topic Re: No fee credit on partial refunds in Selling

No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:34:50 GMT

Today I refunded an buyer for one damaged item in a set. It was a partial refund. eBay refuse to give me a credit as they say they only issue credit fee on full refunds for people on Managed Payments. I was happy using PayPal, but it was eBay who forced the change to MP. The only option therefore is to request the return of the items as eBay prefer to credit fees on a full sale price, than to credit fees on a partial refund.

Anyone else had this experience? What are the other options?

Also only just found out the selling fees are now 13.4% not 10.9% any longer.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

p9games — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:53:38 GMT

yup. it sux. I guess EBay's view is that it costs them money to process payments. If you refund it they've still incurred that cost.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

sugar249 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:14:30 GMT

Its not Ebays fault that the item was broken, they still provided the same service to you as a seller

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

davewil1964 — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:37:43 GMT

The selling fees subsume Paypal's, so you're paying roughly the same.

Paypal stopped refunding fees for partial refunds (except for a few special people) a couple of years ago.

Is the loss of fee credits more than the return postage (by tracked means), which you will be liable for? If so, it seems to be an imprudent way of getting your fees back.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 03:22:35 GMT

I was not complaining about the fee increase, just making an observation. You seem very quick to defend them though which is interesting.

I have issued a partial refund once before and Paypal credited me straight away. Nothing special about me at all so you are not correct about that. They had a very good system.

I really just wanted to know my options and what others did in this event of issuing a partial refund.

Is it better to ask for the return of all items? At least that way sell them again, perhaps on another platform?

Is it better to refund the buyer, no matter what the percentage of the sale and receive no credit?

I just want to know what others do in this situation.

eBay only stopped crediting for Managed Payments. Is this even legal?

You know it's not all about money, there are principles as well.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 03:25:47 GMT

No I did say it was eBays fault one item in the set was broken.

I wanted to know what options there were, any solutions people may have etc.

Something helpful or informative.

I thought this was a help board.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

davewil1964 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 04:22:56 GMT

When did you make your partial refund through Paypal? As I said, they stopped refunding fees a couple of years ago.

What I would do is refund. No point in getting the items returned and paying return postage unless the item is high value. And you will still have an incomplete set.

Btw there is a difference between defending eBay and pointing out facts that you didn't seem to take into account when making your comparison.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

sugar249 — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 04:35:00 GMT

Yes I admit you didnt blame Ebay for one item being broken, but you do expect them to partially refund their fee's for a problem which is not their fault, it was possibly badly packed by the original sender, maybe ask the sender to compensate you for the broken item. Oh thats right you packed it!!!!!

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 01:36:40 GMT

When I queried eBay they said that this no credit for partial items was new and only applied to people on Managed Payments. So it seems that there are two sets of rules one for those on MP and those not. From what you are saying though, they never refund partial fee credits.

Maybe the rep gave me incorrect information. I checked my transcript and that is exactly what was said.

Either way, I just wanted some information. Not be attacked.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

sugar249 — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 04:23:01 GMT

I have just reread my answers, and no where have I said they have never done partial refunds as you say above. All I have said is I don't believe they should have to partially refund fee's for a problem which was not their fault. Also not sure where I have ''attacked'' you, or is it because I didnt give the answer you wanted.

And just to clarify I am not a Ebay plant, which appears to be the common answer if people don't get the answer they want.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

digital*ghost — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 05:10:21 GMT

eBay's official policy, even before managed payments, was no FVF credits on partial refunds. I've issued multiple refunds over the years (most often for excess postage when people purchase more than one item but check out separately), and was never once credited any FVF, before or after switching to MP.

Now, people could phone eBay and ask for a manual credit, and more often than not it was granted, but again before MP came in, they announced they would no longer do this.

Some people, however, still had success with getting credited after that announcement, and some have actually had success even after being switched to MP, but this is a result of eBay CS not knowing or understanding the policies more than it is anything else (nothing new about that), so very much depends on whether you get a rep who doesn't know what the official policies are.

PayPal used to refund the respective portion of payment processing fees for partial refunds, but as has been mentioned, this policy was officially changed some years ago, and now they (again, officially) provide no fee credits whether the refund is partial or full. It took quite a while for the policy to roll out, I remember my account still received credits for months after the start date of the new policy while others stopped getting the credits immediately (which was a nice grace period for me, I suppose), but eventually that stopped so now I, too, lose out on the fees if I refund a PayPal payment.

There are a few members who still receive credits, I couldn't say how or why, but they are very much in the minority.

Many payment processors have shifted to this model, I think Etsy is the only one I personally use that still issues fee credits for partial refunds, so it is very much becoming "industry standard" (I hate that phrase 🤣).

I'm not sure I see the sense in requiring return for refund to get fee credits - the point of a partial refund is to avoid the higher cost and inconvenience of returns. I guess if it was an expensive item and fairly hefty partial refund, I could see how it might be more advantageous to go the return for refund, but for most sales the lost fee isn't as much as the total loss of the sale (especially if it was a not as described situation, where to enforce the return option, you'll be out postage both ways just to get $x fee credit), hence why partial refunds remain an attractive option.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:52:53 GMT

Didn't get the answers I want?

I asked three questions and you did not address any of them. Not one. At all. In any way.

If you're not already on some sort of payment from eBay, you should be.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

5kazam — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:40:01 GMT

Twice now I have partially refunded buyers for overpayment on postage. On both occasions I have received an adjustment on fees. I also have it confirmed in writing by eBay's chat CS reps, that partial refunds are eligible for a FVF adjustment.

I know others will insist that is not the case any longer, but get onto chat and you should find you are able to get your FVF adjustment. (BTW I'm on Managed Payments).

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 04:36:22 GMT

The partial refund was made within the last 12 months. I received the credit from Paypal immediately.

I note on another thread someone else informed you they had also received a credit from Paypal - this was only 2 months ago.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

deco_nut — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 04:38:57 GMT

Thanks for at least responding to my question - very rare on this 'community discussion board'.

I do have my chat transcript - I was told that there are no longer fee credits on partial refunds for those on managed payments.

It seems there are no hard and fast rules if you have received it.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

5kazam — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 05:29:21 GMT

I did try to send you a pm, but according to eBay, I've reached my limit of pm's. Which means I'm not allowed to send any at all, as I haven't used that function for at least 5-6 years. Off to chat to find out why?

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

tiggywink92 — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 09:31:38 GMT

sadly there is a circle group that sets out to make new people with many ids to like their own messages. Just ignore them. I always got partial fees back from paypal right upto the day we finished with them

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

davewil1964 — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 10:22:12 GMT

From Paypal, although you seem to know better than they do what their policies are -

If you refund a payment for goods or services, there are no fees to issue the refund, but the fees you originally paid as the seller are not returned to you.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

padi*0409 — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 11:17:05 GMT

@tiggywink92 wrote:
sadly there is a circle group that sets out to make new people with many ids to like their own messages. Just ignore them.

That's an interesting statement seeing there was only 4 kudos left in this thread and 2 of them were for the OP from you, and the other 2 were from 2 different members to 2 different posts.

Re: No fee credit on partial refunds

mwp106 — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:35:39 GMT

The main problem I find, as a seller, with fee credit on partial refunds is when a buyer orders multiple different items checks out and pays without 'requesting a total' beforehand and so the total p/h costs can amount up to quite a large amount with individual p/h cost taken for each item and so to be fair a partial refund is issued to the buyer to make the p/h charge a reasonable amount. The ebay system is set up that when a partial refund is issued a 'hang tight' message is sent followed up by a 'confirmation' message that the refund has been processed, if ebay can set this up for partial refunds why not a fee credit system because at the moment with partial refunds the buyer benefits, ebay benefits but the seller misses out especially when there are numerous partial refunds issued during each month.