Problem refunding a buyer

jigglypuffy

3 weeks ago someone bought a mobile phone from me for £260, and paid via paypal.  I withdrew the money the day I received it and the next day, just before I was about to post it the buyer requested a cancellation.  In ebay I selected the option cancel sale and refund buyer.  As there were no funds in my account paypal informed me they would take the money from my bank account.  15 days later paypal informed me that they could not transfer money out of my bank account as no direct debit has been set up.

The question is what do I do now?  The buyer still has not got his money back.  Ebay and Paypal have not told me how to fix this problem.

soolin

You need to urgently send money to your paypal before this goes horribly wrong. If the cancellation doesn't go through properly then you are going to get stuck with an awful lot of FVFs, I can't believe you have left it this long to sort out and it might already be too late. 

What cases are open currently in ebay- just the cancellation? what does the status of this sale actually show when you look at it?

jigglypuffy

Appreciate the advice I'll send money to my paypal account.  There is an 0800 number on their site, hopefully they can fix it.
There are no cases open on my ebay but there is a huge £26 sale fee for the phone plus over £7 fees in paypal.

soolin

jigglypuffy said:

Appreciate the advice I'll send money to my paypal account.  There is an 0800 number on their site, hopefully they can fix it.
There are no cases open on my ebay but there is a huge £26 sale fee for the phone plus over £7 fees in paypal.

‘They’ cannot fix this, only you can. You need to link your bank account and send money, it will take around a week to get there though so might already be too late to avoid paying the eBay fees.  Once you have a balance in your PayPal account you can then cancel and s will at least get your PayPal fees back, less the 30p they retain. 

jigglypuffy

I linked my bank account and sent money over to my paypal account.  The problem is they already tried to take the money from my bank acount before but couldn't.  Now my paypal account has enough funds, I have sent paypal a message to refund the buyer but so far no response.  I tried the phone number but was put on hold for so long I gave up.

soolin

'They' can't send the money, only you can. If there are cleared funds in your account then look for the transaction, and there will be a 'refund' button by the amount, click refund and send. Then go back into ebay and sort out the cancellation there 

jigglypuffy

I sent a message to paypal to refund them, if I click the refund button what are the chances the buyer ends up getting refunded twice?

theonlywayisup

jigglypuffy said:

I sent a message to paypal to refund them, if I click the refund button what are the chances the buyer ends up getting refunded twice?

A transaction cannot be refunded twice.  
Click the refund button and send the buyer their money.

jigglypuffy

Thanks for all the advice guys, as suggested I refunded them in my paypal in the end.  Just wondering is there a way I can remove the direct debit I set up with them.   I don't trust them having access to my bank account as in the past they have incorrectly taken money out of my paypal account and it took forever to sort out.

theonlywayisup

jigglypuffy said:

Thanks for all the advice guys, as suggested I refunded them in my paypal in the end.  Just wondering is there a way I can remove the direct debit I set up with them.   I don't trust them having access to my bank account as in the past they have incorrectly taken money out of my paypal account and it took forever to sort out.

Contact your bank and tell them to cancel the DD.

jigglypuffy

Logged into my bank account and deleted the direct debit from there.  There was no way of removing it from paypal.
Just don't trust paypal having access to my bank account, they've made errors in the past.