“How does this new eBay Resolution process work?

If a buyer has been unsuccessful in working directly with a seller, the buyer can contact eBay. An experienced Customer Support representative reviews the case, examining transaction details such as item description, buyer and seller track record, seller location, payment, and postage & packaging details. If the buyer’s claim warrants further investigation, eBay will contact the seller.

The seller will have a certain number of business days to do one or more of the following:

* In cases where the buyer claims the item was not received, provide proof of delivery (using the same methods required by PayPal currently)
* In cases where the buyer claims the item was not as described, provide proof that it was (using the same methods required by PayPal currently)
* Or, resend or replace the item, or refund the buyer………….”

ONE BIG thing that needs to be done is NOT to blame the seller when a tracking system shows that the courier has attempted to deliver an item, and the buyer declines to pick it up , or rejects the parcel.. In this situation, the buyer should not be refunded postage costs, but under distance selling regs can gain a refund of the shop price – fine with that.

The seller should be allowed to apply a strike for a buyer who after infoming that their item is at the depot, fails to pick it up within 3 working days.

I am now moving to a RM business account, and using Royal Mail Tracked, which is a cost effective system with full tracking for a very low price. Thing is you need a Royal Mail business account and need to pay £450 upfront for a collections service (unless you can prove £15,000 of RM postal receipts / annum).

Smart FAQ – great to just tell the customer – please read the listing, not just the title and gallery image….the amount of questions we receive asking for info that on the page….grrrrrrr

Free postage on clothing is not a good move….i estimate it will cost me £2000 a month if I dont adjust my prices. Luckily its not in my sub category at the moment. Its probably the biggest business critical decision ebay have made….and could send people into serious losses if they dont manage their margins. Also it does not reward sellers (like me) who offer a next day service as standar. I would be forced to offer a poor standard service (4-5 day delivery) for free and then a premium service as my 2nd choice (chargeable). It goes against all the work I have done to negotiate with suppliers for fast, reliable postage at a competitive price. I generally agreee with most ebay decisions, and adjust my business …but clothing can be heavy to post, and it not something I can just send for free and absorb.

In Germany, domestic postage has been fixed at Euro 7.00 – this I think is a better idea….cap the top end postage costs, then the buyer is never over charged…

Thanks. I’ll try your smart FAQ. We have enabled this feature, but seems it doesn’t work well.

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/41409-Announcements-Discussion/New-View-Item/510089636

PS I liked the relaxed tone.

By the way, its not some way to sell broke equipment and say its untested. Printers and projectors are my main one for this type of sale. I dont have the ink or the correct bulb.

It always says no returns on this, its an auction so isnt covered by DSRs. 95% of these sales go well, they normally work and the person biding has got a bargain. Im concerned that these type of sales will be affected by “easy returns”

I also go to real life auctions and know how it works with those items taking a risk with IT equipment as every piece of IT cannot be fully tested.

most of the other things in the announcment dont affect me directly, i can see the amazonification x 2 hapening.

We are an international seller but we are not based in UK …does this “mandatory free domestic shipping” apply to us?

My understanding is we have to offer free shipping to UK as our shipping to UK is considered as “domestic” by eBay. International shipping just means to the rest of the world.

Any one any better explanation please?

Another point is that sometimes when I’ve had over a thousand listings running an ASQ has been the first indication that there is (yet another) glitch with item specifics, postage, shipping to areas or some other aspect of the listing. Smart ASQs would just perpetuate those glitches.

I had a quick look yesterday and does look like it is optional – for now anyway!

I hope there is an option to turn that off.

Why is the percentage of “lost in post” items so high for sales on eBay, when compared against sales on Amazon and your own website?

As a seller, I know the item was posted, along with other items sold on our websites.

We have NEVER had an item go missing from a sale on our websites, but sales on eBay….!

I have also commented on an eBay forum about it http://prune.it/ZdEH

We’ll be watching with interest to see if eBay will just allow the import of any pictures from the internet

Yes, it appears any web url works, though bear in mind, when used and where applicable, additional images beyond the initial first image free, normal eBay fees will apply