eBay Reverses Policy on Extended Holiday Returns

by: P.Dorf

Possibly the exodus of sellers is too fast.

They need a wee bit of bait to keep 'em for the festive season.....

.....then the switch

by: Ogri

Maybe someone at Ebay realised unwanted presents are listed on the site after Christmas.  90 day returns removes the revenue that would be gathered from some of those sales, as could be sent back for a refund.

Would like to think there was some concern for sellers risk of being caught up in 90 day rentals...but I dont.

Again, it's another one of those things that should be entirely up to sellers to decide whether he/she wants to offer two week, two month, two year or whatever returns.

by: Basset

Holy Carp! Reversal on the TRS loss over no 90 day returns AND an email from eBay on how they protected me from bad stuff!


Has eBanezer been visited by ghosts and woke up in a generous mood?  

Perhaps that Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come was really effective. You know, the one that looks like the grim reaper on all the Scrooge movies.

by: Russ

Jump through more hoops to attain the elusive TRS discount.

And the 90-day holiday ''rentals'' will be highlighted and most likely attain better search position...why not?  After all, it is imrproving ''Buyer Experience.''

To all sellers:  Best of Luck for the holiday shopping season...

by: Philip Cohen
Web Site

Which demonstrates once again they the headless turkeys in the eBay executive suite have not got a clue about what they are doing; time to throw some more spaghetti boys ...

An extra 5%! That's assuming that your listing gets seen in the first place ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: iheartjacksparrow

It's nice that eBay has reversed its 90-day return policy. Now, if PayPal will just follow and reverse that insane 180-day claim policy.

by: Marie

Most of that was actually a smart move on Ebay's part.  Nice to see something positive happens on occasion.  But the boost in searches to those sellers that do abide by the long return policy is really unfair especially in a year that has been nothing but a struggle for most of us.

Sellers that were leaving or closing down on Ebay due to this policy, I found that a bit silly.  it was a 60 day period and they could have easily stayed on as a TRS seller during the period.

I haven't heard about a bunch of Amazon sellers quiting and they have the same Extended Holiday return policy for everyone.

Extended Holiday Return Policy
Sep 29, 2014
Amazon's Extended Holiday Return Policy allows buyers to return orders shipped between November 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014, until January 31, 2015, for a full refund, subject to the return guidelines. Please remember, you must process returns and refunds according to Amazon’s published return policy, which includes Amazon’s Extended Holiday Return Policy, as part of your Participation Agreement.

by: pace306

Jordan Sweetnam
Vice President,
Seller Experience

Oh what eBay lies ...

This guys Last position at eBay was Sr. Director, Buyer Experience and then before that - he manipulated eBay stats (Director, Site Analytics).

His last REAL job (before the eBay made up BS) was Senior Analyst for a Bond Issuer.

In other words - hes another eBay clown who has no idea what hes doing.

Like Marie said though - anything positive is good news - even if its convoluted and "eBayish".

Marie - the difference between eBay and Amazon is eBay is "just a venue" while Amazon is not. When you sign on to sell at Amazon - you know full well its their playground and their rules.

On eBay its supposed to be YOUR rules, yet each day eBay finds another area to intrude into.


LMAO - all the people that endorse his "skills" are eBay current or ex employees ....

Isnt eBay embarrassed at being caught lying?
 

by: LinneyPinney

Whatever ebay. While you are playing games with your lousy discount and dangling the search carrot, my things are being seen and sold on another platform. The $15,000 per month that I once made on ebay is now being made somewhere else. Another platform gets the commission. All sales are final and I am treated well. Ebay? No way.  

by: blaumann

They already hide some of my listings. I get about zero returns but the 5 % and supposed better placement is not enough to have me sagely going for eternal returns

by: thebobman

I just sold a stereo out of a Toyota today for $30 shipped. I paid about $5 for it, and cost about $8 to ship, and after fees, making about $15 on it. There is no way that I want that item back. Even if the buyer pays return shipping and I end up reselling it, I'll probably make a lousy $5 and it will have taken up space in inventory for 9 months. I put "no returns" on all my listings to discourage people from buying things and getting remorse since most things I sell I pay less than what it costs to ship them. I'd rather discourage one return and pay the extra $50 because I don't qualify for the 20% discount than have to spend a bunch of time pulling/packing orders and wasting money on shipping the item out.

by: JTA

@LinneyPinney
Where did ya go? So many sellers who left, including myself, have yet to find an active new home....one with real live people looking and buying.

by: tb

"Whatever eBay" is right! We are getting very close to the holiday shopping season. If the recent outages are any indicator, and with eBay making changes right now, it's going to be a wild one.

Why can't they once just leave things alone from say September on? You KNOW there are going to be programming issues.

by: mindelec

@marie

i was wondering when someone would notice that amazon was doing the same thing.  besides isn't paypal forcing 180 day returns for items not as described?  (which just means the buyer will choose that reason if they want to return it)

by: Paul W

I am happy to take the extra 5% discount.  My stuff extremely rarely gets returned.

by: FREDDY

Does it really matter what ebay has for return policy.
Buyers have to use Paypal. What is paypal policy??????

ebay wants to look like it is helping the sellers with the right hand and the left hand is - well you guess.

by: val2525

"I haven't heard about a bunch of Amazon sellers quiting and they have the same Extended Holiday return policy for everyone."

Probably because a "bunch of Amazon sellers" don't sell used goods.  Used goods, especially clothing, do not lend themselves very well to a 90-day (or more) return period.

I also don't think Amazon sellers have as many scamming buyers on that site as eBay does.

by: Ric

I have no doubt that eBay got an earfull from sellers over this ill conceived holiday return policy and the punishment the company imposed on their best performing sellers.

A few weeks ago, I was cold called by eBay regarding Holiday listings and sales.

I basically told the agent that the 90 day return policy, and the punishment inflicted for not offering it was going to cause me to delist a majority of my inventory, and cancel my store subscription for the holidays.

No doubt, many sellers echoed similar if not the same concerns, and as ebay started seeing their listing volume decline, they decided it was time to reverse themselves and discontinue the punishment of it's best performing sellers.

Funny thing is that had ebay originally offered the bonus discount for listings with the 90 day return policy, they would have most likely seen a greater participation in the program and would certainly have avoided angering their best performing sellers.

Memo to eBay.... as the company becomes a stand alone entity, without the revenue from PayPal to conceal the many blunders, perhaps it is now time to listen to the "noise" from experienced sellers.

The only way the company's fat is going to be pulled out of the fire in the future will be if management adopts a significantly less antagonistic attitude with their sellers.

When the company stands alone, they will be much more vulnerable and if sellers continue to abandon the platform over draconian policies, eBay will be forced to choose between rolling back the harsh policies, or accepting significant shrinkage in the number of sellers willing to put up with the carp.

by: val2525

I suspect more sellers switched to no returns than eBay expected.

by: Will

There was most likely, key sellers with high volume sales, who complained. It's not like eBay to be nice people for no reason.