Not Accepting Returns, 2 day Shipping, How Long Can It Last ?

[Mississippi Pickers]

Hello community and Happy Memorial Day to all of you. First I would like to thank all of our veterans for their service. I myself served with pride in the US Air Force back in the early 80’s.

On to the question. I turned off returns in November of 2018 and I have sold probably close to 200 items since then and have had zero cases opened against me. I sell 99% clothing, I do sell the occasional oddity but really it’s mostly just clothes.

My question is how long do you guys or gals think this can go on and will it matter if someone does open a case as long as I am willing to quickly resolve it without ebay getting involved?

On May 22nd I officially past 7 months without a single return.

Oh yeah I only do 2 day shipping as well. I currently have a pretty high sell through rate, like 11%, so at what point do you all think by not doing next day shipping I will get knocked down in listings rank? I really enjoy only having to deal with the post office 3 days a week.

If any of you have already been down this road and have some insight to share…. I’m listening.

Thanks!
Tony

[Jay]

I’d say keep doing what you’re doing. No one knows whats inside the black box that is eBay’s algorithm. I bet the lack of returns probably has more to do with how well you’re photographing and listing.

[Mississippi Pickers]

I’m not that great at anything really, I try to be truthful and accurate.I thought it might have something to do with the fact I am below a certain number of listings? Maybe if you go over some magic ebay number your held to a higher standard? all these crazy thoughts go through my head Jay.

[Temudgin]

Back at ya zoomie and thank you for your service! I jumped out of many perfectly good USAF C-130s etc in the ‘80s but it wasn’t because I did not trust you all to land them safely. 🙂

Regarding INAD risks, I posted this a couple months ago:

Aside from the actual loss from the specific transaction, there are two possible seller account impacts with INAD returns. The first is to your Transaction Defect Rate, visible on Your Seller Level page in the Seller Dashboard. INADs have no impact on your Transaction Defect Rate so long as they are not “closed without seller resolution”. Ebay says: “A case closed without seller resolution is any case the seller is unable to resolve with the buyer prior to the buyer asking us to step in and help with a request, or escalating a case to PayPal for review, and eBay or PayPal determines the seller is responsible.” The Transaction Defect Rate is used to assess your Seller Level, such as Top Rated. Obviously the Transaction Defect Rate is under your control and that is not a reason to contest an INAD so long as you take care of business.

The second possible impact with INAD returns is to your Service Metrics, and this I think is what you’re driving at because ALL INADs (and Item Not Received cases) – whether you resolve them or not – count towards your Service Metrics. Service Metrics are determined by comparison with your peers in specific categories. On the 20th of each month eBay calculates the Service Metrics, counting your INADS/INRs for the past 3 months for sellers with 400 or more transactions in that time, or the past 12 months for sellers with fewer than 400 transactions during the last 3 months.

If you have a “very high” percentage of INAD/INR transactions compared to your peers (whether or not you resolve them), you “might be subject to” an additional 4% FVF for listings in the categories where you’re very high. This is where the mere fact of an INAD can hurt you, if you get many of them.

See https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-performance-policy/service-metrics-policy?id=4769 for the policy and https://www.ebay.com/sh/prf/service-metrics in order to see your current service metrics.

So with selling clothing, at the rate you’re going so long as you resolve any cases that come up, you’ll be fine since clothing sellers have a high rate of INAD/INRs and you’re compared with your peers.

[Mississippi Pickers]

Thanks Temudgin ! and Thank you for your service too !

That is very useful information. I think as long as I am not willing to do FREE returns whether I take returns or not, I am going to face the higher possibility of an INAD to get that free return shipping so I might as well keep going with the NO RETURNS for now.

I noticed in that article that I am being compared to other sellers who have NO RETURNS rather than being compared to everybody so that is really interesting. They also have to price the way I do and deliver the way I do for them to be a peer so that reduces the amount of people I am being compared to dramatically.

I also notices that it is based on your number of items you have sold so looks like if we are really starting to crank out the sales like over 300 per month then we will be held to a higher standard but it goes away every 3 months so just have to be really careful i guess at that point not to get sloppy.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated !

[Mississippi Pickers]

This will be my final update on this subject, I have had no returns for nearly 1 year now and have had zero complaints. I am very much attentive to whatever it is I am putting up so there are no surprises for the buyer but I think I have also been quite lucky.

In the beginning this is easy for someone like me with under 500 listings but as you scale up it becomes harder and harder to keep that level of meticulousness up, just because your having to go through so much inventory daily.

Starting at 500 listings I intend to start offering free returns just because I don’t think I could go much past that without missing something and it is also just fair to the buyer because not every pair of shoes fit just right and not every pair of jeans do either.

So just to wrap it up it was an interesting experiment and I can say now YES it is possible to have a no returns policy and be successful with it but I don’t recommend it just because as a seller I don’t think it’s a good business practice even through I did it for a year. If your going to try having a no return policy my advise would be to be very meticulous when listing your items and mention any flaw no matter how small.

Good luck !
Tony

[Jay]

So you havent had a single buyer want to return an item just because they’ve changed their mind? And you sell clothes?

Im super impressed! Seems like an impossible feat.

Doe anyone even ask if they can return an item? If so, how do they react to your message about no returns?

[Mississippi Pickers]

no one has asked about returning an item and my assumption is that if they did start the return process and put for fit or color or whatever, the system simply told them the item could not be returned for that reason.

It could also be that no one wanted to return anything for a year and that seems nearly impossible. It’s been a fun and interesting experiment but I don’t think it is something I would want to do permanently, just a bad business policy really. I think you and Ryanne have made the right decision with free returns and I intend on following your example with that policy as well.

Tony

[Jay]

If it works, keep your no-return policy.

[sonia]

Have you considered offering returns, just not free ones?

[Mississippi Pickers]

Jay – It’s working but I feel like it’s just not right not accepting returns, I dunno just feels wrong somehow. I want my customers to be happy and that’s really all it is. I know it’s just business but I want to do right by the people giving us this great life.

Sonia – I thought about it and yeah I may do that if I start accepting free returns and it becomes a huge problem I will definitely go to 30 day customer paid returns. My intention right now is to have a return budget around $200.00 and hopefully that little amount set aside will last for several months if not an entire year. I have no idea what kind of return rate we will get if we offer free returns but I am hoping it will be minimal and a non issue.

Having a no returns policy has been great but now I am feeling a little guilty and I want my customers to have a great experience with us which I think most do but having free returns would make it even better imho.

Tony

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