So, I wanted to remove the “returns not accepted” lie on my eBay pages as I am fed up with angry buyers landing in my DMs all guns blazing to demand a return when all they have to do is click the return button. In order to do this you have to edit business preferences (not returns preferences, no – I did that & automated all returns & it still said no returns).

Eventually I discovered that I have to create a new policy & then apply that to listings one by one as each listing has it’s own return policy. Fine, but here’s the thing – once I created and applied one policy the entire listing flow changed for me. No longer can I use eBay simple delivery or the dropdown options, only the options I have policies for are available now so I have to create a policy for every single postage option I want. There is a blanket policy auto applied on existing listings which I cannot edit and which I suspect allows eBay simple delivery on those listings but because I am not able to view or edit how this policy behaves and have zero visibility into it from the seller side, I am not able to trust it. So listing a new item is no longer possible until I create these policies and they must be created from the browser.

FYI, this is what I see when I click on the auto generated policy that supports simple delivery:

This is probably better in the long run as I can remove Evri altogether from my postage options on new listings & just use royal mail. I did quite like eBay simple delivery, I was getting used to it & there is no way in hell I’m using Evri without it. Now it’s changed again & I’ll have to get used to this flow now.

It seems the app loads a completely different UI when you add the first policy. The “no returns” mark functions like de facto negative marketing against all sellers who don’t know how to operate the policy system & that might be all it is, it doesn’t actually reflect the reality of whether or not you can return or refund an item.

I’m sure the old simple delivery UI should still be usable though. It can’t be a choice between offering returns or using simple delivery, surely? But eBay’s updates since the rollout of simple delivery have been unpredictable and things keep changing so maybe it will change again.