Final Value Fee question

[jenn-18772]

Hi everyone:

I am a new seller and I had to cancel an item.  It is the only sale I plan to make.  I thought that a cancelled order would result in a ding on your account, but you were not charged a fee to cancel.

The buyer paid Ebay and the funds were listed as on hold.  I was informed that funds would only be released to me once the item was received by the buyer.  I have not shipped the item.  

How can I issue a refund if I have not received any payment?  If the sale did not happen how can I be charged a fee?

[dq3141]

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@jenn-18772 wrote:

Hi everyone:

I am a new seller and I had to cancel an item.  It is the only sale I plan to make.  I thought that a cancelled order would result in a ding on your account, but you were not charged a fee to cancel.

The buyer paid Ebay and the funds were listed as on hold.  I was informed that funds would only be released to me once the item was received by the buyer.  I have not shipped the item.  

How can I issue a refund if I have not received any payment?  If the sale did not happen how can I be charged a fee?

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What reason did you choose for the cancellation?

What does eBay show for the status of the order? "Awaiting payment" or "awaiting shipping"?

[evry1nositswindy]

You accepted a best offer, were paid, and then cancelled?  Why?  The money for shipping comes out of your pending funds.  Funds are held for ALL new sellers, this is standard operating procedure.  They will be released, so really there is no reason to cancel.

[mtgraves7984]

How can I issue a refund if I have not received any payment?  If the sale did not happen how can I be charged a fee?

@jenn-18772 

The refund will be issued from your payments on hold, but you'll still be out the $.30 Transaction Fee. If you cancelled as 'Out of stock', you'll get a ding on your Seller Metrics.

And the sale happened , the funds were just on hold. Looks like you botched the only sale you planned to make.

[kensgiftshop]

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@jenn-18772 wrote:

How can I issue a refund if I have not received any payment?  If the sale did not happen how can I be charged a fee?

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The sale did happen and you were paid.

[jenn-18772]

The funds were not released.  So how did I get paid?  Please be respectful, as I am just asking questions.  I just seem to be getting snarky remarks.

[evry1nositswindy]

I really don't see any snark, but your post is confusing. 

You said you were paid, had to cancel, and have not shipped.  Why didn't you ship?  You said that funds would be released once the item was received, but how will it be received if you don't ship?  You mention issuing a refund, but you already cancelled.   Cancelling the order issues a refund to the buyer.  You will still have to pay the 30 cent transaction fee.  

Maybe come back and clarify.

[dq3141]

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@jenn-18772 wrote:

The funds were not released.  So how did I get paid?  Please be respectful, as I am just asking questions.  I just seem to be getting snarky remarks.

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You were asked questions in message #2. Are you going to answer them?

I have no idea why you think the replies are snarky. 

[jenn-18772]

I selected the reason for cancellation as defective because I was not certain it would work without the battery.  

As for status, Ebay has it at "Paid-ship now"  with funds on hold.  It  takes me to the page to print a shipping label.

If Ebay is holding the funds until the item is received by the buyer why am I asked to give a refund?

I just do not understand how  I have to issue a refund  on funds on hold that never were released to my account. 

After I selected the return reason, it got a message that read that the return could not go through.

The message was as follows:

Your refund did not go through. Please add a payment option to refund the buyer.
We couldn't process your refund
{item}
$400.00
Qty 1
Total refund to buyer   $411.95

Purchase  price $400.00
Original shipping $11.95
Fee credits  Show details -$51.70
Refund amount you owe     $360.25

Cancellation reason   Out of stock or damaged
We will deduct the total amount from your funds available for payout. To make sure you can pay if they are insufficient, you must add a payment option.

I do not understand how I can be asked to refund money I have not received yet. 

Does the buyer have to approve the cancellation?  Why can't Ebay simply refund the buyer?   If someone can explain this to me I would appreciate it.

[mtgraves7984]

@jenn-18772 

It is probably because there's a $.30 non-refundable Transaction Fee (assessed to the seller) on every paid order.

I'm pretty sure eBay is looking for a place to retrieve your thirty cents. 

[lacemaker3]

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@jenn-18772 wrote:

The funds were not released.  So how did I get paid?  Please be respectful, as I am just asking questions.  I just seem to be getting snarky remarks.

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@jenn-18772, the funds are in your eBay account, on hold. You were paid. That's how "paid" is defined on eBay. You don't get to make up your own definition. Once the buyer has paid, the funds are in your eBay account, and you are expected to ship.

eBay always holds funds for new sellers, until the item is delivered to the buyer. You have to ship it, or it will never be delivered, and the funds will never be released. This is to protect the buyer, and protect eBay from having to refund the buyer if the seller doesn't fulfill their end of the deal.

I see the item was just sold 3 days ago. If you ship it now, and upload a tracking number, the funds will be released when it is delivered.

If you don't ship it, then you need to cancel the transaction. As part of the cancellation, the buyer will be refunded from the funds that are on hold in your eBay account. As long as you do that promptly, without waiting until eBay has to get involved, then the selling fees will be credited back to your account, except for the $0.30 fixed FVF. If eBay has to get involved, then the selling fees won't be credited. That's a fair amount of money, for that item, so I would advise you to cancel and refund promptly, so you get your fees back.

I don't think anybody is being snarky, they're just pointing out the obvious.

[klhmdg]

@jenn-18772   you canceled as "out of stock or damaged"

You will need to add a way to eBay to debit the extra amount.

The payment has not cleared processing through Ayden so you owe the buyer.

Once the payment clears you will get the balance back in your account.

Also just an FYI - you can check this in Sell at the bottom of the page - canceling for Out of Stock gives the seller a ding on the account.

This is bad on a new seller account....

[lacemaker3]

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@jenn-18772 wrote:

...

Cancellation reason   Out of stock or damaged
We will deduct the total amount from your funds available for payout. To make sure you can pay if they are insufficient, you must add a payment option.

...

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As it says in the quote you posted, the refund is going to be deducted from the funds in your eBay account.

You do have to have a backup payment method, because there is a $0.30 per transaction fee that is not refundable. That's all you will have to pay, as long as you don't wait so long that eBay has to get involved and make the refund for you. In that case, you would not get the fee credit (your post shows $51.70) and you would have to pay all the seller fees.

[jenn-18772]

To Mtgraves7984, klhmdg, and lacemaker3:

Thanks for your help.

I already cancelled the order and I got the above message I put in my post:

Your refund did not go through. Please add a payment option to refund the buyer.
We couldn't process your refund
{item}
$400.00
Qty 1
Total refund to buyer   $411.95

Purchase  price $400.00
Original shipping $11.95
Fee credits  Show details -$51.70
Refund amount you owe     $360.25

Cancellation reason   Out of stock or damaged
We will deduct the total amount from your funds available for payout. To make sure you can pay if they are insufficient, you must add a payment option.

I would not be upset if it said I owed $0.30.  It says I owe $360.25.  It seems to me that if I put in a payment option-like a debit- Ebay will take $360.25 from my account.  

Will this be cleared up in a few days?  If I only have to pay the 30 cents why does the account not reflect that?

I am not concerned about a ding on my account.  This is the only item I planned to sell here.

[lacemaker3 · Accepted solution]

@jenn-18772 

As long as you add the backup payment method, and complete the cancellation, the buyer will be refunded from the funds that are on hold in your eBay account. They won't take the whole amount from your backup payment method.

As long as you do that promptly, before eBay has to get involved, you will get the fee credit that it says you have, and you will only have to pay the $0.30 fixed FVF fee. 

Don't wait, because eBay is not going to change the numbers they are showing you. They are what they are. Yes, it is somewhat confusing, but we have explained what is going to happen.

I'm surprised that you were allowed to list with giving a backup payment method, actually, but clearly that was allowed. They just won't allow a refund to be issued without a backup payment method because there isn't quite enough money on hold in your account to cover the entire amount of the refund.

You should go ahead and complete the refund, if you really can't just ship the item to the buyer (the ideal resolution in the situation). I understand that you now think the item might be defective, but you did say that it needed a battery in the description.

You have to pay the fees either way, and eBay will get them even if they have to go to collections. So it would be much better in the long run, to add the payment method and complete the cancellation correctly, so that you don't lose the fee credit, and have to pay the full $52.00 selling fees.