ebay transaction cancellation/resolution center/refund heck

June 17, 2012 11:05 AM

Listed a laptop on Ebay, offering shipping only to US. Norse buyer did "buy it now." Buyer agreed to cancel transaction, but opened a separate "did not receive item" case in resolution center. Can I just refund the money and be sure I'm done with this, or is there some weird potential for him to try to double-dip on the refund?

Listing a laptop on Ebay was probably my first mistake. I had thought I had checked the gamut of block-potentially-sketchy buyers options on the per-listing level (but I don't see a way after the fact to get Ebay to cough up what they were -- anyone know?) but not on a global account-wide basis. The shipping description and the item description both clearly said I was offering shipping to U.S.-only.

A buyer with a Norway address did "buy it now" and really did make a Paypal payment with $80 extra for shipping. The account had been created at the end of March and has a history of only 7 transactions; I assume the buyer's a scammer.

Following directions here, I sent the buyer a message; the buyer mentioned being shocked, shocked to see I shipped only to the U.S. after buying the item but didn't express explicit objection to cancelling. So I opened a cancel transaction case in the Ebay resolution center, and the buyer cancelled.

I had thought a refund would be issued automatically, but it didn't -- the transaction is still listed on my Paypal account, but with status "held." Ebay's instructions are completely unforthcoming on how cancellations and refunds relate to each other. And the buyer opened a separate case in the resolution center with "didn't receive item" as the listed reason.

So can I just refund the money and this goes away? Or is there some fraud angle I'm not seeing where after I refund the money the buyer can continue to pursue some sort of complaint with Ebay or Paypal?

posted by Zed to work & money (4 answers total)

If the buyer cancelled, I don't see how they could pursue it any further after the buyer gets their money -- it sounds to me like the buyer opened the case either hoping to get their refund faster or not knowing how refunding/cancelling a transaction works.

It has been a long time since I had a problem on eBay so hopefully someone else can shed light on this, but from what I recall Paypal refunds were not instantaneous with transaction cancellations because they usually want to investigate as well, especially when it involves money between foreign banks.
posted by sm1tten at 11:19 AM on June 17, 2012

Yeah, you need to refund his money, it doesn't happen automatically. And I wouldn't assume it's a scammer, all ebay shoppers have to start somewhere.
posted by fshgrl at 11:26 AM on June 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just did a Paypal refund this morning. There are two ways to do it.

1. Go to "My Account" and look at your recent transactions. In the line for "payment from (Norwegian guy), you'll see a tab that says "track." It's actually a drop-down menu; hover on it and then click "issue refund."

2. Click on "send money." Fill in the $$ and address info. They'll give you a list to choose from: ebay payment, cash, etc. Select "refund."

In your particular case, I'm thinking that the first option is better because the refund will be tied directly to the record of the initial transaction.
posted by wryly at 12:28 PM on June 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm not buying that a foreign user on Ebay is "shocked, shocked to see I shipped only to the U.S." - that is common on US listings. Scammer seems likely.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:25 AM on June 18, 2012