Newman Debt Collectors.

leesayshi

Back in March I sold an item on eBay. The item was returned and I refunded the customer. I then received an email from Paypal asking for evidence to prove I had refunded the buyer. I provided them with a copy of the Paypal payment transaction (the refund). How else could I prove it? I would have sent them a bank statement, but decided to wait until they asked for more proof if needed. They never did and with in a few days I received this email...

Dear ***,

Thanks for responding with details about this recent transaction.

We have completed our investigation. Unfortunately, we are unable to
reimburse you for this bank reversal.
Transaction Details
Buyer's name: ***
Buyer's email: ***
Transaction ID: ***

Transaction date: 23 Mar 2011
Transaction amount: 59.99 GBP
Your transaction ID: ***
Case number: ***

Refund amount:


We appreciate your cooperation. This case is now closed.

Yours sincerely,

PayPal

Out of protest I decided to ignore it. I don't want to deal with Paypal again if this is how they treat their customers.

Over the past few months I have received this email.

Dear ***,

Your PayPal account balance is below zero. To resolve your negative balance please add money to your PayPal account.

Which has been non-threatening and also since the original email my anger for them had relaxed a bit. I'd even consider possibly going back to them (well having no other real option to use eBay) so would in someway end up paying the negative balance back anyway or at least sorting it out with Payal.

But today I receieved a letter from Newman Debt Collectors. Which pretty much repeats the email, although now I have to deal with the payment through them instead. It also closes with "failure to pay this amount will result in further action". What is that implying? Will they take me to court? I've been told and have read that they have nothing to stand on and are purely being threatening, is this true?

I'm unemployed at the moment and can't just hand out £60 to anyone asking. It really is ridiculous that when I originally refunded my buyer, I believed that I was doing the right thing and being a decent seller. Well that came around and bit me on my !!!!!

Sorry for the long post, although i'm sure you're all used to them.

Any advice will be much appreciated. Cheers.

theonlywayisup

Reading between the lines this sounds like a chargeback originally. Your mistake was ignoring the paypal outcome when you should have appealed.

That aside there is little you can do now unless you can persuade paypal that you did refund. Perhaps you didn't refund correctly? I don't know, but I do know the DCA will hound you until you pay.

leesayshi

Thanks for your reply. I didn't see any option to dispute/appeal the outcome. As you can probably tell, I'm not very legal-savvy. I ignorantly believed that the only consequence to a negative balance was that I wouldn't be able to use paypal until I resolved it, which is fair enough (i suppose) but for them to pursue me for something like this in this situation doesn't feel right.

theonlywayisup

It may not feel right, but as you didn't adhere to their policies (and without knowing the full story that is all i can surmise) they are obliged to reimburse the buyer and pursue you for the funds. They will not go away until you pay or resolve. And to warn that the fees may turn the £60 into something far more horrendous.

leesayshi

Okay, thanks for your help.

arriva

why don't you print a copy of the refund confirmation and send it to the death collectors company. they will hopefully forward it to paypal.
you did refund at the end.