About the 30c fee.............

[dhbookds]

In wkly chat, there was a question about the 30c fee refund: (https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/Community-Chat-February-23-1-00-pm-PT-Gene...

message # 46)

@mam98031 wrote:

Another seller wanted to pop in and ask this question but it appears they weren't able to make it, so I'll ask.

We get this concern from many posters regarding the upcoming full credit on Cancelations that are requested by the buyer.  

Going on historically how Ebay handles stuff like this, even though the Winter Update was silent on this, they mean Cancellations that the buyer actually requests during the first hour after the purchase via the formal method [for the lack of knowing what it is really caused].  If a buyer simply emails the seller at some later time asking for a cancelation that won't count.  Which unfortunately where most of mine come from.

But in a nutshell, what is the position of Ebay so we can better answer this questions?

Hey @mam98031 

The full credit refund only applies to a buyer initiated cancellation, which are currently only available within the first hour of purchase/payment. Seller initiated cancellations after that will still receive a full refund of any Final Value Fee, but the 30 cent transaction fee won't be included. 

I'm having a problem with that answer ........defining the credit as being applicable ONLY to the buyer initiated cancellation within the lst hr of purchase/payment.   That seems to ignore/exclude buyer requests thru emails AFTER the the lst hr.  I certainly read the explanation in the Winter  Update to include all buyer requested cancellations.........and from the lack of questions about it in the Q & A, I think  that may have been true of many.  This was the verbiage in the Winter Update:

Per-order fee credit for cancelled transactions

Currently, eBay keeps a $0.30 per-order fee when an order is cancelled due to a buyer request. This is in line with fees that other marketplaces and third-party payment processors apply in similar buyer cancellation cases. We're excited to announce that starting March 1, 2022, eBay will refund the entire final value fee, including the $0.30 per-order fee, when you approve a buyer’s cancellation request. We recognize that buyers may cancel transactions for various reasons at no fault of the seller and we want to support you by refunding 100% of the final value fee.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2022-winter/business.html#fees

If Ebay had meant to limit the credit to "buyer requested within an hr", they certainly did not make that clear in the update.........and as such, I would like to request a recheck as to what they did mean.......

tyler@ebay 

velvet@ebay 

jasmen@ebay 

Thank you. 

[fern*wood]

I think they were saying the refund will only happen within the 1 hour window since that is the only time frame that a buyer can actually initiate the cancellation.  When they initiate it, a seller can still deny the cancellation, but it is still considered a cancellation case.  That's why sellers can't then open a non-payment case later if the buyer initiated this first.   After the 1 hour window, all a buyer can do is email the seller and ask for the seller to initiate the cancellation.

So I think ebay was saying the key word was "initiate", and I guess to them, it was clear that can only be in the first hour.   They  don't want to sort out the random emails to sellers after that hour.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fern*wood 

 Yes, ebay appears to make an in-house distinction, for ebay a "buyer INITIATED cancellation" is a buyer request made in the first hour. A buyer requested cancellation after the first hour, where sellers choose "buyer requested cancellation" as a reason for cancelling, is apparently considered a seller initiated cancellation, even though it is clearly the buyer who requested it, and I'd guess most sellers view it as a buyer initiated cancellation. 

HOWEVER, the Update Announcement says nothing about the first hour, nor does it use the term buyer INITIATED. It says "buyer REQUESTED cancellation"....and buyers can REQUEST a cancellation at any time, not just within the first hour. Also, the explanation for this change applies whether the seller approves a request made in the first hour or a later request: "We recognize that buyers may cancel transactions for various reasons at no fault of the seller and we want to support you by refunding 100% of the final value fee."

That reasoning applies regardless of when the buyer makes the request. ebay is right about the reasoning: it isn't my fault a buyer requests a cancellation and ebay should support my decision to accommodate the request "by refunding 100% of the final value fee" 

There is NOTHING in the Announcement that would lead a seller to believe this is limited to the one hour buyer INITIATED cancellation.

Now, it may well be that Velvet was correct, but if so, then the Announcement was so poorly written as to be misleading to most sellers, AND the announcement should be corrected.

[tsme35]

I don't get many cancellations but when I do its always an email, I tell them just click cancel order and they say they can't find it. So I cancel order by "buyers request".

[fern*wood]

Sorry, I should have gone back to look at the update.  I thought Jasmen was stating that is what it said. Looks like it didn't.

[stainlessenginecovers]

That's because there is no 'cancel order' to click for a buyer. 

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @dhbookds - Velvet was correct, the refund of the 30 cent fee will be for buyer initiated cancellations, which is currently within the first hour of purchase. 

[dhbookds]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

Hi @dhbookds - Velvet was correct, the refund of the 30 cent fee will be for buyer initiated cancellations, which is currently within the first hour of purchase. 

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tyler@ebay 

I can't express my objections any better than Cottage did.......

But I will express my outrage at the lack of clarity in the Winter Update.......it was either AGAIN sloppy  terminology by ebay or a deliberate attempt at obfuscation.

I suggest that the update be corrected.....(and the correction noted so people won't think they were crazy when the first read it)...........

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for your input on this @dhbookds! I'll get it passed along. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

tyler@ebay  Thanks for the clarification.

1. An apology is in order. The Announcement is misleading in the extreme. 

2. The Announcement should be revised, and a separate announcement, including apology, should be posted.

3. Many sellers, and many bloggers, influencers, etc, have already stated what seemed obvious from the announcement: This change was a welcome and overdue change because it meant that when I bend over backwards to accommodate my buyers request to cancel, I would no longer lose the 30 cent fee. Now this "clarification" effectively limited that change to a small subset of buyer requested cancellations. 

Sellers who do not hear about this "clarification" are going to be upset and even feel betrayed when they don't have their 30 cents refunded in the non-hour situations. 

And those of us who have seen the clarification have every reason to be outraged at ebay's original announcement, which can be charitably attributed to gross incompetence or , less charitably, to  deceit. 

Either way, ebay has once again, for the umpteenth time, shot itself in the foot.  

Of course, ebay has the opportunity to alter this, and apply the refund to ALL buyer requested cancellations.

Will ebay do the right thing? Extend the refund to ALL buyer requested cancellations ?(which is the way the announcement reads)

Or will ebay at least apologize publicly to its seller community?

Oh, and Tyler, one last thing.

You said :

"the refund of the 30 cent fee will be for buyer initiated cancellations, which is currently within the first hour of purchase." 

THAT is the new policy. In one clear, concise sentence. If that statement had been in the Announcement, we wouldn't be having this conversation, there would have been no confusion.

If you could come up with that, why couldn't ebay?

Why is there nothing even remotely like that one clear sentence in the Announcement? 

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

Absolutely.  Not only should the seller update be revised, but I agree there should be a separate stand-alone announcement with clarification, in detail, outlining the difference between buyer-initiated and buyer-requested.  

Also, the transaction fee credit for buyer initiated cancels within the first hour is just dangling a carrot, we all know it.  Those types of cancellations are few and far between, because the hour window is so small, and very few buyers even know it is an option.  

The update states "This is in line with fees that other marketplaces and third party payment processors apply in similar buyer cancellation cases.".  

So?  How about going above and beyond "other marketplaces"?  Think outside that little box eBay, and do for your sellers what the others don't do.  

[chrispass918]

Waaaaa, oh no $0.30 😭

[lepke1979]

And is this if the buyer requests it on their end within the first hour or if the buyer does it and seller cancels it within the first hour? Probably half of my sales happen when I'm asleep and I would never be able to do a cancellation within that time frame.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@lepke1979 

The refund applies if the buyer initiates his request to cancel within ONE HOUR of purchase.

However, the seller has THREE DAYS to respond to that request.

[aprilmoviebuf2000]

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@chrispass918 wrote:

Waaaaa, oh no $0.30 😭

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The post is not about the $0.30.  It's about the fact that the seller update wording is misleading.