Paypal Amendment Changes 05-17-19

[amaxlite]

Hello,

Was wanting clarification for this policy update.  I don't believe it's fair to charge the seller a fee if we have to refund a customer based on accidental purchase or change of mind purchase.  Please advise.

"We’re changing how we treat refunds. If you refund (partially or fully) a transaction to a buyer or a donation to a donor, there are no fees to make the refund, but the fees you originally paid as the seller will not be returned to you."

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full

[Rhylly1]

I have the same question too and would like clarification.

Yesterday my customer made an error in purchasing two products and I agreed to refund both purchases for him. The Paypal charges refunded to me were $8.62 + $7.18.  

Am so glad this policy has not come in yet. It is ridiculous that I would have to have incurred these fees even though I had not sold anything and have clearly refunded the full purchase. 
I will have to look into Ebay policy, to see if I really need to have Paypal as an easy payment option.

Clearly not happy Jan.

[sharpiemarker]

@amaxlite 

Just deduct the fee from the refund amount if it ain't your fault that you have to refund.

[Rhylly1]

Yes, I will have to do that, and maybe put something in the payment page to advise a fee is payable on refunds due to new Paypal policy etc etc

[sharpiemarker]

@Rhylly1 

Yep! I get the occasional customer who don't have the same address on their marketplace order as on their PayPal payment so I refund and deduct the fee and let them know so they can resend payment with the correct shipping address, or not and I just cancel the order.

[amaxlite]

We could do that but why the extra hassle?  If we process a full refund and the fee isn't returned to us then how is the customer getting all of their money back unless Paypal deducts the fee from our balance?  How are businesses encouraged to do fair business and return customers money with this new policy?

[zymurgypg]

The confusion most people have with this change is the terminology. 

Right now, if you sell something on eBay and a return occurs the percentage part of the paypal fee is refunded, but not the 30 cents. This is spelled out in the current tems. 

"If you refund a payment for goods or services, we will retain the fixed fee portion of the fees you paid as the seller. The amount of the refunded payment will be deducted from your PayPal account."

The new policy makes this ambiguous. It could be the same thing, but termed differently. It could also be paypal keeps the percentage fee, too. 

I hope Paypal will make it clearer. 

[paulherman]

I have a small business (not an Ebay seller) where we sell lots of low priced items with a very small profit margin. Paypal already makes more money from our business than we do via their transaction fees. We do many refunds, including a lot of partial refunds, since most of our orders are for dozens if not hundreds of items - some of which might be out of stock. This policy change by Paypal of not refunding fees on refunds will probably impact our bottom line by a good deal. As if Paypal isn't already making enough money ... this is all about greed.