You expect a refund to come back the way it went out

Why there is no reversal

A card refund works because a network of institutions can rewrite entries between themselves. Chain payments have no such layer. A transaction that happened, happened. The only way to give money back is to send some the other way, and that is a new event with its own cost and its own conditions.

So the platform does the cheap thing, which is to credit your account. No chain transaction, no fee, instant, and correct from the platform's point of view. It is also the version that leaves your money in the least protected place.

Why the timing is bad

Refunds arrive at the end of something that went wrong. You are tired of the whole business, you have spent days on it, and the last thing you want is another task. So the balance sits. Then it sits longer, because you will use it next time. It is now doing exactly what the balance entry describes, at the moment you are least inclined to think about it.

The three things to check when one lands

1. The amount. Partial refunds are common, and the split is a decision somebody made. Read it before you accept it.
2. The valuation. A refund credited in the platform's unit at today's rate may not equal what you sent, and this is not anybody cheating you.
3. Whether the order is closed. A refund usually ends the dispute. Anything you wanted to argue needed arguing before this point.

Then move it

Out to a wallet you control, the same day if you can. The withdrawal costs a network fee and that fee is the price of the money being yours rather than being a row in a database. People skip it because the fee is visible and the risk is not, which is the same trade that shows up everywhere else on this board.

Refunds also arrive in a currency decision you did not make. If you paid in one coin and the credit is denominated in the platform unit, withdrawing converts again, and each conversion has a spread. That is a cost of the refund rather than a trick, and it is one reason a partial refund can feel smaller than the arithmetic suggested when you agreed to it.

If you genuinely intend to order again this week, that is a reasonable case for leaving it. Be honest about whether that is a plan or an excuse, because the balances that get lost are almost always the ones somebody meant to spend soon.

Related: escrow is a neutral third party and the dispute is decided on fairness.