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Partial Refunds - Another Method of Increasing Your S&H DSR

Filed Under Best Match, Sellers' Insights 




In my last post, I discussed a tactic that I employed successfully to increase my eBay Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) for Shipping and Handling Fees to 4.7 - the threshold required for “increased exposure” under the Best Match search algorithm.

For many sellers, those who sell at a fixed-price or sell goods that are expensive to ship, offering a $0.99 shipping and handling fee just doesn’t make good business sense.  

So, here’s another idea to help sellers in this situation draw attention to the fact that they offer “5-Star” service and value in the shipping and handling aspect of the sales transaction:  provide small refunds to the buyer for “excess shipping fees paid.”

If you use PayPal, this technique is fairly simple.  List your auction with whatever you normally charge for shipping and handling.  As you ship the item, choose a shipping method that does not display the postage fee and then immediately send your bidder a partial refund via PayPal for $0.50 - $0.75.  Include a note explaining that you overestimated the shipping and handling costs and that the customer was due a partial refund. 

Is this technique manipulative or deceptive?  Maybe - but it’s no more deceptive than eBay making the customer think that a 4-Star Shipping & Handling DSR rating is “Reasonable,” even though, according to eBay’s Pinks, sellers with a (”Reasonable”) 4.0 average S&H DSR, ”represent the bottom 1% of all sellers.”   Until the system is fixed, sellers need to work within it in order to stay afloat.

The purpose here is to draw attention to the fact that you actually charge “Very Reasonable” shipping fees - and if it takes a small refund to make the bidder notice that fact, then so be it.

Odds are that your buyer will be delighted with your shipping and handling fees.

Issuing a partial refund to someone who made a payment via PayPal is relatively painless.  PayPal will even return to your account whatever fees you’ve paid for that portion you refund, however small. 

Here’s the instructions from PayPal’s website:

In addition to being able to refund your buyer anytime within 60 days of receiving a payment, you can also opt to send a partial refund.

Your original transaction fee will be credited to you.  When issuing partial refunds, a portion of the original fees paid will be returned to you.

Here’s how it works:

  • Log in to your PayPal account.
  • Click the History sub-tab.
  • Find the payment you would like to refund.
  • Click Details to open the Transaction Details page.
  • Click the Refund Payment link.
  • Enter the refund amount and click Submit

Related Posts:

  • eBay Fraud Primer: Shill Bidding
  • Don’t Let a Seller String You Along
  • Auction eZine - Issue 3
  • Free Shipping and Best Match
  • Media Mail is Killing my Detailed Seller Ratings


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    3 Responses to “Partial Refunds - Another Method of Increasing Your S&H DSR”

    1. S Metro on October 12th, 2008 8:05 am

      I found the suggestion to add a little to the shipping and then take away a little and to give back so little, was totally out of the realm of possibilities to me. It is deceptive, dishonest and ridiculous!
      I hope no one else does it, either.
      s.Metro

    2. S Metro on October 12th, 2008 8:07 am

      I would take a percentage to send back as a good customer thank you. But that would be all. I would even pay shipping for the customer,providing I still make a profit.

      Once again,
      s.Metro

    3. eBuyer Feedback on November 9th, 2008 10:25 pm

      I have heard of at least one instance of a seller getting a negative doing this very thing.

      It isn’t honest and eBay’s dishonesty is no excuse. Plus, anytime a group of people exhibit a behavior that eBay sees as disruptive they come out with a brand new policy and we don’t need another one of those.

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