Ebay Payment Refund / Currency Conversion

[mrlee254]

ASUS F556UA-AS54 15.6" Full-HD Laptop (Core i5 8GB 256GB SSD) - (Item No: 291917961861)

Lenovo V110-15ISK 15.6" Notebook Intel Core i3-6100U 2.3GHz 4GB RAM 500GB HDD - (Item No: 371795408654)

I am writing in regards to the two items above that I purchased from Ebay. So the issue is that, for the two items, I transacted in dollars, my master-card is set up in dollars as well but for some reason the transactions were billed in kenyan shillings therefore introducing a conversion fee which I wasn't expecting. So wanted to find out why that happened. I've transacted with ebay a number of times before yet this has never happened. It always charges in dollars as is set on the card. Kindly advice on this matter as I would like that extra conversion fees refunded.

Another issue is that one of the two items above was cancelled by the seller, the seller decided not to proceed with selling the item and refunded the money, that is the ASUS laptop. So how long will it take for the money to reflect in my card plus also the extra money that was charged for conversion? Like for the ASUS laptop, the seller charged approximately 498USD but my card was debited with approximately 529USD. He has refunded the 498USD which has not yet reflected in my card but also wanted to know how I will recover the difference of approximately 30USD as well. Same to the second Lenovo laptop, the seller charged approximately 249 USD but my card was debited with approximately 259USD. How will the 10USD difference be recovered as well?

And in future, how can this currency conversions be stopped to avoid such inconveniences? With Amazon they have an option where you set the preferred currency on your card so that it is billed with the currency you select. How is this implemented on Ebay/Paypal? I didn't see any such option when setting up. Kindly advice.

[kernowlass]

@mrlee254

Suggest you ask customer services.

[mrlee254]

Now that is my greatest dilemma. On their website I'm not getting an email address I can use for customer service, or live chat. As for the phone call, I'm not in the US and from where I am right now calling might prove to be a very costly experience, not unless I run out of aoptions. How can I contact customer service other than calling? Think that would really help me out.

[Whac-A-Mole]

read paypal terms and agreement,there is a conversion fee involved,

since you are in Kenya,your local currency is Kenyan currency,PAYPAL will convert the amount to Kenyan currency.

see if you can find more information in terms and agreement

[mrlee254]

My card is not set in Kenyan Shillings but in USD. So why still do the conversion?

[kernowlass]

@mrlee254

 have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?

You can send them a personal message from their facebook or twitter pages.

It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.

[mrlee254]

Yea, I've sent a message to their facebook page, waiting for their reply though got an auto-response message that it may take a whole day before they respond.

[Whac-A-Mole]

But your Paypal account is in Kenya and your local currency is in Kenyan shilling.

We are mostly based in USA and just PAYPAL members,please ask customer service,I doubt if they know much,so go to Paypal terms and agreement and look under foreign currency.

I know there is a curency conversion fee of 2 1/2% on top of real time exchange rate,so it would fluctuates,these days US $ is very strong and emerging market currencies weak,   

[mrlee254]

Yea, I think the best solution would be to talk to customer care, let me wait and see if they get to respond. I wonder why they don't have a live chat facility, think that would be very convenient in such a scenario.

[Whac-A-Mole]

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@mrlee254 wrote:

My card is not set in Kenyan Shillings but in USD. So why still do the conversion?

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who issued the card?

and if it is set in US $,how does the card issuer bill you,do you pay in US $ or Kenyan shilling?