eBay have emailed many users today and posted an Announcement Board notice concerning some changes coming to the eBay User Agreement. The changes come into effect on the 13th March 2013 (or immediately for anyone opening an eBay account from today).
The changes aim to make it easier and more efficient to resolve all Item Not Received/Significantly Not As Described post transaction issues for both sellers and buyers as well as removing the impact to Seller Standards that currently occurs when a case is opened.
The main changes are:
International Trading
A new section to cover covering selling items internationally, and related tools including estimated currency conversion, postage calculation tools, and the translation of listings into other languages. eBay have also updated the International Selling Agreement that sellers agree to when listing items with international postage or on a site that has an eBay Buyer Protection policy.
Comparative pricing
There is a new policy to cover the use of all types of on eBay.
eBay state that sellers are responsible for compliance, and specifically covers both the use of “Recommended Retail Price” and discounted “Was” price display. Importantly you will need documentary evidence (receipts or detailed sales records) demonstrating that a number of items were sold at the previous selling price which must be made available for eBay if requested.
Buyer Behaviour
eBay have included a section to highlight . There’s nothing new here but expectations have been laid out clearly for avoidance of doubt (Sounds like good news for sellers!)
Mobile
eBay say that they have added further details to cover the use of eBay’s mobile applications, as they are likely to change how they display the terms and conditions for their mobile applications in the future. Mind you I can only find specific , so Android and Blackberry terms will probably be added in the near future.
Buyer Protection
eBay have made further changes regarding , mainly:
Enabling buyers and sellers to communicate more efficiently about items not received and significantly not as described. Communications will take place in the Resolution Centre rather than relying on My Messages. Contacts from buyers will no longer count against a seller’s performance rating (Good news!). Only unresolved eligible cases that are referred to eBay for a decision may count against a seller’s performance rating (No change there).
As a seller, where eBay carries out a buyer refund, if don’t have sufficient funds available in the original transaction currency, eBay and PayPal can take funds from your other currency balances.
Impact on Sellers
The chances are that there’s a little good news and not much to dislike. If you offer top notch customer service you’ll probably never notice the resolution and refund changes and it looks like buyers asking for refunds through eBay also won’t be counted against you in the future.
Comparative pricing and unrealistic RRPs are something I’ve often heard complaints about, if eBay really do stamp out this practice it’ll be a welcome move.
Taking money for refunds from different currencies shouldn’t bother most sellers – if a refund is due it’s going to happen and whether it’s in £s or $s really isn’t the concern.
As always eBay helpfully say you have nothing to do if you’re going to accept the User Agreement changes and even more helpfully say if you don’t like them you can close your eBay account instead.
