Help! Buyer paid with paypal and wants a refund

[OfficialGenius]

A buyer paid me $400 through paypal (not ebay transaction) for some shoes. Receives it a few days later and emailed me claiming that he wants a refund because the shoes are ⊗⊗⊗⊗.
At the moment I invested all my money so I don't have enough to refund him.

What should I do? I know he can only open a dispute for "Item not received" but that's not the case.

Please help!

[OfficialGenius]

I know somebody here has went through this situation!

[GreenBean™]

Oh dear. Contact the buyer by phone. Attempt to resolve the problem. See what you can work out with the buyer. Burning question is 'are they or not?'
Don't answer me

Right now the approach is contact: don't let the buyer think you are ignoring them. Dazzle them with your great customer service. Offer a compromise, delay his taking action against you


I don't want to know BUT wtf have you not kept money aside for refunds? Have you a death wish: this is no way to operate business. 'Oh money's invested, I can't refund you'. tch.tch. Get in the habit of having a certain amount of funds to cover payments: paypal like that,trust me.

And probably no-one else answered 'cause they were amazed at the question.

[aking]

you basically spent the money before the buyer even had a chance to approve the item? haha. As stated above, you need to leave yourself some cushion in case you have refunds. I would offer a partial refund and the buyer keeps the item.

[OfficialGenius]

Aking,

That's the first thing that came to my mind when I opened his email. *Partial refund*
He doesn't seem that easy to deal with though. I gave him my phone number before GreenBean responded to my post. He never called or doesn't seem like he ever will, he just continues to reply to my emails.

-He paid on December 19th, 2009.
-Since It was the Holidays and I was out of town I didn't ship out until Monday January 4th, 2010.
-He received it on the 7th.
-He then messages me on the 13th claiming that the shoes 'seem' ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and to provide him with a receipt (which I dont have) or he will ship them back.

[GreenBean™]

Again, this comes done to how you operate.

Did you state on your web , you were away on holidays? Or where buyers left hanging. ?No receipt for a $400 pair of shoes....come on. Look don't be telling little fibs. If they are foo-foo, say so. If you have really got no receipt, surely you have a reasonable story...

What I am getting at is, instead of excuses, what are YOU doing to get the customer on side. So what if he seems reluctant to deal, YOU need to do it. Harass him. Even though it is an off ebay transaction, paypal can AND will punish you.

[Emanresu]

Doesn't PayPal require you to ship items within 7 days unless otherwise stated in the listing?

[oge]

I myself don't like using the pay anyone tab. More then not I always get problems that way. I always even if it's not the same but I always complete my PayPal transactions on ebay. Just my 2 cents is that PayPal even if he opens up a claim but for things sold non-ebay transactions.Here's an example of how PayPal looks at it when someone opens up a claim for a non ebay transaction.


Hello XXXXXXXXXXXXX,
We have received a complaint from a buyer who stated that merchandise you
sent them did not match your original description. The buyer is disputing
the quality of goods associated with the transaction detailed below.
As you may already be aware, PayPal's Buyer Complaint Policy applies only
to the shipment of goods and not to complaints about the attributes or
quality of goods received through an off eBay transaction. Therefore, we
will not conduct an investigation into this matter at this time.
We do, however, reserve the right to begin an investigation within 180 days
if we determine it is necessary.

-----------------------------------
Transaction Details
-----------------------------------

Buyer's name: XXXXXXXXX
Buyer's email:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Transaction ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Transaction date: XXXXXX, 2009
Transaction amount: $XXXXXXUSD
Your transaction ID: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Case number: PPXXXXXXXX
Refund amount: $XXXX USD

-----------------------------------
What to Do Next
-----------------------------------
Situations like this often are easily resolved through communication with
your buyer. We encourage you to work directly with the buyer to resolve
this issue.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Protection Services Department
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

[dburnside]

you will have to pretend you lost the receipt and hope the buyer will accept a small refund for his inconvinence