an item we would inform both you and your buyer to open a return request, because that is what the buyer wants to do." But what if the buyer doesn't want to open the SNAD. I've had buyers tell me there is no need for it as they are comfortable working directly with me. So even though there is no policy that states they must open an SNAD I need to tell my buyer they need to open a SNAD even if they don't want to? How is that good customer service?
"If you wish to handle your customer requests in an alternative way that's absolutely within your perogative. But from an eBay perspective I can't tell you that that's how we would prefer you to do it, nor would I sanction it as something that eBay approves of to tell others to do." You know me pretty well and I honestly have no desire to do things against policy nor would I ever intentionally tell anyone to do something that is against policy, but what I've said is NOT against policy, so why would it not be a response that is OK? I'm not trying to argue with you, I am just trying to understand why it is wrong when the policy does not say it is wrong? And how is one suppose to know it is wrong if there is not published policy saying it is wrong?
What makes the process INappropriate? Because it doesn't support the Service Metric, which just started?
As a seller, why would Ebay expect us to do a recommend a process [SNAD] that when participating in that process is detrimental to the health of our own selling account? You are telling sellers that they MUST do something that will knowingly hurt their stats in an effort to support Ebay Service Metrics that evals a seller each month and may inflict additional costs on that seller for encouraging their buyers to file a SNAD when there is an issue requiring a return! I'm not wrapping my head around this very well. Why would I want to intentionally hurt the health of my account? Because make no mistake, that is exactly what you are telling me to do. You of course said it in a very nice way, but it all means the same thing. My statement is just more direct and unpolished.
With all that said, since you are telling me that even though it is NOT against policy, Ebay does NOT want me recommending to other sellers to file a cancellation if they do a full refund to a buyer for the return of an item not using the claim system, I will stop doing that. But I won't recommend them to self inflict damage to their account by having the buyer file a SNAD. I don't see why or how that is fair to any seller, much less Ebay expecting sellers to self inflict harm to themselves. That would make no sense to me.
