Has anyone ever been unable to do a partial refund through paypal?

[englishrosegardens]

I quite often do partial refunds of overpaid postage for combined items through paypal but at the moment I have a buyer who paid without waiting for an invoice and when I click on the link to refund it has the whole amount pre-filled in and I can't change it to a smaller amount.  None of the other payments I've received in the last couple of days are like this and I could do partial refunds on all of them if I wanted to.

Has anyone else had this happen?  Does anyone have any suggestions or know why it might have happened?  The buyer has feedback in the hundreds so they're not a guest buyer, and I've done partial refunds to guest buyers in the past anyway.  I don't want to do a Send Money payment through paypal because if something goes wrong I'll end up refunding that amount twice. 

The amount I want to refund is only $1.55 so I might have to tell the buyer that I can't do it but if she buys from me again to wait for an invoice and I'll give her a discount on the postage.  I'm not sure she'll believe me, of course.  I have a bit in my descriptions and on my shop home page explaining that I can't do full refunds on overpaid postage and to wait for an invoice, but lately 90% or more of buyers pay immediately.

[englishrosegardens]

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@lane-ends wrote:

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@spottymeg53 wrote:

Why dont you just send the $1.50 to them via paypal to their email address using Send Money Family or Friends.

Gayle

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Rember they will get a fee deducted from any money you send this way

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No, there are no fees deducted when you do a personal payment to family or friends, so long as you're using funds already in your paypal account and you're in the same country.  I've sent money to a friend many times this way, and received money just as many times.

[englishrosegardens]

I might have to edit all my listings to say IMMEDIATE PAYMENT = NO COMBINED POSTAGE (or similar). But HOW does one get people to actually read it????

[springyzone]

Oh boy, I am not sure that is such a smart idea.

Why on earth imply that immediate payment is a bad thing?

Personally, I would just put a line in my ads that a combined postage discount may be available for those who make multiple purchases, but to enquire after winning.

If a person does not enquire, I would just send off the purchases separately if they were bought separately or else say nothing.

I admire your dedication to giving refunds but it sounds a bit fiddly & for $1.55, I doubt it is a big issue.

[englishrosegardens]

The problem is I sell another line of products that cost $12 to post a single item, and if they buy 2 and pay straight away they've overpaid by $12. I need to make them aware that they have to wait for an invoice if they want combined postage. I already have an explanation in my listings about ebay taking fees on postage but when I explain to people why I've had to take the fees out of the refund, none of them had any idea how it works, so obviously nobody reads anything you have in the description.

There's no point in having them pay immediately if they get annoyed enough to give a negative when I can't refund the overpaid postage or send in two parcels!

[bridiestreasures4680]

I've just done one of these myself, all you do is highlight the amount in the box, press delete and type in the amount you want to refund.

Cheers

[englishrosegardens]

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@bridiestreasures4680 wrote:

I've just done one of these myself, all you do is highlight the amount in the box, press delete and type in the amount you want to refund.

Cheers

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No, you haven't just done one of these.  This is a completely different scenario and it's not a case of "all you do is..." 

How am I supposed to highlight and change a figure that isn't in a field ("box")?  It just isn't going to happen!  It's set so that I either do a full refund or none at all. 

If you read my post you'd see that I've done plenty the normal way before and I'm not new to it.

[casbit33]

I haven't had any problems with partial refunds. Do you try and change it with the first window, or do you wait until you get to the second one where you can add a note to the seller. The second window is the only place to alter the amount. I did make a partial refund today of $5  If someone pays by bank deposit i give them a discount on their next order telling them about it and giving them a 6 month time limit.

[lane-ends]

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@englishrosegardens wrote:
I might have to edit all my listings to say IMMEDIATE PAYMENT = NO COMBINED POSTAGE (or similar). But HOW does one get people to actually read it????

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That would just annoy them when they read it just after they paid.

[englishrosegardens]

I wasn't seriously going to say that, but it's about the only thing some buyers would take notice of.  I'll probably say if they want the benefits of combined post they need to wait for an invoice, which is the same thing but just put in a different way.

casbit, I tried every which way to do a partial refund and every time the refund amount was pre-set for the full amount and couldn't be changed.

The buyer said they used a voucher when they paid so it's obviously got something to do with that.

[lyndal1838]

The use of the voucher explains it.

If a voucher is used the buyer cannot get a refund for cash for any part of it.  A full refund can be done but ebay gets to keep the voucher amount....it does not go to the buyer.