mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
1 BEST ANSWER
Accepted Solutions
Whether you roll the cost of your shipping into your product price so that you can offer free shipping or if you state shipping separately, your FVFs would be the same. Ebay charges a FVF on the product and on the shipping as you know.
So lets say you are selling something for $25 and you have a $5 separately stated shipping fee. Your FVF that Ebay charges you would be on the total $30 for the item plus shipping.
If you had the same item and you wanted to list it with free shipping, then you would be raising the price of your product to $30 so that you have your shipping costs covered. When that item sells, you will pay a FVF on the $30.
Either way works. You just do what works best for you and your customers. Some things work great with free shipping and others not so much. You need to determine what is best for you and go with that.
Whether you roll the cost of your shipping into your product price so that you can offer free shipping or if you state shipping separately, your FVFs would be the same. Ebay charges a FVF on the product and on the shipping as you know.
So lets say you are selling something for $25 and you have a $5 separately stated shipping fee. Your FVF that Ebay charges you would be on the total $30 for the item plus shipping.
If you had the same item and you wanted to list it with free shipping, then you would be raising the price of your product to $30 so that you have your shipping costs covered. When that item sells, you will pay a FVF on the $30.
Either way works. You just do what works best for you and your customers. Some things work great with free shipping and others not so much. You need to determine what is best for you and go with that.
>>or is dissatisfied with it.
That is a remorse return, and what I was referring to with my comment. If you have a return policy, and buyer returns for remorse reasons, you still have to refund the entire payment - including any original shipping paid (buyer pays return shipping unless you also have free returns.)
If the seller has a No Return policy, 30 or 60 day return policy with buyer pays shipping, if the buyer actually files a BR request, this is not completely accurate. If the seller has free shipping on the return, then yes the seller has to refund the entire amount once the item has been return. But if there was separtely stated shipping, the seller can withhold the original S&H from the refund.
@berserkerplanet wrote:>>But if there was separtely stated shipping, the seller can withhold the original S&H from the refund.
That's what the help pages say in some places, and then contradict themselves.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handling-return-requests?id=4115
Accept the return –
The buyer will send the item back to you for a full refund – depending on your returns policy, this
may or may not include the original shipping costs. If you offered free shipping because you included
shipping costs in the listing price, you’ll need to refund the buyer the full amount that they paid.
You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount.That exact same statement is in that document for both returns accepted and no returns accepted returns policies.
There is no option (I can find) to have a returns policy statement any longer for returns accepted policies, thus no way to state that original shipping will NOT be refunded on a remorse return. That pretty much neuters the above eBay policy option to refund only the original item cost.
With a no returns policy there is also no provision for having an "original shipping paid will NOT be refunded in the event of a remorse return" return policy statement (and hasn't for as long as I can remember)
And I suspect the return flow doesn't permit a partial refund either.
Additionally, for remorse returns under no returns policies (such as mine) that had free shipping, there also appears to be no option to be nice, accept a remorse return, and partially refund the amount paid minus shipping costs paid to originally ship - the old fair way. I have mostly free shipping listings and zero returns accepted listings, so pretty much means I will never accept remorse returns now.
(my no returns policy was and is a defense against ebay not buyers - I pretty much have always been open to remorse returns if the buyer absorbs the shipping costs for their mistake, and it used to be stated in my listing T&Cs before eBay pretty much totally began ignoring seller T&Cs and I just removed them all)
My statements are based on documentation I found, what I recall reading in these forums, and the fact that I am a pretty much no return seller, have been for 14 years, and don't get returns (4 total maybe?) so have little actual experience.
Are you basing your assertion that a seller with a returns accepted policy can offer a partial refund (minus original shipping) for a remorse return on documentation I can't seem to find or on actual real world returns you have accepted recently?
Yes, Ebay could do a much better job writing their policies. They are often unclear and sometimes even contradict themselves within the same paragraph, like the one you have above.
"...depending on your returns policy, this may or may not include the original shipping costs." Then it goes on to say "You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount."
I don't know if you have had a BR claim in the last several months or maybe year, but you CAN deduct your original shipping charge if separately stated on the listing the buyer purchased from. Providing you have a 30 or 60 day return policy with buyer pays shipping.
I never said anything about the seller having a policy that says on the listing that original shipping can be deducted on a BR request if the shipping is separately stated on the listing. I'm not sure where you got that from. I wouldn't say anything remotely close to that as it just isn't correct.
Within the return process Ebay, until the last several months or more, have given sellers the option of withholding the original shipping from the refund. They do now, again if you have the appropriate return policy.
Correct. As I've said a few times, if you offer free shipping, you can't withhold original shipping from the refund to your buyer.
"Are you basing your assertion that a seller with a returns accepted policy can offer a partial refund (minus original shipping) for a remorse return on documentation I can't seem to find or on actual real world returns you have accepted recently?"
I did NOT say that sellers with a "return policy can offer a partial refund". Nothing I've said on this thread or elsewhere has ever stated that. I've said that those with a 30 or 60 day return policy with buyer pays shipping can withhold the original shipping IF they have separately stated S&H on the listing.
Yes I have "real world" experience with this. This has to be on a BR request, not a SNAD that the seller feels is actually a BR request. It must be on a BR.
Ebay doesn't always get their written policies updated when they change things in a timely fashion. Sometimes they never do. I can't direct you to a published policy, I can just share with you what I know to be correct as I've done it myself.
@goldguy22k wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handling-return-requests?id=4115
Accept the return –
The buyer will send the item back to you for a full refund – depending on your returns policy, this
may or may not include the original shipping costs. If you offered free shipping because you included
shipping costs in the listing price, you’ll need to refund the buyer the full amount that they paid.
You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount.
"...depending on your returns policy, this may or may not include the original shipping costs." Then it goes on to say "You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount."
Me thinks OP are parsing these statements too closely.
First, it appears as though the cited text comes under the Section titled: You don't accept returns in your policy and the buyer changed their mind about a purchase. Therefore, does not appear to be a universal policy statement. Just to this situation.
Second, it appears as though ebay intends for one to take the paragraph as whole and not separate statements.
Sure looks like the last sentence refers to the second sentence and does not appear to be a stand alone statement or policy. Me thinks that IF ebay intended no deductions for shipping, that sentence would be a separate paragraph or policy statement.
What the paragraph appears to say is that IF you offered free shipping you aren't able to cut the "seller to buyer" shipping charge out of any refund.
Therefore, it appears as though the policy is that, in the situation where the listing states "no returns accepted" and the buyer requests a return anyway, IF the "seller to buyer" shipping cost is a separate charge in the listing, then I believe the refund is only the amount paid for the item. (and of course the buyer pays the return shipping cost)
Hope this helps! Good luck to all!
Thank you but I'm fine as I'm not confused by what Ebay does and doesn't allow when dealing with a Buyer Remorse [BR] requests.
Sellers with a 30 or 60 day return policy with seller pays shipping [free returns], all BRs and SNAD claims are treated the same. But for sellers with a No return or 30 day or 60 day w/buyer pays shipping are different. A request for return that is FILED as a BR is different for these sellers. It is not the same as a SNAD. They do have the option of withholding original shipping [if stated separately in the listing] from the refund on a BR request.
Now a SNAD that was incorrectly filed and should have been a BR, is still treated as a SNAD, Ebay won't change that for us.
