Unable to issue a refund because fund on hold

[soundman87]

I am unable to issue a refund on a return.

When I try and do the refund I get the following error:  "There was a problem issuing this refund.  To refund your buyer, please try again later. If you're still having trouble, ask us to step in and help."

I called eBay and they told me it is because I do not have enough funds in PayPal.  This is true because eBay put a hold on that money from this sale and told me that I need to add funds in to PayPal.  Why?  That makes no sense?

Here is the progression of this sales:

1. PayPal account had a $0 balance

2. I sold an item for $24 + 7.70 shipping

3. Shipped the item through eBay so my PayPal balance is $24.  (I never withdrew the money from PayPal)

4. Purchaser decided they no longer wants the item (nothing wrong with it)

5. eBay automatically approved a return and put a hold on the $24 (leaving PayPal with a $0 balance)

6. I received the item back still factory sealed

7. I got to issue the refund and I get an error saying "There was a problem issuing this refund."

8. I called eBay and they told me it is because I have insufficient funds in PayPal.  Even though the money from this sale is on hold by eBay.  They told me I have to add fund to PayPal to issue the refund so that the hold can be lifted.

So, I added funds into PayPal. This will take 3-5 days which will put me past the refund by date.

What am I suppose to do?

[beckster308]

---

This is what I did:  I keep a zero balance because this is my first refund in 15 years and I don't sell very much any more.  When I tried to transfer money to my Paypal balance from my checking account, it said it would take 3-5 days, but my refund was due tomorrow.  So, I had my husband send me money to my Paypal account and it was immediately available, and I was able to send my refund on time.  Then I just pay him back.  

Seems pretty **bleep** that my own money isn't available for 3-5 days but literally anyone can send me money from their account and it be available immediately.  But it did work and it may help you, too.  

[twintosser]

Thank You! Have spent hours in this forum looking for someone with the exact same problem that I started having 2 days ago. Been an Ebay seller since late 90's and this has never happened to me before.

Zero balance in Paypal (before the Ebay High Horse committee want to critique me about this - don't it is neither helpful nor needed) won't let me issue a refund to the buyer, normally it would just pull it from the linked bank account like always.

What's changed? Now I have to add money from my bank to Paypal which takes about 5 days, that's another week the buyer has to wait and yet I just saw that Ebay was able to pull a shipping fee from the very same zero balance Paypal account mentioned above, that will then remove fees (same day) from my bank account. 

Whats going on?

[twintosser]

Going through this now - Paypal claims it was Ebay who did it.

[playlude_92]

I have had to processed 2 refunds this week 😫. Fortunately, everything to be processing like it did before Christmas. Hopefully it has been resolved 

[miwas-72]

It doesn't make sense to put money in paypal for refunds when ebay never released the money at all to paypal because buyer opened case as soon as they got the item when nothing was even wrong in the first place but anyways. When the funds are on hold and never released why should u have to put the money from your bank onto paypal then issue a refund when you never received in the first place????  Im so frustrated with it all. Makes no sense!!!!

[miwas-72]

Exactly!!!!!

[jdiamonds]

I have similar issue to yours.  I bet your using a smartphone to do your selling and refunding.  It is actually a glitch in ebays app. that they are perfectly aware of.  I started selling on ebay for fun and to see if I could make any money.  What i did not know, was using a smart phone and a laptop computer where totally different worlds, and the smartphone service for ebay is safe for buying, but a huge game of Russian roulette.  I sold a few items in the first few months only ever using my smart phone as the tool to do everything. Long story short, I got some requests for returns.  First surprise was the no returns policy.  Well that's completely useless I realized.  They can return anything anytime basically,  as long as there within a certain time criteria.  Second , and most valuable, or most expensive lesson i learned was.  The smart phone app has many glitches.  One of them being it wont process refunds. They told you you had to add money which is **bleep**, cause it would have released the funds they they snatched from the account and held, which you never had to begin with.  Total scam.  paypal fees ebay fees and you all along unaware and assuming this Big Brother known as ebay wouldn't ever swindle a poor unassuming fella trying to make a couple dollars.  Well, i learned after 3 returns that went exactly like yours.  Funds retracted by ebay, and every time i would attempt to release this money that i never had to begin with, i would receive the same error message..  Stupid me.  seeing as this is not my job.  Just an attempt to see if i could help myself make enough money to keep up with every day bills, and i was working my butt off in the real world 60hrs a week on the job and 25hrs a week in a commute, i took for granted that this was normal, and everything was supposed to work this way.  Maybe it was just ebays way of protecting me as a seller and I had a grace period before refunding.  Wrong and more wrong. Now, after i have sold 5-6k worth of items on buy it now and auction listings. Mostly taking a loss before even the first fee was taken by ebay and paypal.  trying to build a trustworthy reputation for a selling future.  I now realize I have been charged for every item 5% more for below standard defects on those items that were refunded.  It was a total Knife in the back, rug out from under me feeling.  Why would they do this.  I mean, it was there app that didn't work, i thought.  And being that it was the only avenue of experience i had selling through.  How could i know that it wasn't working as it should, and i needed to do it on another device?  So after calling and pleading my case.  I was met with , a very hard to hear, and very hard to understand ebay operator who, in a scripted, obviously reading from a prompted answer.  She would not be removing any of the defects, or refunding any of the 5% charges on my %fee , tax, or shipping.  Hmmmm... what in the world is going on here.  She told me that they had fixed the problem  with the ebay app or glitch, if you will, and i hadn't  tried hard enough to resolve it the problem , and this was there way of shaping us into better sellers. No kiddin, hmmm well thank you very much for the life lesson. YES, I knew already life wasn't fair and there are people looking to swindle you all the time,  but i truly thought this established selling hub would have been policed a bit more than that.  Meh, just more hard earned money someone else is getting for nothing.  Nothing new. So, after Giving away items at a loss over and over and doing my best to tow the line and build a honest reputable online store.  Paying already ridiculous fees trying to establish my roots,   I'm being punished for it.  What i should have done is look online to see how many ways I can be cheated as a seller on ebay before I started this journey, and check out the other selling platforms and options.   It is what it is.    

[jdiamonds]

Thank you so much for saying this.  This is absolutely true and I have been paying dearly for Ebays glitches.  They won't remove my defects from this problem nor refund the money its cost me from there app not working correctly.. What lesson was i supposed to learn here?  I have a standard to uphold but EBay does not?

[jdiamonds]

dont forget youll get a defect for not issuing a refund, which will cost you more for below standard seller rating and you wont get your selling fee back because you did not issue the refund yourself, ebay did.. I know..its criminal, but i have been robbed thousands and i guess theres nothing i can do about it.

[jdiamonds]

That's right, and exactly what happened to me.  I have been taken advantage of and have had money stolen right out of my bank unknowingly.  I tried to hash this and and plead my case with them on the phone, but just get met with a scripted, very difficult to understand lecture on becoming a better seller..  I am a good seller.  I do what i hope another sellers would do if i buy something.. I have high standards and expectations.  Ebay is playing  a dangerous game with this in my opinion and are gonna get hit with a lawsuit when enough people decide enough is enough.  I already pay through the nose with there fees and charges.  There's hardly anything if nothing left on the bone already.  Now they want the marrow.  Just Be Fair Ebay!  And this new selling platform is a calculated way of confusing the **bleep** out of anyone who doesn't have days of time to understand what in the be-jesus is going on.  Crooks 

[jdiamonds]

Wrong, it's not that simple, but i agree it should be.

[murp-jona]

Same issue.. and now my ebay account is trashed with defects and bad feedback. Never had this issue before... I've got three banks and about a dozen cards connected to PP so there is no reason they couldn't process the return. Instead I have had to manually move money which taked too long and now eBay has forced the return, threatened me with suspension, and most likely pocketed the $100+ is FVF for the item... I'm going to call and beg for a fees refund once the balance get's right again.. .which at this rate looks like it will take weeks. I can't begin to express how frustrated I am with this. I literally feel like I've been mugged, and really really don't look forward to calling in to ebay to have policy quoted to me.. .and I won't even start on Paypal holding fees... 

I've been struggling for years to justify continuing on as a seller here... it's seems like they just go out of their way to push us away.

[murp-jona]

Yep.. just made the call. I've removed all of my listings, am closing Paypal right now and will close ebay as soon as they "allow" me to do so. I've had enough. Been over 20 years with one account or another! It's ruined beyond repair now... looking into other sites today.

[rebean555]

Hi, can I ask you how you got your husband to send money to your PayPal account? I'm waiting for funds to transfer now 3-5 days) & hate that I'm making the buyer wait for their refund. Not good business at all. This is a first for me. 

[jennifeepto-0]

Hi guys I'm going to have to refund a 300 euros for a laptop that I'm waiting in the mail, there is no way I can put that much money on PayPal as I was expecting to just be able to refund the funds on hold, but your messages are making me worry now... Do you think if I put just 5 euros on the pp balance to cover any other fee that will be OK? Do you advise me to click the refund button on a laptop only and not my phone?