Error when trying to refund buyer

[secondlooksales]

Wondering if this is a site-wide glitch or just a one off, I'm trying to refund a buyer for a specific transaction and every-time I click the submit button its giving me a message saying:

There was a problem issuing this refund.

To refund your buyer, please try again later. If you're still having trouble, ask us to step in and help.

Wondering if this is going to go away. I don't want to receive a defect for failing to refund the buyer, and I don't trust Ebay reps to do the refund over the phone without giving a defect.

[reallynicestamps]

Are you refunding through eBay or through Paypal who actually handled the original transaction?

If the former, go to PP and do it there. It will transfer the information, but then go back to eBay and manually enter the same information in the Dispute including the PP transaction number.

If you were doing it through PP, turn off the computer, go for a nice walk around the block and when you come back and start the computer again, it will probably have resolved itself.

[secondlooksales]

Was trying through eBay, thanks for the info, I'll do the refund through PP and have it process on that end. Such an obnoxious bug.

[bkelectronics]

I've had the same issue a few times now. Go to refund and it errors out. Doesn't go away either.

[thevintagesilvershop]

@secondlooksales 

PayPal, in all their wisdom, put in place a new policy that you must have adequate funds in your PP account to cover refunds (including any fees you owe them).  Sellers like me that keep their PP balance swept to -0- and have a bank account linked where refunds would get refunded from have been taken by surprise.  Ebay is NO help with their vague error message.

No need to call Ebay/PP, what you have to do is transfer adequate funds into your PP account or wait til you get a sale which will then fund the refund.

Both companies have done very poor messaging to their customer base about this, PP in particular. 

[danmer.fak8ws0mf]

Thanks for this. This is exactly what I thought was happening. I’m getting pretty sick of this lazy customer service and poor communication from both companies. 

[pink.fish.rule]

Well if they "communicated" this new policy to us they'd perhaps be asked to explain WHY.

[hibmt123]

Well, the issue is that I've transferred adequate funds to my account five days ago, but they haven't cleared yet, and I've reached the deadline to send the refund.

[turquoisetulips]

I've been having the same problem since last night . I tried three times in a row to refund a buyer and I kept getting the same message . I let the buyer know  through the message center that I was trying . I tried two more times this morning and nothing . I only have until tomorrow to get it done  so I hope they fix it.. I'm going to call this morning  after one more attempt .  Btw ,, I can't remove items from my  cart either . The spinner just goes around for about 60 seconds and then nothing gets removed .  Tulips 

[lovemypommy]

I had this issue recently...the info that thevintagesilvershop posted is correct. Refunds are done differently now. The full amount of the refund has to be in your PayPal account. Unfortunately, a bank transfer can take up to 5 business days, so that usually isn't a good option as sellers are required to send a refund within 3 days. 

In another thread where I asked about this very problem, city*satins suggested to have a friend or spouse send the $ to my PayPal account as the money will immediately be there. That is exactly what I did and was able to give the buyer a refund right away. Now I keep some $ in my PayPal so this doesn't happen again.

[turquoisetulips]

Thank you ,, yeah I just spoke to an e bay rep and she told me basically the same thing . Even though  your Pay Pal account and bank account  are linked you still have to have the money in the Pay Pal account to cover the refund . So I just added funds from my bank  into my Pay Pal  account  and then notified the buyer  that their refund will be a bit delayed . I wasn't aware of the change  either .  Live and learn .. Tulips 

[turquoisetulips]

You should call e bay . The rep I spoke to said she would put a note next to my account   about this issue . She said to follow up in 5 days  and ask the defect to be removed  should one occur .  Tulips 

[faithboundllc]

I sent funds from my personal PayPal to my business PayPal account and it was immediate! Got the refund issued within minutes, thanks so much for this info!!

[parts_cpu]

This literally just happened.  I reached out to eBay and explained the scenario, they helped in getting the refund to the buyer, but they will also ding your sellers account.  How does this make any sense to anyone?

[wallshop314]

Yep same thing happened to me. Didn't have funds in PP buyer escalated case. Which dings your account and loses you FVF then Ebay had no problem taking funds from my bank account.