eBay

tiramisu41 · ‎07-30-2018

Had a buyer purchase two pieces of some vintage china. Both could be packed in one box so did so to save the buyer a bit on postage. Went to PayPal to send her a refund for the difference and get an error message: "This recipient accepts PayPal payments only through their website." Huh? Never ran into that before especially for what looks like a normal/personal hotmail email address.

Checked the sales record for the transaction and the buyer appears to be an individual with the address tracking to a residential address. However, phone number in the record is odd -- a 150 area code which doesn't exist. Also noticed that the eBay account was created the day of the purchase and looks like a Guest Account as the ID is all scrambled numbers and letters.

It seems odd a scammer would be dinking around buying something like a teacup/saucer and sugar bowl lid that all total cost them about $25 plus postage but the odd error message, phone number and new account issues sort of bother me.

Anyone else run into something like this? Any guesses as to what is going on? Order is all packed/label purchased and affixed but I just have an uneasy feeling about this. Suggestions/advice?

tiramisu41 · ‎07-30-2018

@theposhmermaids wrote:
If they were guest purchases, I was told by a rep in the US that they had to be shipped separately. Take this with a grain of salt since it was info from ebay

Thanks @theposhmermaids. I think the rep who told you that was incorrect. From the looks of the transaction, the buyer put both items in her cart and purchased them in one fell swoop. Consequently, the "transaction" shows up in eBay as a single purchase, made up of the two items. eBay didn't, however, calculate the combined shipping cost properly resulting in the buyer paying about double what she should have which is why I was trying to be "a nice guy" and refund her the overage.

sam9876 · ‎07-30-2018

You should always use the Refund link.

theposhmermaids · ‎07-30-2018

@tiramisu41 wrote:
@theposhmermaids wrote:
If they were guest purchases, I was told by a rep in the US that they had to be shipped separately. Take this with a grain of salt since it was info from ebay
Thanks @theposhmermaids. I think the rep who told you that was incorrect. From the looks of the transaction, the buyer put both items in her cart and purchased them in one fell swoop. Consequently, the "transaction" shows up in eBay as a single purchase, made up of the two items. eBay didn't, however, calculate the combined shipping cost properly resulting in the buyer paying about double what she should have which is why I was trying to be "a nice guy" and refund her the overage.

That's why I always come here for answers. Much more reliable than ebay reps!

And why do they make it so hard to give excellent customer service? The last time I had difficulty trying to do something extra for my buyer, the ebay rep was puzzled as to why I would do it since it wasn't necessary? At least the majority of Community Posters celebrate excellent customer service! Hope you figure this one out!

tiramisu41 · ‎07-30-2018

@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:
@theposhmermaids wrote:
If they were guest purchases, I was told by a rep in the US that they had to be shipped separately. Take this with a grain of salt since it was info from ebay
Only if it's a guest account who hasn't figured out the add to cart to buy multiple purchases.

Usually buyers with guest accounts pay for each item separately so they have the same name & mailing address but a different ID each time. That's why it won't let you combine them.

@myjunqueyourtreasure, in this instance the "Guest" added both items to her shipping cart as the transaction came through as one purchase containing both items. I don't have to do any "combining" of the orders; they're on one invoice. However, since the two items can easily be shipped together, the cost to do so to the buyer is about 50% less than the amount eBay charged her. As I noted above, I was just trying to do what I thought was the right/proper thing by refunding her the overage since the two items could be combined for shipping which is what started me digging into the transaction and her account further which uncovered some anomalies which made me question the legitimacy of the order.

tiramisu41 · ‎07-30-2018

@thatsallfolks wrote:
@tiramisu41 wrote:
@thatsallfolks wrote:
@tiramisu41 wrote:
@thatsallfolks wrote:
@tiramisu41 wrote:
Had a buyer purchase two pieces of some vintage china. Both could be packed in one box so did so to save the buyer a bit on postage. Went to PayPal to send her a refund for the difference and get an error message: "This recipient accepts PayPal payments only through their website."
That happens when you click the "Refund" link in the transaction details? You're not making a payment.
No, that happened when I tried to "Send Money" to the buyer via PayPal.com. Usually, you only get this type of message if the recipient is a business and/or has a business PayPal account however, buyer's email address was not associated with a business domain name and appears to be just a run-of-the-mill personal hotmail address which is why this transaction seemed unusual.
There's the problem. You should refund using the "Refund" link, not "send money". PayPal even contributes to the refund by returning their fee on that part the payment.
Sorry, but that's not the problem. I have always done it this way, and in fact just sent someone a similar small refund for a postage overage last week and had no issues whatsoever. The problem seems to be with this particular person's email address which I was told by PayPal is because of the way they have their acccount settings set up which is to refuse any incoming funds.
Great, you've always done it by using "Send money". Well, this time, you'll have to use the "Refund" option. The only problem here is that you're not willing to use a procedure that will work in order to give back the money.

And I have no idea why you wouldn't want PayPal to contribute their part of the refund.

My gosh. Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or are you just always this rude and snarky for no legitimate reason?

FYI, I tried the "refund" route as well, and as I suspected, the refund is just sitting there with a status of "pending" because the email address registered with PP is set up NOT to accept incoming funds. And PayPal's portion? It was 28 cents. Nothing I would have lost sleep over, but to each his/her own.

ersatz_sobriquet · ‎07-30-2018

HI Livadia,

You're too kind and working too hard. They aren't even ebay members. Just pocket the extra and onto the next sale...if the buyer didn't like the total price they would have backed out.