ACCC - Illegal - eBay not refunding Final Value Fees on Shipping costs that are Refunded

[dusan_malobabic]

Hi Everyone,

I've noticed for a while now that eBay has stopped issueing credits back to sellers on Final Value Fees taken for shipping/postage, that have since been adjusted (partially refunded) or fully refunded after the customer has paid.
PayPal issues an immediate refund for the fee taken on the portion of shipping costs refunded, however eBay is holding on to the money illegally.

Whilst I understand it's a small amount per transaction. Multiply this amount by hundreds of sales, multiplied by thousands of sellers over a few years, and you end up with something that is remnisant of the Banking errors made public recently. Whilst I'm sure this is an overcite, NOW that it's being brought up, should be corrected voluntarily by eBay Australia who holds a -  to avoid being put in the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

I think the headline "eBay Corrects Fee Errors - ACCC Applauds" is better than "ACCC Takes Proceeding Against eBay for Over Charging".

Thoughts?

[lyndal1838]

Have you ever taken the initiative and made a phone call to ebay to request a refund of the fees?

Or is it easier to come here and threaten ebay with a big stick?

[dusan_malobabic]

This affects you aswell if you're a seller, does it not. Have you checked?

[lyndal1838]

I am not a seller but it does not take much time or effort to read the boards and see that if things don't go smoothly you only have to ring ebay and get it sorted out.

Again I ask.....have you rung ebay and asked for refunds?

[brerrabbit585]

Lyndal, someone else said they'll only refund one transaction per phone call and you can only do it three times per month. I don't know whether this is right but I have no reason not to believe them. We really shouldn't have to ring them anyway. I know ebay could say we should offer free postage but that really doesn't help the buyer save on postage.

[egglesdtp]

I totally agree that there should be an automatic partial refund of FVFs if you do a partial refund via Paypal. This is usually as a result of combining postage that can be problematic to organise before the buyer pays - for multiple reasons. But it can be a darn nuisance if it happens on a regular basis, and usually for a small amount. Why should we as sellers have to ring ebay each time?. As the rabbit has pointed out, there appears to be a limit to how many times per month this can be done anyway.

Much less trouble is to deduct the fees paid on the extra postage before making the refund. The buyer is usually happy to get any sort of refund anyway, and if you explain you have refunded excess postage less the seller fees you have had to pay, they seem to accept that (many buyers don't even know that sellers have to pay fees on postage).

[Anonymous]

My fees on postage have probably doubled since they forced immediate payment on me. A lot paid immediately before but they weren't forced to pay immediately then so I felt justified in refunding the excess postage minus the fees. Now I refund the lot because it's not the buyer's fault they had to pay immediately. For the fees I'd save it'd be a poor use of my time getting people to tell me which items they want so I can put them all in one listing, and I'd lose sales because most buyers wouldn't bother. Like me, they want to keep it simple and just buy and be done with it.

Most of the time the fee on the refunded amount is only 27c but it all adds up. Even if ebay would credit me with the fees on all my refunds, it'd take me ages to go through them all and write them up. Sometimes on my sold list it'll show the amounts I refunded on each transaction, other times it doesn't, so it'd take a lot of time to work it all out.

They may be entitled to charge fees on the "total price" (item + postage) but the refunded postage isn't part of the total price the buyer ends up paying so they have no right to charge fees on it.

One day when I've got nothing better to do I might ring the ACCC and see what they say. In the meantime, I'll continue to put more of my efforts into selling elsewhere!

[egglesdtp]

I'm wondering why "Most of the time the fee on the refunded amount is only 27c"?  If I am refunding on excess postage it is usually because they have paid for two (or more) satchels instead of one. The FVF on one 500g satchel is around 80-90 cents (depending on your postage charge), plus there is the extra Paypal fee on the second purchase (30c). So if I am refunding the extra postage I deduct at least $1.

[digital*ghost]

I'll be curious to see if there will be auto credits for refunds when eBay takes over payment processing.

[dusan_malobabic · Accepted solution]

The eBay representative was very helpful and we went over a few years of it, all the way back to 2016. No problems there at all. Sadly this has to be a manual process for EVERY seller on eBay.

Every single one!

My feedback was added to the Void.

Any refunds given to the buyer, whilst acknoledged on the Order Details as being refunded, will NOT trigger an automatic credit for the lost Final Value Fee ( FVF ). The seller has to ring. Only cancelling a transaction will cause an automatic credit on a Final Value Fee.

The representative assures me that there is no issue with ringing occassionally (Once a month) with multiple requests for credits, so long as you have the item number, and it's clear a refund has been done.

Have a great weekend, I going to go and spend my $31.73 on some Fish and Chips.