Strange Refund Situation

[Ria68]

I purchased a magazine from a French seller on Etsy, May 27th, via Paypal.  The total was $18.50 and the payment went through the following day which was strange because they usually go through immediately.  I received the magazine in a under a week and was very happy with my purchase.  

The other day, I noticed in our bank account, we had been refunded $18.50.  Turns out it was for the magazine purchase, only I have no idea why it would be returned to me, I never made a dispute with the seller of any sort!  She now seems to have emptied out her shop and I'm not able to reach her, also I'm not sure her English is very good.

I clicked on one of the links here in my Paypal acct. to see if I could figure out what happened and saw this message:

eBay decided in favor of the buyer in a dispute filed with the eBay Resolution Center. Because you didn't have enough money in your account to cover the refund, eBay issued the refund on your behalf. Please reimburse eBay now for the refund.

I didn't buy the magazine through Ebay and I'm not the seller!  I have no clue what this means or how or why my money was refunded to me!  Has anyone experienced this before?  TIA!

[PayPal_Ashley]

Hi @Ria68,

That does sound awfully strange. I'd recommend contacting eBay customer support in regard to the mentioned eBay dispute.

As far as the refund that you received through PayPal goes, you may want to log into your PayPal account and check the details of the refund to see if the seller left a note in regard to the refund.

-Ashley

[Ria68]

Thank you for responding Ashley!  I did check my account and wasn't able to find any note from the seller and still haven't heard from her.  Very odd and I feel horrible if she lost the money because it was a wonderful transaction.

Have a great day and thank you again for your response:)

[stevew407]

I am wondering how well all of these things work with technology and how many errors and user errors go on and get fixed or just get totally ignored? I got a refund and it looks like it was then charged again and its difficult to get help and find the answers and solutions.  Was nice to read your post to see things don't only happen to me? Steve 

[Ria68]

So true, you do have to wonder with all these Epayments we make now.  I feel badly for the seller because it was a great transaction so hopefully I'll be able to track her down somehow and re-pay her!

Have a great day:)