eBay wants card details when already has bank details

jollyfred

I wonder if other Forumites can help with this as I'm at a loss.

I sold an item recently, input bank account details, and the pay-out was made a week later. All good.

Now sold another item which has to be cancelled so went to do this and eBay says:

Your refund did not go through. Please add a payment option to refund the buyer.

When I click on 'add a payment option', it only gives the option of 'credit or debit card'. If I click on this, it says 'add a card for selling costs'.

What's this about? It's already used bank account details for one pay-out. Why does it now want a credit or debit card to refund a buyer? 

Help!

jollyfred

Update on this.

I went through the 'Help & Contact' pages to cancel the sale and it says it's done this, without asking for any card details. 

However, I now have an email saying the cancellation has failed 

We were unable to charge your payment method for the refund of this cancellation. Please add or update your payment instrument and try again.

Getting a bit stressed by this

jollyfred

Called eBay and they explained about this, which may be something regular users understand, but it was new to me and may help others in a similarly confused situation.

You have to select your bank account as a 'payment instrument' for covering any outstanding seller fees for this also to be used for buyer refunds. This seems to set up a direct debit from your bank account I but can't find exact wording to this effect.

If you do this, eBay says the buyer's payment funds are paid to the bank account, and then the refund taken from the same account, so you end up with a debit line then a credit line on the bank statement.

I was told that, because some people don't like giving eBay the right to take funds (i.e. the seller's fees) from a bank account, there is also the option of debit/credit card to cover this. If this option is selected, a buyer refund will be charged to the card, after which the buyer's payment will be paid into the bank account.

This all seems a bit overcomplicated and they couldn't explain why the seller's account and cards have to be involved at all, and why a refund can't be just a paper transaction by eBay.

If anyone has different info to this, or any views on it, it would be appreciated as I'm still at a lost to know what to do for the best.

Thanks, fred.