Quote:
Originally Posted by martyp
My email said that I have to change all my listings starting on November 1 to allow for returns by Feb 1 to keep my discount on my fees. On January, I can change them back. It is only 2500 listings, so that won't be too bad.
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You can change the return policy in bulk on ebay or I assume they'll have another update where you can update this in TurboLister. I don't anticipate that being too difficult.
However, this holiday return policy is nuts. This policy is just matching what many large internet retailers including Amazon provided this past Christmas season, so it is not something completely new. However for small time ebay sellers like me, it will be difficult to keep the funds from all holiday sales available for nearly 90 days in case a buyer wants to return the item. In addition, buyers can try to flip the item for a higher price, and if it doesn't sell, just return it. Or price compare where if the same item sells later for a lower price, return the higher priced item. Somewhat good for the buyer, bad for the seller. It'll be interesting to see what some of the major consignors like PWCC and probstein123 do since it is very likely that they will have paid out their consignors during this time, but then could get a return. I think PWCC already says that their return policy is not a no questions ask return policy, but only if the item does not match the description in the listing. This may be something that more sellers turn to, such as you can only return a graded card if there was a defect in the card that did not appear in the scan and was not described in the listing. Another strange thing about the holiday return policy is that you can return an item for as many as 90 days after purchase. Yet, you can only log an ebay case for only 45 days after purchase (and leave feedback). How are you going to return an item or leave feedback after 45 days (and before 90) if the seller suddenly reneges on allow returns through end of January?
The defects predicators are the following:
◦Detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
◦Detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time
◦Negative or neutral feedback
◦Return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described
◦eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described
◦Seller-cancelled transactions
Previously DSR's for 1,2 were flagged for item as described. Therefore, ebay is toughening up on this policy where even 3's are a strike against a seller. For shipping time, the policy is slightly more lenient as 2's no longer count as strikes. And as others have said, communication and shipping fees are no longer flagged. I'm assuming that this will lead to many more sellers increasing shipping fees across the board.
Another thing is that most returns can be thought of as strikes also since returns initiated for item not as described or seller-cancelled transactions are flagged. Therefore, if a buyer returns an item because of buyer's remorse, a seller will likely be flagged for this.
Top rated sellers will need to keep the defect rating below 2%. This does provide more leeway than the previous 0.5% .
As a seller, I'm not really sure whether I like these new changes. The holiday return policy, I definitely do not like. The new defect rating, I'm not sure. It seems like it would be easier to maintain the Top Rated status, but I'm not positive. Will have to see how it plays out.
03-12-2014, 11:20 AM
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