'Returns' rate in new Dashboard

[momcqueen]

Why do I see 'Returns' broken down in the new Dashboard? It says there are two for me which isn't actually true. I had two buyers open Return requests in December for reasons of remorse, and then fail to send anything back so I called Customer Service and had the cases closed. 

Are 'Returns' held against sellers in some way? As I said, the cases were closed by ebay because neither buyer followed through on their request to return their item. 

Why does it say there are two when they were, in the end, none?

Does anyone have insight to share on this? This Returns section wasn't part of the Dashboard preview. 

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I saw the returns section on my dashboard and it says I have no returns (true). I don't accept returns and I don't see any reason why book sellers should. So that people can read a book for free and then return it? lol

as for late shipment defect, funnily mine is still sitting at 4 defects and they are all from 2015. I'm surprised no one answered "no" to the question this year... There were 6 new responses that answered "yes" while I have relatively more buyers not bother with feedback a this year, which I'm totally fine with. 

[izzame]

I checked mine, said I had one then I clicked the link show all returns, chose the longest period ( 18 months) says I have 0 . I don't know is this a hockey game and we need a replay/reiew to really make an accurate, intellegent decision.

Ebay and their glitches, conflicting info. Quite frankly I'm done with all of ebays shenanigans Just don't have the time or patience and I'm not a paid employee of theirs to keep pointing out and trying to suggest at how to fix such problems that they deny are even there.

ie we are looking into the Safari browser problems..... 2 months, sure you are, maybe if you have an IT staff of one. I've done my own work around but thanks for your efforts ebay on fixing the system that all sellers are paying for..... paying for a service but not getting the performance that you are paying for is ........

Sellers helping other sellers questions how to ..... straight up awesome
In my opinion, sellers are helping ebay way too much, especially since ebay "appears" to be doing nothing to help themselves. I have a new motto for eBay: If it's broke, we don't fix it. !!!! They do go to the top of the class for "lip service", i.e. how long did they string everyone along about the shopping cart issue...... is it fixed yet ....... they just dished out the "lip service" until sellers figured out well this isn't going to get fixed, but thanks for making us feel (for a while) that you were really concerned.

Sorry, done my expression of the day. 

[ricarmic]

Hi izza! I had the same thing, look along the top at the right corner it starts to say "closed returns" if you click on that, that's where you will see them...

[izzame]

Hi thank you that was very helpful but confused me more. On the main page it says one then like I said go to 18 months says 0, when I expand, like you said it shows 4 .... 2 from 2014   2 from 2015  but not the 1 on the main page.

Am I reading this all wrong ..... I sure hope it's me

[momcqueen]

These posts form an industry blog showed up last night:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m02/i23/s01

and 

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2016/2/1456196481.html

entitled  eBay Adds Return Rate Metric to Seller Dashboard and eBay Denies It Will Use Return Rate Metric to Evaluate Sellers 

[ricarmic]

Hi Izzam! Mine shows different counts as well depending on where one asked from. It looks like I have 3 total, if I look under Global it shows all 3, if I look under USA it shows 2 as the count but all 3 returns still. I think the returns page shows all returns but the count only shows how many applied to that category ie in my case 2 of the 3 were from the USA which is why it shows 2 in the count, the other one was from elsewhere (which is correct I think).

[rose-dee]

Well, it's been eBay's modus operandi for years to simply start changing things in the background before they bother to announce the change to sellers. 

I really wouldn't be surprised if the Spring Seller Update illuminates this mystery.  Perhaps eBay realized its new "on-time" metric was far too lenient for sellers, especially those in the U.S. who have tracking available at reasonable cost, and that they needed to add returns to the "no-no" list.  

With only two customer service parameters left after Feb. 20th, i.e. seller-cancelled transactions and cases closed without seller resolution, the field was looking pretty wide open for a whole new era of abuse (or at least misbehaviour) by sellers.  I just wish they would tell us what's in the works.  Oh, right, this is eBay...

[momcqueen]

From the article(s) cited above:

Here's how eBay explained the Return Rate metric in September:
"Although returns will not count as defects when you successfully resolve the issue with your buyer (without the need for eBay to step in and help), your overall return rate will be included in the seller dashboard along with your return rate by category, item condition and purchase price range. For example, you'll be able to see your return rate for listings in clothing and accessories, if applicable. eBay may alert sellers if their overall returns rate is very high within their category. eBay may also provide recommendations to update your selling practices in order to help minimize returns."

The introduction of the new Return Rate metric in the seller dashboard coincided with the new seller performance standards eBay rolled out on February 20th, however, the metric isn't part of those standards.

"Your overall returns rate will now be included in your seller dashboard so you can better manage - and minimize - your returns," eBay told sellers at the bottom of a reminder on the announcement board on Friday about the new standards. "Note: returns don't count as defects when successfully resolved with your buyer (without eBay having to step in and help)."


----

I could understand Returns becoming an issue under NEW new seller standards because the easiest way for an inattentive or unscrupulous seller to thwart a defect for being out-of-stock is to ship something -- anything-- to the buyer fast and with tracking, hoping to deal with the fallout later. But not all Returns are created equal. My two unfulfilled requests had nothing to do with my performance as a seller but I had to ask eBay to step in and escalate the cases to close them after no return was forthcoming. They did not time-out after 30 days.

Like others, I hope it's part of some upcoming dashboard sales performance analysis to come. With meaningful data. I'm weary of contorting myself to high-jump every time the ebay breeze changes direction.

[mcrlmn]

"I checked mine, said I had one then I clicked the link show all returns, chose the longest period ( 18 months) says I have 0 "

Same scenario here. Of course it did... What next?

[recped]

---

@mcrlmn wrote:

"I checked mine, said I had one then I clicked the link show all returns, chose the longest period ( 18 months) says I have 0 "

Same scenario here. Of course it did... What next?

---

Actually my problem was "user error"!

The report view defaults to "open returns" you have to look to the right (at the top of the report) and click on "closed returns" to see the old ones.

[momcqueen]

On my display, Closed Returns is all-but obscured. You have to look waaaaaaaay over to the right-hand side.

and then hit that arrow to see 

[pjcdn2005]

I'm sure that they are all like that which is why I said in post 8 to go to the far right. Otherwise, it is easy to miss.

[momcqueen]

I know, thank you for that. If a seller does not know what to look for, the first three letters only of the word 'closed' might be too easy to overlook which is the reason I included a visual aid above. 

[ricarmic]

A picture is worth a thousand words......