New Cancellation Process?

[digital*ghost]

Yesterday, I received a returned item from a buyer (change of mind), so I refunded their payment, less postage costs, then went to send them a request to cancel the transaction, but arrived at a new page with only two options instead of the usual 8 or so - one was that I was out of stock, and the other that the buyer asked to cancel or there was a problem with their address. I thought maybe this was because the order had been paid for, posted etc but not fully refunded, and didn't actually go through with the request in case this was the 'magical' defect causing system. >_>

But, I had a buyer ask to cancel an order that they never paid for, so I just went to send the request and I got the same screen and two options (although there was eBay's handy hint that told me "make sure you've been paid before you refund the buyer").

I selected "the buyer asked to cancel..." option and clicked submit, and then I immediately received two emails.

The first one said "You agreed to cancel an order" with

"We let the buyer know that you want to cancel this order

Here's what you should do next:

If the buyer paid for this order, you should refund the order total and any shipping costs. We’ll ask the buyer to confirm they received the refund."

The second one said "You canceled an order"

"You cancelled an order from [buyer name], and we already notified them. You don't need to do anything else because the buyer hasn't paid for this order yet.

You'll get a final value fee credit in your account that you can apply toward listing more items to sell on eBay."

So, I didn't even need to wait for the buyer to agree? o_O The purchase was made on the 2nd of November and they only sent me a message yesterday asking to cancel, so it wouldn't come under the 1-hour request thing. Does anyone know anymore about this? I'm wondering if this might be an across the board change, or only if the buyer sends a message regarding returns or cancellations (i.e. buyer initiated cancellation)? Otherwise it would provide the option to cancel an unpaid transaction without any buyer input or going through the UPI process.

[digital*ghost]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

I have one at the moment, buyer asked to cancel as they purchased the same item twice and only want one. Even though they haven't paid it is showing as waiting for buyer to confirm refund LOL

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So yours is still an open case? How bizarre - on mine, it just says "This order was cancelled", and it happened as soon as I submitted the request. 

I have another one I have to deal at the moment, similar circumstances (buyer bought same item twice, paid for one). I sent them a message to confirm if the second purchase was in error, then I sent a reminder letting them know I'll have to initiate a transaction cancellation process (my way of saying "unpaid item dispute  ) if I can't confirm, but they haven't responded to either. I know UPI is the smart thing to do in a lot of cases, but when issues like this occur because of site glitches and the like (which is more common for these multiple identical purchase situations), I'd rather resolve in other ways if I can...

I just don't want to be at the mercy of eBay's 'mighty' defect stick just for trying to get fees back on a non-sale, as like MBS, there are a few circumstances where I feel a mutual cancellation is more appropriate (for me, cancelling a purchase is just an extension of change of mind returns, which I offer), but they don't always come under "out of stock" or "buyer asked to cancel". It would be ok if I trusted them enough to do the right thing if their systems don't, but alas I do not. I also don't want to go to the extent of having a restocking fee so that I don't have to run eBay's cancellation gauntlet and not incur a loss when a customer pays but returns for a refund.

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@bigbrickshop wrote:

d*g, I haven't had a recent cancellation but it seems like eBay is making it all up as they go along  😞  It would be much simpler if both buyers and sellers could initiate cancellation requests.

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 I wish....

Anyone have a spare genie? I would like to gift some logic to the minds at eBay. 

[clarry100]

We haven't seen this new cancellation process yet DG as we haven't had to cancel for a couple of weeks now. We do get the occasional new buyer who will get it wrong and buy the same item twice. When this happens we send a message asking if this was an error. If they respond we will offer them cancellation and explain what they need to do. If no response then it goes on to a UID.

[donnashuggy]

Yes it is still open, worse still the buyer doesn't even know if they have paid or not. I have told them just to pay for the one, the id seems to be shared between husband and wife as he asked if his wife already purchased one.

[donnashuggy]

This is the option now if a buyer doesn't receive or the item is faulty etc:

Send a refundJust select "Send a refund", and we'll send the refund to the buyer — there's no need to log in to PayPal.

[joxamara]

I cancelled two transactions the other day - both had been paid for and negative feedback left as well.

The cancellations went through as did refunds and feedback revision completed.

No defects so far and neither have I received defects for other items that customers have mistakenly purchased twice and which I have then cancelled.

I've also processed partial refunds for overpaid postage via paypal and these have not resulted in defects.

fingers crossed it all continues this way....

[clarry100]

Wow! You have been lucky. Yes I hope it continues this way for you.

Other sellers have been defected off the planet for daring to look sideways at ebay.

[egglesdtp]

All I can say is thank goodness I don't sell on ebay any more.

[2106greencat]

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@makeuplife wrote:

Just had the same thing...I wanted to cancelan order being sent to Brazil as I don't post there, and haven't had contact with the buyer who has 0 feedback...

I was too worried to use this new system due to receiving a defect, so am going to wait 4 days and file an unpaid item instead 😞

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But what if the buyer pays ??

Then you are going to have to send to a country you don't want to send to or risk a negative feedback.

I am not up on this defect thing, but surely a negative would hurt you more?

[harley_babes_hoard]

Had to do a cancellation just now.

I chose buyer wants to cancel. it says the request is sent. now it says waiting for response from buyer to see if they got a refund..........WTH they didn't even pay just cancel the darn thing. why does every process have to be long and drawn out.

[harley_babes_hoard]

i wonder if it is easier to tell the buyer to cancel from their end if the item hasn't been paid for. I'm also wondering what happens now if the buyer answers that he never got a refund (even though it wasn't paid for)