How can I refund postage to my customer?

[robincollie]

I would like to refund a customer due to an error with my listing. eBay have refunded the cost paid for the item, but not the carriage.

How can I refund postage to my customer?

[*vyolla*]

You're trading on the wrong kind of eBay account - you have a private one when it should be a business one, so Simple Delivery (which is eBay's delivery method for private sellers) has been used. This means that your buyer will get a refund for their postage label, but it may take 30 days.

A private seller is one who is just selling off their own personal items such clothes from their wardrobe, bits from their loft/garage etc.

A Business seller is someone who buys or makes items to sell on.  They need to be registered as a business to meet the requirements of UK law. eBay will be providing HMRC with your details anyway so it's vital to keep correct accounts for your tax return. You can obviously offset more expenses as a business seller, but can't offset any at all as a private one.  

To correctly register as a business seller simply go to your Personal Information in your account and to the right of Account Type, which will be showing as 'Individual'  you'll see an Edit option.

https://accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/profile

This doesn't affect your feedback profile or any current listings, it merely upgrades your account so that you're compliant with current consumer and eBay policy.

If you're also planning on selling your own items, just open another eBay account (you can have more than one).

[robincollie]

Thank you for your very swift and helpful answer.

However, I am not a business user and don't intend to be. I have had a lot of items to sell this past month, but normally sell very infrequently. 

I have had a message stating that having sold more that thirty items in a month,  I need to send NI details, presumably so that tax can be paid on any extra income generated in this way. That isn't a problem.

[*vyolla*]

Infrequency or volume of sales doesn't come into it.  You've sold lots of brand new girl guide clothing items, some multiples. If you check on HMRCs website you'll be able to see that the items that your selling define you as one.

As well as breaching consumer regs by trading incorrectly, eBay do make this clear on their guidance pages;

Business sellers can't represent themselves as private individuals

Taken from:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/selling-policies/selling-practices-policy/business-seller-polic...

As mentioned earlier, you can claim expenses if you're a business seller and there's a small business Trading Allowance of £1,000, so you're not required to complete a tax assessment unless your sales go over that amount. 

Totally your call with what you do with that information, of course.