eBay

lorraine_carol · ‎05-12-2014

Happy Monday! Going over the new selling standards, I noted that in order to maintain Top Seller status and receive the 20% discount on FVF, sellers are required to offer a 3 month return policy. As a seller of mainly clothing, I believe for myself as well as other sellers in this category (I'm certain there are other categories this will apply to as well), could cause for a barrage of returned items after being worn. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the below info? "To qualify for the Top Rated Plus seal and 20% final value fee discount between November 1 and December 31, your listings must include the new extended holiday return option, with returns accepted through January 31. Bullion, Gift Cards, Tickets, and all Business & Industrial categories are exempted from this requirement." Thanks for suggestions/input! Lorraine

ypdc_dennis · ‎05-12-2014

That's eBay rule matching amazon.

Supposedly to allow buyers a 30 day return period for items given as Xmas gifts.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-12-2014

According to the info, if you don't offer the extended return you will still keep your U.S. Top Seller status but you won't receive the discount on those listings and best match placement might change.

However, according to the following this shouldn't affect your top rated status on .ca at all.

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2014/holidayreturns.html

The extended holiday return option will be required for any listing to qualify for US Top Rated Plus benefits from November 1 through December 31.

The way I understand things, it doesn't matter which site your item is sold or listed on on so if you have your TRS Plus showing on ebay.ca listings you should still receive your discount. As far as .com placement goes..no one knows for sure how much the the TRS Plus status affects placement as there are a number of things that can affect it.

Personally, I think it is silly that ebay wants sellers to offer the same return time limit as some of the bigger retail stores even though many sellers charge less than regular retail prices. But....if you don't get a lot of returns now...chances are that you won't get a lot during that extra return period either.

lorraine_carol · ‎05-12-2014

Thank you so much for shedding some light on the subject...greatly appreciated.

reallynicestamps · ‎05-13-2014

If I sold in categories where 'rentals' were a problem, or if I sold stuff that is 'giftable', this would a very good reason to take a vacation during holiday periods.

Other reasons would be slow postal delivery times, hysterical customers and having a life.

Feeling sullen and grumpy after watching Castle finale and having them kill off Nathan Fillion, because: Nathan Fillion.

rose-dee · ‎05-13-2014

My understanding of the new rule is as 'pj' has mentioned, except that I believe you will still get your 20% US TRS discount (provided you meet the usual requirements), regardless of whether you offer the extended holiday returns or not.

The way I read the new rule, the extended holiday returns requirement is only for those sellers who want to maintain their US TRS Plus status (i.e. the "seal of achievement"). In other words, US TRS and US TRS Plus are two separate designations or levels.

It seems to me that the benefit of that seal is somewhat undefined. EBay says that if you only have US TRS, "the seller's listings will not show the Top Rated seal on eBay.com, and will not have as strong a position in search as listings meeting the Top Rated Plus requirements" (from the 2014 Spring Seller Update). What this really means -- and what it's really worth -- is anybody's guess.

Personally, I'm resigned to giving up on my US TRS Plus, primarily because I can't see the value of it relative to the cost of maintaining 90% (verifiable) tracking.

recped · ‎10-01-2014

I'm dragging up this old thread because I have the same sort of question.

I don't care a wit about the TRS Plus seal of approval, I only care about the discount on FVF's.

As a Canadian Seller listing on .ca do I need to enable Holiday Returns to continue to receive the discount?

I don't offer one-day handling so I can never be TRS Plus but I do qualify for the discount based on my Global ratings. If I need to offer the extended returns I will but if it's not necessary I won't bother. Returns are really a non-issue for me, 15 years, 25,000+ transactions and I've had exactly one return other than a few sales where I messed up. For the last two years I've offered free returns but nobody has ever taken me up on it!

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-01-2014

No, you don't have to offer it in order to keep the discount.

Canadian sellers only have to offer it if they want to keep the TRS seal on .com. I hadn't read anything about it affecting global TRS in any way.

recped · ‎10-01-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
No, you don't have to offer it in order to keep the discount.
Canadian sellers only have to offer it if they want to keep the TRS seal on .com. I hadn't read anything about it affecting global TRS in any way.

So let me get this straight, Canadian sellers don't have jump through all the hoops that US sellers do to get the discounts.

That's odd because on this board I'm always reading that eBay treats Canadian sellers like dirt!

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

rose-dee · ‎10-02-2014

@recped wrote:
So let me get this straight, Canadian sellers don't have jump through all the hoops that US sellers do to get the discounts.
________________________________________________________________________________________

That's true, but we also (apparently) don't get to benefit from the same sort of placement or exposure on eBay.com as a U.S. seller with TRS Plus does (who has access to cheaper tracked shipping). So eBay giveth and eBay taketh away. Tomatoes/tomaatoes.

I'm concerned, probably along with a lot of other Canadian sellers, that once I lose my TRS Plus -- which is inevitable -- my visibility on .com, and thus sales, may suffer.

The discount of course, is still the most important consideration, so I hope eBay isn't thinking up new ways of making it harder to retain. The defect system isn't helping, nor are Canada Post price increases. It would be nice if the cost of tracked CP shipping could be significantly lowered, as the eBay.ca staffers keep saying they are "working on".

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-03-2014

@rose-dee wrote:
@recped wrote:
So let me get this straight, Canadian sellers don't have jump through all the hoops that US sellers do to get the discounts.
________________________________________________________________________________________

That's true, but we also (apparently) don't get to benefit from the same sort of placement or exposure on eBay.com as a U.S. seller with TRS Plus does (who has access to cheaper tracked shipping). So eBay giveth and eBay taketh away. Tomatoes/tomaatoes.

I'm concerned, probably along with a lot of other Canadian sellers, that once I lose my TRS Plus -- which is inevitable -- my visibility on .com, and thus sales, may suffer.

The discount of course, is still the most important consideration, so I hope eBay isn't thinking up new ways of making it harder to retain. The defect system isn't helping, nor are Canada Post price increases. It would be nice if the cost of tracked CP shipping could be significantly lowered, as the eBay.ca staffers keep saying they are "working on".

Didn't you lose TRSplus on Aug 20th like most of us did? You aren't showing the badge right now. For myself, it was super slow a couple of months before I lost TRSplus but it did pick up in September. I really wonder how much TRSplus boosts our placement. I definitely do not think that it is the major factor for high visibility.

I'm sure that you know this but for those who don't, there a couple of advantages for Canadians as far as getting their TRS status and for receiving a discount......

In order for Canadians to receive a 20% discount on all listings, they just need to have their global TRS status. If we meet the defect and sales requirements for the US TRS, then we supposedly receive better placement on .com but not as much as if we were a TRSplus.

In order to be a TRS, Americans have to meet the same defect and sales requirements as we do PLUS they must have 90% validated tracking. But they do not get a 20% discount for being a regular TRS. The only way that they can receive the discount is to also have 1 day shipping and allow returns for up to 14 days.(longer during the holiday period) So they need to meet all of those criteria in order to receive a discount and we don't have to meet any of those 3.

It is a problem for many U.S. sellers to do all of these things so many of them don't receive any type of discount. They definitely do benefit from the lower cost of shipping and that does give them an advantage however I see that as more of a Canada Post vs USPS issue, not an ebay issue.

tobyshitzu · ‎10-03-2014

The difference is, americans have to meet the defect standard domestically that we have to meet internationally. I would never come close to losing TRS if that was the case here (eg last defect from Moldova).

Ebay's other sites point out how great that is when encouraging intl sales, uk: "

Detailed seller ratings from buyers located outside the UK and Ireland don't impact your domestic seller status. "

That is a huge disadvantage to Canada that every sale counts. Even australia has domestic only.

rose-dee · ‎10-03-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Didn't you lose TRSplus on Aug 20th like most of us did? You aren't showing the badge right now.

Yes, it's now gone, but I think I saw it in September when I looked on .com. I may have had a "grace" period, but once they changed the US TRS requirements to include 90% verified tracking, I knew it was inevitable, so I stopped bothering to keep an eye on it.

I'm sure that you know this but for those who don't, there a couple of advantages for Canadians as far as getting their TRS status and for receiving a discount......

In order for Canadians to receive a 20% discount on all listings, they just need to have their global TRS status. If we meet the defect and sales requirements for the US TRS, then we supposedly receive better placement on .com but not as much as if we were a TRSplus.

Actually, it was the "badge" that I felt might have been meaningful on the .com site, as a sort of "seal of approval" for a Canadian seller. I did experience an increase in sales over the period I had the TRS Plus badge, although things have been in such a general slump since the summer that it's hard to compare the before and the after.

Even though the Help pages on .ca indicate that a Canadian seller with a regular US TRS designation should get a (regular TRS) badge on .com, I don't see that badge on my listings (at least on the ones I checked). Yet my dashboard indicates I have US TRS status, (not TRS Plus). So I'm a little perplexed, but have given up worrying about it for the moment.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-03-2014

The difference is, americans have to meet the defect standard domestically that we have to meet internationally.

That's true although Canadians have been complaining about U.S. sellers having an unfair advantage long before the defect system came about. I'm not saying that we aren't disadvantaged in some ways but I don't think that everything is always bad.

For myself, I've noticed that I have a lower defect percentage on the global side because I have more total buyers that count in global vs just U.S. buyers. If my TRS was based only on Canadian buyers, it would be easier to get more than 2% defects although it would probably be harder to have defects from 5 or more Canadians. It would be interesting to see how that worked.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-03-2014

Actually, it was the "badge" that I felt might have been meaningful on the .com site, as a sort of "seal of approval" for a Canadian seller. I did experience an increase in sales over the period I had the TRS Plus badge, although things have been in such a general slump since the summer that it's hard to compare the before and the after.

Perhaps at one time the badge did mean more as far as search placement but I don't think that it matters as much anymore...but that's just my opinion.

Even though the Help pages on .ca indicate that a Canadian seller with a regular US TRS designation should get a (regular TRS) badge on .com, I don't see that badge on my listings (at least on the ones I checked). Yet my dashboard indicates I have US TRS status, (not TRS Plus). So I'm a little perplexed, but have given up worrying about it for the moment.

The .ca help pages have not been updated. There is no such thing as a regular TRS badge and there hasn't been one since the TRSplus came into existence.

The spring update info is more up to date... http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2014/sellerstandards.html

Listings will show the Top Rated seal on eBay.com when the seller is US Top Rated, and on eBay.ca when the seller is Global Top Rated.
Canadian sellers who qualify as either US Top Rated or Global Top Rated will receive the 20% final value fee discount on all listings, provided they were created on either eBay.ca or eBay.com.
Canadian sellers who can’t meet the Top Rated Plus requirements (to upload a tracking number for 90% of their transactions to US buyers, to offer 1 day handling and 14 days returns on their listings) will still receive the 20% final value fee discount if they are able to meet all other US Top Rated requirements. In these cases, the seller’s listings will not show the Top Rated seal on eBay.com, and will not have as strong a position in search as listings meeting the Top Rated Plus requirements.
In order for uploaded tracking numbers to count towards your 90% target for US buyers, a tracking number must be valid, meaning it needs at least one carrier scan recorded by eBay.

rose-dee · ‎10-03-2014

@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The .ca help pages have not been updated.

Yes, it's not the first time that's happened is it?

I think I already understood all of what you've set out above (from the Spring Update), but was confused by what I saw on the existing .ca help page when I looked earlier today. I have to stop referring to those pages to check my memory (I guess that means I'm not as befuddled as I thought I was ).

I really wish they could keep the info pages current!

pocomocomputing · ‎10-04-2014

@rose-dee wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The .ca help pages have not been updated.
Yes, it's not the first time that's happened is it?

I think I already understood all of what you've set out above (from the Spring Update), but was confused by what I saw on the existing .ca help page when I looked earlier today. I have to stop referring to those pages to check my memory (I guess that means I'm not as befuddled as I thought I was ).

I really wish they could keep the info pages current!

Because eBay.ca help pages are out of date fairly often, I check the eBay.com USA help pages.

An easy way to check the eBay.com page is to change the browser URL address in the top of the browser from .ca to .com and press enter. Up pops the eBay.com page for the same topic most of the time. Sometimes it gets redirected to a new page on eBay.com.

Then read the eBay.com help page and try to figure out if the differences (if any) are because of a page not updated on eBay.ca or a real difference between sites. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

I used to send Kalvin at eBay.ca any discrepancies I saw and he would get them fixed eventually. Kalvin is gone from his former position so I no longer send him this info. At the bottom of each help page is a "Was this page helpful?" comment box so I click off No and say the page is out of date and try to point out what is wrong. Only 700 characters allowed so not much details I can put in. I do not know if the page ever gets updated as I do not keep track of what I reported.