The new Refund The Buyer page another degradation

[deltilogical]

Can Ebay explain why it is better for me to have to go through THREE pages now instead of ONE to refund a customer.   

Now I am unable to simply put in the refund amount.   I have to break it out through all the items e.g., I have a combined order and I want to refund the overpaid shipping on the 20 items - I can't, I have to now go through each item and put in a refund amount on each of the 20 items.  

I know the last thing Ebay is going to do is explain anything to us.  We have the choice of yes, or yes.  Fixing something that wasn't broken.

[randyshotrods]

Just found this out today.  I was scratching my head as well.  Lets take a simple streamlined process that has worked for years and make it more complex adding extra steps to the whole thing.

I swear there are people at ebay that come in and think what can I screw up today.  It's like a mission purpose and not an accidental feature.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE change it BACK!!!

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I never understood why a simple amount refund say for a shipping discount had to be broken down across every item anyway, but now they've taken away the ability to simply enter one amount.

They just keep making every single thing harder and more time consuming than easier.

[deltilogical]

Sometimes we might want to specify the refund to a single item for some reason, or not, but it just wasn't a problem.   I just processed a single item refund and it worked ok I think, except a new layout will see each item spread out in squares when I just need a list.  Its being modelled for cell phone screens.   

I'm also not impressed with the little widget that rolls out and tells me my item has sold in the past 24 hours.  It is like a banner that unrolls before my eyes to tell me my item has sold in the past 24 hours.  

It makes me tired.

[wastingtime101]

Hi devon@ebay . You already passed on our feedback about this from the below linked discussion. Can you please add info from @deltilogical 's thread to your report? Thanks!

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Report-eBay-Technical-Issues/Giving-refunds/td-p/34292304

[mr_lincoln]

@deltilogical , @randyshotrods , @wastingtime101 , @toomuchstuffagain35 

Here's my thread on the subject ... some of you have already posted there thank you very much.

Re: Sending partial refund: how to complicate a pr... - The eBay Community

[mary.kinlo]

I AGREE, CHANGE IT BACK.

[suavepenguin]

I just did a partial refund (shipping discount) and I HATE this new process! Also, the "Review" page before you submit shows something that may be a clue as to why eBay changed the process: The shipping discount refund was broken down into 2 line items, Purchase Price and Shipping.....that did add up to the proper total. I wonder if it is not for some internal accounting reason (I won't even mention my theories). But, bottom line, the new process is cumbersome in my opinion. Of course, like every other change, I'll get used to it...

[mr_lincoln]

@suavepenguin 

Yes ... the programming for the new refund flow has gone in reverse ... more steps on multiple pages opposed to ALL details (Reason - Typing Field - Refund amount) being on one page like the last format.

[lonebuck-books]

Yeah, I noticed this last week.  Pretty dumb if you ask me.  I had a buyer purchase 3 items and pay the horribly miscalculated combined shipping.  I went to send a combined shipping discount and had to split it up by 3 and input it into the three different items.  You used to have the option to split it up or just do an order level discount.  Not anymore.  3 pages to do what used to be a single page process.  That's progress for you!

[ittybitnot]

 the programming for the new refund flow has gone in reverse ... more steps on multiple pages opposed to ALL details

@mr_lincoln 

I have a feeling this is an INTENDED CHANGE, to make the process more difficult and annoying for sellers.  To me,  it appears what eBay is trying to accomplish is removal of combined items for one shipping price altogether.  Many of their policies have headed in that direction of late all in the name of "reducing non-paying buyers".   
There were the requirements set on the seller's accounts set to YES, and the enrollment of buyers forced to comply with putting up a payment source in order to proceed (aka auto-pay, auto-billing).  This served to make all listings paid separately/at full shipping.  Buyers could not ask for a corrected invoice since all the products were already paid.  

The new seller update suggests that ALL seller generated offers will be Immediate Payment Required (as soon as they are done rolling it out).  Again, this dispenses with the possibility of combining items for a reduced shipping cost through requesting or sending an invoice.  (FYI: those discussion boards are now closed, without answers to the inquiries made regarding the present confusion over the make an offer system altogether,  and the removal of the requirement dealing with auctions.  We do not know if it was removed so it wouldn't be auto-billing winners, or so sellers could not turn it off). 

There is still no "request total" for app users, and the workaround has been to refund the buyer of multiple items after the fact.  So making that a most miserable experience for the conscientious  seller seems, and a great reason for a buyer to back out,  to be just another aspect to dispense with combined items for one shipping cost. 

At the same time eBay has been "PUSHING" for sellers to discount shipping to buyers as a "great selling tool to increase sales" or whatever.  The idea was to change your settings so buyers would be billed the "eBay price" instead or retail as some sort of incentive.   eBay, as a previous industry leader, had the best thing going for buyers to get a saving on shipping.....combine items for one price and reduced shipping. But eBay seems to be doing their best to dispense with this idea while other platforms are adding such options. 

eBay wants that extra  40 cents per listing, they want the extra listing count for the GMV.  If this is just a matter of lousy programming, and I am totally wrong, they will fix it because it is causing a confusion and  hardship on their customers. 

[mr_lincoln]

@ittybitnot 

-The changes in my view do not "enhance the Buying experience".

-All this is on the Buyer side and I keep thinking about the return flow on multiple purchases along with multiple package returns where a Seller ships in 2 or more packages but the return flow only generates on label.  The multi-item purchase where a Buyer only want to return ONE of say 3 items is not clear cut either (the last I knew).

-Instead of letting Sellers construct their own deals that would ultimately "enhance the Buying experience" the system seems to keep piling on constraints to try and channel every transaction onto a narrow path.  Reality is that there is a need for flexibility.

-I thought the last roll out for handling UPIs was good by giving Buying accounts UPI strikes after 4 days.

I get occasional UPIs but the item sell soon after that anyway. 

[northstarbookshop]

The update to the 'Refund the Buyer' page is another example of very very poor decision making from ebay management. They appear to lack any understanding whatsoever of how people actually use their site. 

[inhawaii]

I hate change.

I did a full refund yesterday.

I didn't really notice anything different or too confusing.

I did have to select a reason for the refund. I selected "other".

One thing I did notice was a toggle switch for "full refund" on/off.

Since I was giving a full refund I used that toggle switch for a full refund  and hit "enter".

[ihave2manycars]

Even though I started a post on this issue, I want to comment that the issue is not and probably will not be fixed.

I just got done refunding a buyer excess shipping. It was 2 orders as eBay will only allow 40 items per order. So beacuse I  try to have some customer service skills, (hint hint) I sent the customer back over $59.00 in shipping. Interesting to note that even though I CHOSE the shipping discount as the reason, When I saw the breakdown, only $12.40 was for the shipping. The balace was reducing the sale prices they paid. Now why would eBay reduce my sales price? One has to wonder....Thats above my pay grade, but glad I took the screenshot!