On September 23rd, 2013 eBay made announcements regarding their Seller Updates that render the site unsuitable for any Sellers to do business unless they want to lose lots of money quickly with no recourse.  Namely, two policies in particular:

 

1.)  Mandatory Returns.  This policy allows for a customer to return anything without notifying the seller for upt o 45 days and return it for a full refund.  eBay tracks these returns via shipping tracking numbers and does not monitor what someone returns in any way.  In other words, they could send back a box of rocks and will be automatically refunded, without any remedy or appeal.

 

2.) eBay's right not to show your item in search.  Sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? Well, eBay feels that 20% of their sellers use 80% of their resources so in their minds they want to get rid of those 20% (not realizing a new 20% will simply replace them - especially with this new Return Policy).  So if you don't follow their rules (take Paypal, offer Free Shipping, easily offer Returns) they simply will not show your item on their site and if you happen to discover that, they will not give you a refund.

 

Then to add insult to injury, on September 24th, 2014 eBay expanded their return policy to include mandatory seller refunds on return shipping as well as the cost of the item and initial shipping.  Now think about what this means.  The amount you can lose can really add up here especially when the buyers knows all they have to do it hit the "not as described" button".

 

Therefore it is no longer in my clients, or my best interest to sell there. If you do sell there and get into trouble and you need to seek a way to resolve the issue, I will be happy to consult with you.  --Wendy Merkle