albertabrightalberta | Volunteer Community Mentor
Gator08041971 • Volunteer Community Mentor 2024
One of eBays troubling procedure, perhaps illegal at best is, its refund procedure. A customer bought an item by mistake and happens sometimes. He asked to cancel the order and I did. But eBay completed the cancellation and processed the refund before processing the the payment. Next time, if a buyer request a cancellation, I will have to wait until it is processed and then cancel. But that holds everyone except pinkertons at eBay.
I don't want eBay refunding money out of my pocket for cancellation of a sale that it has yet to be processed.
@empire9876 wrote:To ding sellers for a canceled sale by error is in itself is a penalty by ... mob character.
A seller's account isn't dinged when they cancel a sale because the buyer requested a cancellation.
Where did you get that inaccurate information?
On another note, @empire9876 , be sure to cancel the label you purchased prior to the cancellation. The credit won't show immediately as USPS needs to wait about 15 days to verify that the label wasn't used but it will show in your account as long as it's voided within 28 days of purchase.
That would make sense, and its how it should work. But I have no faith that's how it it will work.
I have had refunds come out of my linked account while having pending sales. But I have never had this, with it on the same item like in this situation.
True, in the end, it all balances out, or it should. Some returns might not refund the .30/.40 cent processing fee though.
@gator08041971 wrote:
There is ZERO risk to the seller that this money would not get cleared.
Yes.
However.
There can be an argument for a scenario where the payment is still pending, and you have none or insufficient previous available funds to cover a return.
In that particular scenario, eBay might hit your linked bank account to cover the upfront return cost ahead of your pending payment for said item. Sure it may balance out a day later, but.
This could in a unique situation put the seller in a quandary , if by happenstance that same bank account also couldn't cover the refund, or the withdraw affected other transactions for that linked account.
So while in common practice for most sellers if they use a weekly deposit schedule and sell items often enough, this won't be a problem, or if they always have a balance available in the linked account to cover a discrepancy, again, no problem. But it can be said that for some instances it could cause an issue.
That's what I would understand from the primary OP post. But that's me.
Payments clear in about 24 hours or less anymore. Sellers that are having their funds held will run into issues as you describe with refunds. And sellers that transfer their money out of their account as soon as it clears.
As far as returns. The funds will have cleared long before that buyer receives the item, then has time to open a claim and get the item returned to the seller. But as I stated above, if a seller is of the habit to move their money out as soon as it clears or daily, then yes they may not have funds in their account to cover a refund.
I think you are making more of something that is actually a problem for most sellers. Of course there is always the exception to the rules. There can be all kinds of "unique situations". That could be endless and would need a whole lot more detail to figure out.
If a seller does not have money in their MP account nor in their Bank account, that is why Ebay requires a back up funding source [credit card].
@empire9876 wrote:Insult? Lacking perfection by no means an excuse to... be reckless. Ebay had nearly 11% market share in 2020, today it is 4.5% which is not good for sellers nor buyers looking for that old made in us tools and machines. Now they everywhere scattered as some are going facebook not a fan of , and others to alt site. Ebay gave one place to go and look for stuff I need, now I have to google (gate that too) to find what I need, ...Ebay is messing up.
I'm not sure any additional information would meet with your needs or approval.
According to data published by Statista, eBay has a market share of 3.5% in the United States based on a list of the top ecommerce retailers in the country. This puts it in fourth place behind these retailers: Amazon – Has a market share of 37.8% in the United States. Walmart – 6.3%.
@yuzuha wrote:I'm genuinely not understanding the issue here. If the buyer's payment has not yet cleared and is still in pending status, then the refund will simply draw from those pending funds and the payment will zero itself out as a result.
No it doesn't. Or at least it use to not unless it is something that has changed recently. @yuzuha
@gator08041971 wrote:
That would make sense, and its how it should work. But I have no faith that's how it it will work.
I have had refunds come out of my linked account while having pending sales. But I have never had this, with it on the same item like in this situation.
True, in the end, it all balances out, or it should. Some returns might not refund the .30/.40 cent processing fee though.
It has never worked that way. But things change fast around here and IDK if it has recently changed.
With that said, pending payments typically clear in 24 hours or so. If the seller refunded using their checking account, they can do a daily deposit and get it transferred to cover the refund in short order. Or they can put it on their credit card and then when they payment clears transfer it to their checking account and make a payment on their credit card if they need to.
This doesn't have to be a disaster but some sure seem like it is.
As to the per transaction fee, that depends on why the refund is happening. If it is due to a cancellation that the buyer requested, then the fee IS refunded.
@yuzuha wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@yuzuha wrote:I'm genuinely not understanding the issue here. If the buyer's payment has not yet cleared and is still in pending status, then the refund will simply draw from those pending funds and the payment will zero itself out as a result.
No it doesn't. Or at least it use to not unless it is something that has changed recently. @yuzuha
I frequently do partial refunds for shipping discounts and it always pulls from my pending funds if I don't have anything in "Available." I have never once had my payment source touched UNLESS I had nothing available in either "Available" OR "Pending."
I will watch more closely the next time I do one. But it use to be it pulled from available funds on refunds. Things change around here without notice all the time, so I'm cautious.
Now I do know that for shipping, the price of that can pull from the pending money, maybe they are now allowing refunds on shipping to also pull from pending funds. It would make sense.
@mam98031 wrote:I will watch more closely the next time I do one. But it use to be it pulled from available funds on refunds. Things change around here without notice all the time, so I'm cautious.
Now I do know that for shipping, the price of that can pull from the pending money, maybe they are now allowing refunds on shipping to also pull from pending funds. It would make sense.
Here's an example from just the other day. I had just turned off Time Away, so I had no available funds at the time-- the buyer purchased in the morning, I shipped later that afternoon and then refunded them the extra, which came out of the pending payment. (Not sure why it says "Available" in the screencap because the payment hadn't cleared yet as the buyer had just made it that morning.)
Your screen shot shows it was deducted from your "available funds $15.63". That is on the right side of your screen shot.
