Ebay will NOT LET ME refund buyer. I keep getting an error screen and I've been trying for days!

[kimbeat]

Any ways to get around this? I added funds to my PayPal account 11/27. My bank processed it days ago but PayPal still shows its pending and estimated to arrive 12/5. If I wait that long my refund will be late. I just want to get the buyer their money back. I tried on eBay to refund them it keeps giving me an error and says to try again later. Is the process really this insanely difficult? Today is my last day to refund. Is there seriously not a way to give eBay my credit card and just have them charge the card to refund the payment? This is beyond ridiculous and causing so much stress on me over the last few days and I am at a loss what to do. I tried to figure it out for hours on thanksgiving. Ebay was no help when I called. I could cry right about now it is so frustrating on top of other things I am dealing with lately. Any help would be amazing. Thanks.

[thevintagesilvershop]

If I were you, I’d call PayPal and see if they will release the “pending” status. I had the same problem, calling both Ebay and PayPal. I have a bank account linked to PayPal and usually a refund goes via echeck to my bank account, but not for his refund. Luckily, I had a couple of sales that put $ in PayPal and as soon as that happened the regular refund process through ebay worked. 

ebay won’t help you. The only one who can is PayPal. 

I also notified my buyer who was very patient. Have you messaged your buyer to let them know?  I think they are the only one who can escalate the ebay case and force a refund. 

[kimbeat]

Thanks for your response. For whatever reason eBay is now telling me 12/4 is my deadline to refund them so it switched dates for some reason which is weird. I am messaging my buyer today since it originally said today was the last day to refund. I would have had this done and over with days ago had it actually worked. The problem with PayPal is it takes a few business days to go through and I transferred the day before thanksgiving and the weekend and thanksgiving were not considered a business day. I've only ever done one refund prior to this and it was never like this before. I don't really keep money in my PayPal account so I had no idea for refunds it has to be in there. On my other refund a while back all I did was hit the refund button and it transferred from my bank and gave it to the other person right away. That can't be done on PayPal anymore for some reason. Thanks for the help. 

[thogol-87]

I’m having the same problem. How can a billion dollar company have such a bad website that doesn’t even work properly. 

[aerosedan]

Also experiencing the same problem trying to refund a buyer in a timely manner for an item stuck in the postal system due to the pandemic. 

Told the buyer to open an item not received case on eBay.

Added funds to PayPal to cover the amount I’d received for the sale. 

Added a little extra to cover fees etc.

PayPal shows the buyer's original payment as "On Hold" - Held - Payment Received.

I have tried many times to refund / return the payment via eBay, but get the following error message.

"There was a problem sending your refund to the buyer

To try again or to see what's wrong, go to PayPal."

There is no method of issuing this refund in PayPal.

PayPal says:

"Your buyer filed a dispute on this transaction. Sign in to your eBay account for more information on how to resolve it."

eBay and PayPal are sending me in circles without providing a way to refund the buyer.

The buyer's funds are being held in the system and no apparent way to return them / complete the refund.

eBay CS finally got back to me and send I can either send another PayPal payment directly to the buyer’s email address and take a screenshot for proof. Or escalate the case and ask eBay to step in. In which case Final Value Fees won’t be returned.

All the money needed to refund the buyer has been added to PayPal. That has been put “on hold” by eBay or PayPal, and my current options are to pay a duplicate amount again or have eBay step in and take a hit on fees.

This needs fixing.

[2492920636]

10-7-20  I am having a similar problem with doing a refund.  I get all the way to the end of the process and the final send button/box does not work.  I logged out, cleared cookies and tried it again and again.  ... I put in a request for Ebay to call me back, estimated call back time is 54 min.  I have waited double that time.  I guess they will not call me back.  And I will get my first black mark and get penalized financially because if you don't respond, the buyer gets to keep the item and ebay will will refund the buyer in full out of your account.

[scgal2]

How can you put in a request for an ebay call? I am having same problem. Had to update my CC and my paypal link but still won't go thru...

[eburtonlab]

@scgal2 

Are you absolutely certain that you have enough cash in your PayPal account to cover the entire transaction amount including any taxes or fees that may have been removed? Having a payment method linked to your account is not sufficient, you must have an unencumbered cash balance to be able make a refund.

If so, and you are still unable to refund, you may have to contact PayPal directly to see if there is a problem with your account.

[paragon_production]

I had the exact same issues that you all did. What you need to do is somehow pay enough money into PayPal to cover the amount of the refund. I had my sister transfer enough in to cover it, then instantly I tried to refund the buyer, and it worked! Its very dumb and the system is broke, but it won't work even though you have your bank account linked. You must transfer in enough funds to cover everything.

[cjop]

Yup, negative balance in my PayPal account.  Refund deadline coming up in three days, bank holiday tomorrow, PayPal says 3-5 days.  Took me two days to get to the bottom of this.  Their is no mention in eBay help of this.  **bleep** eBay.  Pay your programmers to fix this.

[eburtonlab]

Do you know someone with a PayPal account who can send you enough funds to cover the negative balance and full refund amount, including any taxes and fees since removed? That would be the quickest way to get cash into your PayPal account so you can actually complete the refund.

[dee01234]

I’m having the same problem. The error message is:  “We weren’t able to send the refund. Please try again.”  I’ve tried four times. 

[eburtonlab]

If you are on Managed Payments, your refunds will not go through PayPal. Refunds would either be from pending payouts, your checking account or another payment source.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/managing-returns-refunds/refunding-buyers?id=5182

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.