How do they send the refund?

[sdhk-32]

eBay found that I was owed money and I am being sent a refund for an item that was never received. However the card that I originally purchased the item on three months ago has since been closed by me. How will eBay then refund my money? I don't know how to ask them. Thank you

[santamonicajeweler]

For anyone who is reading this tread. If you have purchased any items on eBay and later have cancelled your card, you should know; once your credit card account is completely shut, your refund for goods or services you paid for with a card you have now cancelled, could be refunded via an alternative method. You need to ask and eBay needs to honor your request by law 

Why eBay rep is referring you to CC company? Because time limitation on eBay transactions is generally 30 days plus shipping period. This amount of time is between one or two credit card billing cycle. Your credit card isn't fully shut at this time interval 

For transactions with length of few months, like items purchased from faraway locations,  once Credit Card gets fully shut, you can, by law, ask for alternative refund method and eBay or any other institution should comply. eBay has two choices, either turn your refund to your State of residence as an unclaimed fund or honor your request. You need to ask for your funds immediately because if you don't, the unclaimed funds will be out of your reach for extended period of time. You know how US Gov works!?

[keats9264]

My bank is NO LONGER involved in this. The card was closed out. They can't see anything, nor are they obligated to help me in any way. Ebay doesn't apparently have a phone number for me to call to discuss this with anyone, and this has cemented for me that this will be my last purchase ever from ebay. I got through to someone on the fraud line once who was not very friendly or helpful. The fact that the original seller had disappeared - fraud line didn't care about - treated me like I was a 'nutty crazy lady.' 

[santamonicajeweler]

@keats9264 you need to make a formal request from eBay to pay you in an alternate way. They need to comply by law 

[wastingtime101]

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@keats9264 wrote:

Hi. Thank you for all the replies. Unfortunately this is still a problem. I called my bank and they said since the card is closed, they can't even see the money trying to come in. They said their should be some other way for ebay to credit the money to me, because it must happen rather often that debit/credit cards expire or get closed out etc. 

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Are you the OP using a different ID?

Can you follow the advice that was posted above by the eBay rep:

"you can contact Customer Support for a number they can provide for the refund. You can then take that transaction number back to your card company/bank and hopefully they can find another way to get you paid out."

Your bank/CC should be able to track the transaction with that confirmation number. Whether or not your CC will pay out is another matter. They might send the funds to your state's unclaimed property division. If that happens it's easy to request a check through missingmoney.com, but it could take 6 months for the funds to get sent there.

Sorry this situation has turned into such a pain, but you'll need to work with your (former) credit card company since refunds are always sent back to the original payment source.

[santamonicajeweler]

@wastingtime101 CC Co is not responding. Account is shut 

[wastingtime101]

OP, read this article:

https://moneyinc.com/refund-canceled-credit-card/ 

And this one:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/refund-after-card-canceled/ 

[wastingtime101]

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velvet@ebay wrote:

@sdhk-32 you'll need to work with your card company/bank and if they can't locate the funds that were dispersed back to your closed card/account, then you can contact Customer Support for a number they can provide for the refund. You can then take that transaction number back to your card company/bank and hopefully they can find another way to get you paid out. 

The funds don't come back to us typically, so we would not be able to provide a second refund of any kind under normal circumstances. 

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Thank you for chiming in velvet@ebay. I can't stand all the drama. I wanted to cut through the **bleep** and get the OP's question answered with accurate info.

It's good that several posters already lead the OP in the right direction. They will need to work with their former CC and likely will need to get that credit reference number from eBay first. Since OP no longer has an account with them, they'll have to work with the CC to see which options are available including the possibility of getting a check mailed.

In the rare event that the refund is rejected by the CC and sent back to eBay, that would be considered something outside of "normal circumstances" where the OP could reach back out to eBay to see if there's another way to get a refund or site credit.

[keats9264]

They can't "accept" the refund because the card is closed and they cannot see any attempted credit or anything. 

As for "contacting ebay" - that is apparently not an option because there isn't a way to do that.

[velvet@ebay]

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@house*of*paws wrote:

Thank you velvet@ebay !    😊  😘

I kept asking where @santamonicajeweler was getting their information ... because they kept describing what a CC company would do if a refund was sent to a closed account.  I wanted to know what eBay would do.  I could not find any policy about this in Help. 

IS it written anywhere? 

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I'm happy I could help @house*of*paws! As for it being written anywhere, it's not. It's a pretty specific use case that happens very rarely. I can definitely pass your suggestion on as a potential enhancement though. 😊

[santamonicajeweler]

@keats9264 Here is an eBay rep here, velvet@ebay she might help you 

[wastingtime101]

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@keats9264 wrote:

They can't "accept" the refund because the card is closed and they cannot see any attempted credit or anything. 

As for "contacting ebay" - that is apparently not an option because there isn't a way to do that.

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It could be a timing issue. Credit card refunds can take up to 30 days to process and in the event of an account closure I would think it's not unusual for it to land on the longer side of processing times.

Contact eBay to get the "Acquirer Reference Number of the transaction" so you can use that information to discuss this with your former CC.

There are many ways to contact eBay CS - through their website, or through their social media support teams. Which do you prefer? We can post instructions on how to find the info.

[house*of*paws]

@albertabrightalberta 

That's how my situation was handled as well ... since I also received a new credit card from the same bank.  [I had to speak to bank first to assure this would be done, since PayPal didn't allow me to remove the old credit card from my 'Wallet' ... just to add a new one.]

In the OP's case ... it doesn't seem that a new card was issued ... so they are dealing with a completely closed account.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @keats9264 

Are you @sdhk-32  using a different account to post?  I want to make sure I'm not dealing with 2 different situations.  🙂

[keats9264]

Okay here is an update. I DID get thru to the Ebay chat - thanks for the secret tips on how to do that! They said there was NO OTHER WAY to get the money to me. Period. End of story. It goes back to the original card. Which in this case doesn't exist.

HOWEVER, I decided to talk to a THIRD person at my bank, got through to someone who actually works with the debit cards. She said when there is a refund hit on a closed account, she CAN see it in the background! Then she would take it and put it in to another of my bank accounts. So it gets REJECTED, but then they manually "pull it" to another account. She said they automatically do this. 

I was really frustrated everyone telling me to contact my bank, when my bank kept telling me they couldn't do squat for me. So remember .... just keep trying DIFFERENT people at your bank until you hit the one that actually knows what's going on! Thanks for your help all and here's hoping this actually happens!

There was a larger problem of the original seller - who's name I have in my original email from the order - DISAPPEARED without a trace. Some Chinese hanky panky it turns out. Then the order supposedly got taken over a by a NEW seller. It was all a mess. 

[house*of*paws]

@keats9264  / @sdhk-32 

[I still don't know whether you're the same person.]

There was no reason to close your CC account.  eBay sellers have no access whatsoever to anyone's financial informtion.  Sellers just get told by eBay that a buyer has paid.  They aren't told how the payment was made ... and certainly aren't given any specific card info.

Even when a particular credit card is compromised ... the account is still safe.  You merely have to have the card cancelled and have a new one issued.  Your completely closing the account is what is causing the difficulty.

>>   I saw that the original seller had vanished without a trace, and the sale had been "taken over" by a different seller.  <<

The seller probably just changed their Username.  People do that all the time.  It doesn't change anything in their account.  It's like putting a different dust jacket on a book:  The information in the book stays the same.

My recommendation:

Since you've already contacted your former CC company ... you need to contact eBay about how to get refunded.  The best way I know of contacting eBay is through social media.  I hear they have excellent CS reps who understand issues and give quick and accurate advice.  

I know that sellers get excellent help from eBay reps on facebook.  I think they should be able to answer your question as well.  Contact them from here:

https://www.facebook.com/eBay/

Please let us know what happens.   It will be very helpful.