Fees for refunded items

[BigPigLittlePig]

I have sold an item, that the buyer is unhappy with and is returning. Obviously I shall refund him etc, but wondered what I need to do to stop ebay taking their (significant!) cut?

Help gratefully awaited!

I think when you refund, all ebay fees are re-credited. However there is a fixed paypal fee that is not refunded from memory (20p) I think.

you refund and then send the buyer a cancellation request to get your final fees refunded.

If the buyer has opened a case you can't get the Ebay final value fee back (sorry). Ebay absorbs that for their bother.
Fine to send cancel request as long as buyer hasn't opened a case.

no - that's not true

sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/refunding-buyer

Ah, there must be clever ways to play it. For instance that page says "If you have refunded the buyer voluntarily before the buyer escalates the case, you'll receive a final value fee credit."

However if you fight a return for SNAD, saying "I think item was described correctly", but buyer wins (because they always win), then you don't get FVF back. (Which is what happened to me).

Ebayers say that a cancel transaction request must be sent before a refund is issued, however, to avoid a defect. There is an official Ebay person saying that is right procedure to avoid a defect, on this thread.

There's some dispute about which reasons for cancellation safely avoid defects, too.

So many little tricks to know.

yes - but you said if a buyer opens a case you don't get your fees back, and that is wrong isn't it?