PayPal Unauthorised Payment

Bronnie

I have today received a dispute email from Paypal regarding an eBay sale. The seller states the payment of £7.05 made to me was an unauthorised transaction. The transaction dates back to June 2020. Everything I read says a case has to be opened within 180 days, so I’m not quite sure how to respond to this. Any advice, please? A hold  has been put on my PayPal account for the amount. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Have you logged into your PayPal account from a browser to see if anything's showing there?  I'd be wary of the e-mail being a scam, to be honest.

Bronnie

Conferred with my daughters and it seems the email’s legit and the case is showing on PayPal. Apparently there’s no time limit for unauthorised payment cases. 

soolin

There should still be a time limit, I assume you won't still have proof of posting from that long ago, I'm a hoarder but even I probably keep only a couple of years worth. With POP you can easily defend this as long as it shows you sent to the address they gave you.

Personally I would phone paypal and keep phoning asking how you defend this.

Bronnie

The item was a face mask, I was making and selling loads of them during the pandemic! I wasn’t able to get a proof of posting as the post offices were closed and Wales was still in lockdown at the time. I know it’s only £7 but it’s bloody annoying 🙄

soolin

It does look like the time limit to raise a fraud case has been removed unfortunately - that means we should have been advising sellers to keep all POPs indefinitely!  

How do I report an unauthorised transaction or account activity? (paypal.com)

here's no time limit on how long you have to report an unauthorised transaction.

Bronnie

Just thought I’d feedback on the outcome of this matter for future reference.

I’ve been away on hols and left a note on the case to say so. When I’d clicked through on the case, I did find a tracking number for Royal Mail as I’d bought the postage online. There were no further records available for me on my Royal Mail  account or on EBay, due to the lengthy timespan. Today I messaged PayPal chat and received the following reply, with a favourable resolution for me. 

I haven’t been a business seller for a couple of years now and I’m very tempted to close my PayPal account to stop any other potential claims, as it seems to me anybody could try it on years after purchase. 

GadgetGuru

This is actually rather concerning. I use PayPal due to the added layer of protection, maybe I need to review my processes!