RETURNS PROCESS LEAVES SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED

[momcqueen]

While I do appreciate the Returns process is a work in progress, I find it highly annoying that if I approve a Request, there is no place for me to put special instructions to the buyer. Like important ones.

Did I miss something? I looked for a place to communicate between page forward buttons. 

This buyer is asking to return something outside the 14-return period that I have specified. It is 29 days past purchase and, for that reason, I want her to know that I will certainly be charging the 20 per cent restocking fee that is mentioned in the Return Policy portion of the listing. Also, I need her to know it has to be sent back with tracking. And I need her to know she needs to get it back to me in a way that it will not be wrecked in transit so I can resell it again and, most importantly since this is an international buyer, I need her to know it must be marked as a MERCHANDISE RETURN so that it doesn't trigger import taxes for me.

While it's true that I can (and did) send her those instructions via Messages, it seems to me like there should be an official way to do so via the Returns process so that it is an official part of the Return case. As in attached to the case itself so she can see it when she goes there, not look at it in Messages.

Also, given that this is a return for reasons of remorse (the person for whom she bought it doesn't have an interest in this line of toys anymore, she says) is the refund for item price or item+postage price less the 20 per cent restocking fee.

I don't have a lot of experience with Returns so I don't actually know the answer to that. I'm thinking it's full amount no matter the reason it's being sent back minus any restocking fee that may apply. It will also mark the first time I intend to apply the restocking fee simply because this is so far past my actual allowable return period. Or should I have said 'no'for that reason? Too late now but for next time.

Thanks for your advice or insight.

Maureen 

p.s. I could also add all that information in the Return Policy portion of each listing, it seems like overkill since the part about something being a MERCHANDISE RETURN applies only to international orders. But maybe that's what ebay wants us to do. 

[momcqueen]

And when I say that, I don't mean I'd return instead a box of rocks and resell the toy. I mean resell it instead of making a return. I'm not mocking the Returns Gods. 

[mr.elmwood]

I know what you meant.

I doubt there is any subterfuge here. Too much effort for too little money.

[momcqueen]

I hope you're right.

People will shoplift a pack of gum if the opportunity presents itself but I would have to suggest that is also a matter of too much effort for too little gain. Yet it happens. 

[momcqueen]

Getting back to my original gripe, why doesn't the seller's Return Policy Details and Restocking Fee appear front and centre when a case is opened? Shouldn't that be the first thing a buyer sees when they go to select Return This Item? Or is all that supposed to be included if I had automatically required a Return Authorization number?

[silverpinups]

"Even with the cost of return postage and the 20 per cent restocking fee (which isn't even enough to cover my postage paid to mail it there) the buyer will come out ahead enough, I would think, to make it worth her while to send it back." 

Buyers don't think like Sellers, she wants the item she purchased out of her hair and returned even if she loses a percentage of the total cost.

Out of sight, out of mind......

[momcqueen]

I agree. With other cases opened, the items were not really valuable enough for the buyers to want to send back. This I suspect will really be returned. But if this buyer thought like a seller, she would come out ahead. Other UK toy-buyers would be thrilled to find one of these close to home even at the price she paid to get it from me simply because the VAT would not apply and they could have it faster.

[femmefan1946]

Also, I need her to know it has to be sent back with tracking.

Tracking is for the benefit of the sender.

If you are the seller and accepting a return, from your point of view the tracking does nothing.

For the buyer it is proof of return, should she have to appeal the case to a Higher Power.

[momcqueen]

I know. I could have left that point unstressed and lost nothing by it but I am a compulsive rule-follower. 

If she is going to return the item to me, I want her to do it correctly so that there is no room for doubt over when and where it was sent. If she decided instead to return it using the cheapest method she could find like untracked and surface so that I get it in four months from now, I don't want to have to deal with her disappointment in having the case close against her due to ignorance of the rules.

[mr.elmwood]

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@silverpinups wrote:

"Even with the cost of return postage and the 20 per cent restocking fee (which isn't even enough to cover my postage paid to mail it there) the buyer will come out ahead enough, I would think, to make it worth her while to send it back." 

Buyers don't think like Sellers, she wants the item she purchased out of her hair and returned even if she loses a percentage of the total cost.

Out of sight, out of mind......

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I agree, they very much do not. They do not combine the $30 cost against the $155 refund, they only see the $155.

[momcqueen]

It will be $30 to ship back plus $30 lost to restocking fees so $60 lost on $155.16 which still comes out ahead.

But she could totally sell it for what it has cost her to another UK parent and lose nothing but a bit of time and effort. Thanks to Sell One Like This, I've already done all the work here. 

[silverpinups]

Yes, and that's what separates the Buyers from the Sellers.... it's a psychological thing on their part.

[Anonymous]

I don't think we are allowed to charge the restocking fee.  If you look in your listing near the bottom for returns, it said NO restocking fee.

[momcqueen]

We are allowed to charge up to 20 per cent restocking fee when it is an aforementioned part of the Return Policy. This was the listing. All mine have a restocking fee if only to cover postage which, in this case, far exceeds what I can retain as part of the restocking fee. For the record, a restocking fee does not apply to SNAD. 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Nickelodeon-PAW-PATROL-DIVING-BELL-CAPTAIN-TURBOT-BATH-PLAYSET-Vehicle-Figure...

[pjcdn2005]

In a recent buyers remorse return I was given the option of refunding the full amount or less original shipping.

You can send a message through the return but it has to be done before you approve the return. As you said, it would make more sense to be able to send the message when you approve the return. When I did send the message first I don't remember the return being approved just because I sent a message as sylviebee mentioned but perhaps that has changed as its been a while since I did it that way.

There was no tracking on that return but there wasn't any problem doing the refund.  

[pjcdn2005]

You mentioned that it was 29 days past purchase but has it been more than 14 days after she received it?  That's when the return time starts.

[momcqueen]

Yes. The Sales Record indicates "the item was successfully delivered 21 days ago" so yesterday that would have been 20 days ago. 

[momcqueen]

Well, dutchman is right: the problem is that this case was opened on ebay.co.uk.

Due to their national consumer protection laws, buyers have 14 business days to return any item bought from anywhere, over our five business days. And because I am merely Above Average-rated on that site, my funds are frozen because I haven't disproved that I cannot be trusted to do the right thing if and when the return comes back.

My paypal funds are frozen for 20 calendar days due to a REMORSE RETURN that I was not even obligated to accept because it was outside the 14-day window to do so. 

I told the CSR that if the point of frozen funds was to ensure a positive purchasing experience for the buyer by guaranteeing I still had money to issue a return if and when the order came back, all this particular case lesson had taught me as a seller was to not ever again accept returns unless I am absolutely obligated to do so. 

I am insulted.

If it's so important for ebay to ensure a seamless refund for the buyer on a return, they should instead float the refund in the unlikely event a seller were to come up short and add it to their monthly fees. Or wait at least until the item has actually been indicated as returned to freeze my funds. 

Otherwise, I am offended by frozen paypal funds for up to 20-calendar days for no actual reason and the only actual outcome is that the next buyer who asks for a special break on a remorse return is going to get a big, fat 'no' as an answer instead of a pleasant 'yes' like this buyer did.

And it will be ebay who made that happen with this procedural policy. It really needs to be changed. 

This is my fourth return case opened and none of the previous three ever came back. The buyers either changed their minds, or changed their minds. One closed their own case and the other two I had to escalate to close. 

My funds have been frozen for 20 calendar days for no reason. 

[pjcdn2005]

I can understand what you are annoyed but you should try not to take these things so personally as it only causes stress.  Ebay has specific rules for certain circumstances and there are always going to be times when something may not seem fair or 'right' but that's just the way life is....especially in business.   You know that you do a good job and your customers know it so thst is what important....not that some huge company is or is not judging you on your individual merits.  

A few years ahead go I had an inr that I had to refund for and didn't realize that the buyer would have to wait a few extra days because there wasn't enough in my account. I wad a good seller then...but I just didn't realize at the the how important it was to always have extra finds in my PayPal account.  Im sure that situations like that are part of the reasons eBay holds funds at times.....to prevent sellers from empying their accounts and not being able to refund in a timely manner.

Once the return was approved the buyer should have 5 (business?) days to upload tracking if they do not, then phone eBay and ask them to close the return and take off the hold.  

[momcqueen]

You are correct of course about the stress. In this case, however, my paypal account balance is frozen for a not insignificant sum of money for 20 days. Buyers from the uk get 14 business days to send a return plus weekends. We in North America get five business days. 

And it so happens that I actually need that money to pay my ebay selling fees due in four days. There is, conversely, no NEED for ebay to have frozen that sum of money since none of us have any way of knowing if the buyer will actually return this item at any point over that 14-business day time period. 

If the ebay UK buyer sends it back, actually marks it shipped with tracking, ebay has permission to freeze my funds at that time. Not sooner. It's completely unnecessary, bad for my business and therefore bad for ebay. But I explained this to the CSR and was told this is the cost of doing business here.

As to the speediness of refunds, I'd like to note that when I make a return to a popular online clothing retailer because I don't like the way something looks or fits, I am warned it may take up to two credit card billing cycles to see that refund reflected. That's about 60 days.

Yet my funds are taken on pure speculation for 20 calendar days before I even know if the buyer will return it. All because I went the extra mile to accept a return that was not even eligible for return. 

I find that unacceptable. It is a procedure that needs to change. If ebay expects me to continue to offer excellent customer service to my buyers which are, as illustrated by this point, really their buyers, ebay then needs to make it so that I am not punished for doing so. 

[rose-dee]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Im sure that situations like that are part of the reasons eBay holds funds at times.....to prevent sellers from empying their accounts and not being able to refund in a timely manner.

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While I understand eBay's rationale and their one-rule-fits-all mentality, in my view a 20-day hold on an experienced seller's account in such situations is wrong.  

If I can make 'mjwl's' point for her, there is no reason a TRS seller of longstanding should be subjected to this nonsense.  Any seller who has a credit card attached to their Paypal account can quickly transfer additional funds into their Paypal account if necessary.  If eBay really wanted to do so, they could make account balance verification by the seller within a given time part of the returns process.  

This is one of my principle grievances with eBay, i.e. that they place no better trust in their experienced, high standard sellers than in sellers who started yesterday.  That's not to say eBay will ever change, but I certainly feel 'mj's' disgust is justified.  Actually, if I were in this situation and it was important enough to get access to my Paypal account, I might even try calling CS to lift the hold based on my seller status and history.