Hello everyone,
I would like to discuss the return rate metric. I feel like their are very many flaws to this metric and would like to see if anyone agrees with anything I am about to write today. I sell in the Cell Phone and Cell phone Accessories category. These categories are notorious for having many returns. If I go over 10%, eBay implements a 4% additional Final Value Fee to the sale. I tend to hover around the 9.25-9.90% range at any given time. I am constantly living in fear that I will go over the 10% mark because at that point, I am no longer profitable, nor does it make sense for me to sell. Now I know many of you might feel like my return rate is high and I deserve to pay the additional 4% but let me point out some major flaws with this metric. This eBay metric records ANY return request opened except for buyer remorse reasons.
1. This metric does NOT descore returns/cases that are found in our favor. This particular flaw is what leads to me having higher than average return rate. Let's say a buyer purchases a phone and cracks the screen on it, at this point they open a return request which I quickly get closed out because I am not at fault for them damaging the phone. Lets say buyer opens a return request stating the phone is not working correctly, but they never send it back (maybe they thought it was defective, but it really wasn't) so I call eBay to get return closed out and its found in my favor. Another example that has happened a lot recently is buyer purchases phone using eBay Global Shipping Program and they claim they receive empty box and open an item not as described. This is a huge scam going on and because I used eBay global shipping program, I am covered 100% and return closed out. Yet the damage is done and it counts against me. I can go on and on with situations like these that I deal with on a daily basis. I probably get 30% of returns opened found in my favor. Not to mention, these are a couple of the exact message eBay sends me after each return is closed/reversed...
"This case is now closed. You are not required to reimburse the buyer or eBay, and this case will not be counted in your seller performance evaluation."
"The case will not affect your seller performance. Any feedback left for this transaction will be removed."
So what is it eBay? Do these returns/cases affect our seller performance or not because you clearly state they do not, yet the return rate metric is still impacted which in turn can lead to higher Final Value Fees.
2. The next flaw is that now that we offer FREE returns for defective items, I get so many returns being opened as "Not As Described" when they are really Buyers Remorse. By opening as Not As Described, they avoid having to pay return shipping and it causes my return rate to skyrocket. I would say at least 20% of the returns I get are like this. They claim the screen doesn't turn on or phone doesn't charge and they want their money back and as soon as I get the phone, it is in perfect working order.
I really feel this metric needs to be looked at and regulated and give sellers a bit more protection. Its not fair that unfair buyer practices are causing us to pay their return shipping and on top of that increasing the risk for me to begin paying higher eBay fees. And it definitely is not fair that returns found in our favor for very obvious reasons are increasing our return rate for no reason. Ebay, please fix this asap!
