Item not paid for, refund case opened?

cheffy1

Hi

After some help/advice on how to proceed.

I sold a low value item (under £5) on the 19th August, after accepting a best offer. On the 23rd I politely messaged buyer asking when I should expect payment. Buyer replied saying they had paid immediately upon purchase and they were awaiting the item.

Item is still showing as "awaiting payment" on my sellers dashboard. And no money has been received into my PayPal, and I messaged the buyer informing them.

Today the buyer has opened a case for a refund, and has messaged me insisting that they have conformation emails from both eBay and PayPal that they have paid.

Buyer has been polite on all communication, and has good feedback.

I've messaged customer service asking them to look into this. Any advice on what else I can do, or anyone with any experience of this sort of thing would be greatly appreciated

sam.4000

Have you checked you PayPal address on your eBay account to see if it correct?

soolin

sam.4000 wrote: »

Have you checked you PayPal address on your eBay account to see if it correct?

This could be the issue and to check go through as though you were going to re list the item (obviously don't) and check that you entered your paypal ID correctly. It is easy to mistype a digit or forget a number.

If your paypal ID is correct then phone ebay and ask them to look into it.

cheffy1

sam.4000 wrote: »

Have you checked you PayPal address on your eBay account to see if it correct?

Yes, PayPal details all correct.

cheffy1

soolin wrote: »

This could be the issue and to check go through as though you were going to re list the item (obviously don't) and check that you entered your paypal ID correctly. It is easy to mistype a digit or forget a number.

If your paypal ID is correct then phone ebay and ask them to look into it.

Hi, I've been going round and round in circles for about 2 hours trying to find a telephone number to call eBay, but they only seem to have an email. Do you have a number I should call?

cheffy1

soolin wrote: »

This could be the issue and to check go through as though you were going to re list the item (obviously don't) and check that you entered your paypal ID correctly. It is easy to mistype a digit or forget a number.

If your paypal ID is correct then phone ebay and ask them to look into it.

Have looked at PayPal on my dashboard, and the email is correct. However, when I've gone onto re-list item like you have suggested, it's saying the email address provided does not have a linked PayPal account and shows an email That's not mine (not even similar)

soolin

cheffy1 wrote: »

Have looked at PayPal on my dashboard, and the email is correct. However, when I've gone onto re-list item like you have suggested, it's saying the email address provided does not have a linked PayPal account and shows an email That's not mine (not even similar)

That's the issue then, your linked paypal is never automatically picked up by a listing - it can't be as many of us use more than one paypal account depending on value of item. Any registered email showing anywhere else in your account is nothing at all to do with the listing.

There are all sorts of issues around paypal addresses being entered wrongly, some are maybe ebay glitches and others might even be something as simple as predictive text altering your actual paypal address or entering something weird if you fail to enter your ID.

You need now to mitigate this as best you can, firstly apologise profusely to buyer, explain there was an error in your paypal ID that you have only just noticed and suggest they contact ebay to reclaim their payment. You need to avoid any INR or other case closing against you (I'm not clear what case has been opened and where) so you need to be proactive here and try and get ebay /paypal to release the unclaimed money back to your buyer. As you have not received the money you can't refund it yourself, but it should bounce back to buyer after 30 days.

Get this sorted first before you worry about re charging the buyer (assuming they still want to go ahead), always make sure you protect your account first and formost.

To get a phone number for ebay go through all the help pages until you get the option to contact them by phone, the number and PIN will change so no one here can give you a free phone number to use.

cheffy1

Thanks all for your help, to explain what's happened,

Ive spoken to eBay, and they have confirmed that it looks like someone has hacked my account at some point (I've not used it in over 6 months)

So the buyer has paid in good faith, and eBay have confirmed that the payment is unclaimed.
eBay have said that the buyer must contact PayPal to request the transaction be stopped. But that ONLY the buyer can do this. I've messaged the buyer and tried to explain the whole situation, but it appears that he doesn't believe my version of events, as he keeps replying with the same response " I've paid YOU and I want a refund from YOU"

I've asked him to log into his PayPal and check what email the payment went to, but he is refusing to do this.
eBay are obviously now waiting for the item not received case time to expire, then they will intervene. I'm preparing myself for the fact that I will probably end up having take the financial hit (glad is only a few £)

Many thanks for your help

soolin

cheffy1 wrote: »

Thanks all for your help, to explain what's happened,

Ive spoken to eBay, and they have confirmed that it looks like someone has hacked my account at some point (I've not used it in over 6 months)

So the buyer has paid in good faith, and eBay have confirmed that the payment is unclaimed.
eBay have said that the buyer must contact PayPal to request the transaction be stopped. But that ONLY the buyer can do this. I've messaged the buyer and tried to explain the whole situation, but it appears that he doesn't believe my version of events, as he keeps replying with the same response " I've paid YOU and I want a refund from YOU"

I've asked him to log into his PayPal and check what email the payment went to, but he is refusing to do this.
eBay are obviously now waiting for the item not received case time to expire, then they will intervene. I'm preparing myself for the fact that I will probably end up having take the financial hit (glad is only a few £)

Many thanks for your help

I think the suggestion of a hack is a bit of a red herring, it doesn't fit the bill at all and this is more likely to just be a mistype.

As for the INR, I think you have this round the wrong way, you can't lose money- after all you didn't receive anything and still have the item! However, if and when they find in buyers favour- and they will, you will get a rather nasty defect, one that can seriously harm your account, and of course you will be out of pocket for the FVfs.

I'm not surprised the buyer is un co operative, as far as they are concerned they paid as requested and seller is now trying to pretend no money was received and making them wait for their money, this is an unfortunate side effect of so many scammers trying the 'my paypal is broken' excuse to get a second payment.

If buyer won't co operate I think you are a bit stuck here- perhaps someone else can advise . meanwhile go through any other listings you have live and make sure your paypal ID is correct.

cheffy1

Thanks again for your help, the only reason I used the word "hacked" is that's what the eBay customer service team said.

I wish it was just a Miss type, but the difference is significant, I.e

My email is something like : joe.bloggs@hotmail.co.uk
The email on the listing was like: sheikabdulsalah@yahoo.com

I'm not particularly clued up on who would take the financial hit, or what the implications of a defect are, but I will just have to see how things pan out.

I completely understand where the buyer is coming from with his responses, as far as he is concerned, he paid in good faith. I just wish he would contact PayPal for a refund as advised by eBay, but he won't.

I have deleted all other listings for now.

Will just have to learn from it and move on I think

theonlywayisup

cheffy1 wrote: »

So the buyer has paid in good faith, and eBay have confirmed that the payment is unclaimed.

Unclaimed means it has gone to a Paypal account that isn't active - ie an incorrect email address. That's not a hack.

cheffy1 wrote: »

I'm preparing myself for the fact that I will probably end up having take the financial hit (glad is only a few £)

Many thanks for your help

You won't have a "financial hit" as you never claimed or had the payment.