Sellers get a defect if they issue refund for small shipping overcharge.

[johnfduda]

This is a horrible way for eBay to encourage crooked, underhanded business practices.

Myself I quit giving a refund of $1.38 in shipping overcharges a couple years ago. But to think that after all this time they still do this. How many sellers have been given a vacation where this kind of a defect was the only defect?. Or, at the least, a refund of thirty nine cents was the tipping point?

[*eponymous*]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

A partial refund issued directly through PayPal without any explanation via eBay Messages may lead to a defect being recorded on eBay. Additional details can be found within the Knowledge Base content referenced within this thread.

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...fvf credit is NOT automatic if s/h is more than 20% of the item price, according to Trinton @Anonymous and that info should, OF COURSE, be included in the "KNOWLEDGE BASE" that sellers are now responsible for knowing, keeping up with, as well as the written policies, the unwritten policies, and the "invisible defects" and seller updates, blog posts, unannounced "changes" to all, etc.

OMGee

[*eponymous*]

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@goodluckselling wrote:

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@johnfduda wrote:

This is a horrible way for eBay to encourage crooked, underhanded business practices.

Myself I quit giving a refund of $1.38 in shipping overcharges a couple years ago. But to think that after all this time they still do this. How many sellers have been given a vacation where this kind of a defect was the only defect?. Or, at the least, a refund of thirty nine cents was the tipping point?

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I have never heard of anyone getting a defect for a partial refund regardless of the amount? 

Good Luck Selling!

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Jsut tagging on to your post, not replying to it, GLS.

Contary to eBay custom during is entire history....and its written poicy during that time...eBAY EVIDENTLY DOES SOMETIMES GIVE FVF CREDIT ON PARTIAL REFUNDS SO SELLERS, BE SURE TO CALL AND ASK for your fvf credit when issuing partial refunds!

[starroute-us]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

A partial refund issued directly through PayPal without any explanation via eBay Messages may lead to a defect being recorded on eBay. Additional details can be found within the Knowledge Base content referenced within this thread.

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Bubbleman is so correct.

This ^^^^^^ is the new deal. Per ebay

So be aware:(:(

[castlemagicmemories]

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@rolenboy01 wrote:

I could have swore trinton just locked a topic by siayan called "From the chat with Griff today" that said there would be defects given if a message is not made about why a partial refund is being issued? then something was said about "invisible defects" and many people laughed it off.

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And you would be right about Trinton locking that thread.  Also about a message needing to be made as to why the partial was issued.

[cumos55]

Buyers love an honest seller!

[deep-garnet-red]

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@cumos55 wrote:

Buyers love an honest seller!

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But eBay doesn't. Go figure.

I went and hunted down Trinton's explanation. The logic is insane. If a buyer complains and opens a case and the seller refunds, there is no defect. If a seller does the buyer a favor and the buyer doesn't register a complaint, eBay assumes there was a problem with the transaction and gives a defect.  In a logical world, if a buyer does not register a complaint there is no problem. The very fact that there are no eBay messages regarding the partial refund essentially proves that the buyer had no problem. Yet eBay has a problem with it, even though they retain that portion of the FVF anyway. In fact, WHY are they monitoring my Paypal? It's none of their business.

[johnfduda]

So what else don't we know about this.

How does a hidden defect affect your known defect/s??

Are hidden DE-Fects of the same value as known defects?

Are there Per-Fects?

Do they cancel each other?

[goodluckselling]

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@deep-garnet-red wrote:

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@cumos55 wrote:

Buyers love an honest seller!

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But eBay doesn't. Go figure.

I went and hunted down Trinton's explanation. The logic is insane. If a buyer complains and opens a case and the seller refunds, there is no defect. If a seller does the buyer a favor and the buyer doesn't register a complaint, eBay assumes there was a problem with the transaction and gives a defect.  In a logical world, if a buyer does not register a complaint there is no problem. The very fact that there are no eBay messages regarding the partial refund essentially proves that the buyer had no problem. Yet eBay has a problem with it, even though they retain that portion of the FVF anyway. In fact, WHY are they monitoring my Paypal? It's none of their business.

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Something that is going to happen in 2018 is that the agreement with paypal when the split happened will sort of expire.  Although eBay is contracted to use Paypal for five years in the agreement in 2018 eBay will also have the ability to explore more payment options along with paypal which might include trying several different payment methods and also creating and building there own processor that works along side the paypal platofrm.

This partial refund policy has connections to that event which should start about July 2018 as that is the 3 year time frame for this part of the agreement.

Good Luck Selling!

[johnfduda]

So when the next putsch comes down the road how does eBay judge your refunds while making the decision to ax unwanted sellers?

For what other silly issues do we get hidden defects?

Do we get a hidden De-fect each time we post here, or only when we raise the ire of some BOT; or a monitor in a far off country?

This is important, at least to me.

[kim_y_buran]

That's why I always go with "free" shipping on 1st class and calculated on everything above 1 lb.

[johnfduda]

I think most of my problems occur because I sell multiples of many of my items. If you sell one of each item it's fairly simple to do calculated, or of course free shipping. But it takes a lot of thinking to learn the rules when you do multiples.

I got into a big problem when a buyer bought 10 of an item to Puerto Rico. Most people will say that shipping has the same rules to ship there. But I know for a fact that the package size limit is different. I sold 10 of an item that was 12x12x6 for each one. But that was one were it was me that lost. Well actually I lost some and PayPal took a big hit for the sale price + the shipping. They refunded the buyer and then made me whole.

I learned also to watch what might happen when a buyer chose Flat Rate Priority as far as the package size. So over the years I learned to make my quantity available control what the buyer did for quantities. Then I had to advise the buyers in my descriptions that I had more than what was shown. And then I had to make sure I didn't make eBay edgy. I think if you occasionally create a listing to meet the buyers request they give you a little room to manuever.

I'd guess that over the years my buyers have made out on shipping charge discrepancies. But I'd still like to refund my buyer when he pays me more than I needed. I mean it's right there on the label from the post office.

[sharingtheland]

I went and hunted down Trinton's explanation. The logic is insane. If a buyer complains and opens a case and the seller refunds, there is no defect. If a seller does the buyer a favor and the buyer doesn't register a complaint, eBay assumes there was a problem with the transaction and gives a defect.  

This was the point I was making repeatedly, and question I was asking repeatedly that never got answered, in that thread.  Buyer complains about a broken widget, rightfully, and gets a partial refund of $50.   Obviously there was communication about that.

Seller issues $2.50 refund for overpayment of shipping because seller has that in her/his TOS, with no communication that ebay can "see."

Guess which seller gets the defect.

[johnfduda]

It was my opinion when I heard this a couple years ago, and quit refunding for shipping, that eBay thought it looked unprofessional to refund a buyer for a $1.38 overcharge.

I can't remember ever having a big overcharge, like maybe $10. I do remember the losses. But for some reason the shipping overcharges are always small. Don't ask me why???

[berserkerplanet]

Refunded a bit over $7 to a buyer that chose zoned Priority (chose poorly) instead of Flat Rate a few days ago, then stumbled across the referenced thread and this one today. Quickly shot off a message to buyer to CMA.

Hopefully the eBay message about a partial shipping refund doesn't need to be sent before the refund (of course, like most everything else around here, the details are missing from the Knowledge Base "documentation").

We'll see if a secret defect is forthcoming. (Or maybe not if it's a secret)

[starroute-us]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:
Refunded a bit over $7 to a buyer that chose zoned Priority (chose poorly) instead of Flat Rate a few days ago, then stumbled across the referenced thread and this one today. Quickly shot off a message to buyer to CMA.

Hopefully the eBay message about a partial shipping refund doesn't need to be sent before the refund (of course, like most everything else around here, the details are missing from the Knowledge Base "documentation").

We'll see if a secret defect is forthcoming. (Or maybe not if it's a secret)

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Ebay will probably call it a "AAA customer service defect" on the next update