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Whats your return strategy?
 

Starting to sell a different product that gets a couple returns a month. Good product to sell, but one account isn't enough for it. Expansive item that i will need to spread through 10-20 accounts.

What do you guys do? I rarely ever dealt with returns. I know PO box are good addresses for returns but that would mean i would need 10-20 po boxes. Is there any better solution to this that i am not seeing :confused:

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

When you say "expensive", roughly what's the dollar amount this item sells for? and can your business model afford to just give a refund in exchange of not having the item returned?

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

most of my items are below £30 mark so if someone is realy upset i take a hit refund grovel at there feet and give them some crap about not returning and (so far fingers crossed) good feedback.but i have a few addresses for returns if needed..but 3 weeks ago i got blackmailed in to refund 60% or he would think about the feedback he was leaving so i caved,and i know the item in question was good, but he is a seller himself and he is on my new year **** list he is not going to have a good year..lol..

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

About 500-800 dollars per item. My business model can afford what your talking about but its just too much money lost. I haven't done the math yet but i would think paying for the 20 PO boxes would be a better deal than just letting the item go and issuing a refund.

Returns would be ok if the stupid policy didn't change where the buyer can just request ebay automatically to allow them to print their shipping return labels on eb's charge without needing anything from the seller. What i have noticed was returns coming in without even being contacted. On an address i don't have access to these will either be taken by someone or returned to the buyer. This new system is terrible, literally so easy to steal from sellers.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

On cheap items i have no problem taking hits like this but this item is expansive. Does the guy sell the same items as you do?

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

It just might be worth the cost of the P.O. Box. especially with $500 - $800 dollar items....

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

Do you have any PO boxes or know which ones have the real address instead of the po box address? I remember reading it here a long long time ago but i forgot which company offered the ones with real addresses.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

UPS Store I believe, but a Mom and Pa Box Rental works fine as well, they (Mom and Pa) locations can be used as a real address a lot easier.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

MM78 is right about Mom and Pop Box rental - professional return address

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

ive had returns recently literally initiated without my say-so, due to new syste, my stealth address is given to customer and I just see it all when I login....You cannot sell high priced items without accessible address anymore, there is just no way round it, you do not always get the chance to send them your own returns label.

you are at last resort, ie if you have alot of accs, better off having a non-existant returns address (which is possible) so it can bounce back to buyer and buy you some contact time....

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

I can definitely CONFIRM that your returns address, be it a business or personal address, alongside your registered eBay full name is shown to the Buyer upon a 'Returns Request' being initiated against you.

I've had to do this, this morning against a suspected defective item being sold to me by a seller within the past month.

I was also offered the option by eBay the ability to use their own returns label (print off from my end) for the return of this item to the seller.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

business or private seller?

and did listing state "returns accepted" or No returns Accepted?

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

By 'business or private seller' I meant regardless as to whether the seller account was a business seller or private seller. Obviously, a Business seller has to have a visible Returns Address now anyhow, but I was just saying.

The listings stated 'No Returns Accepted', HOWEVER, eBay can & will (as in my case) overturn this statement by the seller, especially in the case of a defective good or 'Item Not as described'. eBay will get involved in a weeks time if the seller fails to respond, no reply from the seller so far. I am set to receive my P&P as well.

This seller was even stupid enough to include a counterfeit operating system alongside the actual fault with the laptop itself. I would have let the dud OS issue pass had the laptop actually worked since it was only going to be used as a backup machine.

Infact, the item was delivered to my door without any proof of delivery or anything, I could have simply put in a claim for 'item not received' to eBay.....but I wanted to do the right & honest thing & I decided not to deceive the seller out of this item by filing a false claim against him.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

I have two ideas for you on returns. I use both.

I see no need for 20 addresses. Just use the return address as the same return address in your shipping label. If a customer asks about a return, then just tell them to ship it back to the address on the label. Of course, this won't work if you buy postage directly from eBay. If you DO buy postage from eBay it might be a good idea to consider an Endicia account. It costs $15 per month, but eBay won't see anything on your labels and it is much cheaper than renting 20 post office boxes.

My second way of dealing with returns is to offer to send them a prepaid return label via US Mail, rather than through eBay/Amazon. It does two things, shields the information from eBay and prevents a customer from trying to return your item via overnight courier next morning AM delivery with insurance, signature and ID confirmation and an in-flight movie and dinner at your expense. I have actually had people demanding I pay hugely inflated postage or UPS return rates. They schedule a pickup for $10, then they add every service they can think of, trying to make it super expensive. Then, when I tell them I will only reimburse them for the normal first class or parcel shipping rate, BOY do they get STEAMED! Luckily, these idiots are few and far between. Someone like that is going to leave a negative no matter what you do anyway, so I don't see any point in trying to appease them. Normally, I am all for giving excellent customer service. But I have a problem when a customer tries to "punish" me financially because they did not like an item.

Now what was your question again???
:pound:

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

May have already been asked, but how many returns do you get?
I sell high dollar items in pretty big quantities and don't get a return even every year.

If you are not getting many returns, it may be possible to open a PO box only when a return is needed.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

maybe 1 in 50 is a return for me.

it is always higher when there are sizing issues. avoiding sized items like shoes etc is helpful to minimise...

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

I use and have used both methods you explain. But this doesn't shield me from the flawed system eb has put in place. The problem is that if a buyer is non responsive, opens a case, eb automatically gives them a return label within 2-3 days to ship it back to my return address. I have 0 say in this process. All you need to do is open a case, well not even a case, ask a question in the item not as described section and bam automatically you have a case vs the seller. Just by asking a stupid question. Then, you request a return label from eb. Done. Eb gives u return label to the seller. Now what? Both methods you explain which i use have absolutely 0 effect. Only solution is to have an available address ready for the labels eb gives out to buyers. :smash:

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

Have you tried having a non existent address return? What does the tracking say when the package cannot be delivered. I can see eb still doing a refund even if the package say delivered.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

Ebay refund the buyer when they upload tracking, NOT when it has been delivered.

The email they send you says something like this....

We see the buyer has uploaded tracking, we assume it will be with you in a couple of days, so we have refunded the buyer from your account.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

I have never seen anything like that.

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

Not a great experiment to conduct...

Re: Whats your return strategy?
 

I haven't seen this either, maybe if seller doesn't respond? I've seen seller has the option of waiting to receive the item before issuing a refund themselves, not eBay initiating one.