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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

Hello,

I am trying to figure out what exactly a Hold does when a buyer initiates a refund.

I saw a Hold appear on my Transaction list for the amount that the buyer paid. It appears as a Credit (no red text or minus sign). I talked with multiple people including a managed payments rep, and they tell me that the Hold was money that was in my available balance. They said that when the Hold was created, it subtracted money from my Available Balance and set it aside. I had no way to verify this so I took their word for it. 

 

Today I submit the completed the return and submit a refund. Before I submit the refund it stated that it was going to come out of my Total Funds. I was confused, I thought that the money was already taken from my Total Funds and was Held. I went ahead with the refund, assuming that the money set aside during the Hold was going to pay for the refund. But as soon as I refund, I noticed that the refund amount was deducted from my Available Balance. What is going on? Does eBay not know how their system works or did their system Hold money my Available Balance, then again deduct from my Available Balance once I completed the return.

 

In other words, I was told by an eBay rep that a Hold meant money was taken out of my Available Balance and set aside for a refund. Yet when I refunded, money once again came out of my Available Balance.

Message 1 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

Talked with eBay. Apparently a hold just prevents the money from being withdrawn. It remains in Available Balance until the refund occurs at which point the hold is lifted and the money freed up. 

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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

I hope the hold will be refunded to you,  due to you did the refund instead of eBay.

 

I an wild guessing (WAG) on this as I have not had any clarification on such.

You are not the first to see this.

Please come back if I am correct and let us users know. if and when you find out.

Message 2 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

My suspicion is that eBay reps haven't been told correctly what the system is doing.

 

I was told that when my Hold was created, that the money was subtracted from Available Balance.

 

What I think is occuring is that the Hold *doesn't* subtract money from Available Balance, but merely prevents that amount from being sent to me in a payout.

 

Has anyone actually seen a Hold being created and watched their Available Balance immediately reflect the Hold amount? I was unable to check this because I didn't know what my Available Balance was prior to the return being initiated.

Message 3 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

Talked with eBay. Apparently a hold just prevents the money from being withdrawn. It remains in Available Balance until the refund occurs at which point the hold is lifted and the money freed up. 

Message 4 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

IT IS A PROBLEM THAT SELLERS DO NOT HAVE IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO INFORMATION REGARDING MANAGED PAYMENTS, DAILY ITEMIZATIONS, FEES, ETC. THAT IS WHAT WE HAD WITH PAYPAL!

Message 5 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

when a company holds money and hides transaction data it has become too corrupt to continue trusting... say goodbye to ebay listing...

Message 6 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

I am having the same problem. Ebay's phone support is conveniently down. When the hold for the return first occurred, the money was taken out of my available funds.  The available funds decreased. Then after I made the refund, the money came out of the funds again. The original hold is still in play as well so I am being double whammied.

Message 7 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

After an hour on hold and the worst customer service experience I've had with eBay, I believe I can shed some light on this issue.

 

When the return request is filed, eBay puts a hold on the total amount of the original order.  When you receive the return and process the refund, the refund amount is immediately deducted from your balance (eBay FVF is refunded to you and will show as a "credit"), so it will look like eBay is double dipping.

 

It takes eBay 24-48 hours to release the original "hold" and put that amount back in your available funds for payout.

 

Here's the fun part, on the Payout, they do not show the "hold" release as a line item transaction like they show the refund to the buyer.  The released "holds" are shown in the summary at the upper right - that number will reflect any holds released on that payout, but will not break them out individually.

 

In this example, we actually had two returns that we refunded, so the funds released represents the total of the holds that were released.  With only two, it is easy to figure out but I can see how this could get complicated to reconcile if you had more returns/holds and you had to track back to make sure the amount being released is an accurate total.

 

So just to explain this screen shot:

 

The first transactions here are the actual refunds to the buyers.

 

If you were to add up the Net (far right column) for all 132 transactions in this payout, it would equal the top line Received Funds in the Payout Summary ($3,922.57).  There are $0.00 funds on hold from this payout and then $45.28 Funds released (original holds for the two return requests $24.29+$20.99).  $3,922.57 + $45.28 = $3,967.85 which was the amount deposited to our bank account from this Payout.

 

MPReturn4-anon.jpg

 

 

The math does eventually work out right, and the correct amounts do show in the corresponding reports if you download them, but it is very confusing.

 

When I told the CS agent that they should have the hold releases listed as individual transactions so the net amounts will add up to the total of the payment, he admitted to me that "this page is usually wrong, your best bet is to go by the reports, they have the accurate information." 😲 

 

Then when I pushed back and asked if he realized how big of a problem it is that they tell sellers they know this page is wrong and you shouldn't trust this info, his response was "Well at the end of the day, the reports are correct.  We can go back through the math again slowly if you want."

 

I'm sure you can guess how well I reacted to being talked down to like that. 🤣

 

 

Message 8 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

The funds certainly are removed from the available balance. It will even make your available balance go negative if the hold is for more than you currently have available. In my experience, the funds said they were released within a few minutes after I issued a refund, but it was several hours before my available balance reflected the funds being added back. I really think it's insane that they don't use the held funds to cover the refund. I'm hoping this is just some error they will eventually fix, but I'm not holding my breath.

Message 9 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?


@swappart wrote:

I really think it's insane that they don't use the held funds to cover the refund. I'm hoping this is just some error they will eventually fix, but I'm not holding my breath.


@swappart the crazy thing to me is that Customer Service actually thinks that they do use the held funds to cover the refund.  The first person I talked to kept insisting the refund came out of the hold no matter how many times I told her they were separate transactions.  Finally she got it and then put me on hold for an hour and transferred me to someone else.

 

So yeah, either that is how it is supposed to work and that's why CS was trained that way, but it's not working right or it's working exactly as intended and CS has been given very wrong information about it.

Message 10 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?


@valueaddedresource wrote:

@swappart wrote:

I really think it's insane that they don't use the held funds to cover the refund. I'm hoping this is just some error they will eventually fix, but I'm not holding my breath.


@swappart the crazy thing to me is that Customer Service actually thinks that they do use the held funds to cover the refund.  The first person I talked to kept insisting the refund came out of the hold no matter how many times I told her they were separate transactions.  Finally she got it and then put me on hold for an hour and transferred me to someone else.

 

So yeah, either that is how it is supposed to work and that's why CS was trained that way, but it's not working right or it's working exactly as intended and CS has been given very wrong information about it.


In my experience, CS almost never understands how new features work, or are supposed to work. I think eBay just rolls these things out and expects everyone to figure them out as they go.

Message 11 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

Unfortunately this is NOT happening. They took monies out of my balance to create a negative amount in relation to a refund, failing to release the original HOLD monies back into my account. The hold remains on the initial amount and when I refund it deducted it AGAIN!! I've experienced the same as OP. This is ludicrous and needs to STOP!! It's illegal to do this, it's called theft!

 

Been waiting for a call back with a supposed 1 minute wait time. It's been 30 minutes thus far. 

Message 12 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?


@swappart wrote:

The funds certainly are removed from the available balance. It will even make your available balance go negative if the hold is for more than you currently have available. In my experience, the funds said they were released within a few minutes after I issued a refund, but it was several hours before my available balance reflected the funds being added back. I really think it's insane that they don't use the held funds to cover the refund. I'm hoping this is just some error they will eventually fix, but I'm not holding my breath.


It's another ebay money grab to keep our monies in their hands to make interest for as long as possible. There should be NO error or glitch when your dealing with someone's money! They have no reason to put money on hold when a return is initiated if they don't plan to use those held funds to issue the refund. There is no excuse to then take that same amount a SECOND time from a seller's account when they issue the refund!! This is absolutely ridiculous. 

Message 13 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

you seem to understand the hold situation, but why won't ebay give me my payout when there is more than enough available for the refund?

Message 14 of 28
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Managed Payments, Holds, and Refunds - DOUBLE REFUND?

Hi

this is bilzbigdealz coming at you on New Year's eve eve. I was bit twice today. This morning I was cutting labels to ship 2 items separately to a buyer. The first went through just fine but the second one would not let me purchase a label. When I called the associate (is that the PC term in this company?)  she said it was because I had payments on hold.  She said I had to use PayPal (thats another sore subject ). I had an appointment so I just did the deed using paypal. A few minutes later I am saying wait a minute. It was a shipping paid by customer! I call back and get told it was a mistake . I didn't think to tell them I want to be reimbursed but because of the second thing I think I am going to ask.

The second issue was because the USPS is unable to manage when there is an embellished  disaster shipments are sitting around not moving.  The customer, instead of coming to me, instead, went to ebay about the delay which makes bells ring and klaxons to sound and I am told my funds are on hold because the buyer opened a case. So I am addressing it like a customer service ninja and the investigation request to USPS prompts a phone call to me at the Crack o' Dark from the postmaster that I may as well open a claim because the chances of finding the buyers package is a long shot. So, I brief the buyer and he says ahh, lets bag it. Send me a refund. So I do and thinking they had the funds on hold it will just go through becauise Ebay took my money and they should be able to manage it. Later on, I am filling out a claim to the USPS and look for proof of value (the sale certificate. (Remember wen PayPal was around? There would be a page with the info and you made a copy and scan it and upload it) Not in MP. So I am looking around for something concise to  use and I go to the Refund details and see that Ebay took (without asking) approximately $15.00 from my bank account! What happened to the amount they held back? It's not right and I am seriously miffed. It should not have to come back to me since they held the sale funds before. So now I have to play my role and ask for a reimbursement. If you take my funds and act as "The Bank" then you should be responsible to manage those funds for the purpose of  disbursement later.  Or just have the buyers go to the seller first and not be (with all due respect) all purpose. I and other buyers should be able to provide customer service and if not  sanction them but give us a chance, please.  Also, please give me my cash back. 

Right 

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