paypal kept the coupon portion of my refund

[eyec360]

I bought an ebay item for $169 nearly a month ago using a 20% off coupon for a total of $135.20. I don't remember if i got the coupon from ebay or paypal. Anyway, I never received the item. I filed a dispute and the seller, who refused to answer my messages, almost immediately sent a full refund ($169). Paypal proceeded to credit back my credit card for $135.20 and they kept the coupon value of $33.80. Even though I got back what I paid, it would seem to me that i owned the $169 item regardless of the coupon. Had I recieved the item and sold it, I would get the whole amount.If I choose to buy the item again it will likely cost me the original $169. I lost the $33.80 value of the coupon since I won't be able to use it again. The only reason I made the purchase in the first place was because I didn't want to miss out on the value of the coupon. I shouldn't lose that value just because of an issue with the seller. It's the principal of the thing.

[Whac-A-Mole]

you may want to go to ebay buyer /seller forum and ask what happens to coupn in case of refund?

[ArgenisGonzalez]

Hi eyec360,

I am an eBay community experienced helping volunteer & i see you have concerns about your coupon. Allow me to explain further on how this process works. So when a coupon is used, you paid $132.20 & eBay basically paid the rest of the amount for you which was $33.80 & the seller pretty much doesnt mind whats going on as long as he/she gets paid the amount of $169. When a return is initiated & a refund is processed, everyone who paid for the item will get whatever they put in meaning you paid $132.20 so you get what you paid back & eBay basically paid $33.80 so they will be getting that back as they are not just going to give you $33.80 for free. However, each coupon has an expiration date & if you get refunded & the coupon has NOT expired yet then, you will recieve the coupon back into your account but, you will NOT just be given $33.80. As for PayPal, they are just putting back the money that was taken out which was $132.20 as its not their business on who paid for what. PayPal just cares about you & your account & YOUR money & they are there to get you only what YOU paid from your account. However, IF the coupon has NOT expired yet & you recieved a refund but NOT the coupon back into your account then, you will contact eBay customer service at (866)-540-3229 & they have a specific department that handles couons & promotions & offers. Now, if they see that the coupon has expired then they WONT put it back into your account since you were refunded your money back that YOU paid which was $132.20 & they dont owe you any thing more than that. The coupon was just an offer put into your account with an expiration date & they dont have to give you that coupon but they did. Now, if it expired & you kindly ask them if you may have another one then, out of courtest they might give you another one OR a different one but if they do decide to give you another one as a courtesy & its different than just accept it as atleast their giving you something. With that being said, im confident that i have answered your concerns & cleared it up for you. Best of luck to you & keep in mind your not losing anything here. Have a good one! ~AG.

[dougc-3]

I had a similar experience.  I bought an item on eBay for S85.95 including a $15 ebay coupon.  The wrong item was sent and I requested a refund. Paypal informed me that the $85.95 was refunded and it showed up in my "summary" "completed" list (their vague terms, not mine) as $85.95 refunded. The list which is vaguely termed "completed" looks like the list in a bank statement or the like.  Perhaps they could offer a few words of explanation about what the list actually represents. It sure looked to me as though they had refunded me the full $85.95.  But when I checked my bank statement, I saw that they had only refunded me $75.95.  I went back to the "summary" "completed" and clicked on the entry, expanding it, showing more vague information:   "Refunded to / $15.00 coupon / $75.95 Visa____"  Who is coupon, I wondered.  How do they refund $15 to coupon. Where does the money actually go. 

I think this "failure to communicate" is largely caused by their paucity of informative word use.  They could have said the $15 was refunded to eBay, or if they needed something more generic, they could have said it was refunded to the supplier of the coupon. And if they would show this information up front on an actual mathmatically correct statement similar to a bank or credit card statement, instead of presenting it in a cryptic manner requiring further mouse-clicking to locate further cryptic descriptions, they could prevent a lot of misgivings, misunderstanding, and complaints.

Thanks for reading this.