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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
I remember years ago this was standard practice – to refund fees in accordance with a partial refund. It was eBay’s abject greed that put a stop to it.
Partial refunds should only be possible for the shipping charged. If no shipping charged, then no partial refund should be possible. EVERY week I have buyers seek partial refunds for asinine reasons. Many times I have buyers threaten negative feedback if they don’t get a partial refund. I don’t engage with this and I have lots of negative feedback and abusive returns as a result. Its part of a culture of theft ebay has a nurtured among its buyers. Ebay touts that this type of extortion will not be tolerated but in practice it is not only tolerated but encourage. They refuse to remove the feedback on probably 90% of clear extortion. The ACT of extortion is not enough. They must express in the messages they plan to extort before extorting or the extortion doesn’t count. If you list your items properly partial refunds should never be necessary. Partial refunds should not be a thing at all. Use PayPal if you want to partial refund. Its 100% a tool for thieves to steal and has little honest purpose.