Delayed payments & refunds.

[kaholl6818]

Having just carried out a couple of duplicate postage refunds from new orders I've seen the money come out of my Ebay wallet rather than pending payments.

 This in effect means Ebay are actually holding my money (i.e. money available for me to use rather than pending buyer payments) in theory for two weeks !

Logically the refund should be offset against the specific order it relates to & therefore the pending payment reduced.

The only way around this seems to be to withdraw any funds in the Ebay wallet before making a refund - this then forces the refund to go against pending funds.

However we don't know at what point the refund will be processed - is it going to be against the first lot of payments made available  - or will it actually be held & processed after the 14 days ?  

@kat@ebay @marco@ebay  - can you pass this up to the relevant people & can we please have some clarification of when & how refunds get processed ?

(While my refunds tend to be small postage ones - anyone making larger ones need to be aware of this issue).

[kaholl6818]

Just had another postage refund to do as someone bought an item late Friday & another today - and after withdrawing all funds I see the Ebay balance is now negative - which probably means the refund will be taken from the first released payments.  

This should not be correct - as the refund should refer to the correct order.

At least I can build up a negative Ebay balance for a couple of weeks !

[porte2425]

My son said he noticed the postage cost (not a postage refund) coming out from his available balance instead of the pending amount for that item. He decided to withdraw it all too. I shall have to notify him that it may not help, based on your observations.

[parsley2003]

I have complained about this but even the specialist person did not understand. Because i am trusted people have paid combined items with too much postage and i have refunded today £20 in total which has been taken from my available balance and if that had not been there would have been taken from my bank. It is shocking they promised that refunds would be taken from the money held for 2 weeks

[bittyboy101]

This sounds like a nightmare !

I'm sure glad I cancelled all my listings on eBay last week and stopped selling before the new payment setup came into force on 04th Feb 2025. 😨

Wish eBay had just stuck with PayPal and let us have the luxury of instant payments and another layer of security for both buyer and seller... They are so foolish for doing away with PayPal  😞  😞  😞  😞 😞

[kaholl6818]

I think the refunds would show as a negative in your ebay wallet if you have enough pending payments to cover them rather than be taken from the bank.  (Mine shows a negative).

Generally looks like they've not amended the payment for postage / refund process to cater for delayed payments. 

If the payment / refund is against an order that has delayed payment then the specific delayed payment needs to be reduced by the refund / used postage amount & not from available funds (or creating a negative in the Ebay wallet).

Looks like any private seller giving refunds (or using Ebay postage as per Porte2425) if they have available funds are making a temporary loan to Ebay until the delayed payment for that specific order gets processed.  (so up to two weeks or more).

 It will also be difficult to track finances when the payments do start to be made available - as trying to track refunds against specific orders will not be possible if they are taken from the first available payments. (Although the overall funds should be correct).

So yes - best to keep the ebay balance at zero before making any refunds or postage purchases !

(The 14 days hold can also seem to extend - as any released funds could be eaten up by pending refunds / payments)

[porte2425]

I’m starting to wonder whether it has always been that way with postage costs, but it went unnoticed as payments usually became available within a day anyway.

On the payments screen, under the available balance is the text:

“Shop on eBay, cover selling needs or withdraw anytime.”

And the info popup states the following:

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What is eBay balance?

Your eBay balance consists of your available funds. You can use your available balance to shop on eBay or cover your selling needs. You can also withdraw from your eBay balance anytime.

What are pending funds?

Funds will appear as pending while we're confirming delivery details or resolving disputes. They will also appear as Pending – on hold while awaiting further verification. They are part of your total funds but don’t count toward your available eBay balance until the issue is resolved.

Getting paid

When are my funds available to use or withdraw?

Once the buyer’s order is confirmed, your funds will typically be available to use or withdraw from your eBay balance within 1 working days. Some payment holds may apply.

You can use your balance to shop on eBay and cover your selling needs, such as promote listings to sell more or purchase delivery labels. You can also withdraw from your available funds in any amount anytime.

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So perhaps this is by design.

The refunds have surely got to be a mistake. Unless they still count that as selling needs.

[kaholl6818]

Hello - yes you are correct in the fact the process hasn't changed - BUT it should have.

When payments out & funds in happened the same day there wasn't much (if any) issue.

However there is now a time lag of  up to 14 days or more between payments out & receiving the funds due.

[podlingsmum2007]

If possible it is best to deal with one sale at a time. I'm not normally getting more than one at a time with long wait gaps inbetween. I had a call back from eBay about this same issue though when I got 2 sales consecutively. Postage labels are deducted from available funds first then pending funds are the second source. Best to withdraw available funds straightaway every time, certainly before buying a label for a further sale.

[porte2425]

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@kaholl6818 wrote:

Hello - yes you are correct in the fact the process hasn't changed - BUT it should have.

When payments out & funds in happened the same day there wasn't much (if any) issue.

However there is now a time lag of  up to 14 days or more between payments out & receiving the funds due.

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Oh I absolutely agree. It isn't fair.

I was just realising it seemed like it was that way all along - something I think most people hadn't/don't realise.

[ruby*ryan]

Before the change, I used to keep money in balance and use it to buy things, or store it up and maybe transfer to bank once a month.

Now, I will transfer it to bank as soon as it's available, and as I'll have no balance I won't be buying on here so much either.

[porte2425]

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@podlingsmum2007 wrote:

If possible it is best to deal with one sale at a time. I'm not normally getting more than one at a time with long wait gaps inbetween. I had a call back from eBay about this same issue though when I got 2 sales consecutively. Postage labels are deducted from available funds first then pending funds are the second source. Best to withdraw available funds straightaway every time, certainly before buying a label for a further sale.

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It’s not really possible to be that on the ball without a lot of effort.

My son purchased a label this morning, wondering whether it would make his available balance negative, but afterwards when checking he realised another payment had just cleared today, and the funds came straight out from that.

[porte2425]

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@ruby*ryan wrote:

Before the change, I used to keep money in balance and use it to buy things, or store it up and maybe transfer to bank once a month.

Now, I will transfer it to bank as soon as it's available, and as I'll have no balance I won't be buying on here so much either.

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Agreed. I suggested to my son he should withdraw at least weekly now, instead of the now-and-again (usually monthly) that he used to.

I have no problem with a payment provider holding my money for a while. I’ve held funds in numerous places, sometimes for quite a while. It’s not amounts that would result in much interest if they were in my savings account instead. But this forced holding of payments is unnecessary (if it weren’t they would have implemented it long ago), and the fact that selling costs are coming out of available balance is another slap in the face. It’s often the deceitful ways companies force their will on others, particularly when they also try and sell the idea to you as though it’s for your benefit, that annoys people. And so that’s behaviour that should be punished. Bad eBay, bad!

[bittyboy101]

eBay have gone from strength to strength making blunder after blunder with their new Managed Payments system which quite frankly is NOT UP TO SCRATCH.

Maybe eBay should leave it to the PROFESSIONALS at PayPal to deal with the money side of things and let us have another layer of security which PayPal used to offer with a 180 days money back guarantee if there is a problem.

We need a NORMAL and FAST payment system again on eBay not this RUBBISH that eBay have homemade with much disaster ! 

[porte2425]

Today my son was in the middle of creating a postage label when he remembered he had cleared funds in his account, so he withdrew those in between. When he tried to continue and pay for the postage it threw a “payment error”. Starting the process again let him pay for it via his funds this time. And now his eBay balance is negative (-£3.39).

So it definitely is taking payment from eBay balance, never pending. If there is insufficient funds in eBay balance, it must be checking to make sure pending has the funds available first, before then taking payment from eBay balance, and making it negative. I assume if pending didn’t have sufficient funds (for example if an item sold at auction for £2.50 with free postage, but then the postage costs were £2.94) then the difference (44p) would be charged to your bank or card.

[kaholl6818]

Yes - payments out are taken from the first available funds - there is no tie in to specific orders.

The message from Ebay that you can use pending funds for postage & refunds is a half-truth - yes you can (if you clear your available balance first) but Ebay will use your first available funds against this.

Cancelled orders after payment will be an interesting one to watch - as there will be no tracking & the actual payment will possibly sit in pending for the two weeks - while the refund for the cancelled order will be processed against first available funds.

They should definitely tie in any refunds / postage payments against specific orders (and reduce the pending payments) rather than let the Ebay balance go negative.