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Hi all. As most of us recall a while ago Ebay changed their policy that returns would no longer be counted as a defect if the buyer and seller reached a resolution without ebay having to intervene. Well today I received an email from ebay that states,
“Your returns are too high. Julie, we’ve noticed that the number of your returns marked as “item not as described” is very high.* Very high returns have a negative impact on your sales and listing visibility. Take action now to improve your buyers’ confidence.”
I get a lot of returns because I sell NWT swimsuits, a notoriously hard to fit item and something that measurements really can’t help with. I occasionally get items returned as “Item not as described” when item was obviously just as described, buyer probably did not want to pay return shipping. In the past I’ve always said, “Please return item and I’ll refund money” and then I did not bother to fight the reason because it’s not been worth my time – I just chalk it up as the price of doing business. BUT evidently I should have fought the reason because Ebay is stating that 4 “item not as described” in 1 year is “too high” and thus my listing visibility is being impacted.
Is this news to anyone else or just me? How do I go about fighting an “item not as described” return when its my word against buyers? For example, I sold new in box trinket dish. I bought dozens of them direct from the retailer’s website on black Friday. Buyer said the dish was not as described because the retailer’s price tag wasn’t on the dish. It was an online order from the retailer so they didn’t put a price tag on it. Will Ebay remove an “item not as described” for something like that?
I’m currently on hold with Ebay now, hoping to get some resolution.
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–Do you have a link to where eBay says they wont count INAD cases as defects? I kind of remember this, but it would help if we could see how eBay words it.
–Glad you’re calling eBay. Fighting INAD cases are on a case by case situation. Depends what the buyer says. If its just “doesnt fit”, then that’s easy since you give measurements. The case of the new item not having a sticker sounds easy since you (I assume) didnt say or show that it had a sticker.
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JulieB, probably not what you want to hear, but offering free return shipping is likely to cut down on INAD claims
I don’t think ebay counts returns as “defects” anymore, but at the time they changed that policy I do think they said they would still be tracking returns and indicating situations where the return rate seems high.
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MyCottage – I have a strong feeling that ebay is going to suggest exactly that when I finally get a rep on the phone. I may stop selling certain types of items for awhile.
It’s one thing to get an email that my returns are high – it’s another thing for Ebay to say that my items visibility will suffer when ebay stated previously that returns are not defects. Now I have to waste my time and ebay’s time to fight unfair INADs.
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https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy?id=4347#section2
Click the link and scroll half way down the page to “Transaction defect rate requirements.” There are only 2 things that result in a defect: seller canceling order and a case having to be closed without seller resolution. So while INADs aren’t included on that page as a “defect” I feel that they are still being treated as such if ebay is going to limit my items visibility.
And you’re correct, I did not state that the New item had the retailers price tag on it nor did I photograph the item with a price tag on it. Items does have the original box which has the retailer provided item details label on it. While not a “price tag” it has retailer’s SKU and item name.
This is particularly upsetting because I’ve always been very careful with my listings and I felt that it was above and beyond good customer service to allow a buyer to return an item for any reason and to not fight them on the return shipping.
Still on hold with ebay – 44 minutes now….
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Cool. You’re armed with the exact info so ask eBay. I know it sucks to be on hold, but that’s just part of the deal of any business if you want to know where you stand.
Our defect rate is 0%. I know we’ve had several INAD cases in the past several months, so I;m wondering if this message was coming from a different angle.
Just curious: what’s your return percentage rate?
It’ll be here: https://sellerstandards.ebay.com/dashboard?region=US
Just scroll down the page and they’ll break it down for you.-
My return rate is 3.94%, which is 37 out of 938 transactions. 31 of those 37 were for clothing and most of the 31 were for swimsuits. Darn those swimsuits! They’ve made me a TON of money but the returns!
Still on hold….at 2 hours and 8 minutes now. Working while waiting….
T
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I received that same email. It told me that my returns were average for my type of seller, but they wanted to offer help on how to reduce returns.
The email said that I had one return. How is that not below average?
It had a link “see your returns”. When I clicked on it, it says “You do not have returned items for the time period you selected”.
I think that this is another time where eBay puts out a general message to all sellers based on some kind of data, but the data is somehow misused or just wrong in the first place. I think that they just f’d up.
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Yep, I bet hundreds of sellers who got an email are calling ebay right now. So far I’ve been waiting for an hour and five minutes. This is why I never bothered to call ebay in the past over an unfair INAD. Waiting on hold for this long to save $6 return shipping wasn’t worth it.
Groooaaaannnnn….They need to change their hold music. It’s the same 2 lines of the same song over and over and over.
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I just got a message entitled “Account Health” from Ebay. They say my INAD returns, all 1 of them, are about average with other sellers, but it would be such a great idea to boost seller confidence and offer free returns…
Of course the 1 return from from a grumpy buyer who didn’t take the time to read the item description.. Maybe I should start fighting all my INAD returns too, since Ebay seems to be using them as leverage to push their agenda…
Then again.. why bother. This too shall pass.
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I got an email this morning from eBay advising that I am losing my TRS status bc I haven’t sold enough items for the year. I checked and it said I had only sold 66 items and my rating was Average. According to the Sales tab under Performance, I’ve sold about three times the requirement for TRS.
Then, this afternoon, all my metrics changed and I’m back to Top Rated, with 519 listings rated TRS+
O.o?
I think eBay has Glitch Elves messing with us Trash Elves!
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We just got the message too. Says we had eight INAD cases in the past twelve months. (We sold over 3000 items in that same time period.)
When I click on “See your returns”, it pulls up a page that only shows one INAD item.
As others have said, eBay’s not showing a consistent picture of what’s happening.
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I have three ebay accounts. My main account got the message for a high rate of returns and my 2nd store got the “your account health” email that basically said the return rate was normal and my third account which is the newest and smallest didn’t get that message at all.
I do feel that buyers who don’t want to pay for return shipping call items not as described.
I agree that this is a way to convince sellers to provide free returns.
Bleck. This makes me feel a bit Eeyore-ish about this aspect of eBay.
But, to put my problem solver thinking cap on, I think I am going to switch over most of my clothing listings to free shipping and raise the prices to compensate.
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Did you ever get a customer service rep on the phone to answer tour questions?
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No. I waited for 3 hours! I wish I was exaggerating. I had the phone on speaker and just worked while I waited. I finally had to hang up in order to head to the post office. I think the repetitive ebay hold music got to my psyche; last night I woke myself, husband and cat with a sudden scream in my sleep.
Based on everyone’s comments about receiving similar emails yesterday I imagine the switch boards are swamped so I’m going to wait a few days before trying to call again.
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I see some folks mentioning no returns or fewer han ebay is saying when they look at their returns….I suggest going all the way over to the right , I think you’ll see something like “closed returns”….that’s where your older returns will be. Hope this makes sense.
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Your correct. Wow, eBay does not make that clear. But even when you click on “closed return and replacements”, there’s no way to separate out INAD returns from simple “changed mind”.
The bigger question I have: Is eBay creating some new standard?
When I look at our dashboard, we’re at 0% defects: https://sellerstandards.ebay.com/dashboard?region=US
Everything great.So when did this “return rate” become a thing?
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right, and how many of these returns were never returned? lots of people open return cases for all reasons and never return the item. also, as mentioned, tons of buyer remorse items are opened as INAD. last one i had was “this scarf isn’t as soft as described” so she claimed INAD/defective. not sure how to describe softness. but that case, i disputed the reason for return and it eventually was closed in my favor. are those metrics in that email?
i’m thinking that you all are on to something about ebay trying to push the free returns.
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I feel sorry for customer service reps right now.
Ebay is definitely trying to show us how to ‘improve’ our business. They probably believe INADs will be eliminated if we offer free returns because the reason most people use this metric is to get their item shipped back for free.
They may also be trying to tackle the China issue because their stuff is junk and they want a way to suppress them. If that is the case they are hurting a lot of smaller volume sellers in the process since return rates are a ratio.
Colleen -
I didn’t get the letter. I’ve had one return in the last 12 months, and it was for fit (a coat). I think ebay recently said—unfortunately, I don’t remember where i heard it, that the overall average return rate on ebay is about 3%. I’m quite certain that’s a lot lower than ecommerce generally. I remember thinking “that can’t be right” but pretty sure that was the number they gave. But be that as it may, I wonder to what extent these letters are using a seller’s worst stat? What I mean is this:
My 12 month OVERALL return rate was: .47%. But notice that ebay provides three ways to loo at this: category: my rate within clothing is: 2.7%. Then there’s condition (used). My rate there is .66 %. Then there’s price (over $100): my rate there is 16.67% (I don’t sell a lot of over $100 items). So, depending on which one they choose to use, my return rate can be described as anywhere from .47% to 16.67% This information might be of some use to a seller, especially a seller who is selling new products, but is of very little use to me. If my buyer had chosen an INAD reason , then this one return probably could have been used to justify a warning. This is just ridiculous.
One last thing: Frankly, I really doubt that this is having much real impact on search placement. There are a lot of factors in Best Match/Cassini, and I doubt this sort of thing (unless the rate of return is huge) is likely to be a huge factor. Also, I assumed they would use it as a factor in Best Match—yes, they eliminated it as a factor in the defect rate, but that has to do with seller status and even possible suspension. They never promised us it wouldn’t be a Best Match consideration. It might not have been used that way in the past, but that’s only because they didn’t have the data to create these ludicrous “benchmarks”.
I DO think having the benchmarks and this information can be useful for some sellers, particularly of new products. If it’s obvious hat one or two products are causing most returns, it might be wise to make some adjustments. But for one-off sellers, it’s not very helpful. Once again, it’s ebay misunderstanding the value of its data, just like most of the price recommendations I get—-may well be useful for sellers of new products, but usually laughable for my stuff.
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We just received a Return request from a buyer who bought a hunting vest. He said it was “item not as described” because it has marks on the INSIDE OF THE POCKETS.
Ryanne even messaged to clarify if he really meant he’s concerned about marks on the inside of the pockets that you cant see. He simply said “yes”.
This is a great case of buyers remorse. This is what shows up in these new eBay stats.
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…and that is my phrase of the day “the INSIDE of the pockets?!” just tried to call anchor support to ask if that can really be considered a valid return reason and i was on hold for 45 minutes and just hung up so i could do other things. guess we’re all not the only ones calling ebay about this stuff!
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When I look at these stats, it appears that the return stats are for one year. However defects are evaluated every 90 days. Am I missing something?
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thebugman, this has nothing to do with defects. defects directly impact your seller status (TRS, Above Average, Below Average). While apparently your return rate can impact , to some unknown extent, your search visibility, it doesn’t impact your seller status. Personally, I suspect it doesn’t even impact your visibility all that much, but ebay will be happy to let you think it does.
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Amazingly, I just had an excellent experience with eBay customer service. It was my first. I sold a pair of pants. my listing title included the phrase: size 4 petite, I took a photo of the tag which showed “4P”, and I added measurements in the details section and the description. The buyer never opened a case or contacted me. She just left neutral feedback stating: pants are for a nig woman. I think she meant big and that nig was a typo because the n and b keys are adjacent on the keyboard. I called eBay and stayed calm, like J&R always say to do, I even had a sense of humor. I got transferred 4 times, the last transfer was to the appeals department. The gal who transferred me must have written something positive because i believe he was impacted positively by whatever she wrote. Ebay removed the neutral feedback because I had completely described and photographed the size information and had already advised the buyer that I would accept a return. I think it may be worth fighting every single time.
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Julie B and Ryanne, can you choose the have eBay call me option? It works very well for me. They give an estimated wait time and always call sooner and I don’t have to listen that horrible hold music. I got the account health email and was told my return rate is .84% and average is .56%. Five of my items did not meet buyer’s expectations. The annoying thing is one was my fault I missed a defect. The rest were faulty not as described claims (color) and one was a music box sold through Global Shipping Program. It went to Australia and was smashed. Thankfully it made it to Kentucky fine so I didn’t have to refund but I really do not think that should have been counted… So, the data seems flawed. And yes I fight every return for not as described if it is used incorrectly. My latest one was a return where she said in her return there was nothing wrong with the sweater but she chose defective as the return reason since she already had one in that color. I tried something new with this one. I accepted the return without talking to her, (it never works anyway) figured out what her refund would have been minus return shipping and restocking fee and when I got it back called ebay and refunded over the phone. No stress. And case closed in my favor. I sell mostly clothes and so returns are part of that but ouch when they try to game the system it gets expensive! Not looking forward to free returns and no restocking fees. Funny thing is I never had restocking fees but was advised by an ebay rep to use them. 🙂 Guess I will enjoy them while I have them!
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anchor support does not seem to have the ‘call back’ option, you’d think it would!
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I received mail as well about this. Got pissed for a few seconds, checked my stats out quickly, nothing crazy going on with my returns, promptly deleted the mail, started listing. I refuse to be tossed and turned with every little or even big blurp. I just keep doing the next right thing and well, here I am still. If I was more dependent on eBay to survive and thrive, I suppose I wouldn’t be so flip but again, there was nothing I could have done differently in regards to my returns. If I tried, I may have compromised my integrity on one, received a neutral or negative feedback on another, and so on. You fix one metric and risk injuring another. Just keep on keeping on and work that which is good. In any case, good to see I have so much company, but people, never loose your motivation!
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totommyto,
I didn’t get the email, probably because my one return in the last 12 months was for fit, no INADs. But if I had received it, I’m with you….quick look, and done with it. If by reduced visibility ebay means return rate is a factor in Best Match, I can live with that, because I doubt it is a major factor….there are a lot of factors in Best Match. But more to the point, most of us here sell one-offs, not multiple quantity items, and we should always remember: much of this stuff is really aimed at the multi-quantity sellers, because the data is meaningful at that level. Like eBay’s price recommendations: the few I get are often laughable, but that’s because ebay has so little data for my type of stuff, But multi quantity ne2w merchandise sellers have told me they actually benefit from some of that stuff_ ebay has enough data to provide pretty good suggestions.Same sort of thing here. Return data for someone with tens of thousands of sales for multi quantity listings can be useful: a seller with a high rate in a particular category would be wise to re-evaluate his listings, maybe even switch suppliers. But for most of us, this data isn’t very helpful. A few false INADs tell me nothing about the quality of my listings or items, and even the real INADs aren’t likely to tell me much that I can do anything about.
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Well, take comfort in this….
IF eBay is implementing some kind of INAD metric into search, nothing will change. Who of us never gets INADS? I sold 2,700 items last year. Some people wanted to dodge return shipping, so they filed INAD. I can’t see how this will change much because if you sell on eBay, you will get an INAD at some point or another. Nearly impossible to dodge. So if we all go to the bottom of search, that’s where we will all be together.
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