eBay

the.archive · ‎09-30-2019

So, I had a customer buy something from me, and it had an issue. Completely my fault. I offered a generous partial refund to keep, or I gave them an option of a full refund/return, comping shipping (and apologizing profusely). I also offered to refund them early, as soon as the item is shipped, so the funds could be placed back into their account. I did as much the second I got the tracking notification. Ebay said the refund was processing, I sent the buyer a message letting them know, and they were pleased. Case closed....or not.

The next day, without an email or anything from ebay, I happened to check my returns for another item. This return was still listed as "not refunded". It said, "we cannot process your refund at this time, please call us or try again later." I tried again; ebay told me the refund was successful....but the next day---same exact thing. I finally called, and I was LITERALLY told by a customer rep that managed payments "did not want to handle this one (!?!?), since it was not their issue". The only direction I got was to wait until tomorrow, and the refund window would be up for me, and the buyer could contact and close the case and receive their refund. WHAT. Also, I *would" get a defect, but I can call again and appeal the defect. She will "make a note". Please tell me I'm not overreacting in saying this is utter b.....aloney.

Today, I feel completely incredulous. I called about another issue with returns, and was also told there was no information on that, to call back in 5 days.... helpless to the system.

orangehound · ‎09-30-2019

@the.archive wrote:
I was LITERALLY told by a customer rep that managed payments "did not want to handle this one (!?!?), since it was not their issue". The only direction I got was to wait until tomorrow, and the refund window would be up for me, and the buyer could contact and close the case and receive their refund. WHAT. Also, I *would" get a defect, but I can call again and appeal the defect. She will "make a note". Please tell me I'm not overreacting in saying this is utter b.....aloney.

eBay is infected with a lot of incompetent or poorly trained CSR's who dispense incorrect, misleading, and sometimes harmful information/guidance.

Call back and speak to another customer service rep.

the.archive · ‎10-01-2019

@orangehound wrote:
@the.archive wrote:
I was LITERALLY told by a customer rep that managed payments "did not want to handle this one (!?!?), since it was not their issue". The only direction I got was to wait until tomorrow, and the refund window would be up for me, and the buyer could contact and close the case and receive their refund. WHAT. Also, I *would" get a defect, but I can call again and appeal the defect. She will "make a note". Please tell me I'm not overreacting in saying this is utter b.....aloney.
eBay is infected with a lot of incompetent or poorly trained CSR's who dispense incorrect, misleading, and sometimes harmful information/guidance.

Call back and speak to another customer service rep.

Yes, I guess I can try to carve out another 45 minutes to **hopefully** get a different answer from someone more competent. I just can.not. right now. Thanks for the reply. ❤️

mr_lincoln · ‎10-01-2019

@the.archive Oh now this is rich! I've been waiting for Managed Payments to spew out one of those "we cannot process your refund at this time, please call us or try again later" type statements ... wait until it happens with YOUR money from a sale ... NOT "if" it will happen but "when".

I have to agree with @orangehound and the fact that eBay's Phone Reps have NO CLUE as to proper procedures for MP ... the program is still in the BETA phase regardless of what they tell us ...

You should bring this up on the Wed Weekly Chat ... just compare what would have happened and how you would have processed the issue PRIOR to Managed Payments and how it was handled with Managed Payments ...

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

orangehound · ‎10-01-2019

@the.archive wrote:

@orangehound wrote:
@the.archive wrote:
I was LITERALLY told by a customer rep that managed payments "did not want to handle this one (!?!?), since it was not their issue". The only direction I got was to wait until tomorrow, and the refund window would be up for me, and the buyer could contact and close the case and receive their refund. WHAT. Also, I *would" get a defect, but I can call again and appeal the defect. She will "make a note". Please tell me I'm not overreacting in saying this is utter b.....aloney.
eBay is infected with a lot of incompetent or poorly trained CSR's who dispense incorrect, misleading, and sometimes harmful information/guidance.

Call back and speak to another customer service rep.

Yes, I guess I can try to carve out another 45 minutes to **hopefully** get a different answer from someone more competent. I just can.not. right now. Thanks for the reply. ❤️

Another possibility is that we can get one of the eBay employees that peruse these forums to look at the advice given by the CSR and make a comment. Sometimes they will look into your situation further if it is unique ... if what you posted is incorrect, they often post the correct information and provide "coaching" to the CSR you spoke with.

So, let me ping a couple of them to see if they have a comment:

@Anonymous

alan@ebay

thehonorabletrader · ‎10-01-2019

eBay's Managed Payment teams basically take the place of PayPal to an extent. There are there to verify the identity of the sellers and bank accounts as required by Anti Money Laundering Laws and to help iron out program details.

When a return is opened on eBay, the eBay resolution center handles it. This has always been the case and this will continue to be the case. They aren't replacing every employee at eBay in every department with only one department of employees called "managed payments" who's job it is to be an expert at every single policy.

The fact is buyers and sellers have been resolving things outside of eBay for years despite eBay asking you to use the resolution center. eBay is setting up it's Payments Experience to use eBay policies as they were designed, not as users have been applying them.

So, the resolution center team will always handle all returns on eBay, regardless of if the seller is in managed payments or not.

This doesn't make your error less frustrating. Just explaining why the Managed Payment teams aren't going to handle 100% of issues that come up with sellers once they are in Managed Payments.

disneyshopper · ‎10-01-2019

I have been in MP since October 2018, and I have no problems with Cancellations/Refunds or Partial Refunds.

I think MP just recently updated the reasons for a refund, since when I go to Orders > Awaiting shipment

and I click on Send Refund, I am given several choices. One of them is to issue a Partial Refund. I just did this recently when a Canadian buyer paid too much for shipping.

disneyshopper
Volunteer Community Member

dasarock · ‎10-01-2019

that's good to know

Anonymous · ‎10-01-2019

@the.archive wrote:

So, I had a customer buy something from me, and it had an issue. Completely my fault. I offered a generous partial refund to keep, or I gave them an option of a full refund/return, comping shipping (and apologizing profusely). I also offered to refund them early, as soon as the item is shipped, so the funds could be placed back into their account. I did as much the second I got the tracking notification. Ebay said the refund was processing, I sent the buyer a message letting them know, and they were pleased. Case closed....or not.

The next day, without an email or anything from ebay, I happened to check my returns for another item. This return was still listed as "not refunded". It said, "we cannot process your refund at this time, please call us or try again later." I tried again; ebay told me the refund was successful....but the next day---same exact thing. I finally called, and I was LITERALLY told by a customer rep that managed payments "did not want to handle this one (!?!?), since it was not their issue". The only direction I got was to wait until tomorrow, and the refund window would be up for me, and the buyer could contact and close the case and receive their refund. WHAT. Also, I *would" get a defect, but I can call again and appeal the defect. She will "make a note". Please tell me I'm not overreacting in saying this is utter b.....aloney.

Today, I feel completely incredulous. I called about another issue with returns, and was also told there was no information on that, to call back in 5 days.... helpless to the system.

Hi @the.archive, it looks like the buyer's funding source may have been PayPal and PayPal experienced a site outage recently that could have interfered with refunding. We are working with PayPal to investigate and resolve this as soon as possible, and appreciate your patience in the meantime.