eBay have begun the process of removing returns information from listings. Previously a sellers would select from a drop down box specifying whether they’d accept returns for 7, 14, or 30 days of receipt. This option is being removed from listing tools and sellers will need to include the information within their main returns policy.
This change was announced back in August and if you’ve not already updated your returns policy you’ll soon not be displaying a period in which returns are accepted.
Business sellers should remember that although the law specifies returns must be accepted for a minimum of 7 working days from receipt of the item, eBay insist sellers accept returns for at least 14 days from receipt. This is to give buyers enough time to let the seller know about the cancellation and post the item back.
If you’ve not already updated your returns policy it’s time to get the job done – if you don’t specify a returns period the law mandates your buyers have up to 3 months and 7 days to change their mind and request a return for a full refund.
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32 Responses
Without trawling through vast posts and what not, why on earth did eBay not just default the box to 14, then if buyers wanted to offer longer then they could change it?
What am I missing please?
Firstly because non-business sellers don’t have to offer returns at all, secondly because you might want to offer 21 days, 30 days, 3 months and 7 days, or even longer. Mind you why it may take a buyer 3 months and 7 days to change their mind is beyond me 😯
Well I may get around to it or I may not tbh, and if as a result of my not doing it I get booted it will be eBays loss not mine! All it means is I will just give google the full share of my monthly marketing budget and eBay can wave goodbye to it.
I appreicate you pointed this out ages ago Chris and its not as if the information isn’t available to see, but tbh I have been concentrating to much on all the other changes and forgot this one,
unless I have the time spare or eBay want to pay me £50 per hour to do it I reckon this will be the end for me.
With all the other changes I forgot about this as well. I can’t for the life of me see the logic in removing the drop down box and all the information. It just doesn’t make sense to me. It was a useful way of quickly specifying what was necessary. Now I’ve got to change all the bloody listings yet again! Don’t they think we have anything better to do?
“I reckon this will be the end for me.” Sounds a bit dramatic 😆
What I mean is if I don’t do it, they catch me….blah blah and they finally get round to booting me I will not be protesting…. To many important things in life, none of which involve asking eBay how high I have to jump.
I reckon just edit as you relist and have done with it 😀
Ain’t nowt eBay can do if you don’t comply so it’s just the DSR defaults unless you have your returns policy stated elsewhere 🙂
Sigh. I missed this change too, and those were my thoughts too Kate – Ebay clearly don’t think we have anything better to do with our time than to change the bloody listings every bloody month!
My returns policy box already refers to my T&C page which sets out the policy. I’ll amend them as I relist, and that will have to to.
“Ebay clearly don’t think we have anything better to do with our time than to change the bloody listings”
Think of it as a bonus Gill, since they introduced Best Match hardly any bugger is selling anything so eBay thought “hmm, lets give them some work to keep them occupied, in the meantime we can slip in free shipping, there will be so many changes to work out in a minute they won’t realise until next spring we are robbing them blind”
you have to admit eBay are very very good at extracting money from us 😆
Well, Whirly, I guess the other bonus is that as all my sub-99p items have been banned, there are less listings to amend these days 😛
I must have misunderstood (there have been so many twists, turns and changes since I really can’t remember!) as when the announcement went out in August I went through all my listings one by one changing the item return figure from 7 to 14 days.
As this part is now being scraped, it will leave my Returns Policy Details saying “Please click on link in listing header to see Terms and Conditions” and if buyers click on that link they are taken to my shop page setting it all out with the 14 day policy and return postage details etc.
If this is not good enough and I am booted off I’m in the same mindset as Whirly, I have too many other callings on my time (like we all do) to go through my listings every month ending and amending just to keep up with eBay’s tweaking.
oh and if I look at the proposed new item page layout, that link has been removed from the header anyway 🙁 … great!
#9 I think they call that “improving the buyer experience” Gill, i.e 1. all sub 99p listings are feedback scammers (although the difference between 99p and a pound is 1p? So that would obviously put someone off hell bent on fiddling with feedback?,,,but wait, buyers can’t get a neg anymore so quite what the idea of no more 99p’s is beyond my mental capacity.
or of course, buy forcing sellers of sub 99p listings to put there prices above 99p it”improves the buyer experience” somehow by paying more you think you are getting a better quality product?? have I missed anything..
that leads nicely onto Free P&P for DVD’s, including postage in purchase price pushes up the FVF payable to eBay, so shortly all DVD’s on eBay will be more expensive than before…again paying more for your item “improves the buyer experience” apparently…..
although I am no expert and the above is just my best guess 😆
afterall I have only sold £4 million pounds worth of stock online in 6 years, what the hell do I know about it.
#10 I did exactly the same as you, ammended the box to 14 (may have missed a couple lol) then I read this today I thought WTF ….what did I miss.
My advice, divide the time you spend not getting paid ammending ebay listings by your profit,,, suddenly cleaning the toilets at Macdonalds doesn’t seem so bad after all.
#13 thanks Whirly I’m glad you confirmed it wasn’t just me having a “blonde” moment, I thought when I read this article I must have been the only one that got it wrong.
I’ve had one sale today, my profit on that £2.90 sale (and the buyer hasn’t paid yet either so I use the term “sale” loosely) really means its not worth putting too much more energy into amending eBay listings again for the umpteenth time doesn’t it?! 😀
When this was anounced I changed all my drop-down boxes to 14 days and put in the box provided “Please see our TRADING TERMS page in our ebay shop for our full returns policy.
Ebay have enforced a 14 day returns policy, so we have complied.”
Will that do? I just don’t know anymore, I really don’t.
“thanks Whirly I’m glad you confirmed it wasn’t just me having a “blonde” moment”
Don’t worry about it, I’ve had plenty of blonde moments…o wait, you mean something else don’t you. 😆
Im sooooooo glad I was booted! 7 months yesterday!!! 😆 😆 thanks ebay you did me a big favour!
Me too..!
Changed the drop down box in all my listings to 14 days and thought I had complied!!!
#19 Welcome to the naughty corner.
Actualy having just looked at one of my listings it seems I had the presence of mind to mention 14 days in the text so looks like I’m in the clear. ;o)
lol at Whirly #16
I think perhaps there a number of us in the naughty corner!
I like old format better. This goes against web reading which is all about SCANNING not full sentences. FYI, Zappos return policy is 365 days after purchase. We provide 30 days return policy because that gives us enough time to process and refund via Paypal which 60 days maximum.
Another ‘let’s bugger them about’ moment I think.
Does anyone know how best match is affected if an item has sales and is then edited to include returns info?
#12 Whirly, is that all tubes of silicone? You must get a huge discount at the Post Office 😆
For crying out loud, all you needed to do back in August was change the wording in your main business preferences section, and all your listings would have the correct wording by now.
Come on, get with it
25# we have, but wish ebay would too.
For any users of Comsulting Bulk Reviser they issued a free upgrade this evening with the new returns policy API calls so it’s an easy path to update your returns policy 🙂
I too had missed this one 😳 . I changed all my drop down boxes in August and thought that was enough. I have just gone into “site preferences” and updated the info there to include the 14 day limit. Is this enough – or do I still need to go and manually update all my listings?
#24 😆
We ship that bloody stuff by the pallet these days.
@ # 29
Doesn’t that go against what you are trying to accomplish? Pallets tend to be slow and heavy to ship.
Now don’t all jump on me but somewhere in the back of my mind I thought eBay had back tracked on the 14 day policy. I am sure I read on the boards that you could go back to having a 7 day return policy if you so desired.
I have lost the will to live with eBay at the moment. I have a return policy set up but for some unknown reason it isn’t on some of the listings.
Oh and just to cap it all I am officially a FAILING seller so now for 3 months I have a great red box jumping out at me. Now if that doesn’t get my arris into gear nothing will.
If you link to a Custom Page that details your Company Policy from within your listing does it matter that you don’t updat every lisitng?
I only ask as, unless, I’m mistaken, you can’t edit an item that has a sale logged against it. So I either have to wait until the item re-lists (if I remember) or de-list and re-list which costs money.
I don’t see why these areas cannot be changed once an item is sold. References to the earlier format can still be viewed in the Sellers “Sold” items and the buyers “Won”.