Why is PayPal so slow to refund?

[WISLady]

I received two refunds from a merchant who ran out of stock of the items I purchased.  He promptly sent two refunds which were shown as completed by PayPal, but held.  I checked my bank account (credit card was not used) and I see that the original payments I made to the merchant have cleared and have been processed.  Not pending or in process, completed.  That was on Nov 14th, today Nov 16th my refunds are still not available.  PayPal is very quick to take payments, but why are refunds not processed when the original bank payment was shown as paid?  I'm really irritated by PayPal for making customers wait so long even though everything has been completed.  PayPal should really change this bad practice.  Are they getting free use of our money so they can hold it a little longer?  What gives?! 

[Aldossari]

Wow, I have the same exact problem.

[kernowlass]

When you pay a seller it is never instant, paypal credits the seller for you and then starts the process of uploading your funds from your funding source.

If the seller refunds before that payment has completed then you have to wait till it clears through to paypal then the refund is credited to you.

If the refund is done at a later date and the payment has processed then the seller can only refund via an echeque or funds in their paypal balance, if its the former then it takes up to a week to process through to paypal and then they credit you.

This is because paypal use electronic and not wire transfers which is the slower, and why they credit the seller for you so you don't have to wait and get your item more quickly.