59
by elisha wiesner_Archive
endofanera wrote:eliya wrote:Like, what's the rationale with offering this policy with something like a bag, shirt, etc.? The chance of the bag being damaged in the mail is zilch, and the no questions asked policy leaves an open window for clowns who decide they just don't like the item to return it. I can think of lots of non-clown reasons to return something once it's in your hands, even if it didn't get damaged. Bag wasn't big as it looked in pics, shirt doesn't fit me, neck on shirt is uncomfortable, shoulders pinch, small stain I didn't see in photos, etc. Doesn't mean clowns won't also take advantage, but even clowns are customers and happy customers are generally better. I am not FM elisha, but I imagine that a no questions asked time limited return allows for maximum customer satisfaction with minimal judge and jury playing about whether the reason for return was worthy. This is going to be a long winded answer so bear with me. 20 years ago, ebay was the wild west. It was a crazy new thing and a lot of people didn't really know what to make of it. Sellers would sell stuff without pictures or some crude scan of a polaroid, you'd be sending checks and money orders off and generally it was a much more hectic place than it is today. There were some amazing deals to be found back then but there was also a much greater chance of getting ripped off. You were definitely taking your chances way more than you are now. Ebay realized pretty quickly that there would be an endless supply of sellers but if buyers were scared away, there would be no business so they quickly started making rules that benefited the buyers. It took them a few years of trying different things but they basically settled on a policy of "the customer is always right". There was still a pretty big grey area though. Then Amazon happened and the world got hooked on fast, cheap stuff with a liberal return policy. Ebay decided to try to move away from being the worlds yard sale and into being a direct competitor with Amazon, attracting high volume, low price sellers. They tightened up their policies again and made it so basically everything was returnable. If you sell something that isn't specifically listed as "for parts or not working", ebay will side with the buyer in a dispute basically every time. Even if you list that you don't take returns, the buyer will win the case and the seller will have to accept the return. For the big volume sellers, this is just all part of doing business and the returns are factored into the price. For a small or occasional seller, this can be a real kick in the teeth. If you happen to have a brand new item and someone decides that they don't like it or it doesn't fit, they can send it back and you're out shipping and no longer have a new item to sell. This is what just happened to Chris. The catch 22 is that someone buying something new on ebay expects that it's like Amazon and not that they are buying from some dude making a few extra dollars by selling a couple things and if you were to list it as "for parts or not working" you wouldn't get close to the price you want. So anyhow, Having a liberal return policy is often expected from buyers and I do think is a good thing on the whole and that it increases sales but it can come back to bite you. I sell enough stuff at this point, and basically all used items, that the occasional return doesn't really hurt me much but if I only sold a few things a month it could be pretty shitty. Plus, even if you don't have a liberal return policy, a buyer can just open a case through ebay and you'll have to accept the return anyhow so it just makes sense to have one. Also, as someone who sells a fair amount of guitars, I genuinely don't want a buyer to be unhappy and I've found that honest buyers will often pay the return shipping. In fact, since I have a liberal return policy, they are expected by ebay to pay the return shipping and would have to open a case beyond a simple return case to get me to pay it. On a side note, Amazon has recently been dropping customers who return too many items, which I think is a good thing. I'm hoping that ebay follows suit. People often take advantage without realizing that it is hurting someone else.