eBay say that they see a significant number of buyers return items and then have to chase their refund and often this puts the seller’s metrics at risk if the case is escalated to eBay. To solve the issue, eBay announced a new returns policy in the summer seller release which is now about to come into effect.
To counteract this, under the new eBay returns policy sellers will soon have two days to perform the refund or eBay will step in an automatically refund the buyer in cases where the item as tracked and eBay can see it was returned. Once the buyer is refunded, eBay will close the refund request to protect the seller from escalations and having their performance dinged unnecessarily.
eBay have announced that returns policy changes will kick in from the 1st of August 2018.
- From August 1st, 2018, business and consumer sellers have 2 business days to issue a refund for any new return requests, once we see you’ve received a returned item.
- From August 1st 2018, we’ll start automatically issuing refunds on behalf of the seller, if we see that a tracked item has been delivered, and 2 business days have elapsed.
This isn’t supposed to be a negative for sellers, it’s mainly designed to keep buyers happy and prevent them from escalating requests for refunds to eBay and sidestep any dings to seller’s eBay metrics.
It’s also worth remembering that from August, in some categories, 14-day returns will no longer allowed – you’ll have to offer 30 or 60 day returns.
Categories where 14-day returns will no longer be available
- Fashion
- Health & Beauty
- Home & Garden
- Sports, Hobbies & Leisure
- Media
- Vehicle Parts & Accessories
4 returns policy options available within these categories
- 30-day buyer pays return postage
- 30-day free returns
- 60-day buyer pays return postage
- 60-day free returns
16 Responses
Hi,, If to item I have bought is broke, not as described or it is the wrong item, do i still have to pay for the return postage
For over a year now eBay haven’t shown us tracking details for a return. How are we supposed to know when to expect it back? How are we supposed to chase non-delivery of a return?
Now eBay will be refunding a customer for an item that we haven’t received back and we have now way of chasing the carrier.
This was always supposed to be the case when the new returns system was released.
Can anyone confirm that if eBay “automatically” refund the customer will that affect metric like it does at the moment.
This again does not take into account returns for replacement or repair. Customer are just going to get a refund when the seller should decide to repair or replace or if neither of those then refund.
Another win for buyers!
Tried changing all my 14 day returns to 30 day returns the other day and the bulk edit system would not allow it! In the end Ebay had to step in and yet again said “it`s a known fault” – perhaps they could start handing out free listings to sellers for all these “known faults” to make up for the time wasted by us trying to keep to policies that there own system cannot allow,……. perhaps then they might make sure their software actually works before using us as beta testers in the future (I`m not gonna hold my breath though)
And yet eBay still don’t allow us to state who pays for returns depending on whether it’s a change of mind or faulty/not as described. Just a blanket ‘seller pays/buyer pays’.
The system needs a complete overhaul, it needs to let sellers stipulate between remorse returns ( buyer pays) and genuine issues (seller pays). It needs a proviso for exchanges and when we refund it should allow us to refund extra for return postage (you know, like Amazon does).
UK seller: I’m done now, just made it impossible for me to offer premium service as the free postage option can’t be done with in budget, it’s free for buyers not me! All but doubles the postage to get it to them in 3 days.
So I’m dropping to 14 days not 30 or so I thought, talk about moving the goalposts!
My selling on shpock and in my own vintage, antique and collectables stall at the antiques centre is doing very well indeed and I actually want to thank ebay for pushing me away as a seller for the last few years as it’s given me more drive to explore other less stringent, controling and unfair to sellers option !
So thanks ebay, more money in my pocket not yours 🙂
EBay should do more for the seller, that’s why lm selling less now. their main priority is to keep the buyer happy. This should be change. A buyer requested return a brand new mixer, saying the seal is broken and the liquid is leaking out . I was very confused because it is brand new, it should work. In this case l didn’t except return and let ebay step in. E bag asked buyer to return the item. I was very angry abt this decision. When l received it,4 parts are missing from the package including the original box. Also the machine is working fine. Although l got my money back from ebay. But the stress and the buyer wasted our time for the thing we did not do. It clearly the buyer took advantage in ebay return system And just do the act and thinking it’s acceptable. EBay should do more for the seller in this situation, by looking into their feedback and selling level.
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If the seller is a premier service holder (in my category), we have to offer free postage and 30 day Returns to qualify. My issue is if the return is a “purchased by mistake” although the buyer pays return postage, we have already paid out around £15 (in last case) to deliver it originally. We had 8 purchases when buyer did not read the title or description and returned them, £120 lost in courier fees alone. Not to mention the buyers who have claimed SNAD or other reason to force me to pay. I message these scoundrels half paid postage and the rest were reported for misusing eBay Returns. Grrr.
That’s the thing, sellers have to pay postage on free postage items but on items where they change their minds sellers are still down as it cost them. I tried charging a restocking fee for changed mind items but ebay wouldn’t have any of it.
Tell ya, there shooting themselves in the foot with every stupid policy change
EBay have so many rules now it’s not fun anymore to sell try shprock.
And Ebay wonder why sales are down! They are hitting sellers so hard that people are taking their business to free websites.
Under the new rules they have messed around with listings so unless you offer free postage you have no chance of your item being seen by buyers.
Ebay have made a big mistake with all these changes as sales are dropping therefore ebay shares will too.
Lets hope the changes also let us leave negative feedback against buyers who abuse the system!
Ebay seem to making KPIs more difficult and out of their own coding capability.
I would like to see the next seller release to say: this time we are fixing all the glitches rather than causing new ones.