eBay will soon share the burden sellers bear when issuing partial refunds to customers, though not entirely. Beginning May 23, 2022, eBay will automatically issue FVF credits to sellers for partial refunds on a prorated basis.
Previously, sellers could not recoup the commission fees they paid when issuing partial refunds – not a rare occurrence especially when sellers want to offer partial refunds for shipping.
eBay announced the new policy as part of the Winter 2022 Seller Update and reminded sellers in a post on Monday.
Note that eBay will not credit any portion of the 30-cent per-order fee (which is industry standard).
While eBay will automatically credit prorated portions of Promoted Listings Standard and international fees for global sellers, it will not issue credits for Promoted Listings Express fee or Promoted Listings Advanced fee.
eBay said the credits would appear in seller accounts starting May 23 – the full announcement is available on the eBay Seller Announcement board.
I remember years ago this was standard practice – to refund fees in accordance with a partial refund. It was eBay’s abject greed that put a stop to it.
Partial refunds should only be possible for the shipping charged. If no shipping charged, then no partial refund should be possible. EVERY week I have buyers seek partial refunds for asinine reasons. Many times I have buyers threaten negative feedback if they don’t get a partial refund. I don’t engage with this and I have lots of negative feedback and abusive returns as a result. Its part of a culture of theft ebay has a nurtured among its buyers. Ebay touts that this type of extortion will not be tolerated but in practice it is not only tolerated but encourage. They refuse to remove the feedback on probably 90% of clear extortion. The ACT of extortion is not enough. They must express in the messages they plan to extort before extorting or the extortion doesn’t count. If you list your items properly partial refunds should never be necessary. Partial refunds should not be a thing at all. Use PayPal if you want to partial refund. Its 100% a tool for thieves to steal and has little honest purpose.