Issuing your own return labels may cost you more.
You can't control what your buyers ship returns in, and as you said, buyers generally won't have access to PM PFREs, so would have to ship a winter sweater back in a box.
If you use an eBay return label, the buyer can grab a free Priority Mail box at the PO (or use their own box), tape the label on, away it goes, and you get charged only for the original PFRE amount (and don't have to worry about PM dimensional weight issues and upcharges when the only box the buyer has and uses is a way too big 20x16x15 box from their last Walmart order.
The eBay issued return labels can be slapped on just about anything (plain corrugated, Padded Env, PM, Express, whatever - the nature of Return Service Labels), and you in theory never pay more than the original shipping amount to eBay for those labels.
You might be able to control things issuing your own labels for your particular winter clothing return issues using Parcel Select - dimensional issues don't come into play, but a box (or slightly bigger box) might tip to the next pound, and for zone 8 cost approx $3 more, and buyers are stuck locating or buying a plain box (can't use free USPS boxes at the PO).
Suppose you originally shipped a tshirt using USPS First Class Package in a padded bubble mailer at 15oz rate ($4.66), a return ensues, and you issue a 15oz FCP label yourself for the return. The buyer, however, has already tossed the padded envelope, and instead ships the tshirt back in an Amazon corrugated box they have laying around (ship weight is now 17oz), and dumps it in a USPS mailbox.
That package is no longer a First Class package, but is instead a 2 lb priority mail shipment (> 15.99 oz), and if the USPS APV (Automated Package Verification) system or a PO worker catches it, you would be be post billed for the difference between the original $4.66 paid and $7.10 to $10.80 for the 2 lb PM shipment (depending on the zone). If APV doesn't catch it and a PO worker does and it arrives postage due, I *think* you pay retail Priority rates ($7.25 to $12.90).
That is a simple example, and it gets much, much worse if dimensional weight is involved and your buyer ships it back in a larger box that originally used. In other words, you can't control what/how the buyer will ship, but you will pay for whatever they do when you self issue a return label.
On the other hand, the eBay issued Return Service label goes on whatever the buyer ships it in, you get billed no more than the original shipping cost, and eBay deals with the details of the shipping charges with USPS via their contract terms*
* "eBay, your deal with USPS was for return services for pkgs averaging $6.55 ea postage costs last quarter, but the numbers over 8500 packages shipped show they averaged $6.88. Your new contract rates this quarter will be $6.88 per package" Or something similar.)
In addition, small sellers do not have access to USPS return services via eBay, PayPal, or USPS.com (generally requires large volumes), so you would be issuing "kludged up" return labels with your address as both the from and to, and those labels would be subject to "stale date" issues and possible rejection by overzealous PO employees (you issue label on 8/15 with a ship date of 8/18, buyer dawdles and doesn't post it until 8/22, and PO worker in Chicago says "4 day old stale date" - rejected!) It is rare but can happen.
In addition, a lot of buyer seem to be technologically challenged, and printing an emailed label an impossible task (or exceeds their entitlement levels)
On the other hand, eBay return labels seem to have problems too. Just recently there was a return thread here where buyer claimed eBay return label wasn't accessible, and seller ended up emailing a UPS return label instead (at a far greater cost to seller)
If you have a lot of returns, could be an issue, and you can control return costs using eBay return labels. If very few returns, probably doesn't matter, so nevermind
Just some ramblings and things to think about.
You can't control what your buyers ship returns in, and as you said, buyers generally won't have access to PM PFREs, so would have to ship a winter sweater back in a box.
If you use an eBay return label, the buyer can grab a free Priority Mail box at the PO (or use their own box), tape the label on, away it goes, and you get charged only for the original PFRE amount (and don't have to worry about PM dimensional weight issues and upcharges when the only box the buyer has and uses is a way too big 20x16x15 box from their last Walmart order.
The eBay issued return labels can be slapped on just about anything (plain corrugated, Padded Env, PM, Express, whatever - the nature of Return Service Labels), and you in theory never pay more than the original shipping amount to eBay for those labels.
You might be able to control things issuing your own labels for your particular winter clothing return issues using Parcel Select - dimensional issues don't come into play, but a box (or slightly bigger box) might tip to the next pound, and for zone 8 cost approx $3 more, and buyers are stuck locating or buying a plain box (can't use free USPS boxes at the PO).
Suppose you originally shipped a tshirt using USPS First Class Package in a padded bubble mailer at 15oz rate ($4.66), a return ensues, and you issue a 15oz FCP label yourself for the return. The buyer, however, has already tossed the padded envelope, and instead ships the tshirt back in an Amazon corrugated box they have laying around (ship weight is now 17oz), and dumps it in a USPS mailbox.
That package is no longer a First Class package, but is instead a 2 lb priority mail shipment (> 15.99 oz), and if the USPS APV (Automated Package Verification) system or a PO worker catches it, you would be be post billed for the difference between the original $4.66 paid and $7.10 to $10.80 for the 2 lb PM shipment (depending on the zone). If APV doesn't catch it and a PO worker does and it arrives postage due, I *think* you pay retail Priority rates ($7.25 to $12.90).
That is a simple example, and it gets much, much worse if dimensional weight is involved and your buyer ships it back in a larger box that originally used. In other words, you can't control what/how the buyer will ship, but you will pay for whatever they do when you self issue a return label.
On the other hand, the eBay issued Return Service label goes on whatever the buyer ships it in, you get billed no more than the original shipping cost, and eBay deals with the details of the shipping charges with USPS via their contract terms*
* "eBay, your deal with USPS was for return services for pkgs averaging $6.55 ea postage costs last quarter, but the numbers over 8500 packages shipped show they averaged $6.88. Your new contract rates this quarter will be $6.88 per package" Or something similar.)
In addition, small sellers do not have access to USPS return services via eBay, PayPal, or USPS.com (generally requires large volumes), so you would be issuing "kludged up" return labels with your address as both the from and to, and those labels would be subject to "stale date" issues and possible rejection by overzealous PO employees (you issue label on 8/15 with a ship date of 8/18, buyer dawdles and doesn't post it until 8/22, and PO worker in Chicago says "4 day old stale date" - rejected!) It is rare but can happen.
In addition, a lot of buyer seem to be technologically challenged, and printing an emailed label an impossible task (or exceeds their entitlement levels)
On the other hand, eBay return labels seem to have problems too. Just recently there was a return thread here where buyer claimed eBay return label wasn't accessible, and seller ended up emailing a UPS return label instead (at a far greater cost to seller)
If you have a lot of returns, could be an issue, and you can control return costs using eBay return labels. If very few returns, probably doesn't matter, so nevermind
Just some ramblings and things to think about.
