eBay Gift Cards Balance Become Zero after a Failed Purchase Attempt

poporange630 on 08/03/2021 - 18:55
Last edited 07/04/2021 - 17:22

I read somewhere, maybe here on OzBargain, that eBay Gift Card balance can be forfeited due to system error.
Turns out that eBay gift card system is fragile and prone to error, as it just happened to me.

Background:
I cleared my Chrome browser cache for other reasons, just before the purchase.

Process:

  1. I added a hard drive into my cart.
  2. I went to check it out, added coupon code PLUSPR10
  3. I start adding my gift cards, they are $50 or $20 in value. I added a total of 7 or 8 cards.
  4. I click 'Confirm and Pay'
  5. Errors pop up, one of them say something like 'your have no balance'.

Result:
All entered gift cards values are now zero, and the purchase didn't happen.
My eBay account is also doing weird things, like I can't see my purchase history anymore.

Now chatting with eBay representative. Will update here.

Update 1:
eBay representative says that the balance will be credit back in a week or two, but most likely within 2 days.
Fingers crossed.

Update 2 on 15/3/2021
Talked to eBay 2 more times since first post. Was given 7-10 business days for credit back.

Update 3 on 7/4/2021
Still nothing, writing an email to eBay manager now…

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Comments

                        • Thrifty Dan on 22/12/2021 - 01:36

                          @dins: Looks like my 25$ gift card Balance are peanuts compared to others. I see $800 and $1000 here got lost. But still money and I won’t let them get away with it. Do they have an old Commodore system????

                          • dins on 22/12/2021 - 01:46

                            @Thrifty Dan: Yeah clearly they still haven't sorted things out. Asking people to wait 21 days is ridiculous. Then if that fails there's no one to contact either given their customer service is next to useless. They really are very good at shooting themselves on the foot.

                            • Thrifty Dan on 22/12/2021 - 01:59

                              @dins: It’s probably not worth all the hassle but I will still do it and go further.

  • Thrifty Dan on 11/01/2022 - 12:18

    Just as an update: I didn’t get refund within 21 days. I have contacted them about 12 times since 10.12. and they were admitting that they still owe me $25 and apologise and escalate and bla bla bla. I put in a complaint with all chat transcripts at Fair trading nsw yesterday. I have enough and won’t sign up for eBay plus again. Amazon prime is so much better to deal with and always availabe for a chat with someone who has enough power to sort things out.

  • Thrifty Dan on 27/01/2022 - 16:32

    Update: Finally I got my gift card balance back. I won’t use gift cards on eBay ever again. I have contacted eBay 16 times by chat, 5 times by mail since 10.12.21…

    • test8888 on 12/04/2022 - 11:26

      I had almost same exp with 10+times chat to ebay no result to get gift card refund in 2months. how did you get yours back? seems fair trading may work.

      • Thrifty Dan on 12/04/2022 - 12:25

        Never heard back from fair trading but I got it back connected to my account after annoying the **** out of them I guess. It happened again and I was reminding them about my previous experience. It cannot be a rare glitch! However this time it came back within 2 days.

    • test8888 on 22/04/2022 - 14:22
      +1

      Thanks and update "finally got gift card refund". for exp learnt, if ebay support said "it would be solved up to XX days" then we better wait after XX days. if "by accidently" chased up before due date, I suppose they might "accidently" count work again for another XX days.

  • timetoquit on 12/04/2022 - 23:33
    +1

    Is this happening to all ebay gift cards??

    • Thrifty Dan on 22/04/2022 - 14:57

      No but it happened to my twice within 3 months.

  • SirNoble on 26/07/2022 - 19:27

    Sorry for reviving an old thread, but has anyone had this same issue lately? This happened to me 25+ days ago and through multiple eBay chats/calls and no one seems to know how to fix this or who to properly escalate this to. They keep saying wait a few days and it will be refunded then just end the chat.

    • dins on 26/07/2022 - 22:00

      eBay customer service is pretty much useless. Contact Office of Fair Trading and they should hopefully be able to retrieve your funds. You'll have to to fill out some stuff online including your eBay ID, GC numbers and transaction details etc. They'll get back to you in a few days and that's how mine got sorted after it happened the second time. I don't use high value eBay GCs any longer just not worth it.

    • deal-fomo on 10/10/2022 - 06:57

      did you have any luck with it?

  • deal-fomo on 10/10/2022 - 06:20

    Just had this issue happen, used a few AUD gift cards on a USD item, similar to a couple of others here. Welp, I'm at least glad to know the reason it failed, won't be trying that again. I'm yet to contact support, really hoping this won't take weeks/months to resolve :(

    • deal-fomo on 11/10/2022 - 12:08

      update: thankfully it came back to the original giftcards after 24 hours

    • test8888 on 13/10/2022 - 16:51

      this too lucky.
      mine last worst case waited more than 3months until I forgot, then one day went to check it's back.
      recent case again 1.5month passed still under investigation for only $30 GC.

  • Radial7 on 08/01/2023 - 16:39

    This just happened to me, looks like it's going to be a process to recover. Ebay chat is useless, last straw for me had enough of eBay's system. Won't be using them again after I recover gift card balance and cash out.

  • pjsum on 08/03/2023 - 20:29

    Still happening unfortunately! Just lost not a small amount of gift cards on a EUR item after a "server error" when processing the payment. Customer chat advised 12 hours, then 48-60 hours, and now are saying 5-7 days to get the money back on the cards. Meanwhile the seller is asking for payment and the exchange rate is going down. Fun times.

    • dins on 08/03/2023 - 23:02

      They're not going to fix this because this has been going on for many years now since their new payment system has come in.

      Also there's no recourse they'll only provide you with the same wait whatever number of days and the funds should be refunded by the system.

      Now if you're lucky you might get the funds returned within 30 or so days but if not, you're on your own. You'll have to seek out other avenues because eBay won't help much.

      My advice do not use eBay GCs unless it's an amount you would not mind losing. This happened to me a few years back with I think a couple of $300+ purchases and fortunately managed to get my funds back via QLD Office of Fair Trading. That took a lot of time and effort and around 2-3 months from what I can recall.

      Saving 3% or whatever is just not worth losing 100%!

  • Pixel Spam on 28/07/2023 - 09:58

    Ok Just happened to me, I lost $510 GC after payment and gift cards failed, I was told by the rep that this is a known issue on international transactions, I was told to use an alternate payment method for international transactions and I have to wait 10 business days for the gift card to be returned. I'm super annoyed as the item I'm purchasing is a limited edition book for my wife and it's limited to 250 copies globally and is sold out from the company and this seller has only one copy left at a reasonable cost.

    You might see a cheap eBay gift card in the OZbargain classifieds soon… LOL

  • capslock janitor on 28/07/2023 - 15:38

    this starting to make me sick about store giftcards that

  • Pixel Spam on 29/07/2023 - 07:23

    Well the good news is the gift cards have been returned and the credit card transaction has a pending reversal. The unfortunate thing now is the gift cards are no longer able to be used on international items only domestic items. I suppose I should count myself lucky?

    • Tock on 03/08/2023 - 09:01

      How do you know they can't be used on international items? I've just had this happen to me for a USD item and trying to find out why it was declined and when I will get my money back. Chat support was happily assisting until I asked both questions and now they have disappeared…

      And chat agent wanting me to provide the redemption PIN numbers for my cards is laughable. When I said I would not provide what is essentially the keys to my money they ended the chat on me. Quality support and service. Ended up having them call me instead - they said their system has regualar issues processing international transations with gift cards, they have no idea if it will work if I were to try again, and the card refund takes 24-48 hours.

      • Tock on 04/08/2023 - 11:01

        For those following along at home, 24 hours for refund. Clearly issues with processing items that are overseas with gift cards which is pretty ridiculous and frustrating.

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