eBay’s latest bucketful of site policy updates announced July 27th contain some long overdue revision of permitted Selling Practices.
This is, on the whole a good thing.
Together with cleaning up the often hostile and unprofessional language often found in eBay listings one of the most hotly discussed points is insurance.
Starting in October sellers will not be allowed to tack on additional charges for insurance. Here is the wording from the Selling Practices Policy effective sometime in October 09.
What you can charge
- Actual shipping cost: this is the amount for shipping the item. It should be what you paid the carrier.
- Handling cost: this can include the cost of packaging materials and insurance costs (if any).
- Delivery Confirmation and extra services: if these options are offered to the buyer, you can only charge what they actually cost.
Note that it does not say the seller has to absorb the cost of insurance, nor that the seller may not insure. It simply states that the cost of insurance must be combined into the item price or the handling. Personally I don’t see this as a major change, this is the policy I have always followed, although it will disrupt the mega sellers who use insurance as a second income stream.
The smart seller will start using shipping labels which reflect actual postage costs rather than ’stealth postage’ because the eBay buyer now has another tool to wield next year, particularly if they bought more than one item.
See this series of blogs by the Brews News on that subject:
July 27th - eBay Says to Buyers: Oh, How I Love Thee… Let Me Count the Ways
July 28th - July 2009 Announcements: It’s Just Water Off a Duck’s Back
July 29th - Non eTRS eBay Sellers: Auctions, AdCommerce, or Anonymity
July 30th - Coming Soon eBay Counts Positives As Negatives
As a buyer
I want choice. I want the ability to choose between sellers, and if I want to pay for insurance I am not sure how I would handle being told I can’t have it because the seller is not allowed to charge me for it. I see a lot of fancy footwork in the future, special listings and the like, all of which will add to eBay’s take.
I resent mandatory insurance charges on a low cost item. A $5 pendant with $5 shipping is now a $10 pendant. Force me to pay $3 (30%) on top for insurance and outrage is setting in. Yes I do have the choice to buy or not. If it is a gift which I know will delight the person it is intended for I may allow myself to be extorted, and that is exactly how I feel about it.
As a seller
My business philosophy is expressed in the first paragraph of my eBay About Me page.
I believe that it is my responsibility to get the purchased item to my buyer in the exact same condition it was shown in the listing when they bought it. I agree it is ‘not my fault’ if the Post Office mangles it en route. Is it then the buyer’s fault?
If the item is low value and/or replaceable, based on my experience and my damage statistics, which have been very low, I do not insure. If my buyer has bought something irreplaceable or the potential loss is greater than I am comfortable absorbing, I insure, to protect myself from total loss. My buyer is protected by my business ethics because I am not selling on eBay these days.
Insurance and Delivery Confirmation are for the Seller!
You may have put all kinds of verbiage in your listing about not being responsible once the item has been dropped off to the Post Office in the past but that is pure myth, and has been for years. eBay’s Terms of Service make you as the seller liable to refund the buyer if the item does not arrive in the condition it left, or, does not arrive at all. Like it or not, if you do not do it willingly PayPal will refund the buyer.
When you log in to your eBay account you agree to be bound by their User Agreement and Policies, all of them. As a buyer, if eBay’s search or ‘unfinding’ bothers you, then use a different search, you may find the same item elsewhere or find something eBay has hidden from you because the seller has been ‘demoted’. As a seller, if eBay’s fees and policies make business unprofitable the choice is clear. For those who are happy, there is no problem.
Y’all come back!
That’s good common business sense, I use the same philosphy when deciding whether or not to insures.
I agree with your overall take, and think that there’s not really much shocking news in the new announcements.
AW
Posted by Auctionwally on July 31st, 2009.
“The smart seller will start using shipping labels which reflect actual postage costs”
Charmingly, in the last two weeks Australia Post has REMOVED the cost of insurance or registration from the postage labels.
==========
Quote: “I believe that it is my responsibility to get the purchased item to my buyer in the exact same condition it was shown in the listing when they bought it. I agree it is ‘not my fault’ if the Post Office mangles it en route. Is it then the buyer’s fault?
If the item is low value and/or replaceable, based on my experience and my damage statistics, which have been very low, I do not insure. If my buyer has bought something irreplaceable or the potential loss is greater than I am comfortable absorbing, I insure, to protect myself from total loss.”
This is actually my own business principle as well. I even advise the buyer of higher price transactions that I will include registration or insurance, and in itself that can give a perception of a discount. In spite of some sellers claims that the postal service loses many items, I have had VERY few problems in the almost 12 years I have been selling on Ebay.
HOWEVER…. all of my auctions to this point carry the term “Insurance is optional at Post Office cost.” While I am happy to carry the responsibility and refund if a $20.00 item goes astray, some buyers are not, and if they require the item to be insured, they should have the option of buying a service that they want included in the transaction. With a minimum insurance fee of $8.20 for international transactions (admittedly only $2.80 within Australia), the post office can be taking an even larger slice of a small transaction than Ebay. I do not want to factor these figures into “handling” charges and price myself out of the market, and believe that they should be an optional service when the buyer wants them, just as I pay for them when I want them.
I have one buyer who insists on registration on every $8.00 postcard he buys. I let him pay for that, and include it from my side every time his total exceeds about $70.00. While I believe that it is my responsibility to do my best to get every item to him in the condition it is sold in (and he has received every item that way), I don’t believe that I should be either adding or wearing $2.80 for every $8.00 transaction, because a buyer masy be overly wary of the postal system. While I take my own responsibilities seriously, I do not feel that it is unreasonable or irresponsible to offer buyers the option of purchasing a serevice when they want it.
Just my view, Kevin
Posted by Kevin_T on July 31st, 2009.