I had to pay a seller's fee for an item that didn't sell

[23quixotic23]

A winning bidder for my $4,000 item had to back out.  The reason was reasonable, so I didn't raise a fuss. But then I got invoiced by ebay for the sale. (don't they tracked via paypal whether the sale actually was completed or not?).

So I cancelled the sale, and I fully expect that the non-buyer will corroborate that the sale never happened. Will ebay then reimburse me for the seller's fee?

Thanks in advance.

Evan

[momcqueen]

Whether a winning bidder fails to pay or a buyer decides after-the-fact not to summit payment on a buy-it-now, the seller has two choices: (a) to open an unpaid item case against the buyer or to cancel the transaction. There is a time limit to each, I believe the seller has 32 days to do so.

Ebay does not track whether paypal payment is made since it is not a good indicator of whether an item has been paid; many sellers accept other forms of payment such as merchant credit cards or cash on pickup.

Your seller's fees will be reversed when the Cancel Transaction request is accepted by the buyer. Providing the 32-day mark has not passed. 

[momcqueen]

To elaborate, this is from ebay's Help and Contact pages under 'what to do if a buyer doesn't pay' as part of 'selling problems after a sale'....

Here's what we found for "Buyer didn't pay (unpaid item)"

If a buyer hasn't paid you for an item, you should contact them first to find out if there is an issue. You can send them an email through Messages.

If you can't resolve the issue with the buyer, or if they don't respond, you have three options:

Resend the invoice to the buyer	In your Sold section, find the item you haven’t been paid for and select Send invoice from More actions. If you’d like to review the payment and shipping details before resending, select Preview invoice before sending.
Cancel the order	In your Sold section, find the item you haven’t been paid for and select Cancel order from More actions. Select the reason you want to cancel. After you cancel an order, the buyer has 10 days to respond. If they don’t respond within this period, the case will automatically be closed and the final value fee will be credited to your account.
Open an unpaid item case	You can report non-payment 48 hours after the item has ended, up to a maximum of 32 days. Here’s how:  Go to the Resolution Center. Select I haven’t received my payment and follow the instructions. The buyer is given 4 days to respond to you or pay for the item. On the 5th day, you should close the case in the Resolution Center, where we’ll ask if you’ve been paid. If you haven’t, the buyer will receive a strike, the final value fee will be credited to your account, and you can relist the item.

[23quixotic23]

Thanks for your help.

If I cancel the order in less than 32 days, but the buyer responds (confirming the non-payment) in more than 32 days, will ebay still refund the seller's fee?

[momcqueen]

That I do not know. The buyer has a time period limited to ten days to respond to your Cancel request. If they do not respond at all, as is often the case since many buyers only use mobile devices and you need a desktop website to do it the last time I checked, the case will close on its own. If yours exceeds the 32-day mark after the 10-day Cancel period, you might want to call ebay Customer Service to clarify what might happen. Just to be safe.