eBay

ryanne@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

Hello Canadian eBayers,

Today's session will start at 1 pm Eastern, as usual. Please feel free to go ahead and start posting at your earliest convenience. See you soon!

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

Will the policy change which dictates sellers pay for returns affect sales prior to Oct. 1, 2014 (i.e. if a purchase was made and sent out prior to Oct. 1, 2014 but not delivered until after that date, and a return is requested, will sellers have to bear the return postage cost for that item)?

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

Last week Rodney stated and Raphael reiterated , "there are measures put in place to protect sellers against unscrupulous buyers wanting to abuse the system." Since we are already providing great photos, accurate descriptions, and terrific communication, please detail the measures that provide protection for sellers from unscrupulous buyers, particularly those who claim an item is not as described or that send back an item that is different than what the seller sent. We assume that we are not alone in trying to determine what needs to be provided in listings, after a claim is made, or otherwise, in order to ensure that we have provided eBay with all the information required to adjudicate an Item Not As Described claim fairly.

ryanne@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@gctks wrote:

Last week Rodney stated and Raphael reiterated , "there are measures put in place to protect sellers against unscrupulous buyers wanting to abuse the system." Since we are already providing great photos, accurate descriptions, and terrific communication, please detail the measures that provide protection for sellers from unscrupulous buyers, particularly those who claim an item is not as described or that send back an item that is different than what the seller sent. We assume that we are not alone in trying to determine what needs to be provided in listings, after a claim is made, or otherwise, in order to ensure that we have provided eBay with all the information required to adjudicate an Item Not As Described claim fairly.

Hi gctks,

I believe that Raphael answered that last week and unfortunately the answer will be the same.

"We are never too open on how we measure a buyer or a seller's performance, since not only are these things confidential, but revealing too much might give people the tools to circumvent our rules. We are confident the target metrics put in place for us to detect bad buyers will prove to be effective in safeguarding the marketplace."

Thanks,

Ryanne

ryanne@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@gctks wrote:

Will the policy change which dictates sellers pay for returns affect sales prior to Oct. 1, 2014 (i.e. if a purchase was made and sent out prior to Oct. 1, 2014 but not delivered until after that date, and a return is requested, will sellers have to bear the return postage cost for that item)?

Hi gctks,

This is one of the many questions that are currently being ironed out. The answer to that question will be available when we make the larger announcement closer to the launch date.

Ryanne

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

That is not an answer. It`s an evasion.

Sellers- Has anyone...ever...had an Item Not As Described claim ruled in their favor?

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-20-2014

Good afternoon,

According to the International Selling Policy a seller is "subject to the buyer protection policies (if any) of the eBay sites where your items are sold." How does this relate to the new MBG program? If an international buyer purchased an item on another site and opened a not as described case, who would be responsible for return shipping if their buyer protection policy did not require a seller to pay for return shipping. Since the buyer and seller are supposed to be governed by the buyer's site rules..not the seller's site rules, I would think that the buyer would be responsible for the return in that circumstance. Is that correct?

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

We`re extremely disappointed that ebay is unable to provide this information at this time. When, specifically, will this decision be made and circulated to sellers?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@gctks wrote:
That is not an answer. It`s an evasion.

Sellers- Has anyone...ever...had an Item Not As Described claim ruled in their favor?

Hi gctks,

There is nothing you, as a seller, need to change in your practices to protect yourself against unscrupulous buyers, now or under the new policy. All we ask from you is to continue providing the best possible experience to your buyers, as I'm sure you are already doing. Meanwhile, eBay will take care of buyers who attempt to defraud sellers, using our own data as well as reports from sellers who unfortunately end up on the receiving end of such malicious behavior.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@gctks wrote:
We`re extremely disappointed that ebay is unable to provide this information at this time. When, specifically, will this decision be made and circulated to sellers?

As previously stated, the full program details will be announced well in advance of the launch, exact date TBD, but with 30 days or more advance. This is as specific as we can get at this time.

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

We cannot afford how ebay is taking care of us. If ebay does not believe a seller when they say an item was as described, why would they believe a report made after a judgement has been rendered in the buyer`s favor?

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Good afternoon,

According to the International Selling Policy a seller is "subject to the buyer protection policies (if any) of the eBay sites where your items are sold." How does this relate to the new MBG program? If an international buyer purchased an item on another site and opened a not as described case, who would be responsible for return shipping if their buyer protection policy did not require a seller to pay for return shipping. Since the buyer and seller are supposed to be governed by the buyer's site rules..not the seller's site rules, I would think that the buyer would be responsible for the return in that circumstance. Is that correct?

Hi pjcdn2005,

The best way to explain this is to use today's example. You're a Canadian seller listing on eBay.ca, but your buyer made his purchase on eBay.com. This means that if there are any issues with the item or transaction, the buyer is protected under the eBay Money Back Guarantee as it is currently in place on the US site, with all the rules implicated in that program.

The same will be true once the Canadian eMBG launches, and that will impact buyers who shop on eBay.ca. Very unlikely that you will see any difference as a result of that launch since your international buyers are more likely to shop on their own country site.

To answer your question specifically, if the buyer purchased on a site that has eMBG and rules that dictate that a INAD return shipping should be paid by the seller, then the seller will be on the hook. Just as a reminder though, we still are in discussions to establish how cross-border INAD returns will work taking into account the shipping costs differences, duty/tax and such.

raphael@ebay.com · ‎08-20-2014

@gctks wrote:
We cannot afford how ebay is taking care of us. If ebay does not believe a seller when they say an item was as described, why would they believe a report made after a judgement has been rendered in the buyer`s favor?

Returns and forced refunds on items reported as not as described are already a reality potentially impacting any item sold to buyers who shop on eBay.com, yet millions of sellers, mostly from the US but also a large number of Canadians, still manage to stay in business. We are confident that this new rule will not change that.

If sellers focus on providing the best possible service and products to their buyers, they will continue to make their business.

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

That is not an answer to the question.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-20-2014

ryanne@ebay.com wrote:
@gctks wrote:
Last week Rodney stated and Raphael reiterated , "there are measures put in place to protect sellers against unscrupulous buyers wanting to abuse the system." Since we are already providing great photos, accurate descriptions, and terrific communication, please detail the measures that provide protection for sellers from unscrupulous buyers, particularly those who claim an item is not as described or that send back an item that is different than what the seller sent. We assume that we are not alone in trying to determine what needs to be provided in listings, after a claim is made, or otherwise, in order to ensure that we have provided eBay with all the information required to adjudicate an Item Not As Described claim fairly.
Hi gctks,

I believe that Raphael answered that last week and unfortunately the answer will be the same.

"We are never too open on how we measure a buyer or a seller's performance, since not only are these things confidential, but revealing too much might give people the tools to circumvent our rules. We are confident the target metrics put in place for us to detect bad buyers will prove to be effective in safeguarding the marketplace."

Thanks,
Ryanne

A comment and a question.

Unless the seller contests a nad claim, it's my understanding that ebay will not investigate the claim. Perhaps you are keeping track of how many nad claims a buyer makes but if I happen to be the first or second seller that they've made a claim with and they go on to make another dozen claims...I would already be out the money or the item so those safeguarding methods only work with a 'serial' abuser and even then, I'm not sure that they always work.

But because our non resolved claim limit is so low, many sellers are going to hesitate to challenge the claim in case they lose even if they are convinced that they are in the right. The low limit seems to be ebay's way of stopping seller's from fighting claims.

The question - Once a seller goes over the .3% of non resolved claims are they automatically a below average seller (or worse) or is there a minimum number allowed? For example, if a seller has 200 sales/year, (200 sales x .3% = .6) are they allowed to lose just 1 non resolved claim before there are sanctions or is there a minimum of 2? If there is a minimum, do the sanctions start once they reach that number or not until they go over the minimum?

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-20-2014

Thank you for answering the question about international claims.

I don't understand though why duty/tax is brought into the equation at all since as discussed previously, the buyer can claim back the duty/tax from their own government. A seller should not be charged duty/tax on a return since the item originated in that country.

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

It is difficult to share ebay`s confidence nor are we interested in making business. We need to make a profit. In order to do that with the policy changes , we need to adjust our how we gauge risk. If ebay cannot provide significantly more information on how we can prevent item not as described claims or at least tell us the historic percentage of these claims that are adjudicated in either the seller`s or buyer`s favor, we cannot gauge the risk(s) we are running, specifically due to Item Not As Described claims.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-20-2014

Lots of questions from me this week 🙂

The new .ca user agreement states:

Cross-Border Trade. 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 may be shown an international shipping option

Does this mean that there are definite plans to implement a gsp like program in Canada? If not, what does it mean?

pierrelebel · ‎08-20-2014

"The best way to explain this is to use today's example. You're a Canadian seller listing on eBay.ca, but your buyer made his purchase on eBay.com. This means that if there are any issues with the item or transaction, the buyer is protected under the eBay Money Back Guarantee as it is currently in place on the US site, with all the rules implicated in that program."

OK let's go with your example.

A Canadian buyer purchase an item on eBay.com (as many Canadians do) from a Canadian seller listing in US$

The item is not as described

eBay.com rules apply.

The item was sent by mail with the seller using postage stamps, not PayPal.

eBay orders the seller to refund return postage to buyer.

How exactly would that work? Can a seller refund more than the original amount of the transaction through PayPal? and how much postage and what specific CP service would the seller have to pay ?

gctks · ‎08-20-2014

Can you provide more information on how we can prevent item not as described claims or at least tell us the historic percentage of these claims that are adjudicated in either the seller`s or buyer`s favor? We cannot gauge the risk(s) we are running, specifically due to Item Not As Described claims without this information.