Setting up your return policy

When you sell on eBay, you need to state whether you accept returns or not, and if so, under what conditions. For example, you might assert who pays for return shipping or that you’re willing to accept returns for a specific period of time after a sale. Whatever you decide your policy is, it needs to be clearly specified in your listings.

If your policy is to accept returns, you can set up rules that automate the way that you manage different parts of the return process. For example, you can create rules to:

• Accept some returns automatically, while continuing to process others manually
• Refund the buyer automatically and allow them to keep the item if the return shipping cost is higher than the item’s cost
• Provide different return addresses for different items

Handling some returns automatically not only saves you time, it’s also great customer service: the buyer gets their return request sorted right away.

Your returns rules options

You can choose to offer one of the following return policies:

• No returns
• 30-day buyer-paid returns
• 30-day free returns
• 60-day buyer-paid returns
• 60-day free returns

Some product categories have unique retail standards where you’ll be able to offer variations on the returns policy options.

You can offer 14-day returns in the following categories:

• Camera Drones
• Camera Lenses
• Collectibles & Art
• Digital Cameras
• Jewelry
• Medical & Mobility

Setting your return approval and refund rules

Here’s how to set your returns rules:

1. Go to your Returns preferences - opens in new window or tab.
2. Under Send a refund, you can choose to let buyers keep the item and automatically refund them if the refund amount is less than a certain amount. Simply enter the amount you’re comfortable with.
3. Choose the return reasons when this rule will apply.
4. Under Approve a return, you can choose to automatically approve a return if the total refund cost is less than a certain amount. Enter an amount you’re comfortable with.
5. Choose the return reasons when this rule will apply.

Changes to your return rules will automatically apply to all future return requests but won’t apply to returns already in progress.

Setting your return address rules

If you want buyers to return items to different locations based on return reason, refund amount, or other conditions, you can set return address rules. Here’s how:

1. Go to your Returns preferences - opens in new window or tab
2. Select Edit next to Return address rules
3. Select Create new rule
4. Name your address rule and select which return address is relevant to your new rule
5. Select a condition that the return request needs to meet to be eligible for the rule. You can set rules based on refund amount, return reason, or item category.
6. Select Save rule

We use specific terms to describe the different addresses sellers provide eBay when automating returns. These terms include:

• Registration address: The business registration address you provided when you created your selling account
• Primary return address: The preferred address to which all returns are sent within a country
• Closest address: Your closest location to the buyer’s delivery address
• Original ship-from address: The address from where the item was initially shipped

First, your return approval and refund rules check new return requests to see if they should be automatically approved or refunded. Next, your return address rules check if the return should be sent to a specific return location based on their priority. If the return doesn’t meet approval or refund criteria, but does meet the criteria for an address rule, then you'll need to manually accept the return for the address rule to take effect.

The order of your return rules list determines the priority certain rules take over others. You can adjust the priority list so that your most important rules are followed first.

EU right of withdrawal

Consumer buyers in the EU can withdraw from a purchase contract by returning the item they bought within 14 days. If you’re listing items on an EU site, you need to edit your return policies to comply with EU right of withdrawal regulations.