Unexpected refund for a cancelled purchase

[hanusat]

 I tried to make a payment of €96 to a seller on eBay, and for some reason, the payment didn't go through (for several days, it said it was "Pending"). The seller contacted me, and told me that he had contacted eBay, and they advised him that I should cancel the transaction, and send the money through PayPal directly. I did cancel the payment, and perhaps foolishly attempted to send the money again through eBay, since I thought the first time may have been a glitch. It didn't go through again, and I cancelled again. I then sent the money to the seller directly through PayPal, he received it, and sent the item. Although both cancellations showed up in my Activity list, two refunds of €96 also showed up, and appeared as a positive PayPal balance. The seller confirmed that no money had been taken from his account for the refund. Is this normal behavior for a cancelled transaction? Even though the transactions never appeared to go through (always listed as "Pending" until they were cancelled), was money still taken out, and then returned? I don't know if the refunds were legitimate or not. Thanks.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@hanusat

Firstly if you could cancel the payment then it meant it had gone to a non-existant email address. So the seller must have an old or made a typo on the email address attached to his auction.

Secondly >>

When you pay a seller it is never instant > paypal credit the seller for you and then start the process of uploading your funds to paypal from your funding source. This is done so you get your item more quickly.

So when you cancel that payment (as the seller can't accept it), those funds can't do a u-turn > they have to process through to paypal who will then either return them to your funding source (if you paid with a debit or credit card), or credit your paypal balance (if it was funded from your balance or instant bank transfer), but that takes a few days and sometimes up to a week.

[hanusat]

Many thanks for the clarification!