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?

[autopiacarcare]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

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?

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No e-check on either side of the transactions.  They were all instant PayPal payments and the refunds were funded from our PayPal account, so no e-check on the refund side either.  PayPal shows both the original payments and the refunds as "completed" and eBay CS rep confirmed he could see that the refunds were completed.

[autopiacarcare]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

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

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These were buyer initiated cancellations.  The buyer clicked on the link in their account to request to cancel the order through the eBay cancellation process.  These were not cancellations requested via a message or initiated from the seller side.  I would think it would be pretty obvious in these situations that the buyer agrees with the cancellation since they initiated it, but who knows what eBay's logic may be on that one?

[castlemagicmemories]

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

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

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These were buyer initiated cancellations.  The buyer clicked on the link in their account to request to cancel the order through the eBay cancellation process.  These were not cancellations requested via a message or initiated from the seller side.  I would think it would be pretty obvious in these situations that the buyer agrees with the cancellation since they initiated it, but who knows what eBay's logic may be on that one?

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I'm sorry, I was not saying that yours were NOT buyer requested cancellations.  

I meant that there have been so many reports by buyers of sellers using buyer requested cancellation, when the buyer did NOT request it, possibly that has resulted in message going out, as an earlier poster stated, asking the buyer to confirm the cancellation.  

I agree that if the cancellation request was initiated on the buyer's end, one would think that would register with the system, but stranger things have happened.

[dm2756]

I had the same problem, 9/29 customer bought  and paid,  immediately requested to cancel I accepted and refund given, still showing as cancellation pending. Called CS they said they are waiting for buyer to respond had to wait 10 days for FVF refund. Asked when this went into effect, as this was initiated by the buyer I would have been happy to complete the sale, buyer asks to cancel you agree buyer gets refund, buyer moves on as far as they are concerned its done. Why should I have to wait 10 days for FVF refund? So he did credit my account, he also said ebay is now tracking buyers who buy and pay and then immediately cancel he said they are now getting a strike and 3 strikes they are suspended. Not so sure if this is true or not.

[fern*wood]

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@dm2756 wrote:

...he also said ebay is now tracking buyers who buy and pay and then immediately cancel he said they are now getting a strike and 3 strikes they are suspended. Not so sure if this is true or not.

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I find that to be highly unlikely.  They don't even suspend a buyer that doesn't pay.  It never ceases to amaze me what some csrs pull out of their "notes" as explanations.

[autopiacarcare]

Thanks @dm2756 .  Good to have this confirmed by someone else.  Waiting 10 days for FVF credit is a bit of an inconvenience, but if the flip side of that is that they are actually monitoring and taking action on buyer's who make a habit of committing to buy and immediately canceling, that would be nice.  Of course anything customer service says usually has to be taken with a big grain of salt, so we'll just have to see what happens.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@dm2756 wrote:

...he also said ebay is now tracking buyers who buy and pay and then immediately cancel he said they are now getting a strike and 3 strikes they are suspended. Not so sure if this is true or not.

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I find that to be highly unlikely.  They don't even suspend a buyer that doesn't pay.  It never ceases to amaze me what some csrs pull out of their "notes" as explanations.

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I don't think so, either, but the rule was, in the beginning, that three strikes you were out.

[abfabvintage]

@dm2756

Hi, I am sorry, but I do not believe that is true. ebay is showing buyers cheaper items AFTER they have paid you.  I do not believe eBay is keeping track of how many cancellations a buyer has instituted since they can continue to cancel until the cows come home. Unless somewhere there is some eBay "UA Policy" that states they are tracking a buyer for the number of cancellations made. I don't think they are even tracking how many return requests a buyer makes. I believe your main concern right now is if the buyer is even aware they need to formally cancel through eBay. Am sure they see they have been refunded considering your information from PP. 

[abfabvintage]

@dm2756

Sorry, DM. My last sentence was related to the OP, not you.

"I believe your main concern right now is if the buyer is even aware they need to formally cancel through eBay. Am sure they see they have been refunded considering your information from PP. " For the OP.

But you are right, to wait that long for FVFs to be credited, and can you relist? is not a good thing since it is through no fault of the seller.

[tyler@ebay · Accepted solution]

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@autopiacarcare wrote:

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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?

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Hi @autopiacarcare - Trinton is out of the office, but I wanted to hop in and let you know that there is a technical issue that's keeping those requests listed as 'open' or 'pending' even though the refund has been completed. It's definitely not an intended change to your workflow. 

I've added your account to the open ticket with the tech team and I'm glad to hear that CS went through and manually credited your fees on those items to ensure that you don't have to wait. Thanks!

[autopiacarcare]

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@abfabvintage wrote:

 I believe your main concern right now is if the buyer is even aware they need to formally cancel through eBay. Am sure they see they have been refunded considering your information from PP. 

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That's exactly my concern.  If the buyer really does need to confirm the cancellation that they requested, that would be a change for both sellers and buyers as far as how buyer initiated cancellations work.  If eBay has not published that change, neither side may be aware of it.  Buyers may just see the refund from PayPal and assume they don't need to do anthing else.

[autopiacarcare]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

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Hi @autopiacarcare - Trinton is out of the office, but I wanted to hop in and let you know that there is a technical issue that's keeping those requests listed as 'open' or 'pending' even though the refund has been completed. It's definitely not an intended change to your workflow. 

I've added your account to the open ticket with the tech team and I'm glad to hear that CS went through and manually credited your fees on those items to ensure that you don't have to wait. Thanks!

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Thanks tyler@ebay !  Please also make sure your CS teams get a message about it being a technical issue.  At least one other person on this thread was also told by CS that it was an intended change, so there seems to be some confusion on the CS side as well.

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for the pointer @autopiacarcare - I missed that. I'll take a look and see if I can find the call in question and get the teammate coaching. 

The tech information is readily available for anyone in CS to access, so it may have been something that was missed on the call. Either way, we'll make sure it gets addressed. 🙂

[critter_mama_2007]

please add me to the tech list of needing to be fixed.  my cancellations are also listed as open and pending.  i have received thank you emails from buyers.  i called cs and they said they havent a clue what is up with the cancells remaining open, but my buyers have received their refund.