Charged twice for an order and refuses to refund

namieco

I paid an international seller about $40 for a gift for a friend.

A couple of days later I checked my bank account and I noticed the money had gone out twice. I'm assuming it was a duplicate order. I have raised several tickets with the seller and all they say is they won't refund me as they have now sent both out. 

I paid through PayPal who are being worse than useless. They only allowed me to make a claim under 'item not received' so I am dubious it will work in my favour if the seller has sent out both items. I have sent ages talking to Paypal and they say they can't 'make a seller refund an order' and won't answer me when I point out they are supposed to offer protection against duplicate orders. I'm pretty confused over why they are not being helpful as I assumed I had protection through them.

The seller is also ignoring the fact I am in the UK and the 14 day UK law regarding return of goods.

Surely there must be something I can do? It can't be legal to charge someone twice and say it's ok cos you've sent out both? I really can't afford to have a surprise $40 taken out my bank on top of the gift, I don't want another and it's not something I can sell on. 

davidmcn

Surely one of the transactions wasn't authorised? Or do you think you accidentally paid twice?

namieco

I didn't pay twice. Either one of the transactions was unauthorised or there was some sort of technical error with the website where it duplicated my order. I had a voucher code making my order $37 rather than $40- one order went through for each amount. But I didn't pay twice myself.

soolin

The seller can’t have taken money if you didn’t authorise it, which means you either did accidentally click to send twice, or PayPal had a glitch. If you are 100% sure that you didn’t just click send twice, or get muddled with the messages on screen then you are going to have to prove somehow that PayPal had a glitch .

incidentally, I am not sure what you mean by the PayPal guarantee against duplicate orders?  It is perfectly OK to make two identical orders if you wish, PayPal would not stop you, and in fact I have done it myself successfully.

You are correct though that your only options now are  an INR claim if selelr can not prove delivery , or a SNAD claim which you will have to fund the return for.

You  mention the 14 day returns window, this of course does not apply to non UK purchases as you quite rightly say it is UK law. Even if this was the UK then your change of mind return would be at your own cost, and not that of the seller.

Don’t forget also that if you have bought from outside the EU that you will have tax, duty and handling to pay, RM for instance charges £8 per package handling charge plus HMRC costs, couriers can easily charge up to £15 per package. 

namieco

I didn't click twice so I'm not sure what happened. I only found out it had charged me twice days later when I looked at the statement. 

It says in the Resolutions Centre in Paypal that you can claim for a 'duplicate order' so I assumed they had protection against this.

Looks like there's nothing I can do then ?

theonlywayisup

As has been pointed out, Paypal doesn't initiate the payment, you had to do it.  Therefore you haven't been charged twice but you may have paid twice.

If you open an INR case the seller can defend it with online tracking showing delivery.  If your friend has only received on then open a case for the one that hasn't been received.

KatrinaWaves

It’s been mentioned already in larger replies but for emphasis:

The US seller does not need to abide by the laws of the UK. Not sure why anyone would think an international seller would need to know and abide by the laws of hundreds of countries. 

sarahking87

Do you have a PayPal email receipt for the purchase showing you ordered 1 item? Or did you get a receipt for both? 

My understanding of checkout system glitches (I.e clicking refresh while the payment is processing) is that a single transaction goes through twice, or the transaction would be interrupted and not go through at all. On your statement you’d see two transactions for $37, not two transactions for different amounts. The payment gateway isn’t capable of doing that, without user intervention. Usually banks pick this type of error up and may decline both transactions. 

The only way two separate charges could happen is if you clicked pay the first time, interrupted the process because you thought there was an issue (I.e slow browser), went BACK to the checkout page - which may then have removed your voucher code- and pressed pay again. 

As a last resort - Assuming you didn’t use PayPal Credit for the purchase, Have you raised the issue with your bank or credit card provider?

You could tell your bank you don’t recognise the $40 transaction, give them a copy of the receipt for the 1 item you ordered at $37, and let them investigate. Of course, if it is shown that you somehow placed and paid for 2 orders then this won’t help much. Good luck with it 

born_again

sarahking87 said:

Do you have a PayPal email receipt for the purchase showing you ordered 1 item? Or did you get a receipt for both? 

My understanding of checkout system glitches (I.e clicking refresh while the payment is processing) is that a single transaction goes through twice, or the transaction would be interrupted and not go through at all. On your statement you’d see two transactions for $37, not two transactions for different amounts. The payment gateway isn’t capable of doing that, without user intervention. Usually banks pick this type of error up and may decline both transactions. 

The only way two separate charges could happen is if you clicked pay the first time, interrupted the process because you thought there was an issue (I.e slow browser), went BACK to the checkout page - which may then have removed your voucher code- and pressed pay again. 

As a last resort - Assuming you didn’t use PayPal Credit for the purchase, Have you raised the issue with your bank or credit card provider?

You could tell your bank you don’t recognise the $40 transaction, give them a copy of the receipt for the 1 item you ordered at $37, and let them investigate. Of course, if it is shown that you somehow placed and paid for 2 orders then this won’t help much. Good luck with it 

This is going to depend on how the payment debited the OP's account.
DD, then there is nothing that can be done.
Debit card might be able to do a chargeback for non receipt you need to know which one. Do not just pick the dearest.... Can not do duplicate (different amount) But would caution, that if retailer contests it can effect your paypal account.

But if they have sent both, then they will reject.

As other have said it is not possible for a payment system to make more than one payment, especially if they are different amounts.
A true duplicate can only be by the payment processor running the same daily tape twice. And you would not get 2 order confirmations in this case.