PayPal Incompetence

[noiserider]

I sold an item on eBay on 3/15 for $50.99.

A few days later a message appears on eBay that my funds will be available on 4/1.

I access my PayPal account several times between 4/1 and 4/27, but see no evidence of any credit to my account or any mention of the $50.99 payment.  Also, I have received no email from PayPal notifying me that I have money available.  So, on 4/27 I begin the process of tracking what happened.

First, I call eBay and they confirm the payment was made and gave me a payment tracking number of 37a741389c290680n.  I call PayPal and the representitive says there is no such number.  The rep asks for the buyer's email address and of course I have no way of knowing the email address.  I theorize I may have the tracking number wrong and offer to call eBay again to confirm the tracking number is correct.  I call eBay and confirm the tracking number is correct.

I call PayPal again and this time the representitve can use the tracking number - the same one the previous rep couldn't use.  He finds that the payment has been sent to PayPal, but has been SENT BACK TO THE BUYER because the "payment was not claimed within 30 days".  Well, how was I supposed to claim it since I received no email and there was no notification on my PayPal web page???  And why would PayPal send the payment back rather than just holding it until I made the next eBay purchase?? (I've made 5 purchases over the last 3 months)

I'm guessing it has to do with something about verification of my email address.  I should mention that I've been an eBay/PayPal user for over 15 years and PayPal has sent me dozens of messages to the same email address that has been attached to my account for 15 years.

So, what's the situation now.  PayPal has notified the buyer that the funds were returned to his account.  If he is nice enough he will go out of his way to send the $50.99 to me again to cover for the PayPal **bleep**-up.  Otherwise, it was suggested that I file a "no payment received from buyer" complaint with eBay.  This I will not do.  The buyer made the payment.  It's PayPal that has a problem.  Let's see if PayPal can satisfy this highly **bleep** off customer.

[noiserider]

Yes, the email address is correct and is the same email address used to receive messages from eBay and PayPal for the last 15 years.  In fact I received several email purchase confirmations from PayPal both before and after the sale date of the item in question.

Are you paid by PayPal?  You seem very anxious to find something wrong with the customer (me).  Don't you think it possible that PayPal made a mistake?

Enough of your [non] helpful comments.

[DPCreations]

This is a PayPal user forum.  We are not paid by PayPal and any information is from personal knowedge and experience.  The forum is set for users to help users; it is not PayPal customer service.   PayPal admin do not address account specific issues on the forum; they only suggest direct contact with PayPal customer service.

Many people who come to the forum for answers do not provide sufficient details to solve a problem or to even have a solution suggested.  It is for that reason I and other users will continue to ask questions which might help solve the problem when users don't provide the relevant details.

There are times when a step-by-step approach works until there are sufficient details to solve a problem.

There are also times when those providing suggestions realize that the only way to solve the problem is for the orignal poster to contact customer service directly.   Then there are some posters who will not contact customer servivc and just complain that no one helps.  It can be very frustrating trying to help.  It takes a lot of patience from both parties.

I hope the helps in understanding why we may continue to ask for details.

@noiserider

I haven't really followed your problem from the start so I'm not implying any suggestion for that.  @kernowlass provides very good responses to many questions and, based on them, is very well qualified with eBay and PayPal issues.  Since we are not PayPal and don't have access to your account details the help can be very limitied at times.  That's when PayPal customer service becomes very important.

[kernowlass]

@noiserider

No i am not paid by paypal and I will post when and however many times that i wish to. You posted a thread on this PUBLIC user to user forum and i ''tried'' politely to explain why it happened.

If it was paypals fault then i would have said so as yes they do make some pretty stupid mistakes sometimes but in your case  you are at fault.

Even then I wanted to double check your email address on your auction so you did not get future problems even when you are rude and ungrateful.

So to sum it up.

1. Unclaimed WITH a cancel option means wrong address on your auction.............that was not the case.

2. Unclaimed WITHOUT a cancel option =

a. Not verifying your email address.............which would be your fault and not paypals.

b. Needing to upgrade to accept a card payment..................again same.

c. Needing to claim first sellers payment.................................again same.

If you had not sent your item BEFORE you had received payment you may well have contacted your buyer, he would have checked his paypal account and seen the payment was unclaimed and you could have sorted it out in about 5 minutes.

Instead its much easier to blame paypal than user incompetence isn't it.

As you said............bye.

[cat48]

Hi I was reading this to find out how to change tracking number. The one I put in dosent work. SO if it doesnt work and there is no way to fix it hoe will I get my money thats pending. First it was pending for the second of july now its at the eleventh of july. Paypal is not very easy to understand I have read more about my transactions then I do on my items for sale. And I still dont have an answer. Any way back to this post I am a new seller and soneone said you have to claim your first transaction. How does that process work. I think I got an email saying that I needed to click on it to confirm. But I just want to know how the process of claiming money goes. Its payed to my account why do I have to claim it. Sounds like a reason to keep money in their hands cause they dont do their paper work right and I need to show them where to look for it cause they have no idea what they did with it or something like that. Here is the post I read. Oh yea paypal tells you to ship it so you have tracking number and you can get your money faster!!!!!##ripedoffbypaypal because I dont have a valid tracking number. So to sum it up. 1. Unclaimed WITH a cancel option means wrong address on your auction.............that was not the case. 2. Unclaimed WITHOUT a cancel option = a. Not verifying your email address.............which would be your fault and not paypals. b. Needing to upgrade to accept a card payment..................again same. c. Needing to claim first sellers payment.................................again same. If you had not sent your item BEFORE you had received payment you may well have contacted your buyer, he would have checked his paypal account and seen the payment was unclaimed and you could have sorted it out in about 5 minutes. Instead its much easier to blame paypal than user incompetence isn't it.