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Jay, you say “$7 return shipping cost” for a free return.
But don’t you also have to refund the initial shipping cost as well – making it a total of $14? Otherwise it’s not really a free return. No?In other words, I thought free return meant that at the end of the transaction, the buyer is not out any money. I’ve looked through some ebay pages trying to find a definitive answer, but I can’t find one.
sounds like you have a reasonable, logical system in place to help you decide what to do. That must help a lot in reducing/eliminating angst about these problematic customer situations!
Ugh – I forgot to subscribe to my own post! So I didn’t realize til just now that people actually responded. Hate it when that happens 🙂
Thanks for sharing your input. I’m in New England. Upon reading some more about this type of thing, I think they may be sometimes called Chinese auctions.
Sharyn – THANK YOU for that great advice re: not getting more tickets than I can handle scanning quickly! Had not thought of that. I will definitely keep that in mind if I go.
I’m hoping that since it’s an auction company holding it, the items will be of more interest than the stuff I’ve typically seen at similar local community chinese auctions that are held during holiday weekends (and where you don’t have to be present to win).
I’ll report back if I end up going.
I agree with AdventureE. It was not your responsibility to provide shipping materials and taping that would last 2 trips.
I disagree that Free Shipping is a dumb bait and switch. Everyone (buyers and sellers) knows that there’s no such thing as free shipping and it’s just clever marketing speak for “Shipping included”. Buyers (myself included) just happen to prefer to see a single combined price as they shop around, and we’re not interested in the details of shipping costs. I don’t like (and don’t offer) it as a seller, b/c I’m too lazy to figure out (and track) by how much I would have to increase prices overall to cover the cost of shipping cross country once in a while. Plus I didn’t want to have to refund the initial cost of shipping on a buyer’s remorse return. But if I move to free returns, then I won’t be able to avoid that issue anyway, so Free Shipping (ie Shipping Included) becomes a less unattractive option to me as a seller.
Yeah, but it sure is great to be a babied buyer. That’s why I love Zappos! Or I used to, when I had a high paying job and would buy new shoes regularly. The best way to think about it IMHO is that the cost of the free return (which is not just free return shipping, but also means original shipping gets refunded) is built into the price. In the Zappos case, they definitely win by selling a LOT more shoes than they would if returns weren’t free.
That said, it’s still going to be a bitter pill when those first few free returns come in. Ending up selling nothing and being out $15-20 for shipping x 2!? Eek. Here’s hoping it’s an easily acquired taste…
OK, so they really need to remove pages that say “what changes with restocking fees” that provide the wrong/outdated information that you can get to via links on the Spring Update.
I’m bummed about the restocking fee. It was a nice deterrent for would-be buyers looking to rent an item, and even more, pay for my time/effort handling the return. But I’ll get over it. Just calls for raising prices all around! And making sure to source things that aren’t part of the race to the bottom. Hard to compete with people who have created their own sweatshops.
I just had one that went just as Elle described. I asked the buyer for photos which he did send, then i accepted the return, and once I received the item I called ebay and they had me do the paypal refund while on the phone with them and closed in my favor. Crossing my fingers that buyer doesn’t appeal – we’ll see.
In the past, I’ve also done it the other way that LAWoman describes, where ebay told me to accept return but not print out label and tell buyer to ship on his own dime, and then called them after i received it and all was resolved.
Flippertools provides a nice summary of TRS (no plus) benefits.
http://www.flippertools.com/articles/ebay-top-rated-seller-vs-trs-plus.htmlThe $30 promoted listings credit and $100 free usps insurance are b/c of having a store, not TRS.
I was most struck by the announcement that re-stocking fees are going away, which I found here:
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-spring/simplified-returns.html
“Restocking fees will no longer be a return option.”
However, as I browsed around the other info on the update, I found a contradictory statement here:
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/faq/returns.html#m22_tb_a5__6
“What’s changing with restocking fees?
Restocking fees will be offered to all sellers inside a structured pull-down menu located in your return policy. When you select the restocking fee, it will show on your item page, and be automatically deducted from the refund when the buyer chooses the following return reasons:Doesn’t fit
Changed Mind
Found a better price
Just didn’t like it
Ordered by mistake”So now I don’t know what to think.
Thanks T-Satt. That makes sense. So all I have to do for a return is put the item (and it’s associated cost) back into inventory.
I have actually been doing that all along, but the way I was doing it in GoDaddy was causing some other unintended consequences that only really mattered when the purchase and return were in different years, resulting in my total confusion.
All is clear now, thanks!
“Whether you put it as a purchase, or just add it to your list of inventory, it doesn’t matter.”
Actually I think it does matter a lot that it is in both places, as “inventory purchases during the year” and “year-end inventory” are 2 different values that are asked for on different lines of the COGS section of Schedule C.
Lets say your inventory at beginning of year was 0, then all you bought in the entire year was a $10 item and didn’t sell anything, so your inventory at the end of the year is $10, and purchases for the year was $10 also. Then the schedule C calculation makes your COGS $0, which is correct. But if you don’t put $10 down in both places (eg, you only put it down in value of inventory), then your COGS will be off by $10.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!!
I knew there would be someone here who would know. Yay Scavenger Life!pmj – lol. I’m glad yours is alive and not on a tie. Much cuddlier that way. 🙂
“Then pretend you bought another $10 item, and record that as an inventory purchase.”
Yes – makes complete sense now. Thanks junque redux!!
Your explanations are very intuitive – much appreciated.
Ooh I just found a RL sheepdog tie for boys – still can’t tell if its the same breed as the one I have.
http://www.oyfc.co.uk/cheap-ralph-lauren-sheepdog-silk-repp-tie-navy-boys-92627-uk-p-58.html
