Double refunds

[timelessattireetc]

Wondering how this happens, if it happens very often, and how to prevent in the future? On a customer return I refunded through ebay. Every time I've sent a payment request through paypal it's been deducted from my checking account the next day. For an unknown reason this time it went pending for  a few days. The buyer opened up a case 2 days after I sent the refund. I ignored because I thought the ebay representative would see that a refund was already sent. A day later I see that the refund was granted and $69.74 deduction appeared in my paypal account with the other pending $67.80($69.74 less fees). I called ebay at that point on Saturday. After 20 minutes on the phone she passed me over to paypal, who then said I needed to call my bank about the pending. I was busy and forgot to call on Monday. Now both payments have been deducted from my checking account. I call paypal this morning and was told I should contact the buyer. I next called ebay and she said ebay would refund me in 10 days. That's fine. How do I prevent this in the future though? I don't want this to happen again and have to spend 45 minutes on the phone resolving this.The ebay representative said it might have happened because I didn't have any funds in paypal to cover it at the time. Next time I need to refund a buyer should I fund my paypal account to cover the refund?

[ersatz_sobriquet]

I think the answer is to always have the buyer open a case and then refund through the case, through ebay, never directly through paypal. It seems the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. 

[myboardid]

One thing I used to do is leave some money in my Paypal account to cover any returns that may happen.  I leave the  price of an average sale plus 20%. 

[buyselljack2016]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

I think the answer is to always have the buyer open a case and then refund through the case, through ebay, never directly through paypal. It seems the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. 

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Seems more like a case of the right hand, and the left hand are not on the same body.

One hand on eBay

One hand on PP.

As you suggested, maybe the seller should have refunded through eBay from the start.

[timelessattireetc]

To be clear I did refund through the ebay site. It was a paypal credit card transaction so that's why paypal was involved. With all future return requests I will fund my paypal to hopefully prevent this from happening again. 45 minutes is a lot of personal time to lose on a problem that should never happen in the first place.

[buyselljack2016]

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@timelessattireetc wrote:
To be clear I did refund through the ebay site. It was a paypal credit card transaction so that's why paypal was involved. With all future return requests I will fund my paypal to hopefully prevent this from happening again. 45 minutes is a lot of personal time to lose on a problem that should never happen in the first place.

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OK, I misunderstood. Reading the sentence....

Every time I've sent a payment request through paypal it's been deducted from my checking account the next day.

threw my thinking off track.    The "no funds available" in PP was apparently the kicker here.

[timelessattireetc]

No problem. I've been using paypal many years and have a few monthly payments for selling related services paid through paypal. My monthly ebay fees are paid through there as well. I never keep money in my paypal account and payment goes to my bank the next day. Apparently ebay refunds through paypal don't work the same way. Lesson learned.

[earlyant-77]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

I think the answer is to always have the buyer open a case and then refund through the case, through ebay, never directly through paypal. It seems the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. 

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Sometimes I wonder if even the right hand knows what the right hand is doing.

[lincpps]

I only refunded through ebay Spain and not through Paypal, they still two lots of refunds from both Paypal balance and personal bank account. First of all, they said the refund was not taken from the bank account and from paypal balance only.  Now, they've changed their minds and saying they held funds from Paypal balance and took out of bank account, with paypal balance restored after the funds were taken from the bank.  The liars seem to find excuses not to refund and admit mistakes.  They do not record on their systems the number of times they have taken the refunds because they retain the second refund for themselves. DO NOT TRUST EBAY!

[lincpps]

Ebay are crooks, all too happy to charge you twice believing you will not notice and not really reimburse for the cancellation fees.   They put them down as 'credits' but don't actually change the amount charged to your subscription and selling fees.  The amount stays the same as before any cancellations.