Ebay have taken a refund from me twice through PayPal

Mogwali

Hi all,

I've read through a lot of similar cases to mine but still haven't found the answer so I would appreciate any help you can give me.

I sold a mobile phone and the buyer claimed more than 2 weeks after receiving it and leaving positive feedback, that it was faulty (it was fine when I sent it). A case was then opened and ebay found in their favour so it was returned to me (damaged).

Ebay then took the refund value from my PayPal account twice. Once using funds that had been placed on hold and I added to so that I could continue using paypal, the second time with an echeque via my current account.

I have spent hours on the phone repeating the transaction IDs and trying to obtain a refund and been told that it has been processed yet it still isn't appearing in my account. I have been told today that there is no record of the refund back to me being approved despite demanding to speak to a manager last week who told me this. He also admitted there is a flaw in the refund system and they are working on getting it fixed.

I am currently on maternity leave so was selling the phone to raise some extra cash for christmas. I have now lost the value of this and cannot afford to be out of pocket by an additional £134 due to ebay error.

I ended up in tears on the phone today as nobody seems to be able to help, all I keep hearing is how sorry they are and that I will get a call back (which never comes).

I've also spoken to PayPal who are unable to help as I have an agreement with ebay allowing them to request funds.

Has anybody else been through this and actually got their money back? And if so how?!

Brooker_Dave

Use the courts to reclaim it.

Brooker_Dave

And the other £134 they cheated out of you.

Brooker_Dave

Is an Echeque from your bank some sort of direct debit?

Mogwali

I don't have the money to take a huge company like ebay to court, especially not on maternity pay!
An echeque takes a week to clear, a bit like a normal cheque. So the funds left my bank account a week before I could even start the process of trying to get them back as I had to wait for it to clear through PayPal.

Inigo_Montoya

I suspect you can simply contact your bank to reclaim the echeque funds telling them it was an unauthorised transaction

The other funds you will probably have to write off as the buyer sent the item back - if he damaged it theres not really much you can do

Its not a good idea to 'confirm ' your bank account with paypal as IIRC thats what allows them later to take money from your bank account

If you leave it 'unconfirmed' they cant do that

Brooker_Dave

If it was taken via direct debit, use the DD guarantee to get it back, instantly.

RFW

Mogwali wrote: »

I don't have the money to take a huge company like ebay to court, especially not on maternity pay!
An echeque takes a week to clear, a bit like a normal cheque. So the funds left my bank account a week before I could even start the process of trying to get them back as I had to wait for it to clear through PayPal.

First, sorry you've had a bad experience. Second, whilst you're right in ignoring Dave's advice for going to court, it isn't more expensive to take Ebay to court than anyone else. That said it's probably not worth the hassle for £134 and would likely take you several months to see any money back. The advice to immediately go to court is sheer folly and not money saving advice and certainly not time saving.

Dealing with companies like Ebay can be a pain to get through to the right person. One of the best avenues to get through to the right people is Twitter. Even if you don't have a Twitter account, set one up and find Ebay UK and their customer service, a short and to the point Tweet should get a response and an email of someone who will help.

Failing that, try the Ebay message boards, but not sure how useful they are these days.

You need to get a clear track on the Paypal transactions and your banking to have the dates of when each payment was taken. It may be worth telling your bank that the second payment was not authorised and dispute it that way. Again, that could take time but setting the ball rolling won't hurt.