Partial Refunds

[mmdancer1]

 I want to issue a partial refund to a buyer. This does not involve returning the item. He is going to keep the item and I am going to give him a partial refund.

 A Google search yielded a variety of pages with instructions on how to do this. But none of them actually worked, and required my to find tabs, or pages, or views, or lists, that don't actually exist in my account.

So I found this page: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Commonly-Asked-Questions/How-do-I-issue-a-partial-refund/ta-p/27639283

 ...BUT... will a refund issued via my Paypal account be visible to the staff of Ebay in the event of a dispute? I'd prefer to issue the partial refund via an Ebay page or interface, and the procedure requiring me to issue the partial refund from my Paypal account seems risky, because I don't see how Ebay would have access to transactions that occur in my Paypal account.

[rebell45 · Accepted solution]

Yes, if you issue a partial refund through PayPal, eBay will see it and attach it to the item. I've done it several times to refund excess shipping charges. It will show up on your Sold Items page. Just be sure when you do it to change the amount to the partial amount, otherwise it will issue a full refund. 

[mmdancer1]

 Seems to work. Or, *will work* once I put sufficient cash in my Paypal account to cover the refund.

 Thank you!

 Stay safe!

[mendocinosocialclub]

I'd also add something I was surprised to find .... when you do issue a partial refund [in my case for shipping overages]: there is no automation on the refund so eBay/Paypal does not issue a partial credit back to your account for the amount you refunded.

You have to call customer service, provide the item number, they can see on their dashboard the credit was issued to the buyer, and they will then apply the credit yo your next invoice "once approved" [their boilerplate language]. The rep reminded me to list the shipping dimensions accurately in the listing to avoid this. Yes, no doubt, I get it, though there are occasions when I find a better rate after the fact and would like to return a few bucks to the buyer.

I know if you're refunding a few dollars to the buyer for a shipping overage, that eBay's percent portion on that this is a nickels and dimes refund. For all the syncing and automation they've had their coders do to enable easy taking of fees from seller's, they don't have that reverse process in place for these small refunds. 😤

[tracy123dp]

when i do a partial refund....I am the seller....how do I initiate?  does the buyer have to do something first? We agreed upon a price.