Is a Full Refund by PayPal Considered Complete Through EBay System?

[wicks-n-suds]

Hi,

I’m new to selling and had a customer last Friday wishing to purchase 11 items from me. She did not follow my instructions when I was going to offer free shipping for all these items.

Instead she paid for all items separately and for some reason was charged for shipping each item separately. Then she wondered why her transaction was over $500. It will take 3-5 business days to get back into her bank account and is supposed to order again. This is my first time dealing with this.

I issued a full refund by PayPal minutes later. So here is my issue and I seem to get conflicting information when I searched online and due to my lack of experience dealing with this issue.

1. When I issue a full refund on PayPal, a case is opened and is the dispute considered complete once the buyer is given their full refund? Do I need to do anything else once I issued that full refund by PayPal?

2. I tried to cancel the order through EBay seller hub after the fact but it won’t let me because there is an open PayPal case. Should I have cancelled it this way first? Or is it one way or the other?

3. I have 11 items in my eBay app that says it’s waiting to ship and how do I get rid of these items in my sold section? It won’t let me cancel them there because of the open case with PayPal. Will these eventually disappear once it is considered complete with PayPal?

4. Are there any negative ramifications through the eBay system if it says items aren’t shipped even though refund is given through PayPal?

Buyer and I have a good rapport so there are no issues on that end. She simply made a mistake. This is my first experience with a refund.

Thank you

[esclyons]

obviously, you should have either cancelled the order through ebay first, using problem with buyer's address, then you would have gotten all your fees back,

Or you could have given the buyer a partial refund on the shipping over payment.

Now you will have to call Customer service and explain what you did, and hopefully they will refund your selling fees..

[wicks-n-suds]

Thank you for the info, that’s where I was confused because I read that there were different ways to cancel an order and they said the easiest way was through PayPal. There is where I find the information conflicting. Should I have cancelled it through eBay and then went over to PayPal?

Buyer was all stressed out after seeing the dollar amount and in hindsight should have taken a few more minutes to figure out the amounts for a partial refund. Instinctively I just refunded her completely without realizing about PayPal and EBay fees still being taken with a full refund.

I will have to give them a call to sort this out. Next time I will know what to do.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @wicks-n-suds - insight into your questions:

1. You shouldn't have to open a dispute in order to issue a refund through PayPal, but that's the second time I've heard of it happening in as many days. My PayPal how-tos are woefully out of date since the separation, so maybe their processes have changed?

However, once the dispute settles you should be able to submit an eBay cancellation through the Hub. It will state that a refund will be issued but it will not double-issue a transaction*. That will take care of your fees.

2.  Ideally, yes. Submitting a cancellation through eBay first would actually automate both the refund to the buyer as well as your eBay fee credits. In the future, submitting on eBay means you only need to do it on one site to address both issues. 🙂

3. Once the PayPal dispute is resolved you should be able to submit the cancellation through eBay which would remove them from your 'pending shipment' section. Make sure to use 'Buyer requested or trouble with buyer's address' as the reason. If you need them out of your hair in the mean time you could manually 'archive' them to get them out of that section in Seller Hub.

4. Yes and no - short term there may be an impact on your seller performance while this is in process. However, those should be removed when an eBay cancellation is processed.

Glad to hear that the buyer is amicable and working with you!

[wicks-n-suds]

Thank you so much Tyler for answering all of my questions!

[wicks-n-suds]

I figured out the problem behind this situation. My customer is American and I was offering her free shipping. I can’t do free shipping to the USA. This explains why the dollar amount was so high.

One of my Canadian customers bought multiple items from me last week where I offered free shipping and that went smoothly. I work my shipping costs into the price of the items which they were aware of. This is a definitely a learning curve for me that I will get to know over time.

Thanks everyone for their help and replies and also to the one ebay seller who messaged me privately. Your kindness and helpfulness is very much appreciated!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay 

Unfortunately refunding a transaction causes some sort of PayPal case to be opened. It doesn't show anywhere inside eBay other than when/if you tried to outright cancel the transaction..Either using customer address or customer changed mind. Then you would have the option to relist if it does not relist automatically. It also won't let the buyer try to cancel that transaction for the same reasons. As you noted, the correct procedure would be to cancel the transaction. Then you could relist or make a custom listing for the customer and advise customer to re-purchase and wait for a revised invoice if required. My transaction from the weekend that I refunded is included in my Print Labels and ship number but when you click on that link that particular sale does not display.

-Lotz