Paid Item marked as Awaiting payment

[stylesilver]

Hi Guys.. Has this happened to anyone & does anyone know why?...So a customer bought an item then said they would pay later (didnt know that was possible?)..Anyway for about 10 days my Ebay sold list said Awaiting Payment & showed an Hourglass symbol. But when I contact customer to ask when shes going to pay. shes cranky because she said she paid by Paypal days ago. So I check Paypal & sure enough its marked paid (saying paid 4th July)... but my Ebay summary list is STILL saying Awaiting Payment.

Has anyone had this happen & know why?...Going to send it today...As it must be paid if its in my Paypal list?

Cheers Guys ( & giiiirrrls)

[lm-entertainment]

just to clear up any confusion about what an "echeque" is; it's basically a payment which is sourced from a savings or transaction account, not a credit card. therefore, the payment isn't instant - the buyer may think they've "paid" and the money will disappear from their bank account soonafter the transaction (about 1-2 business days), but they usually take 3-5 business days to actually clear. 

if you keep your emails from paypal saying that a payment has been received, it should say "pending echeque payment received" if it was an echeque payment, rather than "instant payment received." 

https://www.paypal.com/au/smarthelp/article/what-is-an-echeque-faq1082

[digital*ghost]

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@stylesilver wrote:

It says "This item is pending payment through Paypal" ...but on Paypal, it just looks like its a normal payment. So the customer has told me she wants a apology & a refund. Because she been checking her letterbox everyday, waiting for iit. But Ive been looking at it in my sold list saying " Awaiting payment " Digi do you think this is what happens with an echeque? Ive asked the customer & havent had an answer yet

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Generally that will happen with an eCheque - however, the initial email notifications for both the buyer and seller should clarify that the payment is an eCheque, and then a few business days later, both should then get another email to say the payment cleared. Did you ever get a payment notification from PayPal?

Not to mess with anyone's established processes, as I know there are lots of different ways to do things, but if it helps anyone, I pick orders from the awaiting postage page on eBay, and then process the postage side of things (create labels, address envelopes etc) all from the PayPal notifications which are then archived, this enables me to detect anomalies or discrepancies between eBay and PayPal, like an old purchase appearing back in awaiting postage, or pick up on a payment for an order not yet showing on ebay.

I may well off base here, but I find it a bit weird your buyer has said nothing during this time, but now that they know there's been an issue, it's revealed they've been so eagerly awaiting delivery of this purchase, they check the letterbox daily specifically for it but apparently not once checked eBay to see if it's actually been posted. And here I'm not suggesting anything other than maybe they are milking it a bit to get the outcome they want, but that could well be my cynicism at play. 

I would basically do as she's asked either way, only because once a buyer says they want a refund, there's not a lot of point sending them the item - do you actually have the option to cancel the transaction on eBay? 

I would also offer the requested apology, not as an admittence of wrong-doing necessarily, more so for the inconvenience cause by the obvious site errors that occurred with eBay failing to update the payment status and prohibiting the order from progressing. 

[brerrabbit585]

e-cheques are pretty obvious because paypal spell out that's what they are and not to post yet. If I have anything similar to what you experienced I always sign in to paypal (or my bank account) and check straight away. That sort of thing has been happening for many years (but not very often).

[purplemon18]

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@stylesilver wrote:

It says "This item is pending payment through Paypal" ...but on Paypal, it just looks like its a normal payment. So the customer has told me she wants a apology & a refund. Because she been checking her letterbox everyday, waiting for iit. But Ive been looking at it in my sold list saying " Awaiting payment " Digi do you think this is what happens with an echeque? Ive asked the customer & havent had an answer yet

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Maybe I'm precious or something, but after processing the refund/cancelation, my response would be along the lines of "I have processed a refund, as for your apology, I'm sorry that you are unhappy that something went wrong that was not my fault." I would then add them to my blocked buyers list and delete any further messages from them unread.

[purplemon18]

Having said that, I probably would have already said I'm sorry at some point. Whenever I have to communicate something negative to a customer, I usually say:

"I'm sorry, but this disc is region 4, so it wont play in your american player"

"I'm sorry, but delivery to China normally takes a month or more"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have anymore of that colour lipstick"

"I'm sorry, I've not sent your item yet because ebay is reporting that the payment is still pending. I don't know why it says that, but I am investigating"

[countessalmirena]

I agree with what purplemon and digital*ghost have said...

The buyer has a right to the requested refund, but I do find the "I want an apology" a little odd, as you mention that you have communicated to the buyer already that there is some sort of discrepancy between the eBay status and the PayPal status. The most obvious implication (which I assume that the buyer can gauge) is that there's a technical issue, and that is not your fault..

In those circumstances, the buyer's apology should be coming from whoever is responsible for ensuring that payment information is correctly communicated between PayPal and eBay, or vice versa. But there's a well-known phenomenon with the middle person or easiest target being perceived as the blame.

As both digital*ghost and purplemon say, apologising to the buyer for the wait / inconvenience would be a good gesture. Don't make it defensive, just straightforward... e.g.,

❝Dear [buyer],

Thank you for your recent communication concerning your purchase of item no. [xxxxx]. As per your request, I have processed a full refund for you.

What appears to have happened is a data issue. There are technical glitches which can occur when payment status information is not properly conveyed between the eBay and PayPal transaction architecture. Thankfully, it's rare, but I'm so sorry that your transaction was one of those rare instances and I hope that you haven't been too badly inconvenienced.

Best wishes for your future purchases.

Regards,

[seller].❞

If you'd rather not deal with the buyer again (if she were even interested in purchasing from you again), you can then choose to put the buyer on your Blocked buyers list.

[stylesilver]

Thanks Digi And PURPLE MON TWYNGWYN, IM ENTERTAINMENT, BRERERABBIT & THE COUNTESS! Wow!! Such great advice as ususal... you should all get together & write the "New Ultimate Ebay Guide"

So turns out YES it was a ECheque (havent had 1 of them in years) Found out by looking at my Emails from Paypal (I never do that ..I do what you do Digi & go off the Ebay awaiting postage list).. Never check sent emails but when I did it said its was a ECheque (whereas no mention of this on Paypal site. Weird?) And yes the money cleared a few days later so it has been ready to send for about 5 days.. SOOO I have now sent it with a BIG sorry but also pointing out that it seemed to be a glitch of missing info between Ebay/Paypal. I had to mark it as "Paid & Sent"  whereas Im sure it used to tell you to send it when the funds cleared?

Spoiler

dont have a spoiler .. but dont know how to remove the spoiler tag after accidently pressing it

 So I think she being passive aggressive by just ignoring my 4 messages ive now sent her .. whilst sorting this out. I still sent it to her because the message she sent was "Im sooo dissapointed.. I really was looking forward to recieving them. yarda yarda!! You owe me a refund & an apology!" Reading between the lines I think she still wantied the item.. so I send them it an apology & a little gift to for the mix up (but pointing out,  it wasnt really my fault, like Purplemon & the Countess advised, as Ebay still had it down as "Awaiting Payment")

Spoiler

 So once again thanks Guys.. From this I learnt to check my emails as they contain more info than Paypal records!!

[stylesilver]

Nice wording !! Might block her after a little while - Dont want to make her crankier! LOL

[stylesilver]

But it wasn't in the PayPal details .. Only in the original Email they sent did it say it was a Echeque (& I don't read the emails ... Know to check them from now on when there's a query)

[stylesilver]

I do think she's milking it...and it worked as I sent her a gift ... Haa haa ...but it would be nice if she answered my email now