Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › New To Me Change With Returns
- This topic has 18 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 9 months ago by
Terri.
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11/09/2018 at 9:31 am #51451
So I just got off the phone with Anchor Support with a thorny situation. A buyer filed for a return due to fit. She prints out the label and mails it back to me. Package is returned to her because it was not deliverable as addressed even though it’s my post office address that I’ve been using for years. So she has the dress sent back to her, she opens a case for a refund, eBay decides in her favor so she gets the money and the dress. Can you say complete bullcrap?
But during the phone call I learned this….
When you get a return for fit, you now have to refund their original shipping. This is also the case for buyer’s remorse now. This must be a very recent change as I hadn’t noticed it as of yet. She said the original option to choose between refunding cost of item or cost of item plus original shipping was a test program and that it’s now over.
I am so pissed.
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11/09/2018 at 9:39 am #51452
AtomicStar was that a free return?
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11/09/2018 at 9:43 am #51453
Nancy, no. Like I said, she stated that this is new and will be for all returns.
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11/09/2018 at 10:59 am #51455
AtomicStar – THIS HAPPENED TO ME THIS WEEK – i do NOT have Free Returns, but based on a false INAD and the following story I am just about to assume it doesn’t even matter.
Buyer gets jacket. Jacket does not fit (YES, size and measurements and even my own style notes added about fit). Buyer even said in message to me “I did read your notes, but I guess I guessed wrong.” Cool, no problem at all. But then I see I would be paying the return shipping. What? NO. So I told buyer to donate the jacket, and i just issued them refund b/c I was NOT going to pay another $8 for shipping. Ebay is very slick though. When you let them keep item, and click “refund the buyer” It posts the sale amount and then sort of suggests by way of a radio button to add in original shipping as a refund, too. NOPE.
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11/09/2018 at 12:51 pm #51458
I don’t normally check the Ebay Community Forums over on eBay but I will be interested to read the comments over there when this gets out. I’d like to say that this will cause me to move my clothing inventory over to Poshmark but after trying it a few months ago with a handful of listings, I hated it so much that I ended that experiment. So I guess I’m stuck with free return shipping on ebay. Barf.
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11/09/2018 at 1:20 pm #51460
Julie, It does appear that it’s being forced on us.
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11/09/2018 at 1:45 pm #51461
I always go to the official eBay stated policy: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/handle-return-request-seller?id=4115
AtomicStar seems to be correct if Im reading correctly:
The buyer will send the item back to you for a full refund – depending on your returns policy, this may or may not include the original shipping costs. You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount.I’ll be surprised if eBay doesnt get a lot of pushback on this new return system. Confusing why eBay keeps always changing. Just pick a policy and let us live with it for at least a little while.
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11/09/2018 at 2:39 pm #51462
It’s not totally clear but I think this may only be in the case where you have free shipping:
“Accept the return – The buyer will send the item back to you for a full refund – depending on your returns policy, this may or may not include the original shipping costs. If you offered free shipping because you included shipping costs in the listing price, you’ll need to refund the buyer the full amount that they paid. You can’t deduct the original shipping costs from any refund amount.”
I think the last sentence is still clarifying the previous sentence where the seller was offering free shipping.
It would be nice if eBay would write rules clearly.
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11/09/2018 at 4:57 pm #51464
Yes, I think the point of that para is just that *if you have free shipping*, you always eat the original shipping cost. Kinda makes sense as otherwise you’d have to give ebay proof of your original postage cost… can of worms etc.
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11/09/2018 at 5:19 pm #51465
Huh, then there’s no official language on eBay that I can find that backs up Atomic Star’s assertion that the return refund policy has changed. Not saying its not true, but it would need to be documented on the eBay website if its official.
I asked for evidence on their site because sometimes eBay reps say things that arent true, or the rep has misinterpreted a policy.
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11/09/2018 at 5:37 pm #51466
Chiming back in, I don’t offer free shipping. The rep stated that this change in policy was new and the original option to fully refund with or without shipping is a thing of the past. That all returns for fit and buyer’s remorse will require original shipping refunded. I hope she is mistaken.
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11/10/2018 at 9:15 am #51470
I just did a refund this morning and the option to not include original shipping was still there. However, it was a rug, not an INAD. The day before I did a refund on shoes that did not fit and, again, the option to not include original shipping in the refund was there.
I’ll stop selling clothes and shoes if ebay institutes such an asinine policy.
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11/10/2018 at 4:15 pm #51485
pythonesk,
Thanks for sharing your experience. That’s very re-assuring that you still see the option to not refund original shipping, since I have a “didn’t like it” return coming my way (with a buyer who volunteered that she is very happy to pay for return shipping!) and I do not want to be out original shipping.Atomic Star,
Did you call ebay to appeal the decision on the case and speak to someone in the appeals dept, or did you just talk to a front-line rep? -
11/10/2018 at 9:13 pm #51493
Sonia, I have anchor support. I talked to my post master and as it turns out, eBay issued a duplicate shipping label which is why the package was returned to sender. I took a picture of the report and called eBay for the 4th time (yes, really) and finally got an anchor support rep who had common sense. She appealed the case and found it in my favor. I got my money back, but the other lady did too and got to keep the dress. If I could run eBay for just one day, oh how things would be different.
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11/10/2018 at 9:29 pm #51494
I’m glad you got your money back! Guess ebay decided it was worth it to them to let the buyer keep the dress and their money rather than cause them more hassle.
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11/11/2018 at 9:59 am #51496
As a relatively new seller with limited inventory (~400 items), I have been less interested in selling clothing except for shoes. I find there is tons of competition so that Thrift Stores are not great for sourcing, margins seem pretty low (buy at $4 and sell at $15 to $30), it can be difficult to photograph well, there are endless brands and I am just not that interested in learning it all.
Potentially losing money on returns for fit is a nice capstone on why not to go this route with my store. My hat is off to those that make a success of this world.
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11/12/2018 at 10:09 am #51510
Aperture, for my business model, $4 to $25-$30 is pretty much my thing. I’m super happy with that roi, but I run a volume business. My return rate is 2.5% which is ok. Thrift stores are my normal, but once a month or so I get a volume buy with my auction house connection which gives me items .50 to $1 which really makes a difference to my bottom line. There’s this youtuber I watch on occasion who drones on and on about being proud that he sells nothing under $35, but yet he had a $400 week last week. I sell lots of $20 items and had a $1400 week. So I’ll sell those lower dollar items because they pay the bills.
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11/15/2018 at 4:05 pm #51769
Just refunded a “didn’t like it” return and didn’t have to refund original shipping.
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11/15/2018 at 5:59 pm #51774
Sonia, I had two “didn’t fit” returns over the past couple of weeks and had the same screen that you shared.
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