Problem w/ "Free Returns"

Thats concerning. So far we havent had any buyers use Free Returns. Your experience is our big worry.

Are they being shipped across the country?

My guess would be to send a note to your buyer asking them to ship both pants together in the original box. When the second label doesn’t get used, your money will be credited back to you.

Go ahead and purchase both labels. You can still ask the buyer to ship both in one box. My point was that if one of the labels do not get used, you will get your money back. I think they wait a month or so and then reimburse you.

If the buyer ships back each item in a separate box anyway, then you are screwed.

We haven’t had this experience yet.

Sharyn, I like your solution. Put in one box with one label, do not use the other label. You won’t be charged if it isn’t used.

Good news is…this should be a unique situation. Returns are rare, and returns of multiple items would be even rarer…

Atomic: That may be true, but if the buyer sends both items back, you can refund both items and that will close both returns, and the shipping was only for one label.

Atomic, So, each pair of pants was a separate transaction. You combined them into a single shipment. What I’m not clear on, did you actually combine them for single shipment using ebay’s bulk shipping tool (which then creates one label, and the label’s tracking number is auto loaded into the transactions?)

Hmmm, so ebay can clearly see their own software combined the two items for shipping, but ebay is insisting on two return packages? Definitely something that needs to be brought up to the ebay returns or shipping departments.

I combined two framed paintings into one shipment yesterday, and the cost was more than the buyer paid (my fault, old listings, I had estimated weight but not dimensions, and of course my buyer was in Zone 8), so I’m already down some money on that shipment. Hope he doesn’t return them…

I’m betting that eBay sees these as two separate steps. The sale is one transaction that has its’ own life and history. The shipping label is a separate transaction. The return is processed against the sale, not the shipment.

Imagine if someone purchased two items, they were combined onto one shipment, and they only wanted to return one of the items.

Things can get messy sometimes…

On the returns that I have paid for, it is at the same price as the shipping that I paid for.

Ouch. I would call eBay on that one and ask. We haven’t had anything that was on Priority that has been returned yet. The shoes that we are waiting on the return were Priority, but a regular shoe box.

I wonder if it was because it was Flat Rate, but eBay just uses Priority?

I know that we have this potential issue on Suits. I charge a flat $9.99 Priority for Suits and Sport Coats as I know that they will fit into a Regional A box. I am usually covered on cost, though sometimes the extreme East Coast I lose a little.

Since you can’t put Regional A on the listing, you have to put Priority. So the return label would be Priority and calculated on weight. This may be the issue on your listing.

eBay (Griff through eBay Radio) states that they don’t know what Label you used, they will use the first shipping option you have on the listing for the return trip.

The retail price for a medium flat rate box is $13.65, so $8.06 is actually lower than the discounted rate I usually see on eBay.

Just have to blow off some steam on the subject of free returns. I turned on free returns on May 8th. In general over the last 3 years or so (when I began selling clothing items), I have about 6 – 10 returns in an entire year. I have just received my second return this month for clothing items that “do not fit”. I’ll now be paying the return shipping of course, so I’m out $18.14 for the month of May – $10.23 for a heavy coat and $7.91 for a pair of shoes. At this point I’m failing to see any benefit other than to the very lucky buyers. I would like to hear from others that turned on free returns early to see if they have experienced an increase.

We haven’t seen an increase at all. We were below 2% returns when we started Free Returns about 6 weeks ago. We are at 1.72% returns right now.

No change to us at all.

Maybe just a one time spike. Sometimes these things go in waves….

Yeh, I get it. I’m just saying that the price per box is definitely cheaper and has the discount.

I don’t get this “feature” of the returns policy. If you sent it in one box, you should be able to get it back in one box.