eBay

fergua3 · ‎06-09-2025

i want to refund a buyer $2 USD in shipping cost but his payment hasn't cleared yet and i have zero in my MP account.

Will ebay debit my bank account for such a small amount or will they wait until the buyer's payment clears (after midnight tomorrow) and take the $2 from it?

Trivial question but the bank account i have linked to Managed Payments is empty and i don't want the bother of depositing a few dollars. If i wait to refund the buyer until his payment clears i'm afraid i'll forget to refund him.

This situation is one of the things about MP that really needs improving....

intimewithmusic · ‎06-09-2025

Hi @fergua3

First off I love your store! Lot's of aircraft history in my background. Now the tough love. Youi need to maintain a balance in your MP account that will cover anything, even a very large refund. A $2 refund needn't cause you stress. If you want to run extra lean then have a 2nd payment method on your account such as a credit card.

If you haven't solved this by the time you read this instead of sending a refund you could msg (or phone) your customer. You have the phone number on the order and eBay is fine with sellers using it after a sale. You could send him/her something of greater value at no charge incl shipping. Who doesn't want a free hat or t shirt?

Just sstisfy your customer this time and keep your MP account topped up for next time!

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎06-09-2025

@intimewithmusic wrote:
Hi @fergua3
First off I love your store! Lot's of aircraft history in my background. Now the tough love. Youi need to maintain a balance in your MP account that will cover anything, even a very large refund. A $2 refund needn't cause you stress. If you want to run extra lean then have a 2nd payment method on your account such as a credit card.

If you haven't solved this by the time you read this instead of sending a refund you could msg (or phone) your customer. You have the phone number on the order and eBay is fine with sellers using it after a sale. You could send him/her something of greater value at no charge incl shipping. Who doesn't want a free hat or t shirt?

Just sstisfy your customer this time and keep your MP account topped up for next time!

If you have weekly payouts, how do you stop your account from running lean if there's no sales around the time of payout?

On this account I sometimes get to zero when the weekly payout happens (and it might take a few days to get another sale, eBay often bills my Visa for the store fee because it occurs after my payout happened and account was emptied).

On the other account i often have sales occuring on Monday which are not included in the Tuesday payout, so not a problem there. I would say if your account runs lean or not will depend on how much volume you do and if you can manage to make sales every day to keep the account topped up.

One could go on monthly payouts (to empty the account less frequently) and then request funds in between when there are lots of sales and you want a payout in the interim.

C.

recped · ‎06-09-2025

If this is the sale you made today just wait until Wednesday morning after the payment is processed.

Personally I've have gone into the negative (shipping refunds) a small amount while other funds are processing, usually eBay just waits. There have been a few where they have debited my bank account but I don't recall the circumstances. There is always at least a small amount of money in the bank account I use for eBay so not an issue either way.

"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

intimewithmusic · ‎06-10-2025

@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:
@intimewithmusic wrote:
Hi @fergua3
First off I love your store! Lot's of aircraft history in my background. Now the tough love. Youi need to maintain a balance in your MP account that will cover anything, even a very large refund. A $2 refund needn't cause you stress. If you want to run extra lean then have a 2nd payment method on your account such as a credit card.

If you haven't solved this by the time you read this instead of sending a refund you could msg (or phone) your customer. You have the phone number on the order and eBay is fine with sellers using it after a sale. You could send him/her something of greater value at no charge incl shipping. Who doesn't want a free hat or t shirt?

Just sstisfy your customer this time and keep your MP account topped up for next time!

"If you have weekly payouts, how do you stop your account from running lean if there's no sales around the time of payout?"

HI.
I think you're talking about your "Adyen account" and not your MP bank account. My payouts go into a bank account that eBay has full access to take withdrawals. eBay will take fees from Adyen 1st and then the bank if no sales have been made. To answer @fergua3 I don't think there's any minimum amount. In your seller settings make your bank account your 1st pool for eBay to draw from. (Seller and not "Buying settings)

I'm pretty sure you can also set your credit card or possibly PayPal as a 2nd draw source for eBay although I don't recommend that. Best to have just one account for income & expenses.

How would you handle consignment payouts & other expenses if you drain your biz account every Tuesday? Those who do consignments typically with hold the consignor payout until delivery and buyer satisfaction has been acheived.

intimewithmusic · ‎06-10-2025

Re small refunds:

As far as domestic shipping refunds go you shouldn't have them if you use calculated tracked shipping. For domestic Exp Lite and Trk Pkt USA the shipping charged is the shipping paid. I do run into occasional refunds for combined orders sent via Trk Pkt Int though.

byto253 · ‎06-10-2025

Yes, they will go directly to the bank account. I have had a similar situation where I did a small adjustment right after payout and it was taken from the bank right away. Best to assume that eBay is automated and will go ahead looking for funds in the bank. If you want to refund right away, the best thing is to put in a few bucks or use overdraft if it is there. Or set a calender reminder to refund when there are funds in MP 😎

I leave a few bucks as a buffer in the bank to cover contingencies.

intimewithmusic · ‎06-10-2025

Hi. Yes, I think that's prudent. I'm not good with reminders. Too old to take calendars on cell phones and desktops seriously.

For those setting up their accounts for the 1st time with software (Quicken Hm&Biz is $110/yr and will track booth your personal and eBay seperately) ) you would create your revenue, expense and general accounts with prefix numbers that keep them together for the P & L statement.

Ex: The bank might be 2000 CIBC, 2005 Adyen, 2010 Drawings etc. Payable Expenses 3000 Freight Out, 3010 eBay FV Fees, 3015 Internet, Sales Receivables might be 4000 Magazines, 4005 Vintage Radios, 4010 Freight rec'd etc. If you have staff you may have the expenses numbered to group all their expenses like wages, cpp, wcb etc together. Same with auto expenses including depreciation. On demand everything gets sorted on your P7L so you can see how well you do with "4000 Magazines". For example, to break even on shipping , your "4010 Freight Rec'd" should balance with your 3000 Freight Out" plus the cost of your "3020 Shipping Supplies" etc so you can adjust your Handliung Chrg if need be.

I understand accounting principles aren't for every eBayer especially since eBay provides a lot of the numbers if you trust them. For my books (basically same system since 1984 through multiple businesses) eBay income and exp apply to the Adyen account. (I don't like calling it eBay). Payouts are transferred to my bank. Expenses are dispersed and drawings if any (LOL) are transferred to personal. Keeping things balanced and separate from personal are practical business practices. I was raised in a family of book keepers and entrepreneurs so it's natural.

Pretty sure this is boring for most of you so I'll leave it at that!

By the way, I like your store too! Love seeing electronics live longer. I was at the recyling yesterday and saw a ton lof good stuff on their bench. Even a complete Singer sewing machine. I just don't have time to fix or part it any more.

IT

intimewithmusic · ‎06-10-2025

eBay will send you a notification ahead of them making a withdrawal from your bank. If you don't top it off before they try take the money your bank will be overdrawn if they do overdrafts. My bank charges $10 per overdraft.

Even worse things can happen if eBay can't get the $2 from your bank if it affects the link with eBay and your bank.

ricarmic · ‎06-10-2025

My account is always in the negative when I'm on time away because I have items running in two categories - so I pay 11c or 15c depending on the site per month per item. The grand total is only about $1.50 a month now because I rarely use two category anymore, but back before I cleaned up in the fall the total would run $150ish per month.

Generally ebay waits until the total owing is in the $10ish range to pull from the account for that kind of stuff, but refunds etc doesn't seem to adhere to the same rules.

Back when I first started on ebay I kept enough money in the bank to cover losing the largest item I'd sell/sold in the mail, subsequently the banks "keep minimum balance of $XXX" in your account to avoid fees has been larger than my largest sales (largest sales have gotten so much smaller in the modern era for me, $1,000 plus sales are very very rare for me anymore).

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎06-10-2025

@intimewithmusic wrote:
@sapphyres-designer-jewellery wrote:
@intimewithmusic wrote:
Hi @fergua3
First off I love your store! Lot's of aircraft history in my background. Now the tough love. Youi need to maintain a balance in your MP account that will cover anything, even a very large refund. A $2 refund needn't cause you stress. If you want to run extra lean then have a 2nd payment method on your account such as a credit card.

If you haven't solved this by the time you read this instead of sending a refund you could msg (or phone) your customer. You have the phone number on the order and eBay is fine with sellers using it after a sale. You could send him/her something of greater value at no charge incl shipping. Who doesn't want a free hat or t shirt?

Just sstisfy your customer this time and keep your MP account topped up for next time!

"If you have weekly payouts, how do you stop your account from running lean if there's no sales around the time of payout?"

HI.
I think you're talking about your "Adyen account" and not your MP bank account. My payouts go into a bank account that eBay has full access to take withdrawals. eBay will take fees from Adyen 1st and then the bank if no sales have been made. To answer @fergua3 I don't think there's any minimum amount. In your seller settings make your bank account your 1st pool for eBay to draw from. (Seller and not "Buying settings)

I'm pretty sure you can also set your credit card or possibly PayPal as a 2nd draw source for eBay although I don't recommend that. Best to have just one account for income & expenses.

How would you handle consignment payouts & other expenses if you drain your biz account every Tuesday? Those who do consignments typically with hold the consignor payout until delivery and buyer satisfaction has been acheived.

You're right, I was thinking of the Adyen account.

For the bank account associated with it, I have overdraft, it costs me, so I prefer to not use it, but it's there if I need it. I attached a credit card to take care of fees so my account wouldn't get over drawn during time I wasn't selling anything (on time away) and fees were happening, like store fee.

It would seem reasonable to keep money in your Adyen account (if that were possible) to cover refunds, and not have to involve a bank account, there's fees with bank transactions, I think I pay 1.25 each time something happens (which is now 8 deposits a month from two stores, weekly payout, 4 cheques a month to my supplier, and 8 bill payments or transfers, pending on whether I'm paying my credit card or putting money into my personal bank account). It kind of adds up.

C.

intimewithmusic · ‎06-10-2025

Hi. I'm pretty sure I did the same as you (2nd pmnt method being a credit card). What gets me is that on a given Tuesday eBay transfers all of the funds to my bank. Then my store subscription and a bunch of shipping labels are due the next day starting the cycle of notices. Like you I wish I could leave X number of dollars in there. Then I wouldn't have to process those payables transactions to balance the bank. That being said eBay gives us plenty of warning when they intend to dive into your bank and then another notification comes the day before.

When I hear of a problem it's usually on dot com. Possibly the seller ignored both notices and their bank is empty when eBay reaches for funds. I don't know. If that happens do they give you another notice and make a second attempt? Maybe they don't. There have been stories of seller's accounts being suspended and/or forced to convert to a business account with their selling limits rolled back to "new account".

Seems like a heavy price to pay for not having funds available.

When managed payments began their system was so messed up it took me a year to convince any eBay telephone rep I had a store so I could get my $35 shipping supplies coupon. My store had been open for years. It seems once things get messed up internally a nightmare begins.

sapphyres-designer-jewellery · ‎06-10-2025

@intimewithmusic wrote:
Hi. I'm pretty sure I did the same as you (2nd pmnt method being a credit card). What gets me is that on a given Tuesday eBay transfers all of the funds to my bank. Then my store subscription and a bunch of shipping labels are due the next day starting the cycle of notices. Like you I wish I could leave X number of dollars in there. Then I wouldn't have to process those payables transactions to balance the bank. That being said eBay gives us plenty of warning when they intend to dive into your bank and then another notification comes the day before.

When I hear of a problem it's usually on dot com. Possibly the seller ignored both notices and their bank is empty when eBay reaches for funds. I don't know. If that happens do they give you another notice and make a second attempt? Maybe they don't. There have been stories of seller's accounts being suspended and/or forced to convert to a business account with their selling limits rolled back to "new account".
Seems like a heavy price to pay for not having funds available.
When managed payments began their system was so messed up it took me a year to convince any eBay telephone rep I had a store so I could get my $35 shipping supplies coupon. My store had been open for years. It seems once things get messed up internally a nightmare begins.

I had it happen that the eBay payout happened, and next day store fees were due. They didn't give any warning, the fees were posted and perhaps 12 hours later I get a notification that they took funds from my account (as in past tense). In this case it's a credit card, so maybe that's why I didn't get any notification.

Well not being able to refund a customer is a problem that we shouldn't have... at least with a Visa card when they bill it i have time to pay it off, so that seems to be the best solution to avoid having money come out of your bank account (for fees or refund, even when I had labels charged after the payout they charged my account within 1 day).

C.

byto253 · ‎06-10-2025

Exactly my experience. Notification is afterwards, you are not given advance notice. eBay has to assume that sellers are responsible for their accounts.

fergua3 · ‎06-10-2025

Well, as it turns out i was concerned for nothing. I refunded the buyer this morning and instead of taking the $2.19 for the shipping refund out of my bank account, my MP account went negative by that amount. When the buyer's payment clears after midnight tonight it will deposit into my MP account and wipe out this debt in the process.

I'm surprised by this but glad.....it is the sensible way to handle situations like this where the payment is guaranteed to clear in a matter of hours.

intimewithmusic · ‎06-11-2025

Usually it takes them 3 or 4 days. Did that happen to you on dot com or on dot ca? Not that it should matter but I've always gotten notifications on dot ca both in eBay msging and in my email. The only other possibility I can think of is the seller notification setting could have been turned off in Account Settings.

You are probably right about your 2nd pmnt method. I didn't have one until recently so maybe they won't notify me now either...