Buyer accepted partial refund through ebay, now opened a paypal case!

zebra7t4

I sold a console on auction and listed it as faulty spares sold as seen (faulty disk drive). Buyer reluctantly pays with paypal.

After 1 week, buyer opens a return request, reason being faulty defective - he says he's opened the console up and tried to replace the disk drive, but he now gets an error code.

I reply to the case saying I know nothing about the workings of consoles or anything electrical, and it never showed an error code when I owned it.

Buyer says he'll get another disc drive to see if it works then.

Buyer then asks for a partial refund of £20 (fine by me), and I even send him a £30 refund, as I did feel a bit sorry for him.

I was polite throughout.

3 weeks later, I get an email from Paypal saying "The sender of the payment outlined below has requested their financial institution to reverse (part, or all of) this payment. They've cited the following reason:

The buyer stated the merchandise they received has one of the following problems:

It was damaged or defective

It was not as described

Services were not rendered

Item not received".

Obviously I want to contest this, the remaining value is £100.

Even if he returned it to me, it is useless to me now, especially as it's more damaged now than before I sold it.

Does anyone have any advice please, or experience of this kind of thing, where a buyer goes through paypal?  I have 10 days to respond to the paypal case.  Rather sneaky in my opinion.

Spoonie_Turtle

You'll have to check but I believe if a case has been resolved in eBay, PayPal's T&Cs say one can't then be opened in PP. Not sure how exactly you go about telling PP an eBay case for this item has already been resolved though.
Whoops, not relevant, sorry (think I misread/misunderstood the post).

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

OP this isn't a Paypal claim, the buyer has gone to their card or bank to dispute the transaction.

If the claim is for non-receipt upload tracking and proof of posting, this will qualify for seller protection and Paypal will release the funds.

If the claim is for not as described  Paypal doesn't offer seller protection in this instance so you need to upload the above and as much info to the case in the resolution centre as you can, screenshots of the listing, the eBay return and any other eBay messages.

The card provider or bank will decide the outcome, Paypal should provide them with any evidence you supply and it can take up to 2 or 3 months to be resolved with the funds being on hold.

If the card provider or bank decides in your favour the claim will close with no refund or fee. If it is decided in the buyers favour the remaining balance should be refunded plus there is a £14 fee Paypal will impose. 

Assuming you are a private seller and the description was accurate I would also message the buyer and advise that if they proceed with the dispute and are refunded you'll be issuing small claims proceedings against them. 

After the Paypal matter is closed, if it doesn't go your way you might find they refund the £14 fee as a gesture of goodwill if you ask them politely. 

If you are unsure on anything speak to Paypal, they are generally very helpful with these things. 

zebra7t4

What a nasty trick to play.
Yes, I'm a private seller, and the reason they are giving is it's defective (even though they bought it as faulty).  It sounds like they have found they cannot fix the console after all, so are playing every trick to get the money back.
So, I will need to go to the paypal case, and add all messages, and screenshots of the ebay listing, and hope for the best?
Surely paypal/bank will see sense?

I wouldn't know where to start with small claims proceedings.

MalMonroe

The buyer wasn't happy at the outset and I don't know why he didn't just go on to ebay and start a returns process. All that messing about with partial refunds, etc., what a mess it ended up.  Here's some info on small claims :  https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/deciding-whether-to-make-a-small-claim/

I have to say that PayPal can be extremely difficult and unhelpful, though. Someone in the US tried to scam my daughter. Sent her a small sum of money, US$20, for some item she wanted to buy. My daughter hasn't sold anything and still doesn't sell anything, anywhere. So she refunded the money immediately. Next thing, PayPal suspended her account, called her a seller and said that they will reopen it when the buyer gets her item. There was no item. We thought it was a scam but it seems such a daft scam we can't work out what it is. Worst part is, PayPal took the word of the scammer.  We never got to the bottom of it, still haven't, and my daughter ended up writing to the Guardian's problem page, after which she was compensated by PayPal because they'd done it wrong and her PayPal account was re-opened. She promptly closed it, said she'd find another way to handle her dosh and wrote some rave (sic) reviews of PayPal. 

zebra7t4

I've submitted my information and screenshots, will have to wait and see now. 
I've been messaging Paypal, and according to them, if he wins a refund he will be required to return the console as his own expense. 
Also they said If I receive the item back and there is any additional damage (other than what the buyer has already mentioned) Paypal can appeal the case for me.