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Two ebay/paypal disputes help!
 

Hi everyone.

I'm actually boycotting paypal and ebay after this latest fiasco.

I sold a table on ebay. It was a table only, no chairs, it was brand new and packed into box so I didn't have an actual photo of the table itself so I had to use the manufacturer photo which pictured the chairs with it. Because of this I made sure I explicitly stated is didn't have chairs. I wrote this in the title listing and the title description very clearly in caps lock.

So buyer A comes along and purchases, paid in full £120 for table, £58 for courier. About half hour later they message me to cancel as they didn't realise no chairs. Rather annoying but fine, I sent a cancellation request, they accepted then I instructed PayPal to issue the refund. Paypal say this will take 5-7 days (I had already cleared the funds into by bank acc so paypal was 0).

The following day, buyer B comes along, bought the table, for best offer £100 and £58 courier fee. After an hour I heard nothing back so cleared the funds, arranged the parcelforce collection and paid the £58 fee to them. Guess what! I then get a message saying they don't want it as no chairs! They also said they didn't read it properly as was 'feeding their baby' and 'wasn't paying attention' and it was their mistake. I explained I was not willing to cancel the transaction as it was already arranged with parcelforce collection from 6am the following day and I had paid. Parcelforce were shut so I couldn't attempt to ring them either.

I knew they would be opening a case against me as their messages got more horrible the following day so I cancelled by bank acc and cards off my paypal. Lo and behold my account then goes into a negative balance of £158 as they filed an item not described case. I have responded with pictures of their messages stating at their own admission they bought by mistake as wasn't paying attention etc. I am happy to refund the table money if they return but not the postage. That is still under review by paypal.

So anyway, because I cancelled my banks, I completely forgot the refund from buyer A won't go through! And because my account is now in the negative I can't send them funds myself. This was probably a stupid thing to do but i didn't see any other way around it, so my husband used his account and sent them a payment over of £182 (a bit extra so they didn't loose on fees). We made sure we sent it to the EXACT address the original payment came to on my account. I then get a message this morning saying they haven't received their money!!!!!

Argghhhhhh I could cry I'm so fed up with this! Can anyone shed any light? Are they scamming me? Has something gone wrong? Am I missing something? What can I do?

Re: Two ebay/paypal disputes help!
 

buyer A, refunding from a different paypal was a very bad idea, as it is not technically a refund , it is just a sent payment, and it was not even from the receiver paypal. Was there a note on the sent payment saying what it was for? and you are sure it went to correct address? I would immediately explain this to paypal. You say you sent a different amount though you said to encorporate fees? that's unhelpful too. It could work out ok for you, fight your corner and keep explaining it. Another issue is if this ebay or paypal goes down and is banned, your husband's is linked to it (although it possibly was anyway before). Are you being scammed? maybe, but it is a rather half-hearted attempt if it is, the buyer may have sensed you are inexperienced and wants to benefit from the confusion. However you have to allow for the possibility that they do not see the payment refunded, and see a different amount from another sender and cannot comprehend, so explain it to them. One tip if it does not go well, is for your husband to dispute the payment and get it refunded back to him, but wait on that for now.

buyer B, the return postage issue, it could go either way, but usually the buyer pays return postage, your only downfall could be a determined buyer complaining and the picture you put on the listing. I would wait for the outcome of that one. If there is tracking and it was received by buyer, then it is up to the buyer to return it with tracking, if it is a not as described case, it must be returned with tracking to you, stick with this, as those are the rules.

Re: Two ebay/paypal disputes help!
 

i think your courier is far too expensive. i always use apc overnight couriers/bj farr. they charge about £12-£13 for up to 20 kg and extra £0.20 for each additional kg. i`m very happy with them. have a look on theirs website. and i had a similar trouble but with shoes. wrong description cases and etc...

Re: Two ebay/paypal disputes help!
 

Welcome to the forums OP.

Rough story to hear but oompa has given some good tips.

With your luck so far, I would stop with selling this article on eB - maybe aim for Craigslist or kijiji (if that exists in UK - not sure).

All the best.

Re: Two ebay/paypal disputes help!
 

Thank you everyone for taking the time and effort to reply!

I'm happy to say both problems have been resolved :-)

I rang paypal today and they confirmed buyer A had recieved their money, I then sent buyer A a message saying this and gave them paypals phone number telling them to ring and check. Miraculously they message me back a few hours later saying thanks for my patience the money is suddenly in their account! They must have been trying it on right!? I now realises I shouldn't have refunded them the way I did and hope this is the end to it and they don't try their luck again on my account from the original transaction. Although hopefully they realise the paper trail leads back showing they got their money back. Oompaloompa - I wrote in the notes refund for table :-)

I also just logged nit ovo my paypal to find no negative balance, and an email from them saying the case was found in my favour! Yipeeeeeee!

I'm still going to avoid paypal like the plague though, seems my good outcome was a rarity. Thank you again for all your replies!