Reviewed 30 September 2026 · quarterly cycle
Why does a refund take days to reach my balance?
Because cancellation confirmation and settlement are separate events. The cancellation is acknowledged immediately and the funds settle on the payment layer schedule.
The evidence
The two-step structure exists because the agent has already committed funds to the seller, and those funds have to come back before they can be credited. A cancellation confirmed on the agent side initiates the recovery rather than completing it. The visible symptom is a confirmed cancellation with no balance change, which reads as a problem and is usually just the middle of a process.
The settlement lands in the balance rather than in the original funding source, which is a separate structural point. A refund that returns to a card is visible in a bank statement; one that returns to a platform balance is visible only inside the platform. Buyers watching the wrong account conclude the refund did not arrive, and the fix is to check the balance rather than the card.
The practical consequence for planning is to sequence the next order after settlement rather than after confirmation. An order placed against a confirmed cancellation can fail at payment, and a failed payment at the wrong moment can cost a listing that has changed price or sold out in the interval.
When this does not apply
Where the cancellation happens before the agent has paid the seller, there is nothing to recover and the credit is immediate. That is the case for an order cancelled in the first minutes, and it is why cancelling early is worth more than cancelling correctly.