What happened to the purported PayPal policy not to refund fees for refunded transactions?

[spoolin01]

I recall when PP sent a policy change notice that appeared to say they'd no longer refund ANY of the paid fees for transactions that were eventually refunded, starting May 7.

I just fully refunded a buyer for the first time since that PP notice, and I got the usual full PP fee refund, less 30c.  This was for an international transaction, if that makes a difference.

The expectation that I wouldn't get the rest of the fee back has affected my mental calculations when discussing possible cancellations with buyers.  Was that policy misinterpreted, or has it been delayed?

[jeannicho22 · Accepted solution]

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@spoolin01 wrote:

I recall when PP sent a policy change notice that appeared to say they'd no longer refund ANY of the paid fees for transactions that were eventually refunded, starting May 7.

I just fully refunded a buyer for the first time since that PP notice, and I got the usual full PP fee refund, less 30c.  This was for an international transaction, if that makes a difference.

The expectation that I wouldn't get the rest of the fee back has affected my mental calculations when discussing possible cancellations with buyers.  Was that policy misinterpreted, or has it been delayed?

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There was such a stir that they decided to "temporarily" delay the change.

[jeannicho22]

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@jeannicho22 wrote:

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@spoolin01 wrote:

I recall when PP sent a policy change notice that appeared to say they'd no longer refund ANY of the paid fees for transactions that were eventually refunded, starting May 7.

I just fully refunded a buyer for the first time since that PP notice, and I got the usual full PP fee refund, less 30c.  This was for an international transaction, if that makes a difference.

The expectation that I wouldn't get the rest of the fee back has affected my mental calculations when discussing possible cancellations with buyers.  Was that policy misinterpreted, or has it been delayed?

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There was such a stir that they decided to "temporarily" delay the change.

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https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/5/1557363617.html

ecommercebytes is always a great source of information.  The "Ra Ras" always say that Ina Steiner (the owner and editor) is too critical of eBay and has her own agenda.  But what else would you expect them to say about someone who continually exposes a lot of eBay (and PayPal's) dirty little secrets.

[spoolin01]

Thanks for the ecommerce tip, I'll definitely start dropping by there. The PP policy was pretty bizarre.

[rograc-37]

First time I've gone to the eCommerce site. Interesting stuff on there.

[tools*]

PayPal management has been hiding out in the woods since mid May, hoping that their money-grab debacle would be quickly forgotten.

[jeannicho22]

@rograc-37 

@spoolin01 

You can subscribe to the website and get regular emails when Ina updates.

[jeannicho22]

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@tools* wrote:

PayPal management has been hiding out in the woods since mid May, hoping that their money-grab debacle would be quickly forgotten.

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I'm not really certain they expected the reaction to the change.  They tried originally to say that they were conforming to the industry "norm", and this simply was not true.  Companies can negotiate rates with their payment processor at the time of signing the contract.  Upon a refund, some processors will refund all but the small processing fee (as PayPal did), some will refund the entire amount if the refund is done before the end of day, some refund none of the fees charged originally to the merchant and some actually charge an additional refund fee.  There is no industry "norm" and this truly was just a money-grab on their part.

[rograc-37]

Thanks @jeannicho22

[jeannicho22]

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@rograc-37 wrote:
Thanks @jeannicho22

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You're very welcome

[bearswatching]

I’ve subscribed to Ina’s blog for years. She may be biased but I have learned a lot!

[rosevelyn]

I called to complain and the Paypal rep I spoke with said many did the same and that he would forward the complaint. He and his wife were also ebay sellers and didn't like it.

What was so bizarre was the fact that they were going to keep the transaction fee which was so random.

[norskmediashop]

Does anyone know the current status of this being were in July? Im getting mixed answers, called paypal again about it and they were hesitant to say either way, it sounded like for now they are refunding the fee, but as of next month they are going to implement the new policy, which had been delayed,,,though they would not state it in those words. 

[ken.bos]

I just got dinged by PayPal from a newby with zero feedback. He paid. I refunded. Paypal kept all the fees. Whatever happened to the law "you can't charge for services not rendered.* I will be glad to join any class action lawsuits about this. EBay required I have PayPal as an option. Co-conspirator.

[earlyant-77]

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@ken.bos wrote:

I just got dinged by PayPal from a newby with zero feedback. He paid. I refunded. Paypal kept all the fees. Whatever happened to the law "you can't charge for services not rendered.* I will be glad to join any class action lawsuits about this. EBay required I have PayPal as an option. Co-conspirator.

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Services WERE rendered. Why did you choose to refund?

To another point, guaranteed that since Adyen won't be refunding any fees if another payment processor(like PP) won't refund them, that's why PP held off doing that. You know that they won't be refunding the fees to Adyen, so any ebay refunds that were paid via paypal will not be refunded.

You can bet that was in their agreement from the start.