I see another phone call in your future unfortunately. I'm so sorry this has occurred. It would be helpful if there was a help desk for NZ sellers. Hopefully you are able to resolve this matter soon. It seems like it shouldn't be this complicated for eBay.

I'm seeing another phone call in my future too. I responded to the email telling them that the buyer was unlikely to close the case as they were trying to extract more funds from me, and received another message saying they would get back to me within 72 hours.

Their customer service is a complete shambles - it seems that no one knows what they're doing, and cases are handled by dozens of different people with no cohesion.  You speak to two different people and get two completely different answers.  If they just trained everyone in the same way and had the different departments actually communicate with each other, people might not have to spend hours on the phone trying to fix things.  It would be helpful if they had an NZ help desk as international lines aren't great and it's difficult to hear what they are asking sometimes which drags it out even longer.  Will try again tomorrow I guess. 

On a positive note, I feel I have enough evidence and file notes lodged on eBay's side now that if they buyer does ask eBay to step in and resolve things, there's a decent chance it will be in my favour.  But again, not holding my breath.


Latest update:

After much back-and-forth from eBay, they told me that the screenshot I sent them was valid proof of the refund, and while they could not close the case right away, it would be closed in my favour on the 10th. 

A couple of hours later, the buyer escalated the case.  I felt fairly confident as I had it in writing from eBay that the case would be closed in my favour.

Overnight last night, the case was closed in the buyer's favour and her money was refunded, even though I'd already refunded her. 

There was also an email in my inbox from a different customer service rep, who told me that the screenshot was not valid as the amount was different (I had by this time explained this to eBay a dozen times about currencies, you'd think an international sales site might realise that different countries use different currencies by now)!  She also said that the user in the screenshot was different to the ebay user - what??? I responded and told her to look again at the screenshot, the user was the same, and that I had it in writing from ebay that the screenshot was valid and the case would be closed in my favour, and yet the opposite had happened.

I then received a generic copy and paste response telling me how to appeal a case decision.

I feel eBay have well and truly screwed me over at this point.  Not only have the funds been refunded twice, they haven't done a single thing that they said they'd do, and now I have a seller defect to my name, despite spending hours trying to avoid this, and receiving written assurance this wouldn't happen.

In response to my email to eBay, I received an email saying they would arrange a callback for me within 24 hours.  They called me this morning and I explained the issue.  Told me it was PayPal's problem (which it isn't, it's eBay who hasn't followed through and closed the case) and said they needed confirmation from PayPal that the refund had been made (which was already given to them in the phone call last week).  Told me they would make a three-way call to PayPal, but ended up transferring me instead!

I explained to PayPal what happened, and they released the held funds. If they had just done that last week when I asked, I would have been able to refund the buyer that way!  After they did that, I asked them to transfer me back to eBay so I wouldn't have to request another phone call.  The lady told me that PayPal don't transfer calls, and that she could lose her job if she did.  Uhh, but the person I spoke to at PayPal last week could!

So, after 46 minutes, I had to hang up and request another call from eBay.  Fortunately they called within five minutes.  The person I spoke to said she needed proof of the payment, and asked for a screenshot.  She emailed me with a link and asked me to upload the screenshot.  I did so while she was on the phone.  She said it would take up to another 24 hours for them to receive the screenshot and close the case in my favour, and to call back then if the case still wasn't closed.  I'm not holding my breath.

That phone call took 29 minutes.  I have now spent 147 minutes on the phone trying to fix this mess.

Thanks for the advice.  As she can ask eBay to step in today, I will respond to the case with a summary of what has occurred so far including the PayPal transaction reference. Hopefully eBay will actually read it before making a decision.

I feel for the buyer and don't think she should be disadvantaged by failures on eBay and PayPal's part, but I shouldn't have to pay more than the auction amount, I am already losing the sales money and have spent hours of my own time trying to resolve this. 

Well, surprise surprise, 48 hours later and eBay has not closed the case and the funds are still on hold. 

I went back to eBay to request another call, but that option had disappeared and there was instead only an email option, so I've sent them a long-winded email with the whole story, requesting that the case be closed, and my fees refunded.

On a side note, it appears the exchange rates have changed since the auction closed.  The buyer contacted me to say the payment she received was less than what she had paid.  I sent her back the exact amount she paid in USD, it appears to have been automatically converted to her own currency and was about 10% less than what she paid originally. My concern is that if she doesn't feel she has been fully refunded, she may request a refund via ebay which will result in the funds being removed from me a second time, as eBay haven't done what they promised and the case is still open!

A buyer opened an unreceived item case on ebay. When I attempt to refund through the resolution centre it says:

"There was a problem sending your refund to the buyer.  To try again or to see what's wrong, go to PayPal."

When I log into PayPal, the funds for the transaction are on hold saying:

"Your buyer has opened a dispute on this transaction. Sign in to your eBay account for more information on how to resolve it." with no option to refund.

I'm going round in circles.  And if I wait for eBay to step in and refund the buyer, it will count against me as a seller.

Any idea how to refund the buyer?  I'm not located in the US, and not in a position to be making lengthy international phone calls to eBay.

The buyer responded and asked me to refund the credit card payment, then send her another invoice through PayPal so she could pay with her own money.  She then messaged me again and said she had settled the payment with her mother and not to cancel the sale after all.  I messaged her mother to ask if this was correct. 

However, I then checked out the buyer's feedback and it's appalling.  One seller noted that she racked up $1,500 in purchases and then stopped responding.  Another said she didn't pay or make contact. 

I reported her earlier in the day through the "report buyer" link, shortly after the mother messaged me.  I don't think eBay respond to those reports though, do they?  How can I get out of the sale without paying the fees?

Thanks, it worked!  Although I could see some of the colour running off the beads so next time I think I'll skip the soap and just use cold water.  They're drying in the sun at the moment.  One had so much gunk inside, possibly some kid's drool from 25 odd years ago... ugh!