How Often Do Sellers Foot the Bill for Buyers Remorse?

by: GetAGrip

I might have one return a year. When buyer says they need to return the item I just cancel the order, Refund the buyer, And move on. But then again I don't sell anything that I can't afford to lose.

by: pace306

How well do you feel marketplaces protect sellers in cases of buyer's remorse or outright fraud?

0-10 scale, 0= no support, 10= alot of support
Amazon - 0
eBay - 0
Etsy - 0
Mercari - 8
Poshmark - 8

Why? Because after 3 days on either site - the "situation" is over. Theres no owning it for 30 days using it on vacation and returning it aka no games.

The rest ... dont care 1 iota about sellers, period.

by: terry55

As far as ebay, there is no protection for sellers, I only get a couple returns a year, usually missing parts(fishing reel part stealers), most of the time I just tell them it'll cost me so much to return and offer that, 90% take it. It's the main reason I don't sell high dollar item, I won't sell anything I can't afford to lose.

by: Rexford

Pace, your ratings are very accurate.  I can't speak for Mercari but Poshmark has always had my back.  The others?  I laugh when they talk about "seller protection".

by: compwaco

When I am asked to take back an item (it was fine when sent it out or I wouldn't have listed it for sale to begin with...) I tell the customer I would be happy to take it back and issue a label. I also tell them that as soon as I confirm that it matches the pictures taken (no pictures are actually taken but the buyer does not know that) when we prepared it for shipping I would issue them a refund.  (There is minimal at risk because I am not charged for the label unless it is used)
The last year I counted them up was 2 years ago when I had 14 return requests (out of over 4,000 sales) and 1 was actually returned. It was supposedly SNAD but came back exactly as advertised and I relisted it. It sold within 2 days and resulted in  pos feedback.

by: Lisa

i've had 2 returns on etsy in 15 years, both was buyer error. i refunded the item price only.

by: Lisa

were not was........ grrr

by: Lisa

and don't forget sellers, you should be writing that loss off on your taxes.

by: Alfacar

Provide 50% refund to buyer but  Ebay takes half of that 50%. For example buyer returned item after they damaged it received partial refund. You deduct 30% and it turns out in the end you are left with nothing due to fees (charged on full price )Ebay doesn’t credit and shipping both way.  

by: pace306

Rex :)

"Seller Protection" on both Amazon and eBay is an outright lie - theres no such thing.

Griff was supposed to be in charge - but hes asleep in his glass cornered office, playing nerf football with whom ever walks into the office (to talk about lunch) and what gimmick eBay will announce next to strip sellers of any money, or even dignity.

Returns arent as frequent as they used to be - but then again sales arent what they used to be either so ...

What kind of "seller protection" could there ever be when the platform holds your funds until THEY deem it necessary to send them to you. What fairness could you ever get from a platform that lies, cheats and manipulates its "workforce" when ever it can. What can one expect from a company that sends out a "hit squad" to harass a couple from MA that write a blog - who never published an OP ED ever?

Of course the cheerleaders here will claim no one was responsible, it was only a few people, no one from the company knew about it, the BOD was kept in the dark as was the CEO ... blah blah blah - when we all know its BS - it was a company effort.

As for Amazon - they are so rich and untouchable that they dont care. Unless you are doing MILLIONS on site - you dont count. Laws arent applicable to them ....

(good news though - Amazon and Apple are in big time hot water for "category fixing" for refurb goods - the EU is fining them a few million Euros as a fine (could happen to 2 better companies!). I sent the info to @INA to publish - hopefully she will !

HOPEFULLY - eBay will get fined NEXT - since they do the same thing!

by: Chicago48

No returns has happened to me on both EB and AMZ site.  I bought a widget and realized I didn't need it because I already had a widget.   The widget was about $6. I messaged the seller I wanted to return.  And received no reply  from the seller.  I messaged Ebay and they told me the seller had his account set at "keep the widget, no returns".    It's happened to me 2 times with AMZ, I didn't have to return the items, just keep it. I was automatically refunded all times this happened and kept the item.  
The rule today is that if the cost of the item's return is more than the item, just have the seller keep it and refund the money.
The OP shouldn't be alarmed.  Obviously those sellers don't suffer much.

by: MilesT

Distance selling regs and similar in UK/EU result in a minimum return window of 7 days post receipt (UK is now 14), and in some cases up to 1 year (depending ni information provided).  

There are a few obvious products which cannot be returned unless faulty (in the UK these often turn into a "Sale of Goods Act" claim and/or a chargeback if not promptly addressed).

by: LJW

Ebay is the cause of remorse returns when they show the buyer other sellers items AFTER the sale. I've had two this week. Reason given: found cheaper price. Of course this is after they bought it, I shipped, and now they are returning it.
I think free shipping should be outlawed so that the costs are borne by the appropriate parties. I had a buyer once express shock that I had to pay for return shipping: "Isn't it free?" Guess what clowns? Somebody has to pay for it morons!

by: Shop and Ship

Per eBay Policy I recently refunded 50% of the original payment for a brand new factory sealed music CD set which included the so-called 'free shipping'. I'd sold 10 sets not including the one I opened and listened to myself. No problems.

Weeks later the Buyer (who is also a Seller) claims that while there's no visible marks on the playing surface that CD1 'stutters' (hesitates, pauses, repeats, skips). And, he starts making veiled threats about weaponizing Feedback. When I receive it 2 weeks later there are multiple scratches on both CDs that are an inch to 3 inches long. His greasy fingerprints are on both CDs along with dried residue from the liquid he used 'to clean the CDs. Both CDs played through with no issues just as they were received by me - without cleaning or buffing. The particular tracks that he identified were timed and they all played to the exact seconds shown on the paper inserts.

Buyer's Feedback shows that he has returned 7 prior CDs as 'defective' to 7 different eBay Sellers, like Decluttr and Second Sale. 50,000 Red Dot ISNAD complaints implies that Decluttr may very well have mailed out yet another damaged CD but it defies probability that the Buyer bought EIGHT (8) CDs consecutively from 8 different Sellers that were ALL defective and returned. True enough, it's not worth my time and money to get all knotted up about a small item but I did report the incident to eBay for Seller Protection.

Here's my point: I may never hear personally from eBay about this report, but I know for a fact that every Return or Negative Feedback shown for a Seller has the same data recorded on the Buyer's account as well. And yet, from time-to-time I see small credits from eBay in my bank account that match up with the cost of mailing labels, or fees, etc. At some point the Buyer's account goes TILT and they start losing privileges.Such Buyers find that they have no credibility on complaints; or that their own selling privileges are severely limited. I know eBay does not want sucked in to some tar baby dispute about who's scamming who over a $20 item. But at the same time eBay gets rather severe about any transaction that costs eBay money. And Buyer stunts that discourage Sellers from listing on eBay are among those who are quietly stifled.

Another Lesson I learned on eBay a long time ago is that if you 'bottom feed' and shop for the cheapest item that is pulled up on a search then be ready for a steady stream of disappointments from eBay Sellers whose holding company has terms ''salvage'' or ''recycling'' in their corporate name. Sadly eBay listings reflect a steady 'race to the bottom' in both price and quality.

I'm not an eBay fan but I do see hints at efforts by eBay to protect Sellers from unscrupulous Buyers. The returned CD set is no longer merchantable and I have not been made whole, but the Buyer is out of pocket on this deal by about $14 - and he has no CD set. ''Justice is not always Fair''.  

by: Shop and Ship

PS: this particular CD Buyer didn't use eBay 'Managed Returns' to mail the CD set back to me - which is unusual. I'm not privy to why he posted Feedback on 7 prior sales with 7 different sellers that states that he found their CDs defective and returned them - and No Neutral and No Negative Feedback. My best guess would be that he is already on a short leash from eBay which is why he hasn't any recent Feedback as a Seller. He's trying to keep a low profile from eBay CS so that his account won't be suspended. again? Is it eBay that charges higher transaction fees for Sellers with problematic histories? Dunno. I interpret this to mean that eBay is going to do what it needs to do without involving me in it.  

by: Snapped

eBay created this age of ‘buyer entitlement’ when the great disruptor and co. decided to inject themselves into the ‘buyer experience’ in an attempt to compete with AMZ and all the other major retailers who had the overhead structure (and higher prices as a result) to be able to support it.  

So instead of buyers who would be expected to bear some personal responsibility for their own buying decisions, we had buyers being trained to expect Nordstrom service at bargain basement prices.

No returns (except for true SNAD of course) was slowly but surely replaced with ‘you can set your terms, but they don’t really matter’.  Which has now evolved to removing ALL responsibility from the buyer for their own decisions.  

Well guess what buyers.  ‘Free’ returns, much like ‘free’ shipping, isn’t free.  It may SEEM like sellers are (should?) ‘absorb’ all costs related to selling - and returns.  But have you checked prices lately?

Yeah, inflation.  But a whole different KIND of inflation, in this case.

by: Rexford

The number of returns a seller gets really depends on what they sell.  I think that a lot of clothing sellers get walloped with a great deal of returns due to issues with fit or entitled buyers who wear and return. And there are the buyers that by multiple clothing items knowing that they will only keep what they like and return the rest.

And anytime a buyer sends you a message that states "I may have to return it  " immediately after they buy there is a 99% chance that they will.  

by: ScottLBrown

I wish the world was an even platform so it would be less confusing to customers.

It should be that when a person clicks REMORSE, the return shipping is paid by the customer.  When any issue is the sellers responsibility, the return shipping is paid by the sellers.

Many marketplaces have "thresholds" for returns, which basically is a math setting by each sellers as to what VALUE they want the item back or not.  And even on those items, it is not always CLEAR to the user, that they can keep it and still get the refund.  

What I get angry with is when customers ship items back without waiting for a "LABEL" from the seller and then try to force a SHIPPING REIMBURSEMENT, which clearly would be a RETAIL RACK RATES instead of the sellers discounted shipping rates by carrier.   And of course the marketplaces do not have the bandwidth to help with those.

A few years back, customers would click "Damaged or Defective" in order to demand free return shipping.   Since our metrics for those types of returns was very bad, I complained to Amazon and Ebay that was the reason the CUSTOMERS were selecting that reason code.  It was impossible that percentage of product was defective.    Their fix was to force "free returns" on all items because that would be the only way customers MIGHT click the correct return option.   Now years later, the numbers dropped significantly, but still out of whack.   What many do not realize is that when an item is returned, there is a significantly different process for an item that is returned as remorse vs defective/damaged. . . and causes much pain when wrong.

Prayers for some sanity.

by: mapshoe

I have been a 20 year seller on Ebay.  I have about 2 returns a year that have switched a used broken, or a damaged dirty ornament for my new one that was sent.  One was where Ebay told me to offer the 50% deal.  The ornament as 200.00.  I had pictures and proof that they returned a used one. Ebay does nothing to protect sellers from this scam. One buyer threatened me, told me I was a big seller and I could take the hit no matter what.  Sent the  message to ebay and they still did nothing to protect me as a seller. Another one attempted to return a used ornament for my new one, but made the mistake of taking a picture with the same item in the pic, two of the same ornament one of which was his and one mine he was telling was bad.  When I questioned the picture, he dropped the return and realized his mistake in his scam attempt.  Never left feedback either.  I never replace the item now, as I also realized these buyers were getting 2 new ornaments from me. These are just a few examples of what I have dealt with over the years.  I know this is part of the cost of doing business, however it sickens me that Ebay allows this to happen to sellers.  

by: Shop and Ship

Yes, I agree with Rexford that different types of items draw different types of Buyers - and problems. Clothing sizes are at best an approximation. I bought 5 'identical' shirts from Macy's and had to return 3 of them because I couldn't button the top button and the arms were too short - but they all had identical size labels. I don't see how that would be different if they'd been delivered by UPS. I guess I'm lucky that 2 of them did fit? I've had the same experience at Jos. E. Banks when trying clothes on in the store. I carry a tape measure with me when I go; there's no point in trying on clothes that deviate from their sewn labels. I've sold clothing on eBay but I always add the tape measurements with the label measurements. Nothing has been sent back, yet.