What happened?

[anti-quark]

Unbelievable.

I just got off the phone with eBay for the third time. A buyer wanted to return an item on 4/23 because “it doesn’t fit.” On 4/27 their return system (mistakenly) said it had been returned, and to issue the buyer a full refund, which is a problem as I have a restocking fee.

The return hadn’t arrived by 4/28 and I couldn’t find the tracking number on eBay’s system anywhere. So I called eBay, and they confirmed that their system had a glitch and the return was in fact still on the way back to me. I also expressed concern that their system showed the buyer was owed the full amount for the return, rather than subtracting my restocking fee. The eBay rep opened a case to give the return more time to reach me.

The return arrived on 5/1, but the system was still indicating that the buyer should receive a full refund. So I called eBay again. The rep said I should do the refund (minus restocking fee) via Paypal friends & family. But every time I tried, Paypal tried to charge me a $2.99 fee for using my paypal balance or bank account. I talked to Paypal, and they said it was because it was a large amount? It was a little over $150. So I declined to make the refund at that time because I had to go to work. 

I tried to refund the buyer via eBay again that evening when I got home from work. But eBay’s system was still showing that I should give the buyer a full refund. When I clicked on the case status, it now says the reason it was being returned is because it doesn’t match the listing description?! The buyer wrote me twice to say that the item didn’t work for her. 

So I called eBay for the third time. The rep said I had to pay the paypal fee and there was no way for eBay to reimburse me for it. They also said that the buyer had changed the reason for the return, so they could have forced me to refund the full amount. The rep also said that if it happens again, they will not help me. 

After I refunded the buyer and paid the paypal fee, I clicked on the case details. EBay's system now shows the case as resolved, but chides me for not contacting the buyer before escalating the case!

How is this fair? I’m grateful that I didn’t have to refund the full amount, but it would never have been an issue if eBay’s system hadn’t mistakenly marked the return as being delivered. And how was the buyer able to change the reason for the return?

[missjen831]

Wow....just wow.....When the seller refunds using “friends and family” there is NO connection to the original transaction so the buyer can still dispute the original transaction. How can you be so sure that PayPal will see the 2nd transaction ID and not issue a refund? How is PayPal to know why seller sent that payment? And how can the seller be sure eBay customer service is going to accept the transaction ID for the friends and family payment? 

Ebay has absolutely no business telling the seller to refund this way. This is just as awful as telling the seller to go ahead and ship to another address at the buyers request & assure them are totally safe and have seller protection without mentioning that PayPal is another story. Wow. 

@Anonymous How are we to believe this when this seller https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-caused-me-to-double-refund-and-refused-to-fix-the-issue/m-p/28451056#M1201276 did exactly this—refunded through F&F and then eBay refunded the buyer out of his account again?

[missjen831]

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@readabouthorses wrote:

@Anonymous

Why would the Ebay CS people even mention using friends and family? I'm thinking someone at Ebay needs to get to the bottom of this because refunding money from a sale like this using friends and family is probably against PayPal policy. I actually know someone who tried to use PayPal Friends and Family to sell stuff and they canceled her PayPal account for doing it.

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It’s not against PP policyholders to friends and family to issue a refund. PP policy actually direct the seller to refund this way when the original transaction is too old to be refunded https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/admin/refunds/

the person you know got got in trouble because they were using it to sell. 

[Anonymous]

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@missjen831 wrote:

Wow....just wow.....When the seller refunds using “friends and family” there is NO connection to the original transaction so the buyer can still dispute the original transaction. How can you be so sure that PayPal will see the 2nd transaction ID and not issue a refund? How is PayPal to know why seller sent that payment? And how can the seller be sure eBay customer service is going to accept the transaction ID for the friends and family payment? 

Ebay has absolutely no business telling the seller to refund this way. This is just as awful as telling the seller to go ahead and ship to another address at the buyers request & assure them are totally safe and have seller protection without mentioning that PayPal is another story. Wow. 

@Anonymous How are we to believe this when this seller https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-caused-me-to-double-refund-and-refused-to-fix-the-issue/m-p/28451056#M1201276 did exactly this—refunded through F&F and then eBay refunded the buyer out of his account again?

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Hi @missjen831, just like with the eBay Money Back Guarantee, there is a time period between a dispute being opened and the time in which PayPal can be asked to make a decision. The seller would just have to contact them at that time and discuss the transaction. As for eBay accepting the transaction ID, this is our standard process - if the seller has refunded outside of the transaction, we just need a transaction ID to confirm this. This would not be an unusual or confusing situation for a Customer Service agent; the seller would simply provide the transaction ID, and we can easily check the payment amount and the sender/receiver of the payment to confirm it sufficiently addresses the buyer's concerns.

Lastly, while I am unable to discuss the details of another member's claim, I can confirm that if we receive the PayPal Transaction ID as we request in the timeframe provided, then we will have no problem closing the case with no harm to the seller's account and no additional refund being needed. If you see a situation where this did not occur, definitely let us know and we will look into it for appropriate next steps.