2014 Fall Seller Update

Hi everyone,

 

Please use this thread to discuss the 2014 Fall Seller Update.

 

Thanks!


Raphael

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2014 Fall Seller Update

It is why I stopped listing more expensive items.I do have sales on other platform and even there is not as much traffic as on ebay and prices are lower,I do prefer to have less,but sleep well.They have not such anti-seller policies and paypal is not mandatory. Pity,but it 's another step down for ebay as collectors place. Every new update makes ebay less and less attractive for small sellers
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2014 Fall Seller Update

I am confused - if we say we accept returns are we required to pay the postage? I am sure that not all companies selling on line pay the postage on returns. If we say we will not accept returns and a buyer files "an item not as described" we will be required to pay the return postage. I too am curious who decides an item is not as described. I recently had one of these and I think it was simply buyer's remorse and they wanted to get it cheaper as they complained about the cost to return it and as I assumed the claim would be decided in the buyer's favor anyway gave them a choice to return for full refund or keep and I would refund half the purchase price which was what they decided. 

I too feel that we will be opening sellers up to unscrupulous buyers and people who buy on the spur of the moment then have buyers remorse and want their money back.

I am a small seller and I do my best to keep buyers happy and have great feedback but eBay is starting to make this way too difficult.

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2014 Fall Seller Update


@katlover1952 wrote:

I am confused - if we say we accept returns are we required to pay the postage? I am sure that not all companies selling on line pay the postage on returns. If we say we will not accept returns and a buyer files "an item not as described" we will be required to pay the return postage. I too am curious who decides an item is not as described. I recently had one of these and I think it was simply buyer's remorse and they wanted to get it cheaper as they complained about the cost to return it and as I assumed the claim would be decided in the buyer's favor anyway gave them a choice to return for full refund or keep and I would refund half the purchase price which was what they decided. 

I too feel that we will be opening sellers up to unscrupulous buyers and people who buy on the spur of the moment then have buyers remorse and want their money back.

I am a small seller and I do my best to keep buyers happy and have great feedback but eBay is starting to make this way too difficult.


Hello katlover1952,

 

Sellers are still going to be able to dictate their own return policy and won't be required to pay for return shipping unless the item they sent was significantly not as described. As Rodney mentioned earlier, there are measures put in place to protect sellers against unscrupulous buyers wanting to abuse the system.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Hi everyone,

 

I'd like to thank you all for sharing your concerns and asking questions after reading the details of the 2014 Fall Seller Update. As a reminder, today is the Weekly Board Hour at 1 pm Eastern, where we will be joined by Sonu, from the Post Transaction team out of the San Jose headquarters. Hope to see many of you there!

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Below is from the US Boards from the new user agreement. This is absolute insanity and as I stated previously which people denied, opens doors for all scammers in the world

 

Consistent After-Sale Experience. We updated the policy to reflect that we're simplifying the after-sale experience for buyers and sellers with a new improved return process that gives buyers a more convenient and consistent way to return items—right from My eBay. Many of our sellers who use eBay hassle-free returns are paying for return shipping on faulty or not-as-described items. Starting September 15, an initial group of sellers, (and after a transition period, all remaining sellers) will be responsible for return shipping on items which are faulty or not-as-described. Many sellers are facilitating returns for faulty or not as described items, but for those sellers who choose not to facilitate a return or provide a return shipping label for a faulty or not as described item, we may refund their buyers without requiring the buyers to return the item, and in turn seek reimbursement from sellers

 

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Here is another one from the US boards

 

 

I logged on to find a list of new Ebay list of updates to the user agreement which included this:

 

Returns. We updated this section to clarify that if eBay hassle-free returns are applied to your listings, you authorize eBay to remove the refund amount from your PayPal account, place the amount on your invoice, and/or charge your payment method on file. By the 2015 holiday season, all eligible domestic returns on eBay will be eBay hassle-free returns and sellers may not remove hassle-free return settings from their listings. We updated this section also to reflect this future change.

 

 

Now does this give me an opt out?     Or is it a threat?

 

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Here's another doozy from the US as now Ebay can tell you where to ship.

 

 

Global Shipping Program. We updated this section to underscore that for eligible listings for which you have not previously specified an international shipping option, buyers from select countries will be shown an International Priority Shipping option with end-to-end international tracking plus an estimate of associated import charges which will be confirmed for and paid by your buyer at checkout. If a buyer from one of the select countries purchases your eligible item, you simply ship the item to a US shipping center. Once accepted at the US shipping center, a global shipping provider handles the international shipping, customs clearance, and delivery of the item to your international buyer. Sellers are not responsible for any loss or damage during the international leg of the shipment; buyers take on compliance responsibility for the export and import shipment.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Raphael, It was mentioned on the weekly board that the details for return shipping would be available before the launch date. When exactly is the launch date for having to pay for nad returns? I was under the impression that it was in 7 days. But if it is that quickly, we should already have all the details.

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2014 Fall Seller Update


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Raphael, It was mentioned on the weekly board that the details for return shipping would be available before the launch date. When exactly is the launch date for having to pay for nad returns? I was under the impression that it was in 7 days. But if it is that quickly, we should already have all the details.


It's very much not in 7 days. 🙂 I assure you.

 

The launch date is still far enough away that we will have a minimum of 30 days advance when we publish the announcement.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Thank you for replying.  A couple more questions:

 

1.  I can't find it on the seller update but on a couple of discussion boards I've seen it suggested that if an item was returned the seller would also have to pay the custom charge. Is that true and are they referring to a custom charge the buyer originally paid to their gov't?  If an item is returned, the buyer should be able to claim any duty/taxes paid from their own government.

 

2.  ebay Money back guarantee on .ca - I would imagine that the claim times will be the same as on the U.S. site? Will buyers still be available to put claims through Paypal instead of ebay?

 

3.  This is more for my own info...I used the wrong wording on a question that I asked on the weekly board so of course Rodney answered the question that I asked..not the question that I meant to ask. 🙂 The question should have been:


If a  gsp item is not as received described and it is deemed to be the seller's fault, isn't the seller then responsible and has to refund the buyer? In that case, wouldn't they also have to pay for the return of the item?

 

Thank you.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Anonymous
Not applicable

@dutchman48 wrote:

Here is another one from the US boards

 

 

I logged on to find a list of new Ebay list of updates to the user agreement which included this:

 

Returns. We updated this section to clarify that if eBay hassle-free returns are applied to your listings, you authorize eBay to remove the refund amount from your PayPal account, place the amount on your invoice, and/or charge your payment method on file. By the 2015 holiday season, all eligible domestic returns on eBay will be eBay hassle-free returns and sellers may not remove hassle-free return settings from their listings. We updated this section also to reflect this future change.

 

 

Now does this give me an opt out?     Or is it a threat?

 


 

Hi dutchman 48. This section is referring to hassle free returns functionality, which is not available in Canada at this time. It does not relate directly to the new policy re return shipping on items that are significantly not as described.

 

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Anonymous
Not applicable

@dutchman48 wrote:

Here's another doozy from the US as now Ebay can tell you where to ship.

 

 

Global Shipping Program. We updated this section to underscore that for eligible listings for which you have not previously specified an international shipping option, buyers from select countries will be shown an International Priority Shipping option with end-to-end international tracking plus an estimate of associated import charges which will be confirmed for and paid by your buyer at checkout. If a buyer from one of the select countries purchases your eligible item, you simply ship the item to a US shipping center. Once accepted at the US shipping center, a global shipping provider handles the international shipping, customs clearance, and delivery of the item to your international buyer. Sellers are not responsible for any loss or damage during the international leg of the shipment; buyers take on compliance responsibility for the export and import shipment.


Hi dutchman48.

 

A couple things on this: First - this program only applies to US sellers. It is not available for items shipped from Canada. Second, sellers still have the ability to opt out of shipping to any and all foreign countries, even within this program. eBay is trying to help sellers be successful. Helping sellers to expand their sales from local/regional to national and international scale is a fundamental part of our core value proposition. It is kind of what eBay is all about. But we aren't telling folks what to do. They still have choices.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Anonymous
Not applicable

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Thank you for replying.  A couple more questions:

 

1.  I can't find it on the seller update but on a couple of discussion boards I've seen it suggested that if an item was returned the seller would also have to pay the custom charge. Is that true and are they referring to a custom charge the buyer originally paid to their gov't?  If an item is returned, the buyer should be able to claim any duty/taxes paid from their own government.

 

2.  ebay Money back guarantee on .ca - I would imagine that the claim times will be the same as on the U.S. site? Will buyers still be available to put claims through Paypal instead of ebay?

 

3.  This is more for my own info...I used the wrong wording on a question that I asked on the weekly board so of course Rodney answered the question that I asked..not the question that I meant to ask. 🙂 The question should have been:


If a  gsp item is not as received described and it is deemed to be the seller's fault, isn't the seller then responsible and has to refund the buyer? In that case, wouldn't they also have to pay for the return of the item?

 

Thank you.


Hi pjcdn2005

 

1. Sellers will not be held responsible for returning duties and taxes paid by the buyer. As you correctly pointed out, buyers can claim those fees back from their own Government.

 

2. The program will run on the same set of rules as the US program. Seller will have the same period of time to try to make it right with the buyer, etc. PayPal protection will still be available, but I would expect the buyer would be directed back to eBay for the Money Back Guarantee when applicable. (I will try to confirm this for you).

 

3. The situation for US sellers who use Global Shipping (GSP) is a little bit different, because of the way eBay and our partners intermediate the shipping. eBay needs to continue to pay for the return shipping and import fees on SNAD GSP transactions - at least for the time being. 🙂

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2014 Fall Seller Update

RE : Updates to categories and item specifics... 

  • Toy & Hobbies/../Minifigures

 

If anyone reading is part of deciding these categories, you have a great chance to fix a modern oversight...

 

Lego makes "minifigures" but so do at least a half-dozen other companies; Lego is just one brand at this point. You do a lot of business in non-Lego building toys & figures-- also Mega-Blocks Halo, Kreo Star Trek, and too many others less respectable to mention.

 

Please consider just offering a ../Building Toys/Minifigures..? Otherwise you are endlessly policing these toys people want out of Lego because there is no where to put them (and no where else to look for them).

 

Thanks for your consideration,

Jeff Reid

ToyAndFashion

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2014 Fall Seller Update

A question for Rodney or Raphael ...

 

I sell very low value items, certainly lower in price than even the cheapest mailing option available.  I am afraid that with your new system a buyer will be able, with just a few clicks, to print a shipping label that will be charged to me at probably 10 times the value of the item without my consent. I would rather refund 100% instead of having anyone pay more to ship an item back (I've never had a return yet, thankfully).  Will I have to have a 'no returns' policy to make sure this won't happen? Or will there be some kind of interaction between buyer and seller (where I will have a chance to refund) before a buyer can print a label and saddle me with a huge return shipping cost?

 

 

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Define "Significantly not as described". Who will make the determination? Do you have in house expertise to do that? If the buyer is deemed a system abuser according to your "very secret" algorithm, will Ebay be going back and reimbursing the sellers prior to suspension?

 

The fact is that unless it's something obvious Ebay does not posses enough knowledge to make that determination most of the time. This is why sellers are **bleep** at these rules since Ebay will often rule in favor of the buyer as a safeguard. The problem is that now the sellers are even on a bigger hook. It also gives buyers more leverage and hostage taking for partial refunds using the threat of returns. Ebay has come up with some idiotic ideas in the past but this one tops most of them.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Helpful? Choices? So what you're saying is that we should just exclude the world from our market place? Isn't that the whole point of online shopping? How is this helping the sellers? You're hampering not helping. Sure we have choices. Soon we will have no choice but to stop selling on Ebay if this stupidity continues.

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2014 Fall Seller Update

Birders and waterfowl conservationists spend many volunteer hours banding all types of birds and in particular waterfowl. The information derived from the retrieval of these bands give biologists valuable information to help them set seasons, limits and to define where habitat needs to be improved. Unfortunately some unscrupulous individuals are harvesting banded ducks and geese near the locations where they are banded and then selling the bands as "unreported" on eBay. Buyers, usually unsuccessful hunters, can then buy these bands and report them as their own thus receiving a certificate. The problem is they are more often than not reporting the location of the harvest in another location, which completely distorts the  statistics that  are used by the biologists. It also cancels out the value of all the hard work by volunteers. Some of these buyers pay big bucks for these bands just to stroke their egos with a little certificate they can lie about. I call on eBay to ban the sale of Unreported waterfowl bands in order to stop this tragedy. I call on all those who agree this is a totally wrong activity and should be banned to support me in this by also writing in to eBay about it.

 

Pete Munger

 

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2014 Fall Seller Update

You can negotiate with the buyer to have it removed, that is how many sellers maintain 100%, you will learn

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2014 Fall Seller Update


@stouffvillejen wrote:

A question for Rodney or Raphael ...

 

I sell very low value items, certainly lower in price than even the cheapest mailing option available.  I am afraid that with your new system a buyer will be able, with just a few clicks, to print a shipping label that will be charged to me at probably 10 times the value of the item without my consent. I would rather refund 100% instead of having anyone pay more to ship an item back (I've never had a return yet, thankfully).  Will I have to have a 'no returns' policy to make sure this won't happen? Or will there be some kind of interaction between buyer and seller (where I will have a chance to refund) before a buyer can print a label and saddle me with a huge return shipping cost?

 

 


I'm not Rodney or Raphael but I believe that it is only in the hassle free returns program that a label will automatically be printed and that program is only for U.S. sellers.   We will have to pay for a return label if an item is not as described but according to Raphael (or was it Rodney) there isn't a system set up yet stating that we will have to pay for a label with delivery confirmation or that we will only have to pay for a label that did not cost more than the original shipping cost or ???

We'll find out later how that part of it is going to work. There is always the option to refund without a return required.

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