Cases to count against you, even if you refund.

bxboards

I have got a negative (but no low stars with it from April 2013) and a situation where a buyer opened a false 'not as described' case in May 2013 for a change of mind, so I just got him to open a Returns case so he had both open at once, which closed when I refunded. So I guess that is two 'defects' but will they still count in August?

I've come to conclusion that I'm just going to stop offering 'free postage' as that costs me more than the 15% discount now that low P&P stars don't count just to get around the 90 day return period over Christmas.

soolin

Strapped wrote: »

I believe that it will not be a defect if you do not select the reason that it has been sold elsewhere (or whatever the phrasing is).

ETA: It says "Transactions cancelled by you due to stock out or item sold to another buyer"

The ebay rep though has said there is no mechanism to show that a buyer wishes a sale to be cancelled, so it will be a defect as you have to choose 'other' in the mutual. When pushed for a response he just replied that to avoid this a seller MUST use the NPB process rather than offer a mutual.

It completely misses the point though as mine have paid. So it is admittedly rare, but not unlikely (I had one last month) where seller bought and paid for 3 things, then emailed imemdiately and said she only wanted 2 and had no idea how she bought and paid for 3. What could I do other than refund? The cancelled sale cost me approx 75p in fees so I sent a mutual cancellation, in future that will risk my metrics.

I am not up to date with all the threads on the community boards (there are some in the powerseller forum as well) but when I last checked in there was no explanation as to how sellers get their fees back if buyer wishes to cancel after payment.

This is a step backwards. At the moment I suspect the majority of items can be bought free post and shipped within 1 working day. If people like me are considering dropping the TRS and adding a day or so to my despatch and charging postage as extra then it is back to where we started 2 years ago- and a completely different vision to the one ebay have been trying to sell.

soolin

bxboards wrote: »

I have got a negative (but no low stars with it from April 2013) and a situation where a buyer opened a false 'not as described' case in May 2013 for a change of mind, so I just got him to open a Returns case so he had both open at once, which closed when I refunded. So I guess that is two 'defects' but will they still count in August?

I've come to conclusion that I'm just going to stop offering 'free postage' as that costs me more than the 15% discount now that low P&P stars don't count just to get around the 90 day return period over Christmas.

As you can see from the amount of posts I am generating on this thread, I am giving this a lot of consideration.

According to their metrics based on my current performance my defect rate is 0.5% which means I retain TRS. Thyey tell me I am an excellent seller and congratulate me, whilst telling me that I basically need to do better - it is rather insulting.

I have now started my campaign of offering discounts for direct repeat buyers in future, so if anyone objects to that line in my despatch emails I might even get a slap from ebay, so won't have to worry about keeping TRS anyway.

RFW

soolin wrote: »

It completely misses the point though as mine have paid. So it is admittedly rare, but not unlikely (I had one last month) where seller bought and paid for 3 things, then emailed imemdiately and said she only wanted 2 and had no idea how she bought and paid for 3. What could I do other than refund? The cancelled sale cost me approx 75p in fees so I sent a mutual cancellation, in future that will risk my metrics.

It's how Amazon do it, although they have a scale system of importance, refunds/cancellations instigated by buyer count much lower than ones by the seller.
As far as Ebay goes, on past form they'll change it 2 or 3 times before they introduce it. They seem to make the announcements without actually having fully formulated the policies in them.

bxboards

soolin wrote: »

Thyey tell me I am an excellent seller and congratulate me, whilst telling me that I basically need to do better - it is rather insulting.

My too - I'd say 95% of my problems are because a buyer just doesn't read a listing.

Short of me signal handedly funding an adult literacy program so buyers can actually read the nice friendly text on my listings, I can't see how I can do anything else to improve.

campdave

soolin wrote: »

The cancelled sale cost me approx 75p in fees so I sent a mutual cancellation, in future that will risk my metrics.

As long as you select "buyer purchased by mistake or changed mind" cancellation will not be classed as a defect.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and ordered the flyers to go out in my ebay orders that I've been faffing about with since January, to try and direct buyers back to my website.

Strapped

campdave wrote: »

As long as you select "buyer purchased by mistake or changed mind" cancellation will not be classed as a defect.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and ordered the flyers to go out in my ebay orders that I've been faffing about with since January, to try and direct buyers back to my website.

Yes, I think this is right, having looked at my stats this afternoon. I've had quite a few cancellations due to buyers changing their minds (don't even ask - some people really are brain dead) but they don't seem to contribute to the "defect" count.

soolin

Well that might be a slight comfort then , I'm really struggling to get my head round these new standards as even the eBay rep doesn't seem clear.

bxboards

Strapped wrote: »

Yes, I think this is right, having looked at my stats this afternoon. I've had quite a few cancellations due to buyers changing their minds (don't even ask - some people really are brain dead) but they don't seem to contribute to the "defect" count.

I've had a few 'change of minds' when a buyer has moaned at me that they don't like the Euro or US dollar price after seeing the price in their native currany on the Paypal payment page.

Those get cancelled as 'buyer purchased by mistake or changed' mind.

I also cancel and refund if a buyer chooses the 3-5 day economy 'free shipping' then immediately e-mails me tell me how they need it the next day. I do offer Express service, but they never offer to pay it..! Those don't show as 'defects' either, I usually choose 'buyer and seller dis-agreed on terms'.

Strapped

bxboards wrote: »

I've had a few 'change of minds' when a buyer has moaned at me that they don't like the Euro or US dollar price after seeing the price in their native currany on the Paypal payment page.

Those get cancelled as 'buyer purchased by mistake or changed' mind.

I also cancel and refund if a buyer chooses the 3-5 day economy 'free shipping' then immediately e-mails me tell me how they need it the next day. I do offer Express service, but they never offer to pay it..! Those don't show as 'defects' either, I usually choose 'buyer and seller dis-agreed on terms'.

That really bugs me too. Although my default free service is Royal Mail 48, so I don't cancel, but post it anyway. Sometimes it gets there next day, sometimes it doesn't, c'est la vie