So far, I've made $-10.06 from eBay's "mismanaged payment system".
A buyer purchased an item. After six calendar days the payment never materialized in my bank account. So, as a courtesy, last night (with no payment) I refunded the buyer and sent the item anyway. Interestingly, the buyer threatened to open a claim anyway.
It turns out that when you add your bank account eBay blocks payouts to the bank for an indefinite amount of time while they "review it" (in my case it was six calendar days), but they do not tell users this (I am not speaking of fine print in legal jargon no normal person reads or understands). Had I known this, I would waited for that to elapse before selling anything. Only 1 representative out of about 30 I spoke to in the last week knew about this block.
However, they can deduct fees from your bank account instantaneously and without allowing you to pay those fees through a credit card or PayPal. So, eBay took the money for the refund out of my bank account in one day, but took six calendar days to send a fraction of the payment for the same item to the same account.
Their employees do not understand how this managed payment system works either. Even the more intelligent representatives are confidently getting basic facts about this new system completely wrong. For example, one US employee thought I needed two accounts in the payments section.
