Unused simple delivery non refundable - seller beware

[grma6375_kisi6l2]

Buyer makes a purchase,  ebay sells me a delivery label. In the meantime, the buyer has requested a cancellation. I oblige and make a refund. Ebay will not refund the unused delivery label however, which I paid for. As a result payment balance is negative and payouts are on hold. 

Offering free delivery now  comes with this risk, it would appear.

Ebay is a constantly changing maze of pitfalls.

Automated "A.I" help seems deliberately dumb and unhelpful...something went wrong, it repeats.

[john1297576]

“Ebay will not refund the unused delivery label”

Have you tried cancelling the label?

[grma6375_kisi6l2]

Indeed I did try that and it simply isnt an option.

[grma6375_kisi6l2]

This is the response when I attempted a cancellation

[tressygirl]

Are you out of time perhaps to cancel?

It has to be cancelled within 14 days of the item selling.

@grma6375_kisi6l2 

[papso22]

I think you have to claim a refund on a specific form, it's not done by cancelling, as your screenshot shows.

Your sale was also more than 14 days ago, the time within which you have to claim the refund. 

[grma6375_kisi6l2]

The sale cancellation and refund was done on the same day, as was the attempt to be refunded for the unusable label. Had the buyer paid for delivery I suspect he would have been refunded. It's only a small amount but the negative balance has caused payouts to be on hold. This simple delivery setup needs correcting. Years of experience and learning about various couriers has been torn up by ebay and replaced with a haphazard and half baked system being forced onto sellers. 

[grma6375_kisi6l2]

I have been doing this for well over 20 years, on & off. Just lately it's required to "un-learn" a great deal of  experience. The changes are not subtly introduced with adequate and clear guidance, but arbitrarily imposed. Sellers now need to learn how to circumvent the simple delivery system as it sometimes fails in certain situations. I would suggest not offering free postage to buyers until you can familiarise yourself with SD and ways of avoiding it when necessary.