Real-life MMD: Missing Paypal payment - should I meet the deficit? 15 August 2013 at 5:47PM edited 20 August 2013 at 12:04PM in Money Saving Polls 51 replies 14.4K views

Former_MSE_Debs

Money Moral Dilemma: Missing Paypal payment - should I meet the deficit?

I bought a chest of drawers for £50 through eBay (collection only) and paid promptly via PayPal. When I arrived, the seller said the payment had not gone into her PayPal account - she had the wrong email address linked to it, so the payment may have gone to someone else. She let me take the drawers, but has since emailed to say I should have given her cash on collection, asking me to meet her deficit halfway by sending £25 in cash. It’s not my fault she didn’t get the money, but she did let me take the drawers, so I’m not sure if I should pay her or not.

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janiebquick

This is a bit of an odd scenario. It was very unwise of the seller to accept PayPal for a collection only item in the first place, but it is just bizarre that she then let you take the chest of drawers after claiming she had not received payment!

Has the money left your PayPal account? If so, can you reverse it and send it to the correct email address? Otherwise I can't work out if the seller is just very naive or has actually received your payment and is trying to squeeze an extra £25 out of you.

I think the ball's in your court on this one.

TBagpuss

If you paid to the address she gave you then I don't see why you should pay a second time to cover her mistake.

You could raise it with PayPay to see whether they can reverse the payment, and if so, pay her the full amount once it has been refunded to you.

gettiton

but has the payment you sent been collected, if it hasnt it may well be on limbo! cant you recall it? - check paypal!
strange she would let you take the drawers for no money ...why not cash on collection to avoid fees? sounds a little fishy to me...

usernamealreadytaken

I'm sure you would be able to get your money back via Paypal, as the email address it was sent to has no right to the money. At the end of the day, you have paid and you have your goods, but it doesn't feel fair for the seller to be out of pocket for making a mistake (but you could check her ebay feedback and see whether she has sold stuff before - this could be some kind of scam to get more money than goods have sold for but I hate to be pessimistic!)

Tigsteroonie

Drawers? What drawers? Do you have any proof that I collected the drawers?

nikki299

The easiest way of getting the payment back would be to open an "item not recieved dispute". If the money has gone into someone elses account or is unclaimed they obviously won't have sent you anything and will have no proof of postage etc so paypal will refund your payment. You can then send the money to the correct account.
If you don't want to do that i definately would not send the seller more money, at the end of the day it was her mistake and if she wanted cash on collection she should have made that clear on her listing.

maiasopohie

As a UK eBay business, I would agree. Collection only is always cash on collection, never Paypal. Seems to me that she is fishing fir more money. I'd put a stop in your PayPal Money. As a seller, I'd never let anything go without payment. There again, I've just bought 1 iPhone 5's in eBay. Got them both 2wks ago but Paypal haven't yet taken the payment from my bank account... What the heck is Paypal doing...?

soolin

As has been said above there is no real dilemma here. If seller claims not to have money then buyer can open an INR and get their money back and can then pay the seller by whatever means they agree on.

sue09

Sounds like your being conned don't pay anything. If this highly unlikely scenario has happened to seller, which I highly doubt it is not your fault. As said by previous posters no one takes paypal for a collection item it's always cash on pick up, it saves having money deducted by paypal.

meher

The seller may or may not be a scammer. I never knew what paypal was for a very long time. The whole email thing sounded strange to me. I needed to make a couple of transactions and always relied on my friends who had paypal accounts to do it. Since I was a complete idiot about how paypal looked or worked for a very long time, I wouldn't mind giving the benefit of doubt for this seller who claims that she hasn't received the money.

Now, as to what you could do for her, would be to go into your account and find the payment transaction number. Just enlighten her of that number and ask her to deal with paypal. Paypal would contact you if you need to do anything else. You are not obliged to pay her.