Cancelled transaction and difficulty getting eBay to release a stuck refund

[cah1498]

I ordered and paid for a ride on mower on 11 Mar 2026.  The order was cancelled on 9 April 2026 because the seller provided no details of where or when the item could be collected.  The item was also declared faulty and although the seller attempted to have it repaired, I decided I did not want to proceed with the purchase of an item that was not as described.  The seller cancelled the order but apparently failed to successfully action the refund.   I went back to the seller as suggested by eBay but he was unhelpful.  Apparently my refund is stuck and despite talking to at least six agents and then a member of the leadership team I have to wait another five days for eBay to try to resolve the matter and repay my money.  Given the lack of action by eBay so far I am very concerned they will keep my money.

I am losing sleep over this matter as I paid £3066 for goods that I will not receive.  I am also spending inordinate amounts of time trying to get eBay to help.  At the moment it seems they are colluding with the seller to deprive me of my funds.  I sincerely hope this is not the case.   Having been with eBay since 2003 and having completed around 1000 transactions I have never had this type of problem before.

The latest advice is to wait another five working days to see what happens.  Why does this have to be so complicated and what will be my next course of action if my refund does not appear?

[papso22]

The way you should have dealt with this was to open a case for item not received within 30 days of purchase.

As it seems you didn't do this I am not sure what ebay says to wait for as they can't actually help you.

You could try asking your funding source for help. 

[cah1498]

I don't understand because the sale was cancelled withing 30 days of the purchase date?

[jckl1957]

If the seller cancelled the sale, that would have triggered a refund.

It is possible that the seller did not cancel the sale.

Have you got the email you got from Ebay when the seller cancelled the sale?

[cah1498]

I received the following email from eBay:  We couldn’t cancel your order because there was an issue with the refund. If you don’t receive the item by the estimated delivery date, please report that your order hasn’t arrived.   I went on to report that the item hadn't arrived (been made available for collection) and that triggered a request for me to go back to the seller.  I did, but he was unhelpful and claimed he had cancelled the sale.

[jckl1957]

So, it was not cancelled.

If you had waited nearly a month to try and cancel, you were probably out of time to start an item not received case - Ebay allow you exactly 30 days to do this.

As advised, as Ebay don't seem to be able to help, you might be better starting a chargeback with your payment source.

If you do start a chargeback, any case you have with Ebay will close.

The seller has your money - not Ebay - and they can't force the seller to refund if you opened an item not received case outside of the 30 days.

[cah1498]

I will give eBay another five days to see whether they can resolve this now that it has been escalated and then start the bank chargeback process.  I wish I had come here sooner because you guys seem to understand the process much better than the eBay agents and leadership team.  eBay has become very autocratic and unhelpful in matters like this.  I wasn't aware of the 30 day deadline and the seller used procrastination and other tactics to delay the whole process.  I tried to buy the goods in good faith and eBay has let me down badly.  The seller is not bothered except he will have to try again to sell his less than perfect goods. 

[cah1498]

I continued to phone eBay and they eventually refunded my money in full.  Persistence paid off.  I had also started a bank chargeback process.