Cancellation Results in Charge to my Credit Card

[silvercrown90]

Maybe this is standard procedure, but I have never seen it before.  My account gets standard payouts once per day.  I had someone buy an item valued at $200+ last night, but sent in a cancellation request within an hour.  I accepted the cancellation since it was after normal business hours and hadn't been shipped. My credit card was charged for a "refund" to the customer.  This sale did not hit a payout since the transaction was after 7:00 p.m. and it was cancelled an hour later.

Is this standard procedure to charge a Seller's credit card on file to refund an item that was cancelled by the Buyer?  This doesn't seem right that a Seller has to cover a refund on an unpaid item.  Shouldn't it simply be a +$200 coupled with a -$200 on the transaction list?  I expect that eBay will reverse this in due time, but even charging the credit card shouldn't happen.

[silvercrown90]

Here is a summary of the transaction.  So my credit card got charged for a Buyer cancellation request that I didn't initiate.  I am on Managed Payments, with payouts going to a bank account.  It is sad if eBay expects Sellers to set money aside to cover Buyer cancellations which we have no control over.  No Seller wants a Buyer to try to buy something then cancel it shortly afterwards.

Will this cycle back to me?  Should I call eBay, or just hang tight? 

**********************************************************
All done. You refunded the buyer.
This order is cancelled

Total refund to buyer
$269.90
Refund summary
Transaction details Transaction amount
Purchase price $269.90
Fee credits Show details -$29.97
Refund amount you owe
$239.93
How you paid
Transaction date Transaction details Transaction amount
Apr 23 Paid from VISA ending in 7786 -$239.93
Outstanding amount due
$0.00

[slippinjimmy]

I'm pretty sure in most cases if you are on Daily Payouts it will work that way unless your timing is perfect.

For example....

You make a sale and the funds are finished possessing and are available for Payout this evening, if you do the refund within an hour or two later the funds may be available, more than a couple of hours and the funds are already in the queue for Payout and are no longer available for a refund.

In your case since the cancellation was done within an hour then the original payment has not yet been processed and the funds from that sale are not yet available so the refund has to come from Available Funds which if you are on daily Payouts is probably zero so eBay goes to the back up method.

There would be some brief window when you might have funds available from a previous payment that have just been processed but not yet in the queue for Payout.

I run into this issue occasionally when I do a refund after midnight on Tuesday mornings because any  available funds are already allocated to my weekly (Tuesday) Payout.

[kensgiftshop]

If you don't have the avaliable funds, they will pull the refund from your funding source or your checking account.

When the buyers payment is processed, the funds will be sent to you.

[silvercrown90]

Thank you for the reply.  Why would a Seller need available funds to accept a cancellation of an item that didn't sell?  Doesn't make sense.  It is though I bought the my own item back without getting paid for it.

Plus there are available funds in the account.  It seems as though I did the Buyer and eBay a favor by agreeing to cancel the order.  I guess not!  LOL.  It really shouldn't be considered a refund if the sale didn't go through.  It's not the first time I have been burned by eBay's buyer cancellation policy. 

Thank you for your help though.  I do appreciate it.