EBay
Funds held and buyer refunded before item was returned in dispute

On August 7, I received payment for an ended auction from an eBay buyer. According to eBay's policies, they held the payment until the buyer received the item, which was marked as delivered and signed for by the buyer on August 9. The buyer was not happy with the item, so I offered a full refund once they returned the item and the funds cleared. Instead, the buyer demanded a full refund prior to returning. I contacted eBay regarding this and they stated it was up to the buyer to return the item and that, unless they filed a dispute, I would not receive the funds.

The buyer filed a dispute. When I contacted eBay, they stated that the funds would be held indefinitely until the dispute was resolved and the buyer was the only one who could decide if the dispute was resolved. They also stated that it would take 72 hours before decision could be made and—given that I had messages from the buyer stating they would not return the item—it was not likely the decision would be in the buyer's favor. In the mean time, the funds would not be released and the buyer was able to decide on whether they would keep the item or return it. I called eBay several times on August 10 to get this situation straightened out, but the Resolution Department was not able to assist.

So, about one hour after my conversation with a supervisor in the Resolution Department, I logged into eBay to see if, by chance, the buyer had responded to the dispute. To my surprise, there was a message from eBay stating the case had been reviewed and was found in the buyer's favor. Now, I am out the item (which was expensive) and eBay has kept the funds and stated they are not likely to be released to me.

Company: EBay
Country: USA
Site: ebay.com

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