i received a refund from ebay and now the seller wants my email

[davidthomasxyz]

hi, i after 18 days of waiting i made an ebay enquiry about the whereabouts of my item. the seller (a business) told me it was on the way which i was happy with. after 5 more days ebay opened a case and refunded my money almost instantaneously because they said that they didn't get tracking details from my seller.

now, the seller has written to me and asked for my email so that they can send me an invoice. it is now 26 days and i still haven't received item. (but australia post said it is on the way 10 days ago).

of course i want to do the right thing and make sure this business gets paid but do i send my email address? what is the best way to pay this business? I thought: wait for item, contact them for bank details through ebay.

david.

[padi*0409]

Message the seller and tell them you are happy to refund them when the item arrives. You should be able to refund back through Paypal (if you paid that way) if not contact the seller when the item arrives and ask them for their Paypal email address.

[digital*ghost]

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@davidthomasxyz wrote:

after 5 more days ebay opened a case and refunded my money almost instantaneously because they said that they didn't get tracking details from my seller.

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I just wanted to clarify this part here, because this is a really common misunderstanding for buyers to have.

eBay did not open a case - you did.

You may not have known that's what you were doing when you inquired with the seller (many buyers don't) but the second you send a message to a seller on eBay by selecting "I haven't received the item" (or whatever the selection is), you are actually opening a formal dispute with the seller and officially requesting a refund, which the dispute then has to follow a very specific timeline, with limited options for you both. 

In the future, if you do not want to open a dispute, use "I have a question about using my item or I want to send the seller a message", not one that relates to having a problem with an order, because they all automatically open disputes on the seller. 

It's a bit strange the seller didn't provide the tracking number to eBay via the dispute, TBH, but in any case, you can provide the details when the item arrives and they will send a PayPal invoice to you then, or if you prefer you can get their email like padi suggested.

[davidthomasxyz]

hi digital,

thank you for clarification. i am marking some students work at the moment so i better not stay here long!

your comments are very interesting and they go to the heart of the misunderstanding that has occurred. as you say, i may have done something that i didn't intend to do but i was very careful with my actions and i certainly didn't intend to have a dispute with the seller; it came as a suprise when ebay refunded my money.

in hindsight, ebay does not give you any warning that you are opening a case. in fact, this is what they said:

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We're sorry to hear that you didn't receive the item you purchased. Your request is open, and we've asked the seller to respond and resolve your issue by 24 Oct 2020.

If you don't hear back or can't work something out, you can ask us to step in beginning 24 Oct 2020. If that happens, we'll review your request, gather any new info we need, and make a decision within 48 hours.

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I didn't ask them to step in on 24 oct! they stepped in themselves. i took no action after receiving a message from the seller on 19 oct because i was happy but ebay refunded my money anyway.

Also, this. here is a copy of my 'Here's what happened' from ebay:

oct 19: you didn't get the item

oct 19: the seller said don't worry the item is on the way

oct 23: you opened the case  (No I didn't)

oct 24: we gave you your money back

**bleep**

ebay needs to be clearer in this area.

d.

[digital*ghost]

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@davidthomasxyz wrote:

ebay needs to be clearer in this area.

d.

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Agreed, it often comes as a complete surprise to buyers who are just wanting to make an inquiry that an actual case has been opened, and they are a little bit misleading about the options available to resolve the issue, as well  (if something is genuinely lost in transit, the preferred option all-round is usually sending a replacement, I've found, but this option is ruled out when a request has been opened, even though eBay give buyers the option to select between getting the item or a refund as the ideal resolution when they send the inquiry - and, of course, as part of the legacy handed down by PayPal and their dispute system, making it an official dispute rather than an inquiry, means sellers can still feel a little bit blindsided by it if there's been no previous communication despite most having an understaning it's just the way eBay prompt these things to go and the request is an attempt at communication from the buyer a lot of the time).

Under normal circumstances, you would have had to manually escalate the request yourself and ask ebay to step in, in order for them to take action and potentially force a refund, but due to the current circumstances with Aus Post and delayed deliveries etc, there are some temporary policies in place in the lead up to Christmas where ebay have taken it upon themselves to do things like this, in some cases. 

[gutterpunkz05]

Hi Digi, could it be ebays new auto refund for untracked items at work

[davidthomasxyz]

interesting.

just getting back to my original question, i can give the seller my 'paypal email' as he calls it?

i haven't even received the refund in my account. will he be able to take my money somehow!

d.

[digital*ghost]

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@gutterpunkz05 wrote:

Hi Digi, could it be ebays new auto refund for untracked items at work

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Likely, I was just being deliberately vague as a lot of sellers are feeling pretty vulnerable at the moment. 

@david, sellers not having access to a buyer's email address is a fairly new thing on eBay, i.e. previously any seller you bought from received your email address, both via ebay and from the PayPal payment notification - the only thing they can do with it is send you emails, which is how an invoice can be sent to you directly (your PayPal account can not be accessed without the email address + password combo, nor can any payments or debits be authorised without those. If concerned, you may want to look in to 2-factor authentication for an extra layer of protection. I have mine set up to text me a one-time pin to my phone so that my account can't be logged in to without email address, password, and a PIN that expires after 10 minutes - you can also usually select the "trust this device" option so that you don't need to get and enter the PIN on your personal devices but it's still required on any other device). 

The refund will go back to your original funding source - if it came from funds in your PayPal account, it should have arrived fairly quickly. If it was funded by a credit card, it will be credited back to that, and can take a couple of days.

[davidthomasxyz]

I have now received the refund and an invoice from the seller that says pay on receipt of the invoice.

i have not received the product.

it seems rediculous to pay the invoice before the items arrives. does ebay recommend anything here?

d.

[davidthomasxyz]

thay have sent me a paypal invoice! what's that? it sounds ominous.