Getting a Refund Before the Product is Sent
Why would you want a refund before the product is sent?
Sometimes the Seller is out of the product, or may just never respond. Don’t worry, your money is safe with Taobao. Here’s how to reclaim it.
You must wait 24 hours after your payment for the refund application feature to become active. And before you go through these procedures, try contacting the Seller first. (If it has shipped already, follow the steps outlined in our other guide to Getting a Refund After Receiving the Product.)
Check the order status
Go to your Alipay Transaction Control Panel and look for the product that you want a refund for. Take a look at the order status. If the order status is 买家已付款，等待卖家发货, then the Seller has not sent the goods. Click on the link that says 退款 refund.
Hint: Pay attention here! The Chinese words for pay 付款 and refund 退款 look quite similar. But if your browser displays the URL of a link when you hover, you can get easy quick translations of what each link means. The Payment link will contain “trade_payment” and the refund link will contain “refund_apply”.
Bought Item List
Again, you must find the item you want to get a refund for, and click this link, it also says 退款. If it has not been 24 hours since your purchase, the link will not be clickable.
The Refund Panel
Now you will see this page. It shakes down like this. The first option will already be chosen for you. It says “I haven’t received the goods. And the blue box underneath suggests that you contact the Seller first to see if you can sort it out that way first. That’s a good idea, and we suggest it too.
The Drop Down Menu
After that is a drop down menu with several possible reasons for the refund. Just choose the closest one. Another blue box will pop up that just offers clarification on the choices. You will have a chance to write an explanation to describe the exact situation.
- 无退款原因 No reason
- 未收到货 Haven’t received the goods
- 买家缺货 Seller is out of stock
- 排错产品 I made an ordering mistake
- 产品缺少所需样式 They don’t have my size or specs
- 与买家协商一致进行退款 The Seller and I have reached an agreement
- 卖家为及时发货 The Seller did not ship the goods in a timely fashion
A brief explanation
Check back later
What’s going to happen?
If they don’t respond within the timeframe listed, you will get the money. Otherwise, they have the option to approve the refund, or respond with a message. Come back to the Alipay Transaction Control Panel page every few days to keep an eye on what happens.
Notice
Beyond the information outlined in this guide, TaobaoFieldGuide will not provide any assistance in mediating any disputes between you and any Vendors. Nor will we act on your behalf in any disputes that may arise. That includes any Vendors that TaobaoFieldGuide may link to. All transactions made based on information from the Service are solely between you and the Vendor. Your sole rights and remedies shall be against the Vendor. Please read our Terms of Service.
for Mac users, there’s again a problem with plug-ins etc not working in this process – there’s no box to type your password in on the refund screen! I had to borrow a friend’s PC for this. Other than that, using Safari and the plug-in I’ve been able to buy many products, all thanks to this guide!
Thanks Olli. We hope Taobao/Alipay could improve this soon, so Mac users won’t have to go through so much trouble. However, I don’t think this day would come soon…. It’s related to the fact that all Chinese bank’s security plug-ins are developed only for IE. I don’t know why. It’s so stupid.
Thanks to all the people who made an effort to put up such an important issue.
By mistake i paid the seller 200 UP instead of just 60.I would be all lost without this guide.
You saved my money $$$ i got a refund very quickly
Thank You
I applied for a refund when i was not getting the product for week, then the refund was approved. I had paid using my ICBC bank account in shenzhen but i m not getting back the money on my account? please advice what to do, it’s been more than a week that the refund was approved
Hi Clement, all Taobao’s refund goes into the Alipay account. If you don’t have your bank account authorized with Alipay account, you can’t withdraw the money, you need to be an Alipay certified user to withdraw money, check out this guide for how. If you don’t have an Alipay account, register one, here’s how.
So does this mean I have to “release funds” before I can see the “refund” link? I’ve tried contacting my vendor about this product… I just assumed having a whole bunch of diamonds was good enough.
I’m an idiot. Anyways, I tried contacting them through Taobao and through email, but no response. Taobao is now “Waiting on the buyer to pay” even though I haven’t received the product; do I pay and then request a refund? Thanks!
Hi Avery, You have to pay for the goods to Alipay first, so that the seller can ship you the product. The money you paid won’t go directly to the seller. Only when you have received the product and satisfied with it, then you click “确认收货” to release your fund from Alipay to the seller to complete the transaction.
If I paid by adding money via China Post, and I get a refund, how can I get my money back as cash?
Answered in our new FAQ. Sorry it took us so long! =)
hello,i’m about to apply for a refund because the seller does not have stocks at the moment. i bought 5 items from his store and i noticed that the refund should be applied per item. how about the shipping fee? will it be refunded also? thanks
Hi,
I ordered 3 paintings from a supplier, 2 of which were really badly done and were sent back. After 2 months of waiting the supplier admitted to not being able to supply new paintings. After nagging and nagging they finally refunded one of the paintings, unfortunately I ran out of time for the other and Alipay paid the supplier, now I’m struggling to get my money back from the supplier although the boss already agreed to pay me back, every time I contact them they have some excuse. I understand that I got myself in a pickle for letting my time run out, but how can I get my money back?
Hello,
I have a strange problem. I ordered from taobao and was successful in directly making payment from bank of china. But I have not received anything yet(4-5 days). how do i get refund?
This was my first time use of taobao. I did not sign up for alipay or taobao or anything else. I searched for Okra and found a good deal. went through buying options and payed money through internet banking facility provided by bank of china. Now I have my bank statement regarding the transfer but i don’t know how to get a refund. I have not received anything yet,.
Hi Karan, as far as we know, you’ll have to have a registered Taobao ID to be able to purchase anything, when you register a Taobao ID, you might have registered the same Alipay ID on the same time. So you can just follow our guide of refunding normally. The refunded money would be in your Alipay account.
Hi! I requested a friend to purchase something for me in Taobao as I haven’t registered yet. It was supposed to be delivered last Sunday, however, no product arrived. My friend checked online and was shocked to discover that the status said the item was delivered Sunday at 8pm to the correct address. It’s obviously a delivery mistake but when my friend tried to contact the supplier, she said it was really delivered. We asked the seller to check again and we’ll get her feedback tonight. In case the seller will insist on delivering the product, how are we going to get a refund?
Hi
when i tried to apply for a refund the process did not work as described above… I am actually not sure what happened or if it went through at all (my chinese isnt that great).
I eventually managed to get to the page described above (where you input the information on why you want to return the goods etc.) but i was asked to give information like passport number, real name etc etc and then no other messages where shown regarding response time of seller…the next page only said “do not refresh or resend information”.
When I go back to the alipay website, it has not changed at all.
what has happened? did it go through?
It will be!
I have let time run out on three purchases where the transaction says “buyer has payment”. the money is shown as being taken out from my alipay balance. How do i get that money back in my alipay balance.
Kindest
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