Buyer Requested Cancellation - Has eBay Changed The Process For Closing Cancellations?

[autopiacarcare]

We currently have 4 cancellation requests from 9/27-9/28, all of which were Buyer Initiated.  We agreed to the cancellations and the refunds were processed through PayPal within minutes.  All of the refunds were funded from PayPal balance, so they are not on hold as pending e-checks.  These cancellation requests are still showing as open in our eBay account, even though they were refunded days ago.

I called CS to find out why they are still open.  The rep confirmed he could see the PayPal payments had already been refunded.  He said the reason they were still open is that the buyers have not accepted the payment/cancellation yet.

Previously when a buyer requested a cancellation, if we agreed to the cancellation in eBay, the request would be closed automatically within a few minutes of confirmation of the refund.  CS now seems to be indicating that the buyer has to actually confirm they received refund/agree to the cancellation before it is closed and we receive credit for the final value fees. 

Has anyone else experienced this change in cancellation procedures?

[annasunicorns]

I have. It feels broken, like the system is limping and needs a hand. So annoying.

[myangelandmyprincess]

So if I'm understanding correctly these are all official requests sent to you within the first hour that you just had to agree to and not requests you filed as buyer requested after just receiving messages to cancel ?  

 When a seller files as buyer requested they buyer gets 10 days to confirm although if it sees the refund go through its supposed to still close automatically.  

If it's buyer sent within one hour it's supposed to be immediate.  So either way it's messed up somehow 

[abfabvintage]

@autopiacarcare

My concern mostly would be if it is still open on the eBay "books" even though PP did the auto refund, what does that do if you re-list those items? On one of my cancellations, and I had not shipped out yet TG, I received an email back from eBay saying, thank you all is good. So I relisted my item within minutes of the PP payment & the eBay notice.

[fern*wood]

Who knows...it seems the process changes with the seasons.  We get accustomed to the summer process and they switch it up for autumn.    I can't wait for the winter version.  

[autopiacarcare]

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@annasunicorns wrote:
I have. It feels broken, like the system is limping and needs a hand. So annoying.

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You're right, it does feel broken and I'm not entirely sure the answer I got from CS was correct.  He said he did see that the refunds had been processed, but when I click "see details" next to one of the cancellation requests, there is a message at the top of the page that says

"Your refund to the buyer is pending in PayPal. We'll let you know as soon as it's successful."

That almost makes me think that something is broken between PayPal and eBay and eBay's systems are not "seeing" the refund.

[abfabvintage]

Sorry...AND for buyer cancellations which are now overriding the eBay system? I think eBay should NOT charge your listing allotments, whether you have free ones or paid ones. Many of these cancellations IMO are due to eBay offering cheaper items after that buyer has paid you. Hopefully, you got the request before your shipped out.

[autopiacarcare]

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@myangelandmyprincess wrote:

So if I'm understanding correctly these are all official requests sent to you within the first hour that you just had to agree to and not requests you filed as buyer requested after just receiving messages to cancel ?  

 When a seller files as buyer requested they buyer gets 10 days to confirm although if it sees the refund go through its supposed to still close automatically.  

If it's buyer sent within one hour it's supposed to be immediate.  So either way it's messed up somehow 

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Correct, these were official buyer initiated requests through the eBay cancellation process, not just a message. 

Normally all we have to do is agree to the cancellation, the refund is processed through PayPal and then the request is closed and we are refunded our fees automatically, but it isn't working that way right now for some reason.

[abfabvintage]

@myangelandmyprincess

Oh, that is just great. You have to wait up to 10 days to relist if the buyer didn't cancel within one hour? I know I refunded within minutes of the notice I received, PP did it, then I relisted. But to wait 10 days? That is just nuts.

[autopiacarcare]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

Sorry...AND for buyer cancellations which are now overriding the eBay system? I think eBay should NOT charge your listing allotments, whether you have free ones or paid ones. Many of these cancellations IMO are due to eBay offering cheaper items after that buyer has paid you. Hopefully, you got the request before your shipped out.

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@abfabvintage- We had not shipped out yet and these are products where we have multiple QTY in stock on the listing, so I'm not really worried as far as that goes.  Mostly I'm concerned about

A. ) Making sure we get the final value fees credited.

B.) Making sure the buyer knows we agreed to the cancellation as they requested so we don't get negative feedback from them thinking we are not responsive.

I'll give it a little bit and then I may call CS back again.  The message on the request that says "Your refund to the buyer is pending in PayPal. We'll let you know as soon as it's successful" makes me think that even though CS can see the refunds were processed, maybe eBay's systems aren't seeing it for some reason. 

Could this be related to the managed payments change? We are not opted into the new payment system, but I know that the new system does not accept PayPal so maybe something changed in their code that has broken the communication between PayPal and eBay that would normally let eBay's system "see" the refund and automatically close the cancellation?

[abfabvintage]

@autopiacarcare

I am clueless, as are a lot of people, about what is going on with the Managed Payments. I know you said the CS rep saw the refunds, but when you call them back I would also send them the PP evidence as many times I do not trust the CS reps to give correct information. I can't believe the CS rep just can't go in and approve the cancellation and you can then move on. 

[annasunicorns]

You know, it takes days for tracking uploaded to pp to cross over yo ebay right now. Maybe its a broken internal something its supposed to be automatic.

[goodluckselling]

If the buyer paid with an e-check the refund back to the buyer will be by e-check which can take several days.

Good Luck Selling?

[autopiacarcare]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

@autopiacarcare

I am clueless, as are a lot of people, about what is going on with the Managed Payments. I know you said the CS rep saw the refunds, but when you call them back I would also send them the PP evidence as many times I do not trust the CS reps to give correct information. I can't believe the CS rep just can't go in and approve the cancellation and you can then move on. 

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He said he would refund our seller fees, but he can't actually close the requests, the buyer has to accept/agree for the requests to be closed.  I don't trust that the information he gave was correct either, but I'm going to give it a little bit and see if it looks like the fees are refunded before calling back.  Either way I don't like having those cancellation requests hanging around as "open" when we've done everything we are supposed to do.

Maybe @Anonymous can confirm if in fact buyer initiated cancellations now have to wait for the buyer to accept the cancellation before they are closed? And if so, how long do we have to wait before eBay can close the request if the buyer never responds/accepts?

[castlemagicmemories]

Possibly a response to buyers protesting they did NOT request the cancellation that the seller said they did?

Years ago, they would send the buyer a message asking them to confirm the cancellation.  Buyers whose seller used buyer cancellation when it wasn't could deny the cancellation, type an explanation as to why, and the cancellation was not recorded as a buyer cancellation and the seller did not get their fees back.