Returns

[ariesofthenorth]

i sell mainly personalized items, so they are not available for refunds due to the custom nature of the items I create.

In 4 years, I have had 1 return and they buyer emailed me privately and i replaced the item

Now in the past week, I have had 2 return requests for insane reasons, one apparently arrived broken, so i said i would send another, well the buyer didnt respond, and it turned into a case and  was forced to  refund or get a strike.

the second one she says its not like the photo - when im 100%sure it is like my listing, except with the buyers custom text.

how is this fair, my return policy is clearly listed?  exchange or replacement only. must provide photo.

they are clearly described..but this new feature REQUEST RETURN  (should be more like DEMAND RETURN.. is something Ive not seen before, is this new? seems like its enticing people to just click return.

i would NOT be able to continue like this - im already selling at rock bottom price and free shipping. 

really considering closing up shop.

[pierrelebel]

Is this the buyer who left this neutral feedback: "Daughter's name was misspelled. Contacted over a week ago for fix & no response"?

" im already selling at rock bottom price "

Raise your prices by a few percentage points to account for those problems, just like brick and mortar stores include 1% or 2% in their prices to account for shoplifting and pilferage..

[ariesofthenorth]

no, it wasnt that one.

i was honestly sick with the flu earlier this month, she did email me, but her message was lost amongst all the other messages.

buyers have to message me with custom details, since most of them miss the "note to seller" in paypal.

ebay is not user friendly when it comes to leaving personalization requests.

[ariesofthenorth]

my concern is that there was nothing wrong with the recent 2 return requests. simply buyers remorse

i always stand by my product, and offer replacement at not charge etc.

the one with the name misspelled, was actually missing an "e" at the end. as the name was unusually spelled. im not saying that one was the problem, i fully agree with her, it was my fault for not saving her message and responding earlier - i did reach  out to her once i recovered ffrom the flu and caught up with messages.

[pierrelebel]

All busy eBay sellers face a small percentage of returns, like any other business.

There are not always "fair" but a seller should not take it personally: it is business and the cost of the return should be considered a cost of doing business. 

As long as the rate of returns remains under one percent of your total sales, I would not worry about it or let that situation upset me.  Once again do not take it personally.

[femmefan1946]

Given that your items are personalized, I would leave in the NO RETURNS  policy in your Terms of Sale.

And then should a problem arise, I would ignore and tell the unhappy buyer to return the item for a full refund-- including the cost of return shipping.

Don't panic.

• As pierre says, first your prices , which are very reasonable, are probably too low. Have you done comparison shopping on etsy, where there are even more similar items from North American crafters? You have to allow for a certain amount of problems.
• Second, your US customers (or any not in Canada) cannot get the return shipping label eBay believes they can. It's just not possible. So you should be ready to suggest a Delivery Confirmed return service from USPS that controls the shipping cost. Tell the unhappy customer where to find the USPS First Class International Parcel shipping labels on the USPS site. This is a chore and a half,so once you find it, bookmark it and hope you don't need it again for months.
• Third, after all this, your truly unhappy customer should be appeased, return the (useless except for parts, I know) item and may even leave positive feedback. Or none. Count your blessings. Refund promptly including the return postage. (I hate doing that too.)
• The scammer will not return and therefore cannot get a free item. If she tries a Dispute, immediately offer to pay return postage. There are strategies for non-Canada customers when you actually need them.

[musicyouneed]

No comment about returns.  But just wanted to say you do some wonderful items.  Really nice.  

[zee-chan]

I know I'm not addressing the return itself whatsoever but --

Please don't sell your blood and sweat at a "rock bottom price." Not only are you hurting yourself but you're also hurting other fellow artists selling in the similar area. Artists should not compete with each other by racing to the bottom. This only makes buyers thinks that your "art" is "worthless" and they'd stop appreciating the time, effort, and creativity that went into production of these artwork. A overly low price invites bottom feeders rather than buyers who truly appreciate the value of the item. 

I would suggest raising your price a little - at least something you feel more comfortable with and maybe research your competing artists to see what their prices are like. Find a balance. Who knows, you might get less sale volume but end up with a bigger profit.

And like others mentioned above, there are PITA everywhere, be it on eBay or in real life. I deal with some PITA on a regular basis at work and that doesn't mean I'm gonna quit my work just because of them. I can find and appreciate the aspects of work I like and embrace those. Same goes for the INRs and refunds I have to make - I get upset when I have to refund, but once the refund is over and I put them on my BBL, it's case closed for me and I forget about them and move on. I do have some really nice return buyers and they are the ones who keep me selling here on eBay.

PS. Please don't try to compete with the cheap stuff that are sold by those in China either.

[ariesofthenorth]

I totally agree with you

i have had to make changes through the past couple years.

2 years ago, i had a seller in the USA copy 90% of my designs, her being in the USA, there was not much i could do, so i lowered my prices. However everything was US Dollars, so i wasn't really taking a huge loss.

i started changing my designs enough to make myself a little more unique.

Last Fall i switched to Canadian dollars and immediately my sales increased, but i couldnt figure out how to price accurately without charging too much to my fellow Canadians.

it was not long ago that the US and CDN dollar was nearly at par.

i take returns personally since it does take up a lot of sweat and time, and the returns concept is really new to me.