eBay team, some help with this unusual return/refund issue please?

[gurlcat]

kyle@ebay 

Some of us have encountered (in other threads) an issue that we can't find any info about in eBay policy pages.  Here's my recent example:

Friday I refunded a buyer for their INAD return.  I did not deduct any percent of their item price but I did leave the original shipping option at its' default setting of 'off' (as in, don't refund it).   Ordinarily that option does not even appear for INAD refunds; original shipping is automatically included in the expected refund.  But it seems to be an option that occurs when the seller had reported the buyer for something prior to this point.  -In my case I had reported the buyer when they requested a partial refund, as per eBay abusive buyer policy.  


This is not my screenshot, but just to show how it looks.  



After completing this refund, I observed that eBay did not credit back my seller fees, even though I did not withhold any portion of the item price.  It seems to be only because I did not slide the original shipping option over to 'on'.  In other words, I INADVERTENTLY withheld the $7.25 in original shipping at the cost of losing my $33 in fee credit.   

The policy pages don't make this unique situation clear at all.  -Is reporting the buyer indeed what causes the original shipping an optional part of the refund?  If the default is to NOT refund that, why does leaving it that way forfeit the fee credits?  Why are neither of these stated in policy? 

@wastingtime101 

[robbie31415]

For me it makes no difference as it can't hurt me because I'm a free shipping seller and the original shipping with always show up as $0.00.

However, I feel there should be some more warnings.

A simple warning when what you are deducting is less than say 15% of the order total.

Or does eBay try and be silent about this because then sellers might inflate what they are trying to deduct.

But basically when you do deductions you want it above 15% or you will end up paying more.

[gurlcat]

I mean they COULD do like when you issue a voluntary partial refund without return, and just give you back fee credits in proportion to how much you refunded.  -Crazy idea, I know. 

[gurlcat]

Okay I guess technically 2020-now was "years" but I don't think of it that way, for reasons I can't explain.  The pandemic messed with my sense of time so bad I don't know if I'll ever go back to normal.  🤣

[wastingtime101]

Since you brought up the concept of time, do you ever notice when a movie hits a certain anniversary from its release and think, "There's no way that movie is that old! Man, I'm getting really old." I thought about this as recently as last week when I pulled up Independence Day on streaming and saw the release date: 1996, which means it was released 28 years ago. 🤦

And now, back to your regularly scheduled (SNAD/shipping/refunds/fees) programming ...

[robbie31415]

For your situation specifically,

I will be honest and say regardless of the fees you should NOT have withheld the original shipping.

Your withholding did not comply with eBay's policies to withhold and you got punished for it.

It's industry standard to refund buyers in whole when they file INAD regardless if it's correct or not.

eBay system is probably designed to get people NOT to use the seller protection, so the transaction will end up being processed as to industry standard.

I simply only deduct when there is a significant difference (ie returned something completely different) for higher value items.

However, this doesn't mean I don't believe there needs to be more clarity in regards to these penalties. eBay's policies should be clear, and hanging everything on a word like 'fully' without clarifying in my opinion is inappropriate.

[wastingtime101]

---

@robbie31415 wrote:

I simply only deduct when there is a significant difference (ie returned something completely different) for higher value items.

---

Same here. Unless the damage, alteration, etc is significant I usually refund in full. But I will block the buyer for  damaging the product.

Situations where I've withheld are typically along the lines of:

Buyer filed claim on 4 items, returned only 1 item.

Buyer completely broke item and it's now trash.

Buyer returned something different.

etc.

[gurlcat]

I don't know if you're into hip hop at all -I'm not particularly, I like a little bit of  it and am familiar with the biggest names.  So, I recently heard someone refer to Tupac as "old school rap"  and I thought "Huhh???"  Tupac was NOT old school; Run DMC -now they were old school!   Then I realized .... Run DMC was big in the early/mid 80's .... Tupac early/mid 90's. 
So it has been three times as long since Tupac as there was between Run DMC and Tupac.  

[robbie31415]

I get quite of few issues with my drone sales.

Someone crashed it, returned it completely destroyed, Easy 50% deduction.

Another drone, someone returned a coffee cup. Easy 50% deduction.

Pretty much the only time I do deductions is when it's going to be a 50%.

IDK if this puts me on eBay's radar, but I'd hope they'd understand that the reason It's either no deduction or full 50% deduction is because I only issue it when it's significant, otherwise I just eat it, and sell open box or used, determined by the condition.

[robbie31415]

Eminem is considered 'old skool' to Gen Z/Alpha.