Ebay and PP dispute - they won't refund my £5640 !!

SpottyMummy

I am in desperate need of help please - I don't know where to turn now, my mental health is rock bottom.

Sorry, it's a long one -

On 3rd May, I purchased an art deco diamond watch – details above from a shop called who is a business seller on Ebay.

I received the watch on the 6th but as I have arthritis in my hands, I could not fasten the watch easily so the seller agreed to accept the return.

I followed the bay return system and he got it back on the 11th, proved by the RM tracking.

On the 13th, I messaged the seller to ask when I would receive a refund, to be told he had not received funds and so could not refund me.

I then panicked thinking I was not going to get my money back and opened a pay pal payment dispute - if I had known that ebay would then wipe their hands of this, I would not have opened a dispute.

Since then, I have been bounced like a tennis ball with multiple phone calls between ebay and paypal with both saying there was nothing they could do and I should contact the other and that neither of them had my money….. neither of them helping to resolve this.

This whole experience has been so stressful and has made me cry more than once.

I was told on 28th May by an ebay employee on the phone – conversation code 50572818093 that if I cancelled the paypal dispute, that ebay would unfreeze the funds and I would get my money back. She also told me that the seller has the money in his account and that he needed to contact ebay which he did on 28th May –

We have been keeping a regular check on the case so we can act promptly once it resolves. I can see it still as 'Awaiting outcome About 2-8 weeks.

In terms of the refund as you mention its is held with ebay so once the dispute is resolved or cancelled ebay can they refund it to you.

I have emailed ebay to see if we can do anything further and await their reply.

Thanks

Gemma

AC Silver

Message 2 –

Hi Sue, we have an email stating we have no further action needed so I assume they will be releasing your funds now for you. Gemma

13:21

So now paypal will not help as I cancelled the dispute and ebay will not help cos I opened a dispute

Yet again, no one is helping.

I have written confirmation today from paypal that ebay have the funds who are still denying they have !!

Dear Sue,

Thank you for contacting us back. I see that you had sent this payment on 3 May 2026 and we immediately credited this amount to the merchant(eBay Commerce UK Ltd). Then you initiated a dispute on this payment on 12 May 2026. When a dispute is raised on a payment, the funds will still be in the merchant's account but held unavailable to them during the dispute phase and until it's resolved or cancelled.

I see that you had cancelled this dispute on 28 May 2026 and the moment you cancelled the dispute, the funds held in the merchant's account will be released to them. The transaction ID for this payment in the eBay PayPal account is 31J95178WA147170J Therefore, the funds are with eBay and you shall need to get in touch with the merchant. Please note that once a dispute is cancelled by the buyer, it can not be reopened as the claim is considered as resolved. In future, please do not cancel a claim until you receive the full refund or the item in the promised condition.

Thank you for contacting PayPal and for being a valued customer.

Yours sincerely,

Venu

PayPal

I still am no further to getting my money back -

Bank can't help as it was paid by DD through PP

PP will not help

Ebay will not help

Seller will not help

I have written a formal complaint to ebay that was received by them on friday 5th, giving them 14 days to respond

If Ebay do not respond, then what do I do ? I can not afford to lose that amount of money and surely, I can't be the only person they are doing this to ?

Please, please can anyone help, I am desperate

Thank you

JadedAngel88

Issue a letter before action to the seller you purchased the watch from and tell them that they have 14 days to refund you your money or you will commence a court claim. I take it you have proof of returning the watch.

SpottyMummy

I have proof of everything - the seller has said he has contacted ebay yesterday and sent them the PP payment reference like I did last week but nothing ever happens to resolve it :(

Citizens Advice are also stumped as to what I should do as my 'contract' was with the seller but he never received the money for it.

Really appreciate your answer as It's mighty lonely trying to get my money back and not getting anywhere:(

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82029703#Comment_82029703

Seller does have the money as it says funds are released. Therefore you follow the course of action outlined by

JadedAngel88 , LBA followed up if necessary by a small claims court. Meanwhile make sure you have screen shots of everything including tracking proving seller has item back.

SpottyMummy

the seller does not have the money - ebay have it but won't release it cos they say PP have it - I go round in circles every single day !

JadedAngel88

I don't know what to suggest as I'm not a PayPal user. Maybe @soolin can offer more advice.

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030066#Comment_82030066

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82029989#Comment_82029989

If this was on ebay then ebay will have released the money as soon as the ebay case against seller was closed. Your initial post actually states exactly that '

 She also told me that the seller has the money in his account and that he needed to contact ebay which he did on 28th May '

Therefore do as has been suggested re LBA and small claims if necessary.

SpottyMummy

But this is why it is so complicated cos after speaking to other ebay call handlers since then, they have all said that they do not have access to that sort of info and that no ebay employee would have told me to cancel the PP dispute, hence me asking if they had a copy of the conversation and getting the code for it ….. I'm banging my head against a brick wall every single day……

I will speak to citizens advice again - appreciate your answers and trying to help cos I really can't cope anymore with it all

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030238#Comment_82030238

Citizens advice can do nothing more than we can on here. Follow the LBA and small claims as above.

forgotmyname

If you think it's that messy name all 3 in your claim. Let the court decide who refunds.

Don't forget you need to notify all 3 of your intention to file a claim against them and give then a reasonable
amount of time to respond. Minimum of 14 days?