On Friday my son bought an item on eBay for £450 and paid using a debit card on PayPal. Although it showed as paid on both his eBay and PayPal accounts the seller claimed it was showing as “Pending” on his end. Yesterday he got tracking info with a delivery date of today but this morning he received an email from PayPal saying he’d been refunded. All well and good, but apparently the funds won’t be available until the 31st. Anyone have any idea what’s going on there? Is it some sort of scam?

pm sent

Funds can take a while to return to your account so that is normal. Not sure why the refund took place though.
The best thing to do in all these cases, always, is to just phone up Paypal. They are very helpful.

Although it showed as paid on both his eBay and PayPal accounts the seller claimed it was showing as “Pending” on his end.

Paypal will delay releasing funds for various reasons: “You’re a new/occasional seller with a short selling history; You have a “Below Standard” seller rating on eBay; The payment you received may be considered unusual for your selling pattern; Your account has been inactive for a while”.

The payment then shows as ‘Pending’

https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/why-is-my-payment-in-my-pending-balance-faq3297

Sounds like the seller got cold feet and cancelled the sale.

Seller cancelled the refund but didn’t dispatch the item so we started a case on 5th Jan. My son still doesn’t have his money back or the item.

Surely Paypal refund you and they chase the seller? Can you get a charge back through your bank I had to do this with pro sport direct. Too many thieves abouton those platforms now, what’s he buying can it be bought from a shop?

You’d think so but apparently not.

We called them and started the case. The email confirmation contained conditions that were at odds with what were told over the phone and since then the resolution date has moved from 22nd Jan to 5th Feb. If we hadn’t logged into PayPal to check progress we wouldn’t have known there were any Chang to the schedule as we’ve had no emails from them since 5th Jan.

Last weekend I called them and after pointing out that the tracking number the seller provided wasn’t recognised by the RM website the agent agreed that we were unlikely to get the goods and closed the case in our favour. We were told the refund would take 3-5 days and the website was updated to reflect this. All good, yes?

No.

Still no refund received and after spending over 2 hours on hold over several phone calls I got through to a “specialist” in an Indian call centre. Apparently, despite what the website says, the case isn’t closed at all and the seller still has another 5 days to respond before they will make a decision. The deeply unsympathetic and smug call centre operator claimed the website must be experiencing technical difficulties, along with the automated phone responses you get when calling up.

Apart from the fact that I’m losing sleep over this, what really galls me is that they have him over a barrel. There is very little in the way of alternatives so he’s stuck with it going forward if he wants to continue using PayPal. The buyer protection is a **** joke.

I had this exact same thing with an iphone i bought. It is a scam. You buy, they withdraw and claim its been posted, then refund the funds using a linked, fake credit card. It shows as pending as they (paypal) cant take the funds. It also places you into limbo between ebay and paypal. Ebay think its been refunded and paypal arent chasing the case. Eventually, paypal sorted mine.

Never ever use a debit card online, always credit cards,

a problem like this, dispute the transaction
it’s then the credit card provider’s problem short term, and you aren’t left out of pocket for days or weeks

If its any ebay purchase have you done item not delivered on ebay?

No. Went straight to PayPal.

I like eBay and Paypal and have sold 10s of thousands of pounds worth and probably bought about the same. However, my rule is don’t buy or sell something you couldn’t afford to write off if it all goes wrong.