Rob & Melissa from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to overcome the fear of getting returns when reselling on eBay.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast – Should The Fear Of Getting A Return Stop You From Selling On eBay?
Rob: What's up, guys? On today's episode, we are talking about returns. Does the fear of returns stop you from selling on eBay?
Melissa: So does the thought of getting returns stop you from selling on eBay or any other platform? We're gonna dive into that today.
Rob: That's right. We do get this question a lot on social media, about returns.
Melissa: Especially because we do larger items. A lot of times our flips are $500, $1,000, $2,000, and they're like, oh wait, wait a couple days for that return. And last year, we only had three returns and you won two of them. And so we're gonna dive into kind of how to prevent returns.
Rob: Yeah. And how not to be scared of them.
Melissa: Yeah. And don't be scared that that it's part of business they're gonna happen, but you can reduce the amount of them. Yeah.
Rob: Yeah. Disclosure, you guys, if you don't know our business model, we sell larger items typically and higher profit items. This will talk about a little bit more to somebody whose business model, selling a lot of small items, so more volume and lower price on your items.
It might be a little bit different, but what, where we're coming from is it's gonna be a higher value items, larger items that are higher value. So this is what works for us. We're gonna give you guys kind of our playbook on this, and how not to be scared of, of a return for sure.
Melissa: Yeah. So we don't accept returns in our business.
That doesn't mean that we don't get them and that we don't get like a not as described. If that happens like we still have to deal with that. They do happen it's business, but we do our best prevent those from happening. So we don't accept returns and a lot of people do and that there's nothing wrong with that.
And so it can help your items be seen more, especially if you have a lot of competition, if you're selling items like, clothes and shoes that need to be sized, right. And if they don't fit, they wanna return. Like, of course you're gonna offer returns for those items and like whatever your window is, and that makes sense.
But for our business model, it doesn't really make sense to take returns. So yeah, we want the buyer to know what they want before they get it, not change their mind on a $2,000 piece of equipment or appliance and be able to return it. So.
Rob: That's it. So the biggest thing that we always go back to is under promise over deliver.
If you are doing that, when you are selling, you should not have problems. That's where you are picking apart, the item that you're selling, you're trying to show all the imperfections, whether that's pictures, whether it's in the description, you're labeling all that stuff. You are pretty much trying to turn a buyer away from your item before they do it. You know, having false expectations of the item, that is what you do not want. And you have to remember, buyers cannot see on eBay, buyers cannot see or touch this item until you get it shipped to them, until they pay for it, until they actually get it in the mail. That is the only time they get to see and touch this.
So you really have to depict what the item is, actually what the item actually is without over promising it.
Melissa: Back in the day, he used to want to, you know, you wanna sell your items, so you're gonna make it sound better than it is with pictures. You can do amazing things in Photoshop.
Rob: They always look better though.
Melissa: They, they that's true. They always look better than the item really looks so you wanna make sure you're taking pictures, if there's any imperfections on anything, if it doesn't look quite as good as your pictures, write that in the description too, but you also want the accurate pictures. And that's one thing that also is great with video.
Cuz you can show more with a video. We like to do videos now in our listings. And you can really show the actual like what it looks like.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: We want the buyer to be very happy and to get that item and it's in better condition than they thought, not mint condition. We never say mint, right?
Rob: Nope, never.
Excellent.
Great. I even say steer away from great condition, guys, because you don't know your, what your definition of great is or excellent is the buyers', that is getting that item they have the same expectations. So you have to very be very careful about using words like that.
Melissa: Yeah, was it, what was the first thing that you did?
It was a larger item. Remember back a long time ago, you said mint condition. And the buyer was like?
Rob: I did on a Nordic Track.
Melissa: Oh, it was.
Rob: Yeah for like $1,600, $1,700. And I thought it was mint condition. It was in great condition. And when the buyer got it, he's like, no, there's scratches on this. There's scuffs, there's scrapes, there's all kinds of stuff.
So, I got a request return on that and that's one of those things. That's all growing pains and learning, the school of hard knocks for me back in the day. So now we definitely under promise and over deliver. So I'm taking pictures of any scratch or scuff on the item that I can. And then I'm also putting it in the description.
I'm saying stuff like, you know, this is a used item, please expect normal wear on this item because it is used. Please see pictures for condition, all that kind of stuff. You wanna put that in the item and the description. And have pictures of that. So the buyer has the proper expectations for the item.
Melissa: Cause you don't want a $1,700 return.
Rob: Absolutely not.
Melissa: Just because you told them that it was in mint conditions. Yeah. So.
Rob: And let me give, kind of a mind shift on this too, for you for a larger, you know, we sell something for $5,000 and the buyer, asks for a return that doesn't typically happen on higher profit items. That's like me going to a car lot and finding a $60,000 truck and them telling me they're gonna sell it to me for $30,000.
Typically the stuff that we're selling, we're selling at around 50% of retail. Now, when the buyer does find this, first of all, he can't find it anywhere else. That's why he's buying it from us for 50% of retail. When they get that item, they're not gonna wanna return an item that they've got for 50% off of retail, because that's what they want.
Like right now we have a turbo chef oven that we paid $400 for. We have it listed for, I think it, well, we have two of 'em, but I think one of 'em is like almost $10,000. The other one's like $8,500. These are new items. They cost over $20,000. I think ,between $20,000 and $23,000 new we're giving it to somebody for half that price.
Guys they're not going to get this and change their mind when they get it. They're getting a great deal on this. So they're gonna be happy with it because we're giving them a great deal on it. So that's what you do not have to worry about. Like if I'm buying a $10 shirt and I get it and I change my mind on it, for whatever reason, and I wanna return it, that's totally different than something like what we are selling, the items that we are selling.
Melissa: Typically, if we do get a return request, it's because it's a damaged in shipping, it's a damaged claim. So it's not a return request, even though like at first they might say it's broken and they do a, a case, the item not as described. Yeah. And then we have to dig in deeper and ask, okay, what happened?
Was it damaged on delivery or what does the box look like? Or, we have to kind of dig deeper to see if it is a return request for shipping. So..
Rob: So let's open that can of worms. What happens when your buyer gets the item and it is damaged. Guys, if you're doing everything right, so you've already under promised and you over delivered, you're not making any crazy claims about the item.
So the item is exactly asked, described when the buyer gets that item. It gets damaged in shipping. Okay. Listen, if you are packaging it properly to the carrier's guidelines and you are paying the extra money for insurance, always pay for insurance, you have nothing to worry about because you're gonna get your money back.
The buyer's gonna get their money back, and then somebody's gonna get the item typically. It's you, you have that item. That if the carrier does not take it, when they pay you out for the insurance, sometimes they'll take the item and sometimes they won't, you can sell pieces off the item or throw it away, do whatever you want with the item.
But typically you're not gonna lose money when you're doing everything the proper way.
Melissa: Yeah. And a big hack, I guess pro hack is if it is damaged, like with FedEx or UPS, you have them pick up the items so you're not paying for shipping. The buyer's not paying for shipping. The carrier is paying for shipping to do a damage inspection.
Rob: This is huge on big items. You remember we're selling larger items, higher profit could cost us a hundred dollars to ship something through FedEx or UPS.
We don't
Melissa: want that.
Rob: I don't wanna pay that when somebody's upset with the item, for whatever reason. And typically it's damaged. That's right. So that's when you call the carrier up and you have them do a damage.
I think it's called a damage tag. Where they'll actually pick up the item, do the inspection on it because you have insurance and return it to you. You definitely wanna do that so you are not paying the shipping to that buyer. And then the shipping from the buyer back to you. You're not doing that.
You're having a carrier. If they damaged it, you're having them pick it up, do the inspection and then return it to you. So definitely a pro tip.
Melissa: Yeah. Cause a lot of people get scared that, okay, well now it's damaged. Now. I gotta go out this money for the label or the buyer does the buyer. You don't want the buyer to do it, cuz then they're gonna be angry and then they're gonna wanna leave negative feedback and you want them to have a good experience through the whole thing.
And that's brings us also to keeping communication. So it's kind of turned into a shipping claim down the rabbit hole, but you just keep good communication with your buyers too. You know, if they ask for a return request and you don't accept returns, you need to figure out why, and it's probably gonna be shipping and you kind of go down that rabbit hole.
But just keep communication open. So, and you don't have to solve it right away either. So if they open the claim, get some time to think about it. I know we, I think we've talked about this before. Yeah. Take some time. Reevaluate and then reply.
Rob: Consult with somebody, you know, really talk to somebody, talk it out.
Don't jump on the second somebody says, I go give 'em a refund right now, open a case and don't go through all that. Figure out exactly what's going on. Like Melissa touched on it. You gotta dig deeper. Sometimes somebody might open a case and say, I wanna return. They might not say anything else. That's where you gotta send them a nice email and say, oh, I'm so sorry. You're unhappy with this. Please, let me know what's going on. I gotta figure out what's going on. How can I help? How can we can, how can we solve this problem? And then that's where they're gonna say, hey, this thing showed up. It's the box is beat up. It got damaged in shipping and you're like, okay, well, no problem.
Let's I'm gonna, I'm gonna call the carrier. They're gonna pick it up. They're gonna do an inspection on it and return it to me. As soon as I get it back, you'll get your refund. And I have insurance on it, so I'll get my money back. So you can go through that whole process. It really is trying to dig deeper on anything that you go through, if it is for a return.
Melissa: So, yeah. And it's, I mean, every, nobody likes going it's headache. Well, yeah, it's a headache to go through a shipping claim, but as long as you get paid out, the buyer unfortunately gets their money. I mean, they get their money back, but unfortunately they don't get to keep the item and that's what they wanted.
Yeah. Originally. So that, you know, it is annoying, but nobody has to lose their money, in that instance. Yeah. And that really should be the, the most of your returns for like, not as described. So if you're, if you do accept returns for, you know, little or items, like obviously that.
Rob: Fitment, if it doesn't fit right for shoes, shirts.
Melissa: We understand like those, like.
Rob: You can't change that. Yeah, but anything that we're selling, the only return request that we're gonna get is something that is damaged in shipping. And at that point, like I said, if you're doing everything right, you're packaging it properly, you're paying for insurance, then you don't have, you have nothing to worry about.
So business models like ours, you should not worry about the returns that should not stop you from selling stuff, the larger items, the higher profit items. Now we can't talk that much for smaller items just because, like we said, it's fitment stuff. I think it's hard to sell something online and then not offer a chance for a return.
Like if I'm buying a shirt and it's a medium, a different manufacturers have different sizes and I might try it on, I might be super tight and I'm like, yeah, I can't wear this. Yeah. It's one of those things. We understand for different business models that you might have to deal with returns. But for us, we guys, we're trying to under promise and over deliver on everything that we're doing.
So that's, that's our goal. When we're selling and then we also pay for insurance and package properly, you should not have any and any issues when you have that model.
Melissa: So, yeah, we just wanted to address that part of like people on the internet are always commenting that, you know, they would be worried to sell something of that value because of returns.
And one other thing that I think could really help ease that for you too, is keep a buffer of money like of your profits. Just keep it in the account, make sure you let that time go by and it should, you know, you should have a little cushion, so you shouldn't spend all the money that you get right away.
And then you have that cushion in case of return does happen, cuz they will happen or a shipping claim and then you're ready for it. So, absolutely. Yeah. So because I know a lot of times, especially when you're younger, you'd get that money and just spend it, spend it, spend it. But you know, when you're really trying to grow a business, even in a side hustle, it's always a good practice.
It's great practice to keep a buffer of money that you can pay out. You know, if something does happen, you know, you wanna leave it probably for 30 days that you have that.
Rob: So, absolutely.
All right, guys. Thanks for checking us out. Thanks for listening to today's episode, guys. Hope you have a wonderful day and keep on flipping.