Refund Failed For Unauthorized Payment

[ChrisMiller]

Good evening,

I recently disputed 4 unauthorized transactions from my account. Essentially someone used my account to send gift payments to someone else. Anywho, the recipient approved refunds and I received a notification saying PayPal had decided in my favor. For the last few days, there was a refund pending. Today, I received an e-mail saying it failed and that I should contact the recipient directly.

1) Why on earth would I e-mail someone who received unauthorized funds from my account? Why would PayPal basically tell me to deal with this on my own after they'd determined this was an unauthorized transaction?

2) If I view the status of the dispute, it says "Step 3 - Case Closed." Tell me this isn't really the end of this dispute?! If so, what's the point of even having a resolution process? Did the recipient just approve a refund to buy time so he could run off with my money? Under status details, it says "The seller attempted to issue a refund for this transaction, but the refund could not be processed. PayPal is reviewing the case." so I'm hoping the case is still in progress?

[dalel00]

The EXACT same thing happened to me.

First the seller agreed to a refund and I waited for it to process.  It failed.

I opened a dispute and PayPal almost immediately sided in my favor and said I would receive the refund.

Yesterday morning I got an email from PayPal saying that they were able to recover the money and that amount was credited to me.

When I look in the resolution center it says the amount refunded and case closed.

Yesterday evening I get an email saying that the refund didn't clear the sellers bank and that no refund will be issued.  I need to contact the seller on my own. 

What kind of protection is this?  I open a dispute, I am found to be in the right, PayPal says the funds are credited into my account, and now they are not?  PayPal did say that they would take appropriate action against the sellers account including limiting their selling privileges.  BIG DEAL...how does this help me.  I don't want assurances I want my money back.

I think it is absolute garbage.  This was a very large purchase.  If it was $50 or $100 I would let it go, but it is thousands of dollars.

I did use my AMEX to fund the transaction so now I am looking for them to assist me.

When I made my purchase I was originally going to fund it via my bank account, but I couldn't use and echeck to fund it, but they are allowed to post a refund via echeck and let it bounce?  Sounds like PayPal talks out of both sides of their mouth.

[ChrisMiller]

In reading PayPal's rules, it appears they cover unauthorized transactions.

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_...

PayPal will cover you for the full amount of every eligible Unauthorized Transaction or Other Error as long as you follow the procedures discussed below in Section 12.2.

I obviously followed the process, hence the claim being decided in my favor so let's hope they do the right thing.

[ChrisMiller]

Paypal credited my account today for the unauthorized transaction even though the thief's refund didn't clear. Great service by PayPal on this one...just wish communication would've been better, especially not sending the default "payment failed, contact seller) e-mail would be a good idea if a refund fails.