Yet another...Simple Delivery shipping label refund problem!

[jimthing]

Sold an item today, had to immediately refund buyer as they said their address was wrong (re-listed item and they bought it again after updating to their correct address). The listing has me as seller covering shipping cost. 

But when the refund was done on the original order by Ebay (after I clicked Cancel Order > reason: Buyer used wrong address), all but NOT the 2.70 SD shipping cost has been automatically refunded by Ebay? 

Why is this?... under the SD system if no label is purchased and used, it's supposed to automatically refund the seller the shipping. So why has this not happened??

(contacted Ebay chat+phone... they were clueless, as per usual!) 

[jimthing]

Another thing is how the cancellation email lies to the Seller as well: 

1. It says "You don't need to do anything else - you're all set."

Not true!... Ebay steal the Seller's shipping refund, unless the Seller checks and manually claims for it... then has to wait 14 days  (to 40 days; see my previous post above about time taken on a previous refund after filling-out the refund form!) to get that amount back. Having to manually claim back our own money, despite us correctly cancelling a buyers mistake per Ebay's own rules! 

2. It says "0 of 1 items you wanted to relist were relisted successfully. For more information, go to the cancellation details page."

It's was supposed to relist the item after I selected the option to do so on the cancellation page, but that failed completely. Then is says to check the cancellation details page about this...

That page below shows nothing about why it wasn't relisted (personal details redacted), and conveniently doesn't mention anything about the postage the Seller is still owned by Ebay(!): 

 So that's all lies too. 

[jimthing]

Conflicting communications from Ebay staff...yet AGAIN. 

Here are two email messages on the same day, from apparent "Ebay Customer Support" agents, who both contract each other.  🙄

• Email 1: 

"within 28 days" ...though message fails to make it clear if it's automatically done or Seller's have to use the form to get their own money back that Ebay owe them! 

• Email 2: 

"within 14 days" ...but now states you have to fill out the form for Seller's to get their own money back from Ebay! 

Then confuses things even further by stating ALL of the rules have to be met, including "The package was delivered using a different tracking number. " ...for a CANCELLED order, how can that rule be met then, Ebay?! 

So just like Ebay's phone staff over four phone calls yesterday, these CS agents simply don't know their own rules whatsoever and so just make up conflicting answers instead. Flipping brilliant Ebay. 🙄🤯

[annkilner]

I've found with simple delivery you are not charged for the label until it is used. 

[jimthing]

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@annkilner wrote:

I've found with simple delivery you are not charged for the label until it is used. 

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Read the thread, that's not relevant here. 

[theelench]

When I worked in finance/accounting we called it a "Running Loan".

Auditors discovered a box-office employee had been running one for months by taking out cash and ticket stubs, then removing different stubs until they could repay the money.

Energy companies do it by "helping customers budget" by taking money in advance of bills by DD.

Bad employers do it by 'forgetting' OT or cover payments.  When queried the answer is "Oh dear, so sorry, we'll pay you next month" when they'll 'forget' someone else's OT.

Ebay is doing it by rotating payment Holds for re-verification etc, etc.  Or just having un-necessarily complicated processes before paying out sales proceeds or refunding labels.

In all cases someone is using other peoples money to pay business expenses, earn interest or just to pay for their inability to manage their finances.

[department28]

Ooh yes, I'd forgotten that as well as filling in the form, you also have to 'meet all the conditions' to get a Simple Delivery label refund... but obviously, if the item has to be cancelled due to an address error, there won't be a different tracking number, so how are you supposed to get this postage refund?!

Surely if a seller is obliged to cancel an order & immediately relist so that the buyer can repurchase, eBay should automatically refund the original postage?

It looks like the only way to avoid this scenario, is to only do 'buyer pays postage', so that if anything goes wrong, the buyer gets the refund automatically, and the seller is spared all this hassle. Not a satisfactory solution for those who prefer to offer freepost, though... 😖

[jimthing]

Yes, that's the 'solution' to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place.

Worse, it also makes buyers lives more of a pain by proxy, as they then have to work out the total they're going to pay from two figures (item+postage) rather than just one amount, while also making the seller's listing look worse by being more needlessly complicated to buyers  – i.e. a buyer sees one listing for 50.00 inclusive vs. another at 43.98+6.02 postage... which are they more likely to buy, all other things being the same?

Ebay idiocy. 

[jimthing]

Well I just checked, and my 2.94 has been refunded.

Question remains... was that done automatically by Ebay's 'IT system' taking another 24h to pay me my money back, or was it done manually by Ebay staff in the background because I filled in the form yesterday? 

Who would ever know. 🤷‍

[department28]

No-one should have to go through so much hassle/form-filling/phone calls etc to get a 2.94 refund...

For future reference, it would be helpful to know how this came about - as you said, was it done automatically, meaning you would not have needed to do anything except wait... or was it the prodding & form-filling?

Oh well... try to put it behind you & move on... 😄 ☕ 🍪