Buyer cancellation: eBay charged my card $51.35 despite never paying me, then offered an account credit
Summary: vinyl1vault expressed frustration about being charged out of pocket by eBay to reverse a sale, despite not receiving any payment from the canceled transaction. They highlighted the issue of having to cover advertising fees with personal funds and then dealing with additional withdrawal costs through Payoneer. pickapaper suggested reconsidering the use of promoted listings, noting that specialized items like vinyl records might not need promotion. luckythewinner and kensgiftshop explained that this is typical of eBay's refund process, where the seller fronts the refund and then gets reimbursed when funds clear. vinyl1vault added that Payoneer is particularly inconvenient for them.
Why am I being made to pay out of pocket to reverse a sale when eBay never paid me anything from that sale?
A buyer submitted an official cancellation request because they "ordered by mistake". I had received no payout whatsoever. The sale proceeds were still being held by eBay.
eBay separately deducted $51.35 for Promoted Listings.
When I accepted the buyer’s cancellation, the refund screen credited the $52.32 transaction fees, but not the $51.35 advertising fee. To complete the cancellation, I had to pay that exact $51.35 shortfall with my own card. I have now paid it.
Support says the advertising fee will be returned to my eBay account, rather than the Visa I used.
That does not put me back in the same financial position. My payouts go through Payoneer (it's the worst company I have ever had to deal with, the amount of inconveniences, fees, and lack of usability is crazy), and withdrawing money from there to my bank involves additional costs. I should not have to incur withdrawal costs just to recover my own money after agreeing to a buyer-requested cancellation.
I understand that the advertising fee credit and the card payment are technically separate transactions. That explains the accounting. It does not explain why the seller should have to fund the gap and bear the cost of getting their money back.
Why can’t the refundable advertising fee be included when calculating the cancellation refund, instead of charging the seller’s card first and crediting their account afterward? Do you not want me to use this feature? It is very anti-consumer.
Is it possible for an eBay representative escalate this to the Payments team and review refunding the $51.35 to my original Visa, with an adjustment to my seller balance?
Has another seller actually managed to get this resolved without paying withdrawal fees? Please address the payment route and costs, not just whether the advertising fee will eventually be credited.
kensgiftshop
·6 days agoThat's the way refunds work.
If the funds are being held or you don't have the avaliable funds to cover a refund, you have to pay the refund.
When the hold is released, the buyers payment will be sent to you.
vinyl1vault
OP5 days agoWell there's this fee credit thing that preemptively deducts the fees from the amount that you are supposed to refund, yet it misses the advertising fee for some reason.
luckythewinner
·6 days ago · EditedUnfortunately, I think that is just how eBay handles payments.
As I understand it ... if a buyer makes a payment to a seller and is granted a refund before the funds clear, the seller is responsible for the immediately refund. So the net effect is that the seller fronts the refund, and then is reimbursed when the funds clear (less any fees that are due to eBay, usually just the 40 cent non-refundable transaction fee).
As for the Payoneer issue and whether an eBay representative can ovverride the payment system and manipulate one seller's money, I doubt it ... but that is out of scope for me, because I am in the United States and am not required to use Payoneer.
vinyl1vault
OP6 days agoYou guys are lucky. Forcing Payoneer onto us is a way of torture.
pickapaper
·6 days agoI'm sorry, I don't have an answer to your question since you are in Uzbekistan and I don't know if the rules are the same with Payoneer as they are with Managed Payments here in the U.S.
You have found a great niche selling vinyl records. But these records are going to have a limited audience for them, someone who is specifically looking for them. My question for you is why are you paying to promote your records? Since you are selling records that are in small limited quantities each, it should not be necessary to promote them.
vinyl1vault
OP6 days agoI never thought about it that way, I really just went with whatever was presented to me... Thank you for your insight, I have disabled the promotion.
pickapaper
·5 days agoDon't ever do that (go with what is presented to you). eBay is in the business to make money and they are going to offer all kinds of things that cost us sellers money that really do not benefit us. Promoted listings can work in some instances but they are of no benefit to a lot of sellers.
Even though you are not in the U.S., you can come here and ask questions any time, like this for example. If eBay suggests you need to do something like the promoted listings, come here and ask if it would work for you instead of just committing to spend your money on it. A lot of experienced and knowledgeable people here can give you their opinions.
vinyl1vault
OP5 days agoThank you very much! Actually, I am pretty canny, recently I was buying a plane ticket online for the first time ever, and was offered a lot of extras that were presented in a very manipulative way, like they are necessary to proceed. I managed to evade spending an extra cent. This time I guess I wasn't losing any money immediately so I let it slide.