Cancellation Conundrum

[dml123]

Hi,

I've seen similar threads on eBay in the UK and US forums but they're either variations of my situation or are pre-the new system so I wanted to check for advice.

I sold an item and the buyer paid straight away due to the "immediate payment" settings I have in place (because of scam/fake account customers in the past not paying). They then filed a "cancellation request" and had selected "ordered by mistake". I emailed them to check they did mean to cancel it and they confirmed this. 

I then went to accept the cancellation but it wouldn't let me. I spoke to an eBay advisor who said I should decline the request and get the customer to chase it up with eBay. This seemed incorrect (they recently told me, as a customer, to cancel a return request on an item I received that was "not as described" as this was apparently the only way to get my postage back. I was informed incorrectly and I never received the postal refund! I've since been told to never cancel anything that doesn't seem right as that's then "case closed"). I contacted eBay again and checked on Google. Turns out if you have £0 in your eBay account, you can't "ok" cancellations. It shows up as "insufficient funds". The reason there's no money in there is because, as we know, a seller does not get paid until the tracking shows the item has been delivered. In the meantime, eBay "hold" that money and it's marked as "pending". In this second conversation, eBay said the customer should mark it as "item not received" and I should refund them, risking a mark against my account for not delivering the goods and then arguing with eBay to get it removed (which they may or may not do) which is insane.

In summary, eBay's taken the customer's money, kept it, and asked me to give the customer MY money to void the order. Even if I wanted to I couldn't as I've had no other sales recently so there's £0 in that account. They don't take it from my bank either (not that I'd want them to). This meant I couldn't accept a refund because they want to keep the customers money but for me to give the customer's money back...which they won't give to me until the item is delivered...even though it won't be delivered because they want the order cancelled. Utter madness.

The cancellation request expired during the three days of various eBay contact and limited then no replies from the customer. 

I'm assuming that now I should refund the customer the item amount under the option "buyer cancelled" and summarise the situation in the box provided. Due to Simple Shipping, I can only refund them the item amount since the label money has gone via eBay to The Royal Mail. As the label won't be used, they'd supposedly get refunded that separate amount in a few weeks time (although as a buyer I was told this before and had to chase eBay for a month as it didn't automatically refund, so I don't believe that always happens). 

I've had four issues with eBay over two months, three in one week with next to no help (lies, lack of knowledge or understanding, misinformation and even advice that's cost me money as a receiver of faulty goods) so I don't trust a single word they say now. I'm on the phone and chat to them every day. They now don't seem to even call me when I've requested a callback. My concern is that the "refund" would come out of my pocket since that money is "pending" but I'm guessing it wipes the slate clean and that floating money goes back to the customer and the parcel money in time when the label isn't used - is that correct? I had to refund a customer for another convoluted issue the other day which, to my knowledge, wasn't my fault either (wrong shipping label size changed despite the correct one being setup in the listing?!) so I'm also worried that two refunds will look bad against my account in a short space of time, but should I be worried?

I'm so close to leaving eBay as a buyer and seller as it's a joke now. Several Simple Shipping issues almost sealed the deal, now this. My local Post Office literally can't deal with the problems that occur from eBay and another Post Office in the city confirmed that it's a total mess of a situation for them half the time now.

Thanks for reading my troubles and rants and any information is very much appreciated.

[papso22 · Accepted solution]

In the situation you describe the refund of what you would be paid would come from your bank initially and then the buyer's initial payment would be released to you.  Ebay would refund the Simple Delivery postage and the buyer protection fee. 

Have you set up a direct debit from your bank?  If not this might get why the cancellation didn't work.

Whether cancellations and refunds result in defects depends on  the reason for them.  If the buyer requested to cancel there is no defect.

[dml123]

Thanks ever so much for your reply, I appreciate it. I'll have to check if my bank details are linked (they are as a buyer and as a seller for transfering money out from sales but perhaps they need to be linked elsewhere too). 

Regarding defects, that was to do with a purchase of my own elsewhere, where eBay have refused to refund me the postage (a separate rant!) due to a closed return that ebay instructed me to close; resulting in no postal refund. The cancellation request was from a customer with me as a seller, under the "ordered by mistake" heading.

Fortunately, and kindly, the customer said in the end that they would be happy to go ahead with the purchase as they'd inadvertently created the issue and would rather just continue with the order than wait for the refund process.

I'm grateful for your advice though and will keep this is mind for future reference. eBay didn't provide me with any of this information so thank you.