Canceling orders correctly
When a buyer makes a purchase, it is the seller’s responsibility to make sure it is processed. However, there may be unforeseen circumstances that require you to cancel a sale. Here you will learn the correct way to do this.
- In the Seller Hub, go to Orders.
- Find the order you want to cancel, and from More actions, select Cancel order.
- Choose a reason for the cancellation and then select Submit to finish.
When you cancel an order, a full refund will be issued right away to the buyer’s original payment method (e.g. PayPal). Once the buyer has been refunded, you may be eligible for a fee credit as per our fee credits policy.
A seller can cancel an order if:
- The buyer asks to cancel the order and they haven’t shipped the item yet
- The buyer hasn’t paid within the time allowed (the reason code “Buyer hasn’t paid” will become available after 4 full calendar days)
- The buyer used the wrong shipping address when they completed their purchase
- The item is out of stock (this will result in a transaction defect)
If you receive a notification that the buyer has requested to cancel the order, you’ll have 3 days to accept or decline the request.
If you don’t respond within the 3 calendar days, we’ll close the buyer’s cancellation request. If the buyer hasn’t paid, then the order will be canceled automatically. If the buyer has paid, you’ll need to fulfill the order.
If there’s an issue with the refund, we’ll notify you immediately. We’ll also ask that you try again by selecting the Retry refund button in the notification. If you still can’t issue the refund, try selecting a different payment method to fund it. If the buyer doesn’t receive their refund within 10 days from the date you accepted the request, they can open an eBay Money Back Guarantee request and you can refund them through that.
- Make sure you choose Cancel Order from the dropdown list.
– DO NOT choose Send Refund. This option is usually used when a seller needs to offer a partial refund for a transaction.
– If you Send Refund and dont upload tracking information instead of Cancel Order, this will result in a shipping defect as well.
- Once an order has been canceled, it can’t be undone
- A buyer can still leave feedback on a canceled transaction, unless the order was canceled because they didn’t pay for the item.
- If the buyer has paid and the seller declines or doesn’t respond to the buyer’s request to cancel, they’ll need to wait until the item is received and then start a return request instead
Abusing the order cancellation process may result in action taken on your account.(e.g. Canceling an order and selecting an incorrect cancellation reason or falsely claiming that the buyer failed to pay.)
