eBay

cocahana · ‎09-13-2021

Buyer purchased an item back on August 5, it was delivered to buyer on August 11.

Then on morning of September 11, buyer opened a return case. I received an email from eBay that my funds are also on hold.

Why is that? Between August 11 (delivered date) to September 11 is actually 31 days.

I have no obligation to accept the return right because it’s past 30 days but why does eBay have my funds on hold for this?

flyingmvp · ‎09-13-2021

It's not that simple, Ebay needs to give some cover or protection if and when a charge back is taking place.

we had quite a few chargeback attempts during the Paypal days, all ended in our favor.

If the credit card companies are so good about maintaining their clients "happy", Ebay should do something to keep their sellers happy as well and eat the charge when it is right, not to punish them with $20 penalty fee.

Saying that working out with the CC companies is beyond Ebay is the easiest excuse, Ebay takes their share of every transaction, they should make it right for sellers in need when needed.

ladybug_49002 · ‎09-13-2021

Hello, can you share the user? I have the exact same thing with the same dates. Wondering if there is a repetitive pattern.

eleanor*rigby · ‎09-13-2021

@ladybug_49002 wrote:
Hello, can you share the user? I have the exact same thing with the same dates. Wondering if there is a repetitive pattern.

@ladybug_49002

It's against the rules of the Community discussion boards to "name and shame"--in other words, to post the member id of a member who is not here to defend themselves.

Community Rules of Engagement

"8. No naming and shaming. We will not tolerate posting about listing or member violations. Item numbers, auction links, negative/neutral feedback scores, other members’ ID or contact information posted for the purpose of shaming another member will be edited or removed."

@cocahana

Do not post the member id or anything else that will identify your buyer.

threedayauctions · ‎09-13-2021

Yes...everybody is correct. You are in a bad position when you deal with buyers like that. We went thru the same scenario, with an additional twist: Our buyer used the item for 30 days, then left left negative feedback claiming the item doesn't charge and THEN opened a case on the same day they left negative feedback (day 30) ....before we could even respond. We called the powers to be and at first e-bay said, they will send their removal department an e-mail to remove the negative feedback, but then the removal department send us a lengthy explanation WHY negative feedback cannot removed, since it is a reflection of the overall experience and blah, blah, blah. Conclusion: e-bay has way too many automated response systems and has removed the human element to look into cases like yours, mine and thousand others. We've been on e-bay since 1998 and have seen it grow out of proportions...the result is snappy, young adults without passion for a job answering the phone (if you're lucky)! You might want to look at another marketplace...Offer Up, Facebook or local classified!

audra13 · ‎09-13-2021

So they have 30 days to use and or wear the item, then return it damaged, used, worn and you have to just accept it?

vintagecraze50 · ‎09-13-2021

Yes. Because that is just the way it is everywhere when you sell online. It’s all sight unseen, nobody to really see what was sent and what comes back. Very different when dealing in person. Chargebacks have a very low win rate for merchants in general and that is just how that whole situation works. You must understand this stuff when you sell online and be prepared for these issues the best you can.

vintagecraze50 · ‎09-13-2021

I have not had any bad experiences with customer service here. The folks at customer service can only do what they can do in these return situations. You avoid these nasty interchanges with buyers by telling them to return the stuff and then you block them if they have given you any trouble and move on.

teth_1615 · ‎09-13-2021

@flyingmvp wrote:
we had quite a few chargeback attempts during the Paypal days, all ended in our favor.

Here, PayPal is the merchant account in the chargeback, so PayPal can directly defend itself, and you the seller in turn, against the chargeback.

buyer > [ CC <> PayPal ] > seller

@flyingmvp wrote:
Saying that working out with the CC companies is beyond Ebay is the easiest excuse

Here, PayPal or Adyen is the merchant account in the chargeback. eBay is just the payee of the payment-less-fees, unknown and irrelevant to the CC company.

Working out with the CC companies is physically beyond eBay because

... the chargeback is a battle between the CC company and PayPal or Adyen ...

- they are not involved with eBay,

- they don't see eBay anywhere in the chargeback, and

- they have no idea there is a seller down the line at the bottom end.

buyer > [ CC <> Adyen ] > eBay > seller

this*old*attic · ‎09-13-2021

Or maybe they’re just really busy and lost track of the MBG deadline.

I wonder what percentage of our fee increases came about because of the number of sellers who think business should be “safe” and call eBay CS to whine and expect them to fix every transaction gone wrong 😑?

computeraidllc · ‎09-13-2021

@cocahana wrote:
So if they file a chargeback, their credit card company will investigate this with eBay correct? If the credit card company doesn’t side with eBay, what will eBay do? Will they charge my credit card or bank on file?

Only the credit card company will investigate as a chargeback is coming from the credit card company or bank. eBay is out of the loop and they can only provide the information that they have. If you loose a chargeback then you will loose your funds, a chargeback fee from the credit card company or bank that issued the card and possible a fee to replace the customers card, depending on what the customer reports the issue is like an unauthorized charge.

If you, the seller, ship the item to the address on file, eBay will wave the fees meaning eBay covers the fees but this is only for an unauthorized charge. If it is for any other reason, the seller has to pay the fees that the bank or credit card issuer assessed. This will come from your payouts or if there are no payouts available, will come directly from your bank account.

Each credit card issuer: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover; has different rules and timelines for chargebacks including what the chargeback fee is, how long someone can dispute something. American Express is the most difficult one for a seller to handle because AMEX has no official timelines for when a dispute can be opened, it only has suggested one, 120 days, for the card holder. It is entirely at AMEX's disposal for timeline. Also I think the chargeback fee for AMEX is as much as $100 depending on what the transaction issue is. The other issuers are $20 to $50. I have had a few chargebacks over my time on eBay and Amazon.

It is always best to take care of the customer before a chargeback as that is the most powerful tool a customer has and is the most expensive for the merchant aka seller.

fm2000 · ‎09-13-2021

Even if eBay sides with you, they will just do a chargeback on their credit card, will get your item free, you will be out your money, and you will be stung with a $20 "dispute fee". Buyers ALWAYS win chargebacks (unless they do it too often and their credit card cuts them off.) Dishonest buyers know they have 6 months to do a chargeback, so you really have to accept returns for up to 6 months.

No matter what, you will be forced to take the return. At least you will get your item back this way, and won't get zonked with that $20 "dispute" fee.

computeraidllc · ‎09-13-2021

@flyingmvp wrote:
It's not that simple, Ebay needs to give some cover or protection if and when a charge back is taking place.
we had quite a few chargeback attempts during the Paypal days, all ended in our favor.

If the credit card companies are so good about maintaining their clients "happy", Ebay should do something to keep their sellers happy as well and eat the charge when it is right, not to punish them with $20 penalty fee.
Saying that working out with the CC companies is beyond Ebay is the easiest excuse, Ebay takes their share of every transaction, they should make it right for sellers in need when needed.

That $20 penalty fee isn't from eBay but the credit card company. It gets billed to you. There maybe other fees that get assessed from buyers credit card company as well, like replacing the card or credit monitoring and so on. Some are from the way Visa, Mastercard, AMEX and Discover work and some are from state and local laws depending on what the issue is, like an authorized transaction or fraud.

If the buyer claims unauthorized transaction and you ship the item to the buyers address and the buyers address matches up with the card then eBay will not bill you for the chargeback fee. You might have to call Managed Payments to get it back. I have had this happen before and it wasn't $20 it was well over that.

Each credit card company has a different amount depending on what the chargeback is. Most cards it is between $20 to $50. American Express is goes out to $100. Also American Express until recently had no time limit for the buyer to file one. They still don't have one but they have a suggested one of 120 days. If it goes past that, AMEX can still allow for it as AMEX guides state it is up to AMEX to determine if a chargeback is valid or not, regardless of when the transaction happens. They have historical been a no limit for chargeback timeline for the buyer.

computeraidllc · ‎09-13-2021

@fm2000 wrote:
Even if eBay sides with you, they will just do a chargeback on their credit card, will get your item free, you will be out your money, and you will be stung with a $20 "dispute fee". Buyers ALWAYS win chargebacks (unless they do it too often and their credit card cuts them off.) Dishonest buyers know they have 6 months to do a chargeback, so you really have to accept returns for up to 6 months.

No matter what, you will be forced to take the return. At least you will get your item back this way, and won't get zonked with that $20 "dispute" fee.

Yes and it might be even more than $20 depending on the card issuer. Normally it is $20 to $50 for most cards. AMEX goes up to $100. They are the expensive one and thank god they are the 4th largest issuer of cards but AMEX card holders tend to spend more money per transaction. Also AMEX doesn't have any subprime cards available only prime and super prime cards. Subprime are people with very bad credit. Not every place takes them because of the higher fees and very generous chargeback rules.

It is always best to take care of the customer before it gets to a chargeback.

dnasilver · ‎09-14-2021

But the CC company/bank have zero rights to a sellers account. It is eBay who manages payments and it would seem eBay would protect their customer - which is the seller. Why do they give sellers money away to CC? Maybe eBay needs to review their real relationship and to whom they are contracted with. Since sellers pay eBay for managing payments is it not a conflict of interest to also be getting paid on the other side of the transaction?

vintagecraze50 · ‎09-14-2021

dnasilver, while it would be extremely nice if ebay could wave a magic wand and gain complete control over the credit card business, sadly they cannot. THE FAIR CREDIT ACT is extremely outdated and only exists to protect the consumer. Once a transaction gets completely out of their control like this and get’s sent to a card issuer for review they are in a tough situation as well as the seller. Only 25 percent on average of credit card disputes are won by a merchant. If you want change then write congress about changing these laws or instating another law that protects merchants better.