Postage Refunds Narrative - new system

[a45heaven]

The postage i charge is £3.00 - i dont understand what ebay's new refund process is about - Purchase price £1.75, Postage £1.25. Very curious, trust deminishing rapidly.

 

Review refund

Total refund to buyer

£3.00

Refund summary

Refund summaryTransaction details Transaction amount

Purchase price	£1.75
Postage	£1.25
Fee creditsShow details	-£0.37

Refund amount you owe

£2.63

[bravergrace]

What was the refund for?  Was it for a postage discount (eg for a combined purchase)?

[a45heaven]

What was the refund for?  Was it for a postage discount (eg for a combined purchase)?

Thanks for offering help .

Yes - hence on the new system i selected 'Postage Discount' , the guy won an item on Saturday, then one on Sunday and i still had both items in hand - i still try to get folks to wait until an invoice, but ebay gets in first with the 'Pay Now Or Else' messages.

I cant think of a reason from where ebay get the figures from, but i can only suspect either an ill motive, or incompetent.

[papso22]

If you are refunding £3.00 for postage the numbers seem right but the presentation does look a little odd.  If the numbers are right then an ill motive is unlikely and it's just yet another example of poor communication and layout by eBay.

Without full details of the original transactions, the original fees,  and the postage discount, it is impossible to be more precise.

[a45heaven]

 Hi Thanks for inputting - this is the single item which required a full postage refund.

I dont know if its just a usual ebay design flaw, or  im getting  set up to be fleeced.

Item subtotal

£4.21

Postage

£3.00

Refund

-£3.00

Order total

£4.21

What you earned

Order total

£4.21

Selling costs

Transaction fees

-£0.88

Order earnings

£3.33

[kempseykate]

I have noticed the same when recently making a part refund to cover overpaid postage. At first I thought I must have mistakenly selected something other than 'postage discount' as the reason for refund - but no, just ebay's cockeyed way of doing things!

If the reason given is 'postage discount' and as long as the discount is no more than the original amount charged for postage, then the refund should show just as a postage refund, not so much off the price and so much off the postage.

[a45heaven]

Well at least its not just me then - on the off chance its not just ebay incompetence, and it is a financial matter (which is due to be soon shared with other bodies), should at least ebay officially confirm that all is well, or should it be relayed to an external financial body ?

If this kinda thing happened with my 'Real' banking rather than a 'Financial Regulated Body', then there would be eruptions im sure.

[bravergrace]

Well, how peculiar!  I've got a postage refund to make later today - I'll see if it does the same.  I've never noticed it happening before (but quite honestly, once I've made a postage refund, my main concern is trying NOT to panic over that ridiculous message that arrives, with a title like "YOUR ITEM HAS BEEN REFUNDED" (which obviously implies that I've mistakenly refunded in full)...

[a45heaven]

with a title like "YOUR ITEM HAS BEEN REFUNDED" (which obviously implies that I've mistakenly refunded in full)...

Yes that title always brings a lump to my throat too - dont those who make these systems ever read what they produce, unless they cant read English?

Itll be interesting if you note the same as what i see - im more confident it will as @kempseykate has noted seeing the same confusing narrative.

[bravergrace]

I'll let you know what happens with my refund.

But I'd hazard a guess that the explanation for what you're seeing, is along these lines:

- For multiple purchases, automatic discounts given are allocated pro rata according to item value (including, presumably, postage charges).  So if you offer "buy 1 get the 2nd half price", the discount is actually spread over both items, and not allocated solely to the 2nd item.

- Same applies to a partial refund on a multiple purchase - in the absence of other information, eBay will allocate it according to item value.

- Some blummin' programmer has extended the principle to "all iitems on the invoice", including "postage" as an item for this purpose.  So a "full postage refund" on a £10 + £10 postage" item will mean £5 off the item price and £5 off the postage.  Leaving the buyer with a distinct feeling they've been cheated, and the seller totally confused, especially if they're trying to gauge their actual vs projected postage costs.

[rainbowtrax]

Yes, that's exactly what's happening. Yet more inept programming from ebay. It was one small part of the site that did work properly so a few weeks ago they decided they'd better mess it up. So they added in an extra screen and more clicks to the process and broke the apportioning of the refund amount. I had one last week and I've just done another today. The refund amount was £2.50, wholly postage, but this is what it did: 

Pointless trying to get them to fix it though as they won't understand what you're telling them. Just coming up to two months since they messed up the clocks change+leap year listing dates and they still can't grasp that very basic concept so there's no chance of them getting to grips with this.

Still, every day's an adventure on here as every day brings an exciting new glitch to have to deal with. Happy days.

[a45heaven]

Are the developers really this inept? - Value for salary monies ? 

The reasons you have given May satisfy the situation but a real sensible solution would have been so much easier to apply i would suggest, so why create what they have laid out?

Will there be an impact of this when the information is inspected by HMRC? 

It clearly shows the product value increased with a false postage cost.

Selling despite ebay again. 

[papso22]

HMRC don't care what is postage and what is the item.  It's all turnover.