Forced to Pay for eBay Plus

Ljuicyyousey on 09/02/2019 - 20:30

Hey Guys,

Disclaimer: This experience has made me doubt myself, but I 100% remember cancelling my eBay Plus Trial, before the questions of "are you sure you cancelled"

Now to begin:

Had subscribed to eBay Plus Trial.
Was most recently on 90 Day Trial with setting of it being cancelled and can recall that on the "eBay Plus" page it was showing as subscription will end on blah blah blah date.

I get a notification today from PayPal that I have paid $49 to eBay, I go to check and my Plus has been renewed. Below is the chat with support.

eBay Plus subscription auto-renewed when it was set not to…
2019 - 02 - 09
08:58:06 UTC Alfie
Welcome to eBay Plus Premium Service!
08:58:19 UTC yousifoheight
Hi Alfie
08:58:28 UTC Alfie
Hello Yousif.
08:58:35 UTC yousifoheight
I believe I had set my preference for eBay Plus to not auto renew
08:58:45 UTC yousifoheight
I've just got a PayPal notification saying it has
08:59:51 UTC Alfie
I see. Allow me to check your subscription details here.
09:01:21 UTC Alfie
I checked your subscription details and can confirm that your 90-days free trial ended just today. I can also confirm that you have been moved to paid subscription.
09:01:42 UTC Alfie
So, you're saying that you cancelled within the 90-days free trial. Is that correct?
09:01:49 UTC yousifoheight
Yes
09:02:56 UTC Alfie
Apparently, there are no records of it here in our end.
09:03:03 UTC Alfie
Also, we noticed that this has already been your 3rd free trial of eBay Plus.
09:03:29 UTC yousifoheight
I am quite sure I set it as cancelled after the trial period
09:03:46 UTC yousifoheight
eBay sends me these offers and I accept them?
09:05:08 UTC Alfie
Well, these offers are pretty much automated and are sent to everyone.
09:05:12 UTC Alfie
It's also on the terms and conditions that you can only take advantage of the free trial once.
09:05:14 UTC Alfie
Normally, if you decide to subscribe to eBay Plus again after subscribing to a free trial before, you'll be charged right away for the annual fee.
09:05:54 UTC yousifoheight
So you're saying I should pay because I've received more than 1 trial, that eBay themselves has offered to me…
09:05:59 UTC yousifoheight
Don't send them to everyone then.
09:07:05 UTC Alfie
Technically speaking, you should be on paid membership now after taking advantage of a couple of free trials already.
09:07:21 UTC yousifoheight
Not to mention the fact I am also very well aware of the fact that eBay is now targeting users with 180 day free trials
09:07:27 UTC yousifoheight
Seems to me the service is not so "great"
09:08:00 UTC yousifoheight
You can't tell me I should already be paying after your system has offered me multiple trials.
09:08:07 UTC yousifoheight
A trial is just that. A TRIAL
09:08:16 UTC yousifoheight
There is no forced subscription that must follow
09:11:26 UTC Alfie
Once again, please know that you can only take advantage of the free trial once, as per terms and conditions. I'm not saying that we're forcing you to subscribe or move to paid membership.
09:11:27 UTC Alfie
I hope you understand that it's also your responsibility to make sure that you follow the conditions that we have and make sure that your membership is cancelled before moving to paid membership.
09:11:40 UTC Alfie
Anyway, I presume that you'd like to get a refund for the annual fee that was charged.
09:11:59 UTC yousifoheight
As I mentioned I am 100% in the belief that I did cancel it
09:12:23 UTC yousifoheight
I have visited my eBay plus page multiple times during the subscription and have noted the message of "Your subscription will end on *****"
09:12:41 UTC yousifoheight
I would like to opt out of eBay plus and this time and receive a refund
09:14:52 UTC Alfie
If it was cancelled, then the subscription shouldn't have moved to paid membership.
09:14:53 UTC Alfie
About getting a refund, please know that the annual fee is non-refundable as per terms and conditions.
09:15:11 UTC yousifoheight
Lol
09:15:15 UTC yousifoheight
Of course it isn't
09:15:27 UTC yousifoheight
Wouldn't want people getting a refund for a shit paid subscription would ya?
09:16:33 UTC Alfie
I'm sorry. I hope you understand that I'm only following the terms and conditions that we have.
09:16:54 UTC yousifoheight
That's okay, I'll get my reversal through PayPal
09:17:20 UTC yousifoheight
This makes eBay look very bad…
09:17:52 UTC Alfie
We'll respect whatever actions you will take.
09:18:09 UTC yousifoheight
Thank you.
09:18:13 UTC
Chat ended by yousifoheight

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Comments

  • Diji1 on 09/02/2019 - 20:43
    +14

    Pretty sure the business model of eBay Plus is to make money from forgetful people who don't cancel their trial.

    • juicyyousey on 09/02/2019 - 20:45
      +2

      Yes, that's well and true.

      What I'm trying to discover is if anyone else like me believes they had cancelled their subscription and also got forced into an auto-renew.

    • Lexan on 10/02/2019 - 08:31

      Same as Free rental video ezy. You forget to return, you pay 100% overnight price. That's why they can always give you free rental.

  • SnoozeAndLose on 09/02/2019 - 20:46
    +6

    Lesson learn that you did not cancel the pay agreement from paypal for ebay

    • juicyyousey on 09/02/2019 - 20:47

      THIS! is what I was looking for. I noticed that PayPal have their own auto-payment page just now.

      If cancelled on PayPal but not on the vendor (whoever it may be) what happens in that case?

  • conservative on 09/02/2019 - 20:57
    +2

    I have had the same issue with ebay. The douchebag on the other end said we can't refund you because of T&C. I told them to go screw themselves. Removed all my cards and money from bank account. I might get a dishonour fee but hopefully once I dispute the dumb transaction I will get it back.

    However, I am having trouble disputing the transaction on paypal. Screen just doesn't load once I click dispute.

    • juicyyousey on 10/02/2019 - 18:48
      +2

      Yep, I submitted my case as fraudulent transaction, ironic how you can't successfully dispute this particular payment on PayPal cause the page keeps freezing hey?

      • vishalpandi97 on 18/02/2019 - 22:12

        Hey buddy how did the refund go through Paypal? Did you get the cash back?

  • [Deactivated] on 09/02/2019 - 21:14
    +12

    TLDR

    OP has been using eBay Plus trial. May have forgot (which later was upgraded to 100% belief) to cancel auto renew to paid user. Wants a refund.

    CS explains that there is no record of cancellation.

    Insert a lot of repetition by OP about trial periods and other irrelevant information

    CS informs OP that the annual membership is non-refundable once paid.

    CS responded amicably throughout. OP… not so much.

    • HighAndDry on 11/02/2019 - 09:38
      +1

      Yeah OP doesn't come out as the more reasonable person here. Especially - why can't I get multiple free trials just vendor eBay emails them to me, never mind they say first time only?

  • specks on 09/02/2019 - 21:30

    This happened to me a while ago during the google home mini promotion. They said they couldn't refund me because the home mini was already sent. I insisted that I'll return the home mini; and they gave me back my refund.

    • smartazz104 on 09/02/2019 - 22:40

      I was under the impression you had to actually pay for it in order to get the home mini.

      • specks on 09/02/2019 - 23:01

        I was on the free trial, it finished and automatically charged me $49 and sent the home mini.

  • penguincat on 09/02/2019 - 21:37
    +5

    eBay wouldn't even give me a refund when I canceled ~9 months of my paid membership remaining due to my ebay account bugging out. I couldn't even use it if I wanted to nor transfer it to a working account.

    Did you get a private PM from eBay regarding your trial cancellation/s? Would be handy to show paypal re your claim.

    They are something like

    eBay inbox
    You've ended your eBay Plus membership, penguincat
    From:eBay
    Sent:06-Feb-19 08:42

    Your eBay Plus membership will end on 24/02/2019.

    Sorry blah blah

    Email reference ID: numbers and letters.

    If you don't have that then 1. You didn't cancel it 2. It bugged out and didn't cancel correctly. 3.You deleted it when you really shouldn't have. :p

  • pegaxs on 09/02/2019 - 21:41
    +2

    Top kek right there… Terms and conditions say that you sould not have more than one free trial, but they offer it for free and it's up to me to police their accounting policy and rewards? Dumb arses.

    Thanks for the warning though, went and screen shot my eBay Plus membership page as evidence.

  • lette on 09/02/2019 - 22:20
    +1

    Happened to me too after my second trial. Although I was nowhere near as polite as you no refund. PayPal escalation then refund. Also well done on being so polite wish I had that control when I'm mad.

  • GangGang on 09/02/2019 - 23:27
    +5

    Did you recieve an email saying your + was cancelled?

  • pantsparty on 10/02/2019 - 05:48
    +2

    I don’t think you cancelled your membership

  • jason101 on 10/02/2019 - 07:49
    +10

    If you play the game, know the rules.

    09:03:03 UTC Alfie
    Also, we noticed that this has already been your 3rd free trial of eBay Plus.

  • hibbo on 12/02/2019 - 10:56
    +1

    I have been charged $146.97 for 3 accounts.

    It is my firm opinion I cancelled these trials on the eBay site. Not with Paypal.

    In following the Paypal Resolution Centre procedure, I'm not able to proceed past the 'Continue to Report' tab, as the next screen doesn't open.

    Anyone else having this problem?

    eBay Plus proved of little or no value to me.

  • owduck on 13/02/2019 - 22:32

    I got this today too. I too was sure I cancelled on eBay's site (and said it would end on X date), but it was still down as a payment in PayPal.

    I've emailed eBay about this, since I can't put this through PayPal either. Freezes on the page after hitting "Continue to Report".

    • owduck on 14/02/2019 - 12:40

      Spoke to them on the phone. Since cancellation wasn't effective, they say it never happened. (Dealing with their support was Kafkaesque, though the supervisor confirmed that they thought I was just lying)

      I tried to cancel again last night and didn't get a confirmation email, but did this morning when I tried again. Same browser etc too.

      eBay are unwilling to consider that there might be something wrong with their form. Not sure what the next steps are, since going through PayPal doesn't work either.

  • brentonc on 14/02/2019 - 17:35

    This happened to me. Ebay is currently investigating if they can give me a refund because I made 0 ebay plus purchases during my trial, and I contacted them as soon as I got the paypal notification.

    Edit: They've informed me I'll have an answer by Friday 15/02/2019

    • brentonc on 20/02/2019 - 15:19

      Ebay has agreed to refund the amount, but suggest it's going to take a while.

      Hello my name,

      This is about your refund request for the annual fee for your eBay Plus membership.

      I already reviewed your account and I am happy to inform you that I will be helping you get refunded for the annual fee that was charged for your eBay Plus Membership.

      This will take about 2 to 4 weeks or 30 days since the charge just reflected in your account and for us to credit the subscription fee, we have to wait for it to clear in your account.

      I will personally look into this to help you with your refund request, all you need to do is just wait patiently and I will send you an update.

      I trust that this information will help resolve your concern.

      Thanks for choosing eBay. Have a great day!

      Cheers,

  • HootyMcBewb on 16/02/2019 - 16:51

    I had the same thing happen to me today thinking I had also cancelled. Emailing eBay was the same response as OP, and also same issue with paypal attempting to dispute the transaction. I eventually managed to dispute it through paypal as unauthorised access.

    • HootyMcBewb on 18/02/2019 - 03:52

      It worked! "Unfortunately, the payment for your eBay Plus subscription was declined. Please contact your bank for more information regarding the cause of the decline.

      As we didn’t receive the payment, we have cancelled your eBay Plus membership. If you want to continue to be a member of eBay Plus, you can sign up again."

  • dogyu on 18/02/2019 - 16:43

    Lodged a dispute with paypal first, which was declined. Then I decided to have a go with eBay via chat, and managed to get a refund.

    • vishalpandi97 on 18/02/2019 - 22:14

      How did you manage to get a refund?

  • chobosenpai on 18/02/2019 - 16:46

    Thank you everyone.
    Paypal asked me to contact bank.
    I am going to fill out disputed transaction form tmr.
    I will tell you the result.

  • vishalpandi97 on 18/02/2019 - 22:08

    I got charged the $48.99 too by ebay through Paypal. Has anyone successfully claimed there money back?

    • HootyMcBewb on 19/02/2019 - 13:10

      Yes, see above. Basically, I disputed through Paypal as unauthorised access.

      • owduck on 20/02/2019 - 02:06

        Just got a response from PayPal that my dispute was declined because the payment was not unauthorised…

        • HootyMcBewb on 20/02/2019 - 04:38

          Hmm.. Guess I was lucky…

  • Ms Bargainer on 01/03/2019 - 21:26

    I cancelled mine a few days ago and received an email confirming it. Do you have an email to show as proof you cancelled?

  • roddo on 03/06/2019 - 23:33

    I just had this issue, got an invoice via email. I have had an email with cancellation. I just cancelled all my subscriptions on ebay plus in paypal, but nothing has been billed yet. So sneaky with the auto subscriptions!

    • forumninja on 04/06/2019 - 00:00

      Same here.

      • forumninja on 04/06/2019 - 15:56

        I have received a response from eBay on my query, saying they have received multiple reports about the issue and I will not be billed for the one-time fee. They also said I do not need to take any action and they will sort it out ASAP.

  • ozyack on 04/06/2019 - 02:37

    I have just got an invoice of $48.99 from eBay although I am sure that I cancelled my Plus membership the moment I signed up for the free trial. I could not find a cancellation email; however, I tried to get another trial some time after my first trial ended and I have an email from eBay sitting in my inbox from last month saying that I was not eligible for another trial because I had already used up one trial membership so they cancelled my second trial membership and told me that if I can still sign up for a Plus membership by paying $49 annually, "IF I WANTED TO". Upon this email I took no further action, meaning I neither opted in for a Plus membership nor I paid for anything whatsoever, I am confident that my account has always been on a "basic" membership after my trial ended. I cannot figure out on what grounds they had the guts to send me an invoice. It's ridiculous! I have emailed them back asking for the invoice to be voided. Will keep you updated.

    • Blurayz on 04/06/2019 - 06:03

      Ozyack, any update? I got exactly same situation as you.

      • ozyack on 04/06/2019 - 20:43

        Just below mate.

  • mmcs on 04/06/2019 - 08:57

    It happened to me. I just lodged a transaction dispute through paypal. And also contacted my card issuer. At the end paypal refunded to me.

  • polstralian on 04/06/2019 - 13:29

    I just received an email from eBay with an invoice attached to it for AU $126.97.

    At first I couldn't figure out what the charges are for, I knew there was something wrong right away though as I do not sell on eBay nor I should have any outstanding balances.

    I am currently an eBay Plus customer (trial).

    I reached out to eBay via the chat immediately and I was told that the charge is for my eBay Plus subscription and I've been charged thrice (2 x $48.99 and 1 x $29.00).

    I was assured that this is a bug and that my account will eventually be brought back to $0.00 though they are still waiting for the management to recommend an appropriate action.

    I managed to unlink my PayPal account for now and gave eBay 48 hours to fix this problem.

    I use eBay for 15 years (it is actually my longest running and active account out there) and this is the very first time that such a massive breach/glitch affected my experience. It got me very concerned.

  • [Deactivated] on 04/06/2019 - 14:26
    -1

    we noticed that this has already been your 3rd free trial of eBay Plus

    That's so many free trials………….its time to pay.

    I'm sure you are going to try another free trial if eBay did not charge you.

    Stop abusing the system.

    • ozyack on 07/06/2019 - 12:34

      This has not occurred because of an abuse of the system. EBay has acknowledged that they have been issuing incorrect invoices to multiple customers due to a technical issue. Their marketing team are currently working on this.

  • ozyack on 04/06/2019 - 20:42

    Here's the email I received back. Apparently this is a common problem with many members having been affected. It has nothing to do with how many times the member has used a trial membership. Feel free to refer to the email below while demanding your refund:

    "Good day!

    Thanks for contacting eBay about the invoice you received for the subscription charge.

    Currently, we are working with the appropriate department to resolve this matter as soon as possible. We'll be monitoring this and you'll be hearing back from this Team within 24-48 hours. Please be assured that you don't need to do anything from here as we'll take care of this charge.

    We have findings about the issue however are working with the appropriate team to make sure our findings are the same. We are submitting your details as one of those affected members. No worries, this is being taken cared of.

    I trust this information helps. Thanks for choosing eBay!

    Cheers,

    Rebecca G.

    eBay Plus Ambassador"

    • Adster01 on 06/06/2019 - 11:09
      +1

      How'd you email them back? I've got the same problem

      • ozyack on 06/06/2019 - 14:43

        I've used their support page. You need to have an appropriate listing number relating to one of your purchases in the subject section; otherwise, the computer won't let you send the message. So, I have put in the listing number of my latest order in the subject and explained my problem in the body, including the invoice number.

      • ozyack on 07/06/2019 - 12:31

        You can also use the live chat during business hours from the eBay app. Have you got it sorted?

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