How do I contact eBay and get a refund on fees?

[cheapman102]

I accidentally listed an item with a high reserve price and I was instantly charged £79. I cancelled the listing and am finding it impossible to contact eBay and speak to a human about this. Any suggestions please.

[tressygirl]

Reserves are optional listing upgrades and come with a non refundable listing fee.  It is the most expensive upgrade at 4% of your set reserve, and charged the second it goes live,  even if you cancel the listing immediately.

You can contact eBay Customer Services explain it was an error to set a  reserve, they may,   no guarantee, make a goodwill gesture of a refund.  Worth a try.  Contact CS very first thing, when the lines first open at 8 a.m. there's more chance of Dublin answering.  

The easiest and quickest way to contact Customer Services is through this link, for a Call Back .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

On weekdays lines open between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Weekends lines open between 9 a.m. to 6p.m.

@cheapman102 

[thesmokingrunner]

£79 fee for setting a Reserve Price? Ouch. I think this is going to be an expensive lesson for you...

The Fees for private sellers page on Help&Contact (https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-private-sellers?id=4822&st=3&pos=1&qu...) does state that optional listing fees are non-refundable. And, as @tressygirl states, Reserve Price is one of those fees.

Sadly I doubt very much that eBay will return that money to you, whether it was an error on your part or not, otherwise they would very probably be inundated with refund requests from users who claimed to have "accidentally" listed with a RP but actually either didn't know they would be charged or were gob-smacked by the amount.

Calling CS is a long shot but it's probably your only option. Still, as Terry Pratchett once wrote: a million-to-one shot succeeds nine times out of ten.

Good luck. And let us know how you get on.

[tressygirl]

Yep it's worth a shot, @thesmokingrunner  I always mention it,  because I know of 2 cases where the seller found a CS agent with a heart of gold , or they put forward a very good case for a refund of fees,  and won!

Always worth  go, another good saying don't know who said it , it certainly wasn't an English grammar teacher! ..... ' Don't Ask,  Don't Get '

[thesmokingrunner]

According to the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (no, I've never heard of it either...) apparently the saying "If you don't ask you don't get" was first used by Mahatma Gandhi.

That's my learning done for the day then... : )

[tressygirl]

Oh really that's wonderful.  Just thinking of him the other day as it was his birthday , he would have been 155 years old !

@thesmokingrunner