eBay

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

Hey Community,

I somehow got myself into a huge mess by simply pressing "cancel order" on an item I sold.

Shortly after I sold a camera for $1,100.00 I realized it was more beneficial to sell it elsewhere/wait to sell it. I hit "cancel order" on the "sold" screen I received after the item had been sold. My intent was to sincerely apologize to the buyer, give them a full refund, and move on with my day understanding I could get poor feedback or a strike of some sort. The mix up was entirely my fault and I should have been more careful before listing the item in the first place.

However, upon cancelling the transaction, I received a message that the "order cancellation was pending" and that I need to manually refund the buyer their money and then the buyer has to confirm that they received a refund. However, if I go into PayPal, the gross payment from the buyer does not match up with the net payment I received. PayPal and eBay took out money for taxes and PayPal fees. I can't refund the buyer from PayPal because I do not have enough funds to cover whatever PayPal took out (because it can't be as easy as just cancelling the transaction and having PayPal handle it all automatically and reversing the fees?). I called eBay 4-5 times before I finally gave up and just agreed to go forward with the sale and send the buyer the camera. I called eBay again to see if they could cancel the "cancel order" request, to which the guy seemed like that was not possible, but assured me that if I contacted the seller and asked them if they still wanted it, then since I already had the money in my PayPal, I could ship it to them anyways.

I contacted the buyer saying the order cancellation was a mistake and the item is still available. The buyer still wants the product, so I agreed to ship it to them soon.

My one problem is this: If I ship the camera to the buyer, I'm concerned eBay will automatically "force refund" the buyer their money within 10 days and the buyer will not only have my camera, but also they will have it for free. Additionally, if I don't ship the camera, I'm concerned the buyer will never get their money back, and I will have just stolen over $1,000 from the buyer. I've received mixed responses from calling eBay. One guy told me just to wait 10 days and the buyer will get their refund (even if the money is in my possession in PayPal). Another lady told me to refund the amount in PayPal, which obviously didn't work for the reason listed above.

HELP! I have no idea what to do from here. I don't care if the order is cancelled or if it goes through, I just want to make sure I can either undo the order cancellation, or refund the order completely regardless of PayPal pocketing fees. Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Thank you.

electronics510 · ‎12-13-2020

A cancellation will refund the buyer. You may lose money on fees. I've never heard of a cancellation being successfully cancelled. They tend to go through, you have to wait until that process finishes. I've seen it take up to 24 hours for some reason even when at the request of the buyer.

I would wait until the cancellation is confirmed. Then list the item and sell it to them again. If you send it to them without selling it to them again, you will likely not get your money for the item and they will get a free item unless they choose to pay you.

Your buyer may be annoyed and not want to buy the item again until they get their money back if at all. I would just apologize to them profusely and slow walk the process while you are awaiting confirmation on the cancellation. Generally you don't want to cancel orders, you'll get defects.

This is what I could gather. Others may have better advice.

mr_lincoln · ‎12-13-2020

@photographer_pro Cancelled orders can NOT be undone. If you have a cancellation in progress then wait until it completes itself. What reason did you select when you cancelled? If you picked Buyer requested and they did NOT then the Buyer could be justifiably angry with you. If you selected Out of Stock your account will get and OOS strike. The third choice is problem the address ... so which one did you pick?

eBay started sending Buyers messages about cancellations ... I don't know how that works but a Cancellation is a cancellation and eBay will eventually give the Buyer their money back ...

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor

ed8108 · ‎12-13-2020

EBay & PayPal have earned their fees

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

Thank you very much. I'm glad I chose to post here before taking the advice of the guy on the phone and shipping the camera anyways...

I called eBay a 6th time just now and I finally got in contact with someone who seemed to know what was going on. He advised me to just transfer the difference to my PayPal, let eBay finish processing the refund, then settle my dispute with PayPal separately and see if they would be willing to reimburse the fees (though at this point I probably deserve to pay them).

Unfortunately, I dug my hole even bigger by transferring the money to my bank from PayPal in fear that the money would be taken out by eBay after I shipped the camera. I will have to wait for THAT transfer to finish, then transfer back over to PayPal, then let eBay do it's thing.

What a mess. This is the last time I sell on eBay.

glasser · ‎12-13-2020

You might get the PayPal fees back. Not sure you will with eBay. If you keep in good communication with the buyer and let the process run it's course things should work out in the end. Many buyers are understanding if you have civil exchanges.

Good luck...

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

I selected out of stock. The big issue is that eBay and PayPal are half connected to each other. eBay seems to be able to take money out of my PayPal account if there's a refund, but PayPal POCKETS the transaction fees and everything else instead of just undoing the whole transaction process. I'm close to just leaving the money in my PayPal account, letting eBay do it's thing, and seeing what happens. I will never use eBay again. Thank you so much for your insight.

mtgraves7984 · ‎12-13-2020

You're correct in that your PayPal account is less than you owe the buyer now. PayPal grabbed its fees and they're not coming back. Your reason for cancellation will determine if eBay will charge you FVFs on the next invoice, and if your Seller Metrics suffer. I'd recommend letting the cancellation wrap up, now that it's opened.

If you and the buyer are both still ready, willing and able... relist it for them.

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

Have they? Jeff Bezos would have probably been fine with cancelling the transaction had I done this on Amazon to begin with.

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-13-2020

Pretty good advice. Wait for one item, the cancellation, to clear up before addressing the other. The one thing I would toss out there is the seller may want to offer the buyer a discount for the trouble.

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

At this point, my seller reputation is of little value to me, and I would not try to sell the camera a second time after the cancellation works out. I only want the buyer to get his money back and not have to deal with my problems, confusion, or delay on my end. eBay can take whatever is left in my PayPal account if they wish. I will keep my camera and never sell on eBay again.

portkoop-0 · ‎12-13-2020

Speaking as a buyer I can live with "out of stock" reasons for cancellation.

It's never a happy time for a buyer but at least you were man enough to take the defect.

The worst is the sellers using "buyer asked" when I clearly did not or "problem with address" when I've been ordering here for years without any issue.

There is a lot more I would like to say but since you took the defect I'm good.

Just speaking for myself.
Best of luck

mtgraves7984 · ‎12-13-2020

@photographer_pro wrote:
At this point, my seller reputation is of little value to me, and I would not try to sell the camera a second time after the cancellation works out. I only want the buyer to get his money back and not have to deal with my problems, confusion, or delay on my end. eBay can take whatever is left in my PayPal account if they wish. I will keep my camera and never sell on eBay again.

@photographer_pro

The short amount in your PayPal account won't satisfy eBay. They'll need the amount of the buyer's full payment to issue the refund, but eBay will come to your for the FVFs on the Out-Of-Stock Cancellation. If you don't pay that invoice, they'll send you to collections. It's not worth the long-term problems you may be causing... your seller reputation and your credit reputation are two totally different things.

photographer_pro · ‎12-13-2020

To anyone who is new to this thread, let me be very clear.

I don't care whether the sale goes through or NOT. I want to either REFUND the seller instantly, or CONTINUE WITH THE SALE and send the seller exactly what he purchased.

I made a big mistake in thinking that cancelling a transaction was as easy as pressing a button and contacting the seller. I had no idea what I was doing and I'm an inexperienced seller. I had no intent to deceive or act selfishly, and if I was a buyer who just made that purchase that got cancelled, I would have totally understood and moved on with my day or bought the same camera from another seller without giving it a second thought.

eBay and PayPal made the process a huge headache from start to finish. I got SIX different answers from SIX different people at eBay, five of which would have led me astray and caused me to make a HUGE mistake. PayPal COMPLETING part of a transaction (by taking fees) while the rest of the transaction is in the process of being reversed is absurd and I was not expecting it. Had I known, I certainly would not have done any of this to begin with.

electronics510 · ‎12-13-2020

@photographer_pro wrote:
To anyone who is new to this thread, let me be very clear.

I don't care whether the sale goes through or NOT. I want to either REFUND the seller instantly, or CONTINUE WITH THE SALE and send the seller exactly what he purchased.

I made a big mistake in thinking that cancelling a transaction was as easy as pressing a button and contacting the seller. I had no idea what I was doing and I'm an inexperienced seller. I had no intent to deceive or act selfishly, and if I was a buyer who just made that purchase that got cancelled, I would have totally understood and moved on with my day or bought the same camera from another seller without giving it a second thought.

eBay and PayPal made the process a huge headache from start to finish. I got SIX different answers from SIX different people at eBay, five of which would have led me astray and caused me to make a HUGE mistake. PayPal COMPLETING part of a transaction (by taking fees) while the rest of the transaction is in the process of being reversed is absurd and I was not expecting it. Had I known, I certainly would not have done any of this to begin with.

Nobody should be accusing you of anything or calling you names. Don't get upset. You aren't a bad person for cancelling, you learned a lesson.

If you decide to sell again on ebay, now you know about cancellations. It's really a last resort kind of thing, not something you want to do unless you feel you really have to - unless the buyer asks you to.