Problem Issuing Refund Error Message?

[iron_price_jeans]

I'm attempting to refund a buyer. After clicking "View Refund Details" and selecting "Give a full refund", after clicking "Refund Now" it gives me an error message saying "There was a problem issuing this refund. To refund your buyer, try again later." If I refund via PayPal I'm afraid that the purchase/refund request will go unresolved and cause a defect on my account/seller rating. What is going on here?

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[iron_price_jeans · Accepted solution]

I'll answer my own question in case anyone new to PayPal/Selling gets the same unhelpful message from eBay. All this means is that you do not have an active PayPal balance that can cover the cost of the refund. You cannot pay for a refund to a buyer or add funds to your PayPal balance with a linked bank account and/or debit card unless you have PayPal "Wallet", which I do not.

Lesson for me: Maintain a PayPal balance that can cover a refund for any expected returns or jump through another PayPal hoop and get "Wallet", it's well established that eBay has a finger in all of ours.

Lesson For EBAY Management: It would be helpful if the message from eBay explained why the refund attempt failed instead of just stating "There was a problem, try again later".