ebay illegally holding my money from unauthorized transaction and doesn't want to give it back

Selling on other Platforms eBay
1

On June 19th I had charge from ebay $1759,80 on my bank account which wasn’t authorized by me. It put my bank account in negative balance and as I was scared of overdraft fees, while the transaction was still on pending I called my bank and asked them to stop the transaction. They put the transaction on investigation. Only after that I went to ebay and found out that there was a technical issue, the night before I’ve been building connection between my shopify website and ebay and the software automatically started listing items on ebay and as there were many listings, the system charged me $1759,80. I’ve immediately removed all the listings and while the transaction was still on pending called ebay, said I was recording the call and I’ve explained my situation: I have explained that I removed the listings and I’ve not used this service and that transaction wasn’t authorized by me.

The lady from ebay went on hold to talk to someone from another department and when she came back, she told me that “Yes, this transaction had to be refunded” just as long as bank had the transaction under investigation, first they had to wait for the bank. I asked, wouldn’t be it late then? She said: “No, because ebay can refund any transaction during 30 days”.

After almost a week, bank came back to me with answer that ebay had to refund this transaction. I called ebay and again on recorded line ebay told me that as transaction was over $700 they had to go with manual process of refund and send it to another department and that the next week I would be refunded. That “next week” was last week. As there wasn’t any refund, at the end of the last week I called again and asked what was going on as bank was charging me overdraft fees. The guy who was representing ebay again started some process and at the end of conversation told me that this money could be refunded or not refunded. After talking to them many times on recorded line out of nowhere it became questionable if they could give me my money back or not. Even though, I’ve not used the service for which this charge was made, even though I’ve never authorized this transaction, they started questioning would they give the money back or not and didn’t even care in what kind of horrible situation all this was putting me in financially, not even mentioning my emotional state as I’m unemployed currently.

As today it was 31st day after that unauthorized transaction, I tried to talk to them again, but out of three customer services I’ve talked to today, none of them agreed to talk on recorded line. The last one told me it was their policy, even though they record every single conversation, out of nowhere non of them wants to talk on recorded line.

I understand it’s not big money for ebay to give back especially while it wasn’t authorized by me and I haven’t even used their service and contacted to them while transaction was still on pending, but if ebay does that to many customers, then it will be a huge money they are making out of things like this one.

So, before I contact to Bureau of Consumer Protection or a lawyer, I just wanted to ask if anyone had a similar situation and how it had been solved?

2 Likes
2

For clarity, what software went haywire here? Shopify’s? Ebay’s? If the software belongs to Ebay, It seems reasonable that they should refund your money. If the software belongs to someone else and they only listed items they were told to list, I can see why they wouldn’t refund your money. In that case, I would think you would have to take this up with the proprietor of the software in question, since they caused the charges.

If Ebay is at fault for the charge, and they refuse to refund, you might be able to get the bank to take a second look at this.

3 Likes
3

I’m pretty good at asking the toxic questions about things.

You say YOU were building the connection SO, did you have it set to AUTOMATICALLY populate the listings to eBay?

If so that does not sound like an eBay, or Shopify, or, software GLITCH. It sounds like an error in not understanding the way things would be populated onto eBay.

Since you ‘unwound’ the listings, it would be nice of eBay to refund you, but it would only be because they are much nicer (some of the time) than Amazon.

I’m pretty glad at the moment that I still have an actual glitch that I haven’t gotten around to fixing that is preventing moving/adding about 4000 ASINs to both Shopify and eBay!

3 Likes
4

You cannot call Ebay.

Any phone support is by callback.

Any number you found on the Internet is not Ebay but some independent organization.

This sounds like your problem and Ebay is not responsible. You authorized this transaction and your mistake triggered the charge.

Ebay is no longer providing exceptions, they like other sites are dealing with problems with inflexible bots or human beings who have no more intelligence than their bots.

Your best shot at getting an exception, is if you contact Ebay through their presence on Facebook or X. The respondents are US based and may have more flexibility than their offshore contractors do.

3 Likes
5

Thank you everyone for your answers. The key point is that the transaction is authorized only when owner of the bank account is paying for something willingly. It doesn’t even matter what kind of technical nuances had been involved. 1) I haven’t used the service they’ve charged me for. 2) I was never willing to pay for it. 3) They themselves confirmed during three different phone calls that transaction had to be refunded. Still, after 31 days nothing… No matter how much you try and no matter what kind of technical nuances you find there, as long as I’ve never agreed on that transaction as the owner of the account, neither I’ve intended to pay it or use their service, it’s against the law for them to keep the money. That’s what scammers do - to charge you against your will - not serious and reputable organizations.

1 Like
6

First of all, who has told you that I’ve called on the phone number found online?! It was actually callback from ebay support. (And also, there are two options, them to call you back, or you to call them - so please, don’t give such convincing advises if you don’t know what you are talking about).
Second of all, if you’ve read the article fully, I clearly stated, I never intended to make that transaction, I’ve never paid for that service and I’ve not used that service. You can’t go ahead, charge someone whose bank account details you have against their will and then tell them it was authorized by them just because you have their account credentials, the transaction to be official and authorized it should be willingly paid by the owner of the bank account. I didn’t want to pay for it, I haven’t made that transaction, I haven’t used their service, I’ve called them after the transaction was made while it was on pending and they agreed it had to be refunded, and now you out of nowhere say ebay isn’t responsible…?! If I take your money and don’t provide any service for you and you won’t be willing to pay me that money and I’m just gonna keep it, who will be responsible on that - my neighbor?

1 Like
7

You did not call Ebay. You said you did,

You did not intend to make the transactions but you and your software did.

They are not responsible for your mistakes.

4 Likes
8

Topic will auto re-open in 6 hours

9

This topic was automatically opened after 6 hours.

11

Thanks for your answer. The question has never been that money had to be refunded or not, they’ve been telling me themselves it had to be refunded. They told me that many times and I have recordings of it. It’s just they intentionally stretched the process and when it was 30 days after the transaction, only then they told me it may not be refunded because transaction has happened long time ago.

2 Likes
12

No, they don’t

4 Likes
13

This is a FRIENDLY reminder to everyone, we are adults, take it down a notch. Remember the rules.

4 Likes
14

@Kopale777 this is very frustrating, and I’m sorry that you’re dealing with it. I understand that there was an error while linking between eBay and Shopify, and that as soon as you realized this error, you communicated immediately with eBay.

If I were you, I would continue to work with your bank on these unauthorized charges while also involving Shopify and/or the app used on Shopify to link the listings.

It might become necessary for the bank and eBay to work with each other directly. And you might only get a partial refund at this point.

I do want to check two things, and I apologize if you have already provided this information:

  1. Did you/eBay immediately remove the listings once the error was identified?
  2. If not, have you had any sales on any of these listings?

I do just want to note, that eBay also was not wrong in charging for the listings. They had no idea that your linking process was unintentional. This is a huge issue for that Shopify app, though!

2 Likes
15

Thank you very much for a heartwarming reply.

Yes, I have immediately removed the listings once the error was identified (transaction was still on pending while I did it) and no I didn’t have even a single sale.

The problem is in deceiving behavior when they told me it would be refunded week after week and then they never did it and to be honest bank doesn’t care about it as well as they keep saying that it has to be refunded from ebay’s side.

2 Likes
16

The problem is that whoever told you that was not authorized to do so and could not make it happen.

The Ebay customer service reps that you get to speak to are at an offshore call center, have limited training and authority and are measured by the number of calls they handle per hour. They work for a contractor, not Ebay.

Getting you off the phone is a principal goal. Your reaction to my post makes it clear that your expectations differ from the situation you are encountering. A rep might tell you anything to get you off the phone. Not to mention avoiding being abused.

Exceptions are rare or non-existent for most Ebay problems. Lack of a response is commonplace, since the only response might be pointing you to arbitration.

The fault here is with the software you used, or with you. I am certain the software license includes a limitation of liability, almost all do.

Your only way forward might be an attorney, and should you see one you should bring a print out of the Ebay agreement, the software license and the shopify agreement.

I would be amazed if any legal action you could take would not cost more than the $1759.80.

You should also be aware that Ebay refers situations where they have not received their fees to collection agencies. This could damage your company’s credit rating, and if you are not incorporated - your credit rating.

3 Likes
17

Then this might be the point when you want to reach out to Shopify or the app directly.

Shopify does have its own forum, has any other Seller reported this issue? Maybe they have some thoughts on getting it resolved.

Unfortunately, at some point you will need to plan around the worst case scenario, which is that the money will not be returned.

2 Likes
18

This thread has run it’s course