Massive negative balance after refunding buyer???

[leyho-52]

Long story short, I sold an item for $1,711.03. Ebay took $240.61 for fees so I made $1,470.42. I spent $43.71 of that on shipping. The buyer wanted a return and I accepted. After getting the item back and confirming that all was well, I went into the app to refund the buyer my $1,470.42 but it didn't work. There was an error with the system. I called support and they said that all was well, they'd refund the buyer, and there were no issues on my end.

What (to my understanding) should have happened: eBay refunds $1,470.42 from my funds on hold and also refunds their $240.61 cut from themselves. I would have a -$43.71  balance to pay because I spent money on shipping that I didn't yet have.

What actually happened: eBay refunded the entire $1,711.03 from my on-hold funds! They took their  fees from me, which I don't have. I now have a -$284.32 balance on my account.

I just called eBay and they said they have filed an appeal but I am incredibly nervous. This feels like a cut-and-dry mistake on their end but maybe I'm wrong. I can't just pay $240.61 from thin air but I also can't take eBay to court over that amount. I just want to know that I'm not crazy and I'm not misunderstanding how eBay refunds work. I should only have to pay the $43.71 that I spent on the shipping right?? Thanks in advance for the help 🙂

[reallynicestamps]

The customer paid $1711.03.

The customer will be refunded $1711.03.

The seller is refunded their eBay fees.

The shipper is paid for his work.

The seller is not refunded for their shipping costs.

The buyer is no longer a part of this dispute.

As I understand it, you have not been refunded eBay's fees.

You may find it takes several days for the fees to be refunded to you.

If you contact eBay on social media (NOT THE PHONES)  you should get a better explanation


https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.

and you will get a TRANSCRIPT so you can review in case what you heard was not what you were told.

Try to get a date for the refund.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

Hey kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay - any chance you can check on this one to make sure CS took appropriate steps, or if the seller needs to reach back out to them? Thanks!

Sounds to me like seller ran into a tech issue refunding, contacted CS for help. CS opened a formal case which resulted in an unresolved case defect and loss of eBay fees.

Hoping CS that submitted the appeal did a better job than CS that caused unnecessary grief for this seller.

Since you appealed that should take care of the situation @leyho-52 , but if for any reason your appeal is denied please come back here for further assistance.

[lakefor94]

Do what @reallynicestamps said and I would suggest the social media route.

It may be that eBay did not refund your FVF's because eBay did the refund. At times when you hear "filed an appeal", you never know what exactly will happen if anything. 

Keep an eye on your seller rating as well in case you took a hit there for unresolved case. 

Not trying to set off alarms, just a heads up.

[leyho-52]

From my understanding of the situation, it sounds like you hit the nail right on the head. My tech issues caused a case to be opened rather than the refund being handled properly which ended in the loss of the fees. But since I was attempting to do it correctly, that shouldn't have happened. If the appeal doesn't work out for some reason, I'll shoot you a message. Thanks so much!

[kensgiftshop]

There's no mistake, when you refund a buyer, you give a full refund, all but sales tax.

If you hadn't called and got CS involved, your fee's would have been refunded.

When you get Ebay involved in a return, they keep their fee's.

[kyle@ebay]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Hey kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay - any chance you can check on this one to make sure CS took appropriate steps, or if the seller needs to reach back out to them? Thanks!

Sounds to me like seller ran into a tech issue refunding, contacted CS for help. CS opened a formal case which resulted in an unresolved case defect and loss of eBay fees.

Hoping CS that submitted the appeal did a better job than CS that caused unnecessary grief for this seller.

Since you appealed that should take care of the situation @leyho-52 , but if for any reason your appeal is denied please come back here for further assistance.

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Hey @wastingtime101 from what has been described, it sounds like all the right steps were taken, we just needed to give the seller a heads up of what to expect.  
Typically when a seller is having trouble issuing a refund and they contact eBay to get that pushed through (not to be confused with eBay needing to step in because the seller WON'T refund), we'll close the case in the buyer's favor.  This will force the refund through.  Then we'll go ahead and manually credit the fees and remove the defect.  But since that is a manual process, it can take a few days for the "dust to settle".  So I'd assume the defect removal and credit will both be completed in the next day or so.  

[wastingtime101]

Thank you kyle@ebay . Please see above @leyho-52 and let us know how everything works out for you. If you need additional help just ask.

[leyho-52]

The appeal was successful and the fees have been credited. Thank you all for the help!