Buyer filed a payment dispute with their financial institution

[cicli_john]

I cannot find a situation quite like mine after searching "payment disputes with financial institution"   I am appreciate of the outcome for me but feel bad for e-bay if this is how these cases end up....

On 1/29/24 I sold a book for $125. I always purchase postage through e-bay  and they have recorded that the book was delivered on 2/2 (not bad for media mail NY to Montana).  Buyer left positive feedback and even sent  a couple of e-bay messages to me.  The first saying that they left feedback and the second  about how excited she was with the book as she was getting into it (hey, its a good Stephen King book). 

3/16 I received the following from e-bay:

buyer filed a payment dispute for an order placed on Jan 29, 2024. This means that they disputed a charge directly with their payment institution. They are requesting $125.60 back and the reason for this dispute is that the buyer did not recognize the transaction. The good news is that you’re protected for this dispute under eBay seller protection policy Today I receive the following: The buyer’s payment institution sided with the buyer. The good news is that you’re protected for this dispute under eBay seller protection policy. We won't deduct the dispute amount from your funds. You're not required to take any action at this time. I am not out any money but I assume e-bay had to refund the buyer....that is just not right.  There is no way for me to respond to the dispute reminding e-bay that the buyer received the item and I have written proof she is happy with it.  I keep an eye on what my feedback number is and before writing this I noticed it dropped by 1 and sure enough, I can no longer find her feedback but on the sellers hub under orders paid and shipped it still shows the green plus that she left feedback.  Can a buyer retract feedback?  She was probably trying to cover her tracks unless e-bay removed it.  Anyway, that's my story and I am happy that at least for now I am not out any money...and yes, I have blocked the buyer.

[mam98031]

  I have had several of these types of chargebacks and like the OP stated, I stated and multiple others stated you CANNOT respond to those informational messages. I do not really care what the policy says I know from experience how this actually works. Give me a few minutes and I will find something to purchase. 

Oh I see where part of the problem is.  Sorry I missed that earlier.  You interpreted the OP as saying that they "CANNOT respond", but that is NOT what the OP said.  They said "You're not required to take any action at this time."

There is a big difference between can not and not required.

The other part I missed explaining and that is my fault.  When Ebay refunded the seller for the Chargeback, the Chargeback closed and therefore the seller would not be able to respond to it.

I think that is where your confusion is coming from.  True you can't respond to ANY claim whether filed in Ebay or as a Chargeback when it gets closed.  That however does not mean the seller can't respond while they are open.

Again, sorry, I should have picked up on this sooner.

Oh, and did you locate where in the Policy pages that the Chargeback process described in them only applies to certain reasons for why the Chargeback was opened.  You have repeatedly said the policy links I provided are not for certain reasons.  I really would like to better understand you position on this.  So what part of the policy describes this as I have been unable to locate it on my own.

[ittybitnot]

 We can respond to Chargebacks.  I'm not sure why we are still arguing this point.  Per Ebay you can respond to a Chargeback.  My personal experience is I've responded to Chargebacks.

@mam98031 

What you fail to realize is that for all intents and purposes.  OP did not receive a Chargeback or a Payment Dispute.  They only got a "notice" that the buyer had filed one, and it was covered by "seller protection" so they did not need to do anything else. THERE WAS NO OPEN PAYMENT DISPUTE/CHARGEBACK.   THE OP COULD NOT RESPOND TO THE CHARGEBACK or PAYMENT DISPUTE because there wasn't one that involved the OP open anymore.  There was no form to fill out, there was no place to enter any tracking number, there was no place to accept/or counter the dispute.  The ability to give evidence did not exist in the message from eBay or anyplace in the seller hub. 

The "policy" regarding responding to a dispute does not apply, because there is no dispute.  There was only an information notice to the seller that the buyer opened one, but it was covered so no action would be required.   

I guess if you wanted to persist, as a seller in this position, you could call customer service and tell them all about it, give them the delivery confirmation again, maybe quote some policies or something, so you feel better even though eBay already told you that you get to keep your money, and it is over.  

[mam98031]

@ittybitnot 

True, there were some important things for the experience the OP had that I did not mention, but if you had read my previous post on the thread, you would have seen that I did NOT "fail" to notice certain things.  

For your ease:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Buyer-filed-a-payment-dispute-with-their-financial-institution...

IDK if the OP got any other emails before the one they shared with us.  You may have information that I do not.

You are a little late with your observations as I already went over this about 5 hours ago, long before this post of yours. 

"so they did not need to do anything else. "  You will have to point me to where I said they did.

"THERE WAS NO OPEN PAYMENT DISPUTE/CHARGEBACK."  This is absolutely correct and I went over that in the post of mine that you missed.  It would have closed after Ebay issued the refund to the buyer and that would be why the OP could not respond to it, however I never said they Needed to respond.  

You don't have to contact customer service to respond to an open Chargeback Dispute.  The instructions on this is in the link to the policy for this that I've provided a couple of times.  But if you need it again, I will post it, just ask.

FYI I have never in any post said that the OP HAD to respond.  I have only stated the facts about how this process works.  Some just don't think we can respond to an open Chargeback Dispute, but per the policy we can.  And I provided a link to a current thread where a seller dealing with a current Chargeback was preparing to respond.

To be clear.  The OP could not respond to the Chargeback/dispute even if he wanted to because it closed after Ebay covered them and issued the refund to the buyer.  But had Ebay NOT done that the Chargeback would be open and the OP could have responded to it if they wanted to.

[gurlcat]

Nobody is asserting that you ever said the OP had to respond.  We know you never said that.  But let's see if we can agree on what you actually did assert.  

So, here is the exact cut/paste directly from the OP's post, where she shared the exact cut/pasted email messages she received from eBay.  And it's messageS -plural.  Two.  2 messages, not just one.  Maybe you didn't realize that because she only typed a number date for the first one.  But there were two, and they were three days apart.  

The first one:

3/16 I received the following from e-bay: 
buyer filed a payment dispute for an order placed on Jan 29, 2024. This means that they disputed a charge directly with their payment institution. They are requesting $125.60 back and the reason for this dispute is that the buyer did not recognize the transaction. The good news is that you’re protected for this dispute under eBay seller protection policy.

The second one (and by "Today" she meant 3/19, the date she made the post):

Today I receive the following:

The buyer’s payment institution sided with the buyer. The good news is that you’re protected for this dispute under eBay seller protection policy. We won't deduct the dispute amount from your funds. You're not required to take any action at this time.

So, in the three days between the first and second eBay message, the dispute was in process apparently.  It was not yet DONE; that didn't happen until 3/19. 

SO, is it your assertion that at any time on 3/16, 3/17, or 3/18, the OP -COULD- have responded to the chargeback/dispute/case/whatever you want to call it?  Do you assert that there was a page she could go to and upload her tracking and/or any other evidence if she wanted to?  

[wastingtime101]

Hi @cicli_john . I'm not sure why your post has sparked such a big debate. What I can do is share with you my own experiences on payment disputes and hope it helps to answer the questions that brought you here.

All payment disputes are not created equal.

There are different reason codes for payment disputes. Certain types of disputes, such as a claim the item wasn't as described, do allow (and encourage) the seller to upload supporting documentation if they wish to fight the dispute. eBay improved that process within the last year by allowing sellers to upload multiple docs instead of a single image.

Other types of disputes do not offer that option.

The specific type of dispute you experienced, "doesn't recognize the transaction", allows sellers to upload a tracking number, but nothing else. No supporting documentation. All you get is a box to enter a tracking number. Seller protections apply if you meet certain criteria so there is no need to upload anything else.

The policy page linked above supports this by stating the only information eBay asks for on a "doesn't recognize the transaction" dispute is evidence of successful delivery, if they ask for anything at all. As you experienced, sometimes seller protections are automatically applied.

It's when the buyer files other types of payment disputes, like not as described claims, where it's more of a process and seller protections don't apply. In those cases if you want to fight you can upload supporting docs.

I hope this first-hand experience is the type of info you were looking for.

You asked about feedback disappearing. That was done by eBay's system and happens sometimes when disputes are filed and seller protections kick in (yes, even removing positive feedback in certain cases). Buyers/sellers do not have the ability to remove feedback.

You also asked why the financial institution found in the buyer's favor when you had feedback and messages saying they received and loved the item. We can only guess here, but in the end it really doesn't matter since you qualified for eBay's seller protections policy. You did everything by the book and eBay automatically covered you.

If you have any questions feel free to @ mention me in a reply and I'll do my best to help.

For fun, here's an old screenshot from 2019 back when sellers had to respond to "doesn't recognize the transaction" disputes. This shows you that it's always been the case all we could upload is tracking for this type of dispute, no supporting docs.

In contrast, this is from a year ago in 2023 where seller protections automatically applied and it was not necessary to respond to the "doesn't recognize the transaction" dispute, but you could still upload tracking - no other supporting docs.

[gurlcat]

But is it not possible that it has changed again, just in the year since that last example you showed, whereby there is no longer even a dispute page and nowhere to enter a tracking number?  That is what the OP said in message # 55 (don't know if you read that one; I realize this thread has gone 'rogue' with lots of disagreement replies about this one issue).  And she again pasted her message from eBay.  It does not seem to include that last sentence from the (year-old) example you provided, stating "To look into this further, you can go to the payment dispute details page."  

The OP and @dbfolks166mt  both seem to indicate that there is no longer a payment dispute details page for disputes with the 'unrecognized transaction' reason type.   And if this has not been updated in the policy page, it would not be the first time eBay made a change before changing the wording in the policy page.  

[wastingtime101]

There should still be a dispute details page here:

https://www.ebay.com/sh/resolutions?filter=ISSUE_STATE%3ACLOSED_ISSUES

Do you see your dispute on that page @cicli_john ?

I have not attempted to take action on payment disputes for "doesn't recognize the transaction" since last year because it's not required when covered by seller protections so I didn't waste my time.

Is it possible sellers can no longer enter tracking to the dispute when tracking is already on the transaction and eBay already decided seller protections apply? Yes, it's possible. I cannot confirm that from first hand experience as mentioned above. Perhaps other sellers on this discussion can say for sure and/or post a screenshot. Maybe they already did (I admit I skipped over some of the back-and-forth.)

Is it possible the option to add tracking still exists because some sellers may have reshipped something and eBay is giving an opportunity to enter the new tracking? I'd say yes, that's also a possibility. Again, I cannot confirm first hand as I have no open disputes at the moment, but perhaps other sellers can.

I did not comment on that part of the discussion earlier because I haven't checked details on any "doesn't recognize" disputes while they were open since last March and I was trying to stick with first hand experience.

If you'd really like to know you can tag one of the eBay reps and see if they can give you a definitive answer @gurlcat .

Last concrete example I have is posted in the screenshot above where I was covered, got the same message as the OP, and could still enter tracking if I wanted but was not required.

But no, you cannot upload other documents as has been suggested throughout this discussion - not on a "doesn't recognize the transaction" dispute.

A lot of the policy that was quoted throughout this discussion, and links to other posts that were shared, were about not as described disputes. Those are an entirely different animal from the OP's situation with a different process for sellers.

Hope that helps.

[robbie31415]

Mam provides a lot of good advice.

But I will say they have a problem not admitting sometimes they are wrong.

I have given up with trying to prove from past experiences.

Best just to let some people believe what they want regardless of them being wrong.

One thing I will say for certain is the documented policies appear to need to be updated.

[carlmarxx]

I find  it very interesting that  eBay didn't fight the dispute ,by not providing any to document's   day of  the purchase  with the full details  and  Carrier tracking number . Yet  ebay just paid out of their  own pockets . so fee's keep going up.

[carlmarxx]

The question  is why didn't eBay fight that dispute . Second is the OP's buyer's  excuse  reason  for it  doesn't hold  up to smell  test ! That he or she does not recognized  a  $125    book  purchase done  1/29/24  .  Sounds like the buyer's wife  flipped out  over $125 paid  for a Steven King Book.  there for buyer filed a fraud  dispute   that ebay doesn't fight ,just paid the money out of their pocket  a long with  the $20 charge back fee . 

[gurlcat]

eBay doesn't charge the seller that $20 for a chargeback of this nature.  
As for why the chargeback occurred, you could be right, could be a family member used someone's card without permission.  There's also the possibility that the buyer contacted her credit card about a different charge she didn't recognize on the same day she purchased the book.  Sometimes the card company will chargeback ALL purchases made the same day as any suspicious ones, without even asking their customer if any of them were legit or not.  -It happened with one of my buyers, and it also happened when my purse was stolen several years ago.  -I wound up having money refunded to my account for things I actually BOUGHT.  

[mam98031]

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@carlmarxx wrote:

The question  is why didn't eBay fight that dispute . Second is the OP's buyer's  excuse  reason  for it  doesn't hold  up to smell  test ! That he or she does not recognized  a  $125    book  purchase done  1/29/24  .  Sounds like the buyer's wife  flipped out  over $125 paid  for a Steven King Book.  there for buyer filed a fraud  dispute   that ebay doesn't fight ,just paid the money out of their pocket  a long with  the $20 charge back fee . 

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I don't have any answer for you.  I don't know why they don't.  Or if they do and they just don't tell us.  It could be either way.

That $20 fee is Ebay's fee as far as I know.  Paypal had one too.  It is only charged if the seller loses the Chargeback not when they win or are covered by Ebay seller protection.