Where did my money go?

[MattB84]

Just went through a long ordeal with a rude buyer, and now I need to know where my money went. Here are the details:

I had a situation where an impatient buyer opened a dispute against me even though I had messaged her to let her know about a shipping delay. The buyer never tried to contact me, never replied to my email, and would not respond to the dispute even several days after the tracking number showed that her item had been delivered. I sent the case to eBay for moderation. The reply from eBay was that they determined I was not at fault and I would not have to reimburse the buyer or eBay, but they also said they were issuing HER a refund. Seems strange to me considering I provided proof of delivery.

Anyway, Paypal took $12 from my bank account prior to the issue getting resolved.  

So...I have a bank statement showing that Paypal took the $12 out of my bank account, yet I never got the money back. It has been two days at this point. The hold on my account was removed, but the funds taken from my bank were not returned to my bank and do not show on my Paypal statement as a pending transaction. Since I was not obligated to refund the buyer, I should be getting my money back, correct? 

[PayPal_Andy]

Hi MattB84 -

Welcome to the Community, hopefully I can help you sort out what's happened.

We're not able to view your account here, however given what you describe it sounds like your PayPal account was taken negative when the dispute was filed. You then probably made a purchase for something else and our system recovered that negative balance (since we don't just automatically go to your bank for a dispute). This would be where the extra $12 is coming from.

As for the refund that was issued to the buyer, it sounds like eBay just issued them a credit to resolve the problem more quickly.

Now, for where your money is. When we receive an eBay dispute we hold the money on their behalf. Depending on when they let us know the dispute is resolved I suspect that your money is still being held. If this hasn't been resolved by now you'll want to get in touch with our customer service so they can get the ball rolling on releasing your money. Or I may be completely off on this in which case they'll still be the best ones to sort it out. 🙂

- Andy