eBay has given plenty of notice to sellers regarding the New Managed Returns Policy and it claims that the results have been successful so far. Apparently, operations costs have fallen, sales conversions have increased and the quality of buyers’ feedback has improved. So, why aren’t all sellers taking to it?
Confusion amongst sellers
Right now (at the time of writing) the Managed Returns Policy is creating uncertainty in the sellers community – even with some of the most seasoned merchants. So, why is this? Well, it appears that the new policy has left them with questions that are unanswered by eBay’s own documentation.
The Managed Returns Policy is immediately effective for all new sellers, but many object to this being mandatory. They would rather do things on their own terms. However, eBay is insistent that all returns policies must be consistent for all buyers across its platform.
Whilst the policy is immediately compulsory for new seller, existing sellers won’t have to implement the new conditions until February 17th.
Concerns over increased costs
Some sellers objecting to being forced to follow the Managed Returns Policy are concerned that they can only use eBay’s own courier service. In some cases sellers could have built up long-standing relationships with courier companies and so receive better deals.
No- quibble proves unpopular with sellers
Perhaps the biggest bug-bear amongst sellers is the no quibble aspect of the returns policy. Buyers won’t need to give any reason to return goods, but the seller will still have to redress the issue.
In fact, plenty of eBay sellers already have this kind of “no-quibble” returns policy anyway. Nevertheless, these are usually within a shorter timeframe than eBay’s Policy.
Good news for sellers under the eBay money back guarantee
However, sellers stand to benefit from the lowered time limit for the instigation of a case under the eBay money back guarantee. eBay has cut this from 45 to 30 days after the estimated date of delivery.
Does the returns policy apply to everyone?
This caused a fair bit of confusion during the early days following the announcement.
It wasn’t quite clear whether it applied across the board, or only to certain categories and sellers. This uncertainty has been widely debated in the UK and the UK.
What eBay has to say
eBay has promised that it will iron out all the creases and answer all those unanswered questions in their next official Seller Release in March. They also said that they will give sellers 60 days advanced warning before the change is introduced.
Despite this change of tack by eBay, some sellers are still concerned that the policy will come into effect in mid-February, as originally stated.
At the time of writing, so many questions are unresolved, but we will update you as soon as we have more concrete news for eBay UK sellers.
