If you are an eBay seller or a seller on any platform you are going to have to deal with buyers wanting to return their items. In most cases it will be a legitimate request like a sizing issue, or the item might have been damaged in transport. When selling on eBay one requirement to be considered a Top Seller is opting into their 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. By becoming a top seller eBay will support Top Rated Sellers with exclusive benefits that can help boost your listings visibility, improve conversion, save money, and protect you from abusive buying behavior and events outside your control.
Once you opt-in you must take back any return for any reason. In most cases you will find most transactions will go smoothly and you may forget there is even a policy. However, before you know it you get the eBay alert that a case has been opened to return their order. It is important to have policies in place when dealing with new items. If somebody opens a brand-new item or breaks the factory seal how will that be handled. Here are some tips to protect yourself as best as possible when dealing with returns. Not to protect yourself against legitimate returns but unfortunately there are many scammers who like to either swap products or get products a lot cheaper.
- Make sure to always go through eBay when dealing with any return. You never want to deal with a return on your own. Make sure eBay has visibility of the issue in case anything happens during the return. If the buyer does not open a case, you can as the seller open a case with eBay stating the buyer would like to return the item. This is meant to protect both parties.
- When listing items make sure to take photos of any identify information like a serial number, tag or any defining marks so you can make sure the item returned was the original item listed.
- Always use carrier insurance for high ticket items. Accidents do happen and items could get damaged in transit.
- Make sure to point out any issue the item may have in the listing. If there is no mention of a scratch or defect expect to get an email from an angry buyer. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and the feeling of receiving something that is not as described.
- Have a good policy when dealing with partial refunds. This is a tactic used by scammers to get items at a cheaper price. They know most sellers do not want to deal with it so will quickly jump at giving a few bucks back to make the issue go away.
If you follow these tips you are going to be in a good spot. Always make sure to give good customer service and work with the buyer to make things right. Most returns are going to be legitimate issues so do not forget that when dealing with them. Our policy has been not to allow partial refunds as that makes it difficult to determine if there was ever an issue. We always offer a return for a full refund and that is it. Since we have gone that route, we have received many less requests for a partial refund.
