Returns not being closed at all anymore?

[partlogics]

I have a customer who purchased an item, and opened up a return request on April 3. Customer stated he received the wrong item (which is impossible but I don't want to take away from the main focus of my post). Due to COVID-19, customers have now been given a month to return an item, which is... fine but now that it's been over a month and their last date to return the item was May 4th, I emailed eBay on the 5th to close the return request, and the rep who replied declined to close it. Why? The customer's last day to get a positive scan on the return shipment was the 4th of May. I feel that was a promise eBay made to me; aka "Don't worry, if the customer doesn't start shipping your item back by the 4th, we will close it and release the funds we have on hold. We'll give them a MONTH to give them time, but after that the funds will be released".

Was this just a rep who did not look at the dates close enough, or is eBay not closing return requests AT ALL these days, with an unlimited amount of time to return an item?

[taylors996]

Refunds ??? Forever Open.... Even after you get the Item Back and refund the money  Ebay still wants me to refund the money and the return is still open...

[partlogics]

That sounds like a partial refund or you might have refunded directly via Paypal which sometimes causes that error, but it is easily resolved by sending eBay CS a screenshot of your Paypal refund transaction.

[pjcdn2005]

They don't close it upon request, it is supposed to automatically close on its own once the time is up. Perhaps they are giving it a couple more days just because they can.

sarcasm emoji

[gwgw-73]

"Abandoned" returns are being allowed to close on their own now, in about 5 business days after the 21 business days the buyer is given to get the first scan.

eBay will no longer close a return "early" as before, even if a seller asks, as before. This is in the new, published policy for "abandoned" returns.

[partlogics]

Okay, I appreciate your reply and am trying to understand the timeline here. So the customer opened the return request on the 3rd of April. 21 business days is basically 30 calendar days, so April 4th (I think) is the end of the 21 business day time period. So based upon what you're saying, after about 5 more business days I can expect this return to auto-close? Thank you for your help. And where is this new published policy? I admit I do not read the seller updates (and I should, to avoid these surprises).