Change in cancellation request option

[pjcdn2005]

There is an announcement on both .com and .ca that effective Aug. 28, there will be a change in cancellation requests. It sounds like buyers will be able to send a cancel request if an item hasn't been marked as shipped. The seller has 3 days to accept or decline the request.  Right now that option is available to buyers for 1 hour and after that, they have to send a message. There is more information at the following link.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/We-re-simplifying-order-cancellations/ba-p/510456

[flipistics]

I like the change (assuming it doesn't massively break something). The one hour never really made a ton of sense to me.

[pjcdn2005]

I agree.  It didn't make much sense to me either. 

I think the change will be good. Although there will still be some sellers who will refuse to cancel on

principle.  I would rather cancel than send the item and end up getting a return.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Buyers can already ask to cancel via PM, with the seller marking the cancellation as buyer requested, so it makes sense to simplify the process. 

[byto253]

Bit of commen sense, how odd.  Now how about reducing the 30 days buyer's have to indicate they are returning an item after delivered.  

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I had 3 cancellations today. I think that is a record. One bought an item & then asked questions later.  Another one didn't realize accepting an offer meant that they had bought the item.  There is no accountability for buyers. We the sellers lose out for stupid reasons.

[blueberrysparkle]

I don't have a problem with buyers being required to use a cancel button. I much prefer that because it puts the onus on the them. So hopefully eBay can set a new metric that buyers that cancel more than 6 items a year, lose that option. 

That said I don't think ebay is taking into account picking and packing time for the sellers.  We like to send tracking info after the item is actually scanned and on its way.  Which means if I got a cancellation after I had packed ( I will have wasted time and likely packaging product) and if I drop off the item in the morning and don't get back to add tracking till the evening, I will have already shipped. 

So I like the max timeline concept. I have no problem with 1 to 3 hrs. I note Poshmark has a 3 hr timeline and I don't believe Etsy has one, but please let me know if you know.  

So the change has good bones as a concept, but the open ended time line ( until tracking entered) is very concerning. In addition many people have multi-day handling and they have that for a reason. So perhaps a 3 hr timeline should be put in place rather than leaving this relatively open ended.

[pjcdn2005]

The majority of sellers print their label on eBay as it is less expensive. As soon as the label is printed, the item is marked shipped.  I'm curious as to why you purchase your labels at the post office?

Keep in mind that the cancel request is just a request. You can still choose to deny the cancellation although as a general rule, I don't think that is a good idea.

[xmiketheripper]

Do you know what happens if you refuse the cancellation request? I sent an offer to someone watching my item recently, they sent me a counter offer. I accepted the counter offer THEY sent ME, then later that night sent me a cancel request with the note " found better price". I wanted to refuse, because that reason is dumb, and they never messaged me before requesting to cancel so we could maybe work something out,  but I don't actually know what happens when you refuse, so i accepted. 

If you refuse, they still won't pay it I assume, and if they are forced to pay, they could be mad and try to get their money back after reciving the item " item arrived damaged, etc " ... eBay should maybe look into having very specific reasons allowed to request a cancel, other then reasons that would fall under the category of "buyers remorse"...

[pjcdn2005]

There is rarely a good outcome to refusing a cancellation when you haven't shipped the item yet.  If they refuse to pay they will not receive an unpaid item strike because you can't cancel a transaction later on if they have already tried to cancel.  They can't be 'forced' to pay but if they do, there is a chance that they will file a not as described return since they didn't want the item anyway.

It's annoying when they cancel like that but it really is best just to agree and do the cancellation.