danesei@yahoo.com
08-13-2014, 03:52 AM
Everyone should have received a notification of new eBay rules in their inbox.
Two key takeaways:
1) All returns will be hassle-free returns.
2) All SNAD returns will be at the seller's expense.
Now, the first one is somewhat common sense to me. I never understood why eBay allowed sellers to allow returns on a limited basis and still mark their listings as 14-day money back guarantee.
The second one I find questionable, at best. Unlike Amazon, which only applies it's seller return policy to the drop-shipper Amazon sellers, eBay is expecting all sellers to accept (at their expense) all items back, regardless of condition, so long as the buyer claims it's SNAD.
eBay has historically ruled in the favor of the buyer in SNAD cases, period. I've never heard of a seller winning a SNAD complaint, except on a technical appeal (lost return package). Essentially, this will put most of eBay's core sellers (the Chinese drop-shippers) out of business. No longer will you be able to buy electronics at manufacturer's cost + 30-cent shipping. Now the sellers will need to price return shipping into their business modelling, which might be significant enough to double prices or drive sellers off eBay, entirely.
On the plus side, this will force "game issued used worn" sellers to clean up their titles and descriptions, as they'll no longer be able to hope that buyers are too lazy to initiate a SNAD and pay return shipping. On the downside, this might end up killing the market for relatively cheap memorabilia (boots and jerseys handed to fans after futbol matches, broken bats given to fans at ST games, foul balls, etc), since smaller sellers won't be able to afford incurring of consistent losses due to silly returns.
My guess is that we'll likely see another eBay fee hike after the holiday season, as eBay will need to make up for revenue losses due to losing their non-business seller base.
Two key takeaways:
1) All returns will be hassle-free returns.
2) All SNAD returns will be at the seller's expense.
Now, the first one is somewhat common sense to me. I never understood why eBay allowed sellers to allow returns on a limited basis and still mark their listings as 14-day money back guarantee.
The second one I find questionable, at best. Unlike Amazon, which only applies it's seller return policy to the drop-shipper Amazon sellers, eBay is expecting all sellers to accept (at their expense) all items back, regardless of condition, so long as the buyer claims it's SNAD.
eBay has historically ruled in the favor of the buyer in SNAD cases, period. I've never heard of a seller winning a SNAD complaint, except on a technical appeal (lost return package). Essentially, this will put most of eBay's core sellers (the Chinese drop-shippers) out of business. No longer will you be able to buy electronics at manufacturer's cost + 30-cent shipping. Now the sellers will need to price return shipping into their business modelling, which might be significant enough to double prices or drive sellers off eBay, entirely.
On the plus side, this will force "game issued used worn" sellers to clean up their titles and descriptions, as they'll no longer be able to hope that buyers are too lazy to initiate a SNAD and pay return shipping. On the downside, this might end up killing the market for relatively cheap memorabilia (boots and jerseys handed to fans after futbol matches, broken bats given to fans at ST games, foul balls, etc), since smaller sellers won't be able to afford incurring of consistent losses due to silly returns.
My guess is that we'll likely see another eBay fee hike after the holiday season, as eBay will need to make up for revenue losses due to losing their non-business seller base.