Question about a payment

[Goji]

Hi Paypal! I'm currently pretty terrified, let me explain. I recently sold a service to someone who I will not name, I charged $600. It was pretty late when I received the payment and I did not realize it was sent through friends and family. The service was successful and everything went through but on the 14th he made a paypal claim for the payment he has sent me saying that the payment was "Unauthorized or Incorrect Payment Details". Being honest I viewed the claim and responded saying that he has purchased a service and if he was really that unsatisfied even though it was successful i would be willing to do a 50% refund which is $300. I literally just did 2 hours worth of research and it seems that I wont be protected but from my knowledge neither would he since he sent it as a friends and family payment. I'm shaking at the fact that someone could do this to me. I'm guessing I'll lose the claim and money but I just wanted to confirm. Thanks guys, have a good one.

[DPCreations]

PayPal does not provide seller protection for services; they are not physical items.

Unathorized claim would be where the buyer claims someone else made the payment without authorization to use the buyer's account.  Partial refund would not satisfy a buyer who claims the "purchase" was fraudulent; only a total refund.

In future, PayPal is not a good platform for accepting service and other non-physical item sales.  Business contracts with cash is best unless you personally know the buyer and buyer creditworthiness.

[Goji]

ugh... I'm guessing I'll be losing $600 later today?

[Goji]

could someone please explain this further? I'm not fully understanding what will happen. Thank you!

[DPCreations · Accepted solution]

After reading again, it looks like he did NOT file dispute with PayPal; is that correct?

It may be that he realizes he cannot recover the funds so he is attempting you to refund voluntarily.  Perhaps he did authorize the sending witth PayPal and he is only using the "unauthorized" for your sake.

If he really didn't authorize the payment he will need to convince PayPal of that.

Since he sent to money as a gift he really doesn't have any chance of recovery unless it really was unauthorized.  If he used a credit card he might hae some success, but I don't think someone would pay credit card fees to send money.

In the meantime, just wait and probably have NO more messaging to him.  Let him file a dispute with PayPa if he wants.  Also, make sure funds are available for refund if necessary.

[Goji]

thank you so much for the response. I can finally sleep knowing I have a chance in not losing $600 haha. Have a good one. I will kudo.

[Goji]

oh to answer your question on whether its a dispute or not it isnt. Its a unauthorized claim for a friends and family payment (gift). will that make a difference on what you just said?

[DPCreations]

All that matters if a dispute was officially opened through PayPal.  Did PayPal notify you of a displute?

What the buyer  claims to you about a dispute or authorization doesn't matter.  Buyer must open a dispute with PayPal.

It only matters what notices YOU get directly from PayPal.

[Goji]

I received an email from paypal stating that a payment i received was placed on hold and that they were recently notified that thay payment was made without the account holder's permission, or was the result of a transaction error and they placed a temporary hold on the transaction while they investigate.

[DPCreations]

I think that detail was left out of the original question and make a big difference.

One can only guess as to how it will turn out as PayPal does an investigation.  PayPal will likely look at some data traces from the original transfer to see where it originated--from the buyer PC or from a stranger's account.

That's all that matters at this point.  All of the other points won't matter.

Unauthorized access to an account trumps the rest.