Paid with paypal...seller now says money held by paypal, so won't send the goods.

joedi

I recently bought a galaxy tab 10.1 and paid by paypal. The seller send me an invoice, (not through ebay, directly through paypal) marked as Galaxy Tab 10.1 for £210.
I paid straight away...170 for my balance, the rest from my bank account.
On emailing the seller the next day to ask if it had been posted, I got a one line reply
" money put on hold by Paypal. They advised me not to send."
I know that paypal will hold funds if a user is new, and release them when they have proof that the item has been shipped.
On checking my paypal, I could see everything has went through fine...my money had gone, nothing was marked as on hold at my end.
I emailed him, explaining this, figuring if he was a new paypal user he may not realise how things worked.
I have heard nothing back since then, despite several anxious emails on my part.
The tablet was for my autistic teenage son, who has no concept of scamming..I paid, so he gets tablet...end of! As you can imagine he is getting increasingly agitated..as am I!
I am starting to think this is a scam...if he was genuinely worried that his money was on hold surely he would have contacted me?
And more importantly, if paypal hold funds until they receive proof that an item has been actually received, surely they would NEVER advise a seller not to ship?
I started to file a dispute, but got a paypal message saying the seller could not be contacted, or something similar, and the only option was to file a claim, which I did.
As of yet, the seller has not responded via paypal, or email.
Am I correct in thinking that I will be refunded by paypal if the seller does not send me the tablet? Even if his account is empty?
I am hoping the money IS on hold, which will make a refund more likely.
I am really anxious, as this is distressing my son, and I can't leave it too long before purchasing him another tablet.
Many thanks in advance for any advice or reassurance.
Jo

Irn-Bru-Kid

PayPal will refund you in full and then pursue the seller if the funds are not held.

You have nothing to worry about, just the inconvenience of waiting to be reimbursed.

TKPeters

Looks to me that Paypal believe you've not authorised the payment & held the payment, rather than a new seller 21-day hold.

If you call Paypal & explain the problem with the payment & confirm that you've sent it, they will release the funds

campdave

Was it an echeque? They take several days to clear.

joedi

Hi!
No it wasn't an echeque.just my paypal balance and some transferred from my linked bank account.
Tbh, after the way the seller has totally ignored my repeated emails...which were very polite, just anxious, I would rather the money was held, and returned to me. I have no confidence that he would send my my tablet now...he hasn't even responded to the paypal claim.
I feel reassured after reading the Irn-bru-kids response. I did a search on the net before coming here, and got so many different theories, I was in a right state. You guys seem to really know your stuff...wish I had found you first!
Anyone have any idea how long it takes to get reimbursed? Paypal said they would decide on the case after 10 days. Do they refund straight away? And will the original 170 paypal balance, and 30 bank transfer go back into their original places, or will the full 200 go back into paypal?
Thanks!
Jo
X

chrisfh

The money paid out of your bank account is an echeque and takes up to 7 days to clear. The seller will have received an email from Paypal telling them this and advising them not to send the item until they hear that the money has cleared. Once it has cleared they will receive another email telling them that they should now dispatch the good. Hope that helps.

kitschkitty

chrisfh wrote: »

The money paid out of your bank account is an echeque and takes up to 7 days to clear. The seller will have received an email from Paypal telling them this and advising them not to send the item until they hear that the money has cleared. Once it has cleared they will receive another email telling them that they should now dispatch the good. Hope that helps.

The money paid out of your bank account MAY BE an echeque and takes up to 7 days to clear. It depends if you have an in date credit/debit card also registered on your account or not.

joedi

I have an active and in date credit card linked to my paypal account, ( I just checked to be sure) so if my bank account is accidentally out of funds, they automatically come from the credit card. So it definitely isn't an echeque.
Either the seller is quite new to paypal, so they are holding his money till he ships the item, or he has no intention of shipping.
I fear the latter, as other than his one line response to me, he has ignored about 10 emails from me, and has not responded on paypal.
I feel so upset, as I am a very trusting person, and this has been a big wake up call to me that not everyone as honest as I assume.
I am very glad that I got him to invoice me, rather than just sending to his paypal email, as he first suggested. If I had done that I don't think I would have had a chance of getting my money back.
After seeing the replies here I am quite hopeful that I will!

soolin

Even if you paid an invoice as long as it was for named goods you would have been fine assuming goods are covered by buyer protection.

joedi

It was for an android tablet, so it should be covered. And stated on the invoice it said Galaxy Tab 10.1.

joedi

Hi!
I recently filed a paypal claim against a seller who said my payment was on hold, and that paypal had advised them not to send it. After getting some sound advice here, I relaxed a bit, feeling reassured that I would be refunded if the item never arrived.

Today I get an automated Paypal email, showing the seller had now provided a tracking number!
As you can imagine I was very pleased. The paypal email showed, from the info the seller provided, that the item had been Shipped UPS, on 14th March 2013, with the tracking number EE791120804CN.

I looked up the number right away...but it wasn't on the system...I know from experience that it can take a while for this to happen, so I wasn't too worried.

I went to the resolution center to view my claim, and was surprised to see the seller still hadn't responded..despite now having apparently shipped my item.

After days of him ignoring my emails, I have no faith at all in his honesty, so I put the number into a universal tracking system.

It came back as a parcel, shipped by USPS in china and delivered to houston, texas, in April last year!

For the life of me, I cannot think how he magicked up this number...as he is based in Rotherham, England.

As far as I know, UK tracking numbers end in GB.

I am also worried that Paypal will see he has provided a tracking number, and decided to rule in his favor, whether I receive anything or not!

Can anyone tell me whether it is possible for a tracking number to be "reused" and end in CN...when posted in the UK? And if paypal will take a random tracking number as proof...even though the number shows a delivery a year ago, to the other side of the world?

Thanks in advance
Jo