Some amongst you may remeber my recent thread crying about a newbie ebay buyer who opened a dispute due to breakage of items in transit. Instead of emailing me to tell me this, he just dove straight in with a paypal dispute. Needless to say, the items were insured up to the hilt (fragile items going abroad!) so a refund would have gone out as soon as proof of breakage came through.

Soooo, the buyer and I eventually thrash out a refund amount but now I can't refund him!! Because the buyer waited three weeks before opening the dispute, I'd withdrawn the cash from paypal. Paypal have withdrawn the full value of the disputed item (£350) leaving me with a negative balance (-£350). Apparently this is normal when a dispute is opened.

Whenever I try to refund the buyer, or send money I just get "Refund must not exceed the balance of your account". The only solution is to add funds from my bank account, but that can take up to seven working days and I really can't afford to be without £400 odd for, realistically three to four weeks (I'd have to withdraw it again afterwards).

The buyer is now threatening to escalate the dispute (whatever that means) if he doesn't get his refund by Monday. I've emailed him and offered to do a bank transfer but not sure if this would work as he's in Belgium. At my f3ckin wits' end here – the stupid ****t buyer and paypal are making my life a misery over a measly, sodding £56 refund which I would have paid out on the spot if only he'd emailed me in the first place. My website which is my livelihood is about to get pulled (it's on paypal subscription and of course, payment has failed) and I just want to go round to paypal's house and lean a burning wheely bin against its front door…. GRRR!!! 👿

Not even sure if I'm looking for advice here or just venting, but if you have any suggestions, please fire away….

aahhhh paypal

the easiest, most user-friendly way of giving your credit card details to eastern-European criminal gangs

you mug

I hate paypal. Having the same shit going on here. Bloody pain in the arse.

I would recommend just using pay pal to buy stuff or have two accounts. Most of the problems seem to be when selling stuff.

Thanks. I feel so much better now. Can you think of a better way to reach an international market for a collection of 1920s – 30s gramaphone cylinders?

EDIT; that last was aimed at the 2nd poster

I'm not 100% but i think that might mean that the buyer has been refunded the £350 so if you put in £400 paypal will suck the £350 leaving you way out of pocket. Tell the guy to do one the **** crook!!

Paypal are to faceless to argue with ignore them and open another account, if you need the service.

I just started hating paypal too, sold my old mobile phone, guy pays for it, and paypal decide to hold the money, I see there is a thread on here about this new (to me) paypal policy (I haven't used ebay much the last few years) I would probably get the money but they can go **** themselves, cancelled the sale and refunded the buyer, not using ebay anymore.

At tails – Woah – is that right? I almost started the process tonight!! I think the buyer is a genuine guy, just a bit naive and headstrong….

They used to only have the witholding of funds policy on certain transactions, usually high value, then a couple of weeks ago they made it for every single little transaction made regardless of value.

I logged in the other day and apparently I have 180 days to provide them with every scrap of information about my life to prove that Im not some criminal.

I'll let my last couple of auctions run then they can go **** themselves. Not using the service anymore.

Well on the upside, just been in touch with the good chap who runs my website at Photium and it turns out there's a standing order option, so have removed PP from one facet of my life…..

I also emailed PP before I posted here – just got their meaningless automated response asking me to call them 😥 I tried this once before and after many hours of PAYING THEM for the privilege of listening to crap music, I finally got to speak to someone whose English was almost literally non-existent and who was only capable of reading out the paypal "help" function's nonsense for twenty minutes. Might as well have asked the dog for help.

EDIT; another account – not a bad plan. I could just 'gift' this twit his refund using a credit card and if he's any kind of a gent, he'll close the dispute. If he's not, he'll deny receiving any money from me. *Cries again*

I had the same problem with a sale to Italy. I'm no longer posting abroad and trying to avoid Paypal where possible.

Dont send anything abroad.

Same here. Will no longer post abroad, and now don't take the cash out of the paypal account until I've had positive feedback. It's a pain in the arse.

Hijack- someones offered me cash outside an auction via paypal (Uk buyer). If its as a gift Im fine/he cant pull a fast one?

Have you tried calling paypal?

They were actually quite good over the phone with a problem I had some time ago.

Is this withholding of funds just when selling abroad? I've just sold a couple of items on ebay totalling about £600 and the money came straight through just fine (both UK buyers though), and I haven't sold anything on ebay for ages.

I'd call them personally. But having taken 350 quid from your account they've already refunded him, don't send any more.

Thats true- why would you try refunding someone when the money has already been taken from you by Paypal?

Is this PP sh1t just based on overseas sales? I've used PP for selling on eBay in the past (with no problems) but now have a load of stuff I want to get rid of. Will only post to UK though.

+1 on calling them. I've had good experiences doing that too.