Hmm Return Policies not sure what this is about or even if it is real...

[ricarmic]

Got an email all official looking earlier today telling me:

Your Return Policies Need Attention

Back in May, we made updates to the available return policies. Your listings are not up to date with the current policy.

It is an email message only, which means I'm not clicking on any of the links. Where it points me to is the return policies overview section in eBay.

As far as I know my listings all have 30 days return which should be aok.

However it is possible I still have a couple olden days ones that mistakenly had 14 day return. I had the recollection that someone put up a link here but I can't find it, nor did I put it in my special links library I maintain.

It is also quite possible it is yet another glitch.......

[ricarmic]

Extra hmmm now I've gotten the official ebay message....have followed the links nothing there tells me why I have a problem.... 

[amcdc79]

I am also not sure what ebay is talking about, as I changed all my listings to the 30 day time frame. Their information regarding this issue, is sorely lacking. Time to ask tyler or happy pigeon, about how to be in compliance, regarding returns on ebay.

[recped]

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@ricarmic wrote:

Got an email all official looking earlier today telling me:

Your Return Policies Need Attention

Back in May, we made updates to the available return policies. Your listings are not up to date with the current policy.

It is an email message only, which means I'm not clicking on any of the links. Where it points me to is the return policies overview section in eBay.

As far as I know my listings all have 30 days return which should be aok.

However it is possible I still have a couple olden days ones that mistakenly had 14 day return. I had the recollection that someone put up a link here but I can't find it, nor did I put it in my special links library I maintain.

It is also quite possible it is yet another glitch.......

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I relisted a few old things last night to use up some of the "50 free" before they expired, I was also sure that I had changed everything to 30 days from 14 but it turned out I missed a bunch.

My listing software (SixBit) threw a few soft errors (meaning the items were listed instead of failing) so I was able to immediately fix them.

The same thing happened in December but I didn't notice until eBay sent me a message. I appreciate that eBay sent me a notice to revise instead of ending the listings.

[femmefan1946]

Looks like they had it on blast.

I got six copies so far, waiting for the seventh.

I have been changing and updating to 30 day returns (including international) for months now.

I shouldn't have any that are not covered but.... it would have been nice if eBay had given us a clue as to exactly which listings are non-conforming.

I'd like to know how our southern neighbours are taking this, but I've run out of popcorn.

[femmefan1946]

Passing thought.

When a Canadian seller chooses 30 day International Returns, does that cover US returns or only overseas?

If a Canadian seller refuses International Returns, is she also refusing US returns?

tyler@ebay 

@happy_pigeon

[ricarmic]

I checked out the link again and perhaps I understand why now (I bolded and underlined the word):

• Top Rated sellers will be required to offer 30-day free returns to be eligible to receive the Top Rated Plus discount and badge. Some category exceptions apply.

All my items are 30 day returns BUYER PAYS for the return, perhaps that is what it is speaking about.....

I've never been top rated plus anyway.....

[momcqueen]

Free Returns are not feasible for Canadian sellers due to our domestic postage costs not aligning with American ones.

[ricarmic]

Yes I am not even sure which site is the problem!

Keep in mind my store is on .COM, and that nowadays I list on both .COM and .CA, which makes my life even more complicated.

The quote above is from .COMland

I'll tyler@ebay this now, he won't see it till Monday but I doubt if we figure it out before then....

[kawartha-ephemera]

I relisted some old listings some weeks ago that generated a vague return policy error too.

These already had 30 day returns set but the change from a single return policy to dual domestic and international policies caused the errors. I had to check the accepts international returns box and then choose a policy.

I would have thought international should have defaulted to no returns accepted but instead no choice at all was chosen which caused the error.

[ricarmic]

I called into my CSR buddies today for a couple things, this being one of them.

My CSR advised that they've had several people calling in with the same message.

They as we, can't see why the messages are being generated. I was advised to just ignore it. (this is probably the customer service way of saying there was a glitch in the system).

So into the don't worry about it pile it goes.......

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @ricarmic! Sorry about being MIA yesterday, I was out sick, but feeling better and ready to get to the bottom of this. 

When the requirement for free returns for Top Rated Plus was mandated we also advised we'd roll out separate lines for both domestic and international sales. This made sense since many members could offer free domestic returns, but international returns would be a tall order. This has been rolling out over the last few months. I was under the same impression as @kawartha-ephemera, that it would default to 'no returns accepted' and you could then choose to make that change. I can also see the downsides to that (if you offer international returns and suddenly its set to 'no' without any notification). 

Sorry for the confusion there!

To @femmefan1946's question, the return policy's definition of 'domestic' and 'international' will depend on the listing site. So on .com, international is considered anywhere outside of the USA. If you listed on .ca, international would be anywhere outside of Canada. So depending on how frequently you list on both sites just be aware!  

***edit to add*** I provided incorrect information on this, accurate info is here. Thanks!

[ricarmic]

Hi Tyler, this still confuses me a bit then.

I notice when I sell similar/relist older listings the international box is not clicked until I click it.

I had assumed the old listings had it treated it as combined as it was before it was split, but my inference from above is that this is not the case?

The thing that worries me about that is that my understanding is that visibility is reduced for "no returns" items, meaning the old listings will have lower international visibility as a result if the "new international box" is inferred as no returns on the old listings.

Note that I tested this on an old listing pretending I was from Bermuda (don't I wish these days!!!) and it still showed the 30 days, which led me to believe old listings had been grandfathered).

[tyler@ebay]

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@ricarmic wrote:
Hi Tyler, this still confuses me a bit then.

I notice when I sell similar/relist older listings the international box is not clicked until I click it.

I had assumed the old listings had it treated it as combined as it was before it was split, but my inference from above is that this is not the case?

The thing that worries me about that is that my understanding is that visibility is reduced for "no returns" items, meaning the old listings will have lower international visibility as a result if the "new international box" is inferred as no returns on the old listings.

Note that I tested this on an old listing pretending I was from Bermuda (don't I wish these days!!!) and it still showed the 30 days, which led me to believe old listings had been grandfathered).

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Hmmm...let me have a closer look. Also, I'll join you in Bermuda any time - I hear the beaches are lovely. 🙂