eBay Not Letting Me Refund an International Shipping Program order

[egarchow89]

I had a buyer win quite a few of my auctions. For whatever reason, when he tried to pay for the items, eBay split his order into three parts and charged him almost $150 to ship three separate packages when I can easily ship them together.

He was put off by this, understandably, and I agreed to cancel his order(s). Now when I tried to cancel them with the "buyer asked to cancel" option. I am getting the following messages.

"Your refund did not go through. Please try again later "

Obviously "later" did not work.

I then check my email.

"

Please update your payment method

Hi X,

This order couldn’t be cancelled because there was an issue with the refund.

Please try refunding the buyer again by adding or updating your payment instrument before Jan 16, 2024.

I checked my payment methods. I have a bank account, credit card, and my paypal linked. I have never had an issue refunding before. I also have 10x the refund amount in my "available funds" so that shouldn't be an issue.

Has anyone run into this, and if so, how were you able to cancel and refund?

[ebooksdiva]

Your accounts need to have sufficient funds in order for the refunds to go through. 
Refunds will only come out of the payment option set up for seller payments it is usually your bank account. 

[egarchow89]

Thank you for trying but I think you missed the part of my post where I stated that I have 10x the intended refund amount in my available funds, and I have a bank account linked with much more than that. It is not a funds issue.

[fab_finds4u]

You need to have a checking account to deposit the buyer's funds. You also need to link a credit or debit card to eBay for seller fees like refunds that are not taken from your payouts. 

[fab_finds4u]

You should already have a checking account linked for the payout from the buyer's  payment. Update it here. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/setting-changing-automatic-payment-method/up...

Then you need to link a debit card, a credit card, or a checking account for seller fees that are not taken from the payout. That would be for refunds and the .30 transaction fee and  selling fees other than the final value fee. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/setting-changing-payment-method-fees-selling...

[egarchow89]

I already have all these things linked. I have done refunds before, probably dozens of times over the years.

This is my first attempted refund within the International Shipping Program.

It is not working at all.

[egarchow89]

This is all set up already.

I have done many refunds before. No issues.

This is my first attempted refund through the International Shipping Program. 

However, the issues I describe in the OP remain.

[fab_finds4u]

All set up already,,,,,, I understand but it looks like they want you to update or confirm what is already set up.    

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Sellers have no ability to combine EIS orders. Ebay has recently implemented a means for buyers to combine orders, but they must follow instructions.

If they combined the orders and you are trying to refund extra domestic shipping charges, you should be able to.

Since once you ship to the EIS hub, you are not involved in further customer service or refunds, your problems may relate to how recent changes may have affected this function.

[egarchow89]

Nothing has shipped yet. 

Finally got through to customer service. They say it's processing and should be completed within 5-7 days but we'll see. All the other refunds I have tried, whether canceling an order, refunding a few dollars for combined shipping, or refunding for a damaged package, have taken a few minutes.

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@ebooksdiva wrote:

Your accounts need to have sufficient funds in order for the refunds to go through. 
Refunds will only come out of the payment option set up for seller payments it is usually your bank account. 

---

That is NOT correct.

I refund all the time (shipping and or a 'return') and as LONG as there is 'pending money' (which I always have) ebay NEVER goes into my bank account.

[stainlessenginecovers · Accepted solution]

If you are talking EIS (ebay international shipping program) you CANNOT 'refund'; they take care of that.

You CANNOT combine shipments as there is a 'different number assigned' (they are 'working' on being able to 'combine' but it's not working for all yet..just started) so in the meantime, you have to do the following:

1.) cancel orders and then you can refund (before you print labels)

2.) combine all items in 1 listing (be sure to put in accurate weight/size so EIS will charge customer correctly)

3.) input YOUR shipping that you want for package to go to US hub 

4.) once listing is created, tell customer to 'repurchase'. 

[egarchow89]

Thanks, that sounds good for the future.

The funny thing now is that any listings I create only ship to the US and Canada, as detailed in this thread:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-Listings-Excluding-All-Countries-but-USA-and-Canada/m-p/34...

[stainlessenginecovers]

Somehow you are not in EIS because if you were, you would NOT be also able to ship to 'just Canada'..

try editing that listing (the newest one from 1/11

I checked a handful of others, they are all in EIS

[egarchow89]

All my older listings seem to be enrolled in EIS just fine.

It's anything I have made in 2024 (not sure if that has anything to do with it) that ships only to US and Canada. Even when it uses the EXACT shipping policy that is used by 1300 listings that ship EIS worlwide.

I even copied an existing listing that is working properly and changed only the price and one word in the title. Still only US and Canada. I am going to wait until the refund issue above is resolved and then try to figure it out.