Paypal won't allow partial refund for payment?

[everard6920]

I've never had this before.

Went to issue a buyer a partial refund for postage via Paypal (which I do whenever someone doesn't wait for an invoice and overpays on postage), and it says "Note: you can only issue a full refund for this payment". Checked my other recent payments (before and after this one) and they all allowed me to do partial refunds. And no, the payment is not an e-cheque.

Called Paypal, and they advised me to send the buyer a personal payment for the difference. Said it'd "take days" to do it the other way.

Anyone else had this problem? I've never encountered it before - I've always been able to issue partial refunds with no problem, and I'm hoping that this isn't some new thing they're implementing.

[go-tazz]

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@everard6920 wrote:

I've never had this before.

Went to issue a buyer a partial refund for postage via Paypal (which I do whenever someone doesn't wait for an invoice and overpays on postage), and it says "Note: you can only issue a full refund for this payment". Checked my other recent payments (before and after this one) and they all allowed me to do partial refunds. And no, the payment is not an e-cheque.

Called Paypal, and they advised me to send the buyer a personal payment for the difference. Said it'd "take days" to do it the other way. 

Off course they would as that way they don't have to re-imburse their FVF on the refund.

Anyone else had this problem? I've never encountered it before - I've always been able to issue partial refunds with no problem, and I'm hoping that this isn't some new thing they're implementing.

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I've never had that before,(I've always being able to do partial refunds and that's how it should be),

They have to also re-imburse their part of the FVF on the payment as they are not entitled to it.

If it happens on one of my transaction I will inform them that I want to do it the way it's always been done

so that I'm not out of pocket,(however small that amount may be)

[pancaket52]

Hi - I also reimburse my customers for combined postage when they pay for the full amount. 

But, I have usually reimbursed through 'Pay Anyone' in Paypal.

It allows you to put in the reason for the refund so the customer knows what it is and is just as fast.

I must have done partial refunds at one time and I don't really know why I stopped ( unless I thought I might get a defect from ebay or something).

Anyway it's just as easy and just as trackable as a 'Partial Refund' was.

[dave4110]

But this means you'll pay the PayPal fee twice, once for the eBay purchase, then again when you do the Pay Anyone transfer to the buyer correct?

[pennyforum14]

No, because you are making the payment, you don't pay any fees, and if you tick the "friends and family" box there are no fees deducted from the transaction for the receiver either.  But you also won't see an adjustment giving you back the appropriate proportion of the original fees.

Also, despite the fact that you can put in a note to say it is a partial refund for postage overcharge, it is still a spearate transaction and not in any way tied to the original one, so if the buyer chose to claim the postage refund was not received it is quite possible that Paypal would not recognise the second payment as belonging to the original transaction. (I asked this question once of Paypal support and they were unable to confirm that they would recognise the refund if it was done separately).

I always do partial refunds through the original transaction and have never seen a message such as the OP describes.

[harley_babes_hoard]

When you send a payment to someone you only need yo write in the notes refund for eBay item number such and such then the PayPal transaction number then it is tied to the purchase.

if I am only refunding a few bucks from a transaction then I use the refund button, however if I am refunding quite a lot, like half,  I will not use it as its possible to still get a defect.

[pennyforum14]

Yes, I know Harley, but Paypal are sticklers on detail, such as insisting items purchased immediately after each other but paid for separately are shipped separately, and when I asked if the note you describe would be sufficient evidence of a partial refund,  they ummed and ahhed and wouldn't commit. 

[everard6920]

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@pennyforum14 wrote:

No, because you are making the payment, you don't pay any fees, and if you tick the "friends and family" box there are no fees deducted from the transaction for the receiver either.  But you also won't see an adjustment giving you back the appropriate proportion of the original fees.

Also, despite the fact that you can put in a note to say it is a partial refund for postage overcharge, it is still a spearate transaction and not in any way tied to the original one, so if the buyer chose to claim the postage refund was not received it is quite possible that Paypal would not recognise the second payment as belonging to the original transaction. (I asked this question once of Paypal support and they were unable to confirm that they would recognise the refund if it was done separately).

I always do partial refunds through the original transaction and have never seen a message such as the OP describes.

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Yes, I asked the Paypal representative why, and he said it was "probably" a glitch.

I'm not sure, but I think it may be because I printed a postage label and then tried to refund? I almost always do it the other way around. That's the only difference between this transaction and all of the others.

I went ahead and send a personal payment to the buyer, despite the fees, but if it happens again I'll be insisting that they fix it.

[purplepoisiniv]

Happened to me last time they had an ebay voucher special. I rang paypal and was told if a purchase is paid for using a voucher code you cannot give a partial refund only a full refund. I would guess your buyer has used some promotional code when they have paid you.

[saarzi]

Sounds very strange - I had an overpayment on postage last week and did a partial refund with no issues.