eBay giving buyer a refund without notifying me (the seller), or updating my item as sold!

[jaimehwkns3]

Ok, so this is a weird story - wanted to see if this happened to anyone else, and if I should take any steps to protect my account.

I received a (legitimate) notice from Paypal that one of my items had sold (an infant snowsuit), and that I had received payment. Strangely, I did not receive an email from eBay stating that my item had sold, and the two emails usually arrive in my inbox concurrently. When I looked up my item on eBay, I was surprised to see that it was still listed for sale.

I contacted Paypal first, and after talking with them at length, the only thing they were able to tell me was that yes, I was paid by the buyer, but yes, a refund had been issued, but not by them, or me (obviously). They indicated that it was eBay that had issued the refund. I thought (and verified with a little bit of research) that a seller had to manually agree to a cancellation, and then issue a refund.

What gives? Has anyone had this happen to them?

[tunicaslot]

That one is odd - but perhaps that buyer was on Ebay's radar for infractions and they decided to ban them while they were in the middle of completing payment for the transaction.

[jaimehwkns3]

She has 100% feedback, though, and over 200 instances of feedback given. Weird, right?

[mg152]

Feedback for buyers Doesn't matter. Maybe shes returned too many items or gotten too many partial refunds or courtesy refunds. Ebay seems to be cracking down on this. There was a similar post recently where the seller got a message from eBay about risky behavior on the buyers account. If indeed they are protecting us sellers that's a good thing.

[tunicaslot]

Buyers can only receive positive feedback - so they all have 100%. The way to tell if a buyer can be a problem is to look at their feedback they've left for sellers. Often if they say something like - refunded in full - made it right with a partial refund - willing to work with you - gives you a clue that they may be the type to buy and complain - open cases ect....

[siayan]

I have seen instances where an account is suspicios and eBay cancels the sale and relists. Usually eBay contacts the seller through the process and it takes a little while.

[jonathankirkland]

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@jaimehwkns3 wrote:

I received a (legitimate) notice from Paypal that one of my items had sold (an infant snowsuit), and that I had received payment. Strangely, I did not receive an email from eBay stating that my item had sold, and the two emails usually arrive in my inbox concurrently. When I looked up my item on eBay, I was surprised to see that it was still listed for sale.

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Just as an FYI, to the part I higlighted in red there, this happens to me ocassionally. Last night an item of mine sold, and I only received the Paypal notification. But in my case, the item did in fact show sold in ebay as well.

I assume it's just another quirky occasional system glitch. (This seemes to be pretty rare, like maybe 1 out of 25-30 trasnactions).

[goddess-bastet-1910 · Accepted solution]

It may be a glitch because someone just posted a similar thing happening to them. The poor lady woke up to a sale, payment, refund. The buyer is angry at the seller, and the seller has no idea what happened.

[mommietreasures]

This happened to me on Feb 27.  Paypal showed item sold, paid and refunded within seconds but ebay showed the item still listed with no activity.  Fishy thing is that it was a FULL refund of all Paypal fees which is not usually the case. They normally keep their flat fee regardless of reason for refund. I am changing the password because this seems very scammy/fishy to me.