Ebay- PayPal Bizarre Situation

jacko74

 Id really appreciate some advice and opinions on what is a rather bizarre ongoing situation with ebay and PayPal.

I'll use bullet points to try and make an increasingly long story make sense...

- 3/3/25 I sold an item on ebay for £200

- 6/3/25 Tracking info shows item delivered and the buyer leaves me positive feedback on ebay.
 All good

- 26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised"

-26/3/25 I challenge the dispute with ebay and contact the buyer via ebay.

The buyer immediately replies to me saying he knows nothing at all about this dispute but on checking his PayPal account he sees that PayPal have indeed refunded him the £200.

The buyer then contacts PayPal and they've told him that I issued the refund the day after the sale BUT PayPal also tell him that they HAVEN'T raised a dispute with me?!!

I certainly didn't issue the refund and no money has (yet) left my bank or PayPal account.

The buyer has shown me numerous screenshots showing his PayPal account and the refund they've given him and screenshots of his ebay and PayPal pages showing no active disputes on either and yet ebay are telling me PayPal have opened a dispute on his behalf.

He has offered to pay me the £200 directly if ebay or PayPal do pursue me for it.

He seems genuine, given me his phone number, email address and LinkedIn in page.

Either this is one huge glitch in ebay and/PayPal's systems or this an ongoing, drawn out and very elaborate attempt at fraud by this buyer, possibly wanting to obtain my bank details as part of his offer to repay me??

I just can't understand how PayPal have told him they HAVEN'T opened a dispute with me on ebay yet ebay are telling me they have!

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

RFW

jacko74 said:

 Id really appreciate some advice and opinions on what is a rather bizarre ongoing situation with ebay and PayPal.

I'll use bullet points to try and make an increasingly long story make sense...

- 3/3/25 I sold an item on ebay for £200

- 6/3/25 Tracking info shows item delivered and the buyer leaves me positive feedback on ebay.
 All good

- 26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised"

-26/3/25 I challenge the dispute with ebay and contact the buyer via ebay.

The buyer immediately replies to me saying he knows nothing at all about this dispute but on checking his PayPal account he sees that PayPal have indeed refunded him the £200.

The buyer then contacts PayPal and they've told him that I issued the refund the day after the sale BUT PayPal also tell him that they HAVEN'T raised a dispute with me?!!

I certainly didn't issue the refund and no money has (yet) left my bank or PayPal account.

The buyer has shown me numerous screenshots showing his PayPal account and the refund they've given him and screenshots of his ebay and PayPal pages showing no active disputes on either and yet ebay are telling me PayPal have opened a dispute on his behalf.

He has offered to pay me the £200 directly if ebay or PayPal do pursue me for it.

He seems genuine, given me his phone number, email address and LinkedIn in page.

Either this is one huge glitch in ebay and/PayPal's systems or this an ongoing, drawn out and very elaborate attempt at fraud by this buyer, possibly wanting to obtain my bank details as part of his offer to repay me??

I just can't understand how PayPal have told him they HAVEN'T opened a dispute with me on ebay yet ebay are telling me they have!

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Something like this happened to me a loooong time ago, I can't remember the exact details and they probably wouldn't be relevant as the system has changed a lot since then. I seem to recall it was an invalid credit card and the credit card company had flagged it but the buyer was genuine and eventually the money came back to me.

Back to this, I can't see if Ebay have taken the money from you. Under the current system, if you have the item tracked to the delivery address Ebay gave you there shouldn't be an issue.

savergrant

RFW said:

jacko74 said:

 Id really appreciate some advice and opinions on what is a rather bizarre ongoing situation with ebay and PayPal.

I'll use bullet points to try and make an increasingly long story make sense...

- 3/3/25 I sold an item on ebay for £200

- 6/3/25 Tracking info shows item delivered and the buyer leaves me positive feedback on ebay.
 All good

- 26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised"

-26/3/25 I challenge the dispute with ebay and contact the buyer via ebay.

The buyer immediately replies to me saying he knows nothing at all about this dispute but on checking his PayPal account he sees that PayPal have indeed refunded him the £200.

The buyer then contacts PayPal and they've told him that I issued the refund the day after the sale BUT PayPal also tell him that they HAVEN'T raised a dispute with me?!!

I certainly didn't issue the refund and no money has (yet) left my bank or PayPal account.

The buyer has shown me numerous screenshots showing his PayPal account and the refund they've given him and screenshots of his ebay and PayPal pages showing no active disputes on either and yet ebay are telling me PayPal have opened a dispute on his behalf.

He has offered to pay me the £200 directly if ebay or PayPal do pursue me for it.

He seems genuine, given me his phone number, email address and LinkedIn in page.

Either this is one huge glitch in ebay and/PayPal's systems or this an ongoing, drawn out and very elaborate attempt at fraud by this buyer, possibly wanting to obtain my bank details as part of his offer to repay me??

I just can't understand how PayPal have told him they HAVEN'T opened a dispute with me on ebay yet ebay are telling me they have!

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Something like this happened to me a loooong time ago, I can't remember the exact details and they probably wouldn't be relevant as the system has changed a lot since then. I seem to recall it was an invalid credit card and the credit card company had flagged it but the buyer was genuine and eventually the money came back to me.

Back to this, I can't see if Ebay have taken the money from you. Under the current system, if you have the item tracked to the delivery address Ebay gave you there shouldn't be an issue.

jacko74 said:

 Id really appreciate some advice and opinions on what is a rather bizarre ongoing situation with ebay and PayPal.

I'll use bullet points to try and make an increasingly long story make sense...

- 3/3/25 I sold an item on ebay for £200

- 6/3/25 Tracking info shows item delivered and the buyer leaves me positive feedback on ebay.
 All good

- 26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised"

-26/3/25 I challenge the dispute with ebay and contact the buyer via ebay.

The buyer immediately replies to me saying he knows nothing at all about this dispute but on checking his PayPal account he sees that PayPal have indeed refunded him the £200.

The buyer then contacts PayPal and they've told him that I issued the refund the day after the sale BUT PayPal also tell him that they HAVEN'T raised a dispute with me?!!

I certainly didn't issue the refund and no money has (yet) left my bank or PayPal account.

The buyer has shown me numerous screenshots showing his PayPal account and the refund they've given him and screenshots of his ebay and PayPal pages showing no active disputes on either and yet ebay are telling me PayPal have opened a dispute on his behalf.

He has offered to pay me the £200 directly if ebay or PayPal do pursue me for it.

He seems genuine, given me his phone number, email address and LinkedIn in page.

Either this is one huge glitch in ebay and/PayPal's systems or this an ongoing, drawn out and very elaborate attempt at fraud by this buyer, possibly wanting to obtain my bank details as part of his offer to repay me??

I just can't understand how PayPal have told him they HAVEN'T opened a dispute with me on ebay yet ebay are telling me they have!

Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Have you withdrawn the money from your eBay balance? Under the current rules it should be available to withdraw two days after tracking shows delivery.
If there is an issue before then eBay will block withdrawal, but if there is an issue after (and the money has been withdrawn) ebay may seek to recover the payment once they have adjudicated.
In this case it is complicated by PayPal also being involved and having their own protection means.

jacko74

@RFW @savergrant Thank you for the replies.

Yes I have withdrawn the money from my Ebay wallet and deposited into my bank account, although as I understand it Ebay can still recover it from there if they find against me.

It's absolutely ludicrous that Ebay is allowed to operate without being obliged to have some form of fraud contact point in place. 

This whole thing is either a very major glitch in ebay/PayPal's systems or very sophisticated fraud by the buyer.

savergrant

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

jacko74

savergrant said:

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

I assume it was a standard form, with a section for me to fill-in to challenge the dispute. (I've never received a dispute claim before)

It's still visible in my eBay messages and in my sellers section the sale now has red box stating that its subject to a dispute.

savergrant

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

I assume it was a standard form, with a section for me to fill-in to challenge the dispute. (I've never received a dispute claim before)

It's still visible in my eBay messages and in my sellers section the sale now has red box stating that its subject to a dispute.

So is it still waiting for you to reply? Ebay will issue a default judgement if you don't provide the information they ask for.
How did you send the item? Is it showing as delivered on ebay?
There is a possibility the account has been hacked somehow and the person contacting you isn't the cardholder, or it may be a simple misunderstanding and they've paid using a card they don't normally use, received a call from the bank and not recognised the payment reference. It may even have given the wrong date for the transaction 

jacko74

savergrant said:

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

I assume it was a standard form, with a section for me to fill-in to challenge the dispute. (I've never received a dispute claim before)

It's still visible in my eBay messages and in my sellers section the sale now has red box stating that its subject to a dispute.

So is it still waiting for you to reply? Ebay will issue a default judgement if you don't provide the information they ask for.
How did you send the item? Is it showing as delivered on ebay?
There is a possibility the account has been hacked somehow and the person contacting you isn't the cardholder, or it may be a simple misunderstanding and they've paid using a card they don't normally use, received a call from the bank and not recognised the payment reference. It may even have given the wrong date for the transaction 

I responded to ebay immediately and challenged the claim with proof of tracking and successful delivery with Parcelforce. 

I'm wondering (assuming the buyer and his story is genuine) if its actually his bank that have flagged the transaction as "unrecognised" and they've somehow reversed it and put the money back in his PayPal account and then the bank have opened the dispute with ebay to recover the money from me?

The dispute details don't specifically name PayPal, it just says the buyers "payment provider" have raised a dispute as "they don't recognise the transaction"

savergrant

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

I assume it was a standard form, with a section for me to fill-in to challenge the dispute. (I've never received a dispute claim before)

It's still visible in my eBay messages and in my sellers section the sale now has red box stating that its subject to a dispute.

So is it still waiting for you to reply? Ebay will issue a default judgement if you don't provide the information they ask for.
How did you send the item? Is it showing as delivered on ebay?
There is a possibility the account has been hacked somehow and the person contacting you isn't the cardholder, or it may be a simple misunderstanding and they've paid using a card they don't normally use, received a call from the bank and not recognised the payment reference. It may even have given the wrong date for the transaction 

I responded to ebay immediately and challenged the claim with proof of tracking and successful delivery with Parcelforce. 

I'm wondering (assuming the buyer and his story is genuine) if its actually his bank that have flagged the transaction as "unrecognised" and they've somehow reversed it and put the money back in his PayPal account and then the bank have opened the dispute with ebay to recover the money from me?

The dispute details don't specifically name PayPal, it just says the buyers "payment provider" have raised a dispute as "they don't recognise the transaction"

The only thing is I don't think the bank would 'put the money back in paypal', they would credit the account the funds came from.

jacko74

savergrant said:

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

jacko74 said:

savergrant said:

"26/3/25 I receive a msg from ebay stating that the buyer has opened a dispute via their payment provider (paypal) as the "transaction isn't recognised""

Was this the standard refund/tracking/send message form?

I assume it was a standard form, with a section for me to fill-in to challenge the dispute. (I've never received a dispute claim before)

It's still visible in my eBay messages and in my sellers section the sale now has red box stating that its subject to a dispute.

So is it still waiting for you to reply? Ebay will issue a default judgement if you don't provide the information they ask for.
How did you send the item? Is it showing as delivered on ebay?
There is a possibility the account has been hacked somehow and the person contacting you isn't the cardholder, or it may be a simple misunderstanding and they've paid using a card they don't normally use, received a call from the bank and not recognised the payment reference. It may even have given the wrong date for the transaction 

I responded to ebay immediately and challenged the claim with proof of tracking and successful delivery with Parcelforce. 

I'm wondering (assuming the buyer and his story is genuine) if its actually his bank that have flagged the transaction as "unrecognised" and they've somehow reversed it and put the money back in his PayPal account and then the bank have opened the dispute with ebay to recover the money from me?

The dispute details don't specifically name PayPal, it just says the buyers "payment provider" have raised a dispute as "they don't recognise the transaction"

The only thing is I don't think the bank would 'put the money back in paypal', they would credit the account the funds came from.

Yes I agree it seems pretty unlikely the bank could have done all this, they'd surely just block the transaction in the first place or send an OTP for it to complete, rather than allow the transaction to go through only to then somehow reverse it reimburse their customer then open a dispute with ebay to pursue me for the money all without their customer even being aware of it!