Paypal deducted fee from my refund from seller - bit complicated, please help

CelticStar

I recently bought a PS3 game for my husband that was described 'as new' but when it turned up it had a hole right through the front of the box. The seller had a female Ebay username but it seems it was actually her husband who was selling the game and - to be honest - he seems a bit clueless. As soon as I contacted him and said that the game wasn't as described he offered to refund if I sent it back, so I think he was just chancing him arm that I would want to avoid the hassle and expense of a return. Anyway, I wrapped it back up again and paid the £1.65 to send it by recorded delivery so that it was tracked if things escalated to a dispute. Today, two days later, he refunds me not from the Paypal account linked to the original Ebay account but from his own Paypal account - so that now I am down by the return postage and an 80p Paypal fee that I've been charged for receiving funds.

Before I realised that I had been charged a fee on the refund I contacted him about the return postage, but that was late this afternoon and there hasn't been a reply. Not only that but as he has used his wife's Ebay account, even if I leave negative feedback it won't be for him, it will be for her, I can only hope that he's reluctant to mess up her Ebay feedback for her. I am just so fed up with it to be honest - why list something 'as new' with a great hole in the box? Can anyone suggest anything other than politely implying that I will leave negative feedback for his wife it he doesn't refund the money outstanding? I haven't raised a dispute yet but I guess I am going to have to if he doesn't at least pay up the 80p refund charge.

cyberbob

Refund him then email him and tell him he needs to refund via the correct method. IF you don't hear anything you can open a paypal dispute anyway then escalaet to get them to refund you.

What I normally do when this happens is actually explain step by step how they need to do it.

Its quite amazing the amount of people who do this which is silly as its not linked to the sale technically the buyer could open a claim show tracking and it looks like they haven't been refunded. So they could get refunded twice.

CelticStar

Thanks for that, that's what I thought. I've advised him to do this and his reply was to send me another £2.00 payment for postage (minus another 28p). So I am still 75p down after the Paypal fees - argggghhh. He's a pleasant enough bloke but seems reluctant to refund properly.

pinkshoes

Just open a dispute and enter the tracking number, and you'll get your money back.

I think he comes under the TSFE (too stupid for ebay) category!

Maysie

I bet he has no money in the account you paid to. If he had paid you via a personal payment rather then a transaction paypal would not have taken a fee.

Either chalk it up as a loss or suggest how to avoid the fee incurred. To be honest you have been lucky to get return postage a lot of sellers wriggle out of that.

CelticStar

Thanks for the replies, I'm still in two minds what to do, just waiting for the electronic proof of delivery to turn up online. I've decided not to send back the payment until I know I can prove tracking for a dispute.

I've explained to him that if he refunds me properly he can get his fees back but he just send the extra £2 payment. His reply about the conditon of the box was that he was selling a game and the disc was 'as new' so he thinks that means it was 'as new'. Sometimes people are really bizarre!