@analog_cameras wrote:
Look I started this not wanting advice, explanation etc. etc. just asking if anybody knew how to contact eBay central (bypassing OZ help) Or how to report them to whatever is the relevant regulatory body - read my query that's all I asked.
Understanding the issue in full would be the best way to figure out who to contact about what - not knowing what happened and / or how is a pretty big spanner in that particular works, for lack of a better analogy.
By which I mean to say that eBay CS may well say one thing, but if they can't replicate the issue or whatever, then it could suggest the anomaly was caused by something different - multiple funding sources, for example. That may not be applicable to your buyer, but lots of payments are funded by multiple sources - coupons, PayPal funds + credit card back ups, and so on. What's odd here is how the payments are adding up, like it's pointing directly to a discrepancy between quantities the buyer ordered and was charged for, and quantities you were paid for.
There is no eBay central, just to address that - the main corporation is in the US, but they are completely irrelevant to eBay AU - there's no going over ebay AU's head, so to speak, they are all under the same company, but they are separate branches, so trying to get in touch with someone outside of eBay AU won't bring any joy. There is (or maybe was?) a specialist managed payments team that worked outside of the usual people CS network, you may be able to access them through MP help page links etc, they may still have the proper help line set up. Not sure if this would be something they can help with, though - you'd think they would be, but their primary task was assisting sellers with transition issues (from PayPal to Managed Payments), and they weren't even great at that. I spoke to one while I preparing to go through the verification process and was provided 100% misinformation; had to figure it out on my own.
There is an eBay AU Facebook page that used to be ok at handling Aus-specific issues, but nowadays all they do is link to policy pages (still might be worth a shot - try everything, just have a copy/paste message to reduce the time investment lol).
AFCA is still worth messaging as well, just be sure to ask them who can help you if they can't, because honestly I don't think anyone knows the answer to that right now.
I still think the buyer has a better shot at getting this resolved, though - unlike us lowly sellers, there is a heck of a lot of buyer advocacy, industry oversight with regards to what they likely used to pay, and plenty of motivation on eBay's part to keep buyers happy. I would not recommend anything like a chargeback or dispute at this stage from the buyer, not without knowing exactly what happened and where the surplus funds are, since I wouldn't trust eBay not to refund the buyer in full from your funds, even though they didn't give you all the funds.
