Seller asking Dispute be CLOSED FIRST before issuing Refund

[NikonSix]

Hi All,

I recently initiated a dispute with Lewt.com. This was 6 days ago.

I can escalate to a claim, beginning tomorrow.

Lewt.com refused to refund me when they would not provide the virtual goods I purchased. That is why I initiated a dispute.

Lewt.com sent me a snail mail confirmation code to confirm that I am the credit card owner. I received this mail today and immediately contacted Lewt.com.

They said they would not refund me until I first ended the PayPal dispute between us.

The customer service agent said that the money was being "held" by PayPal. They said they would be unable to issue a refund until the PayPal dispute was first ended.

If this were true, does it not defeat the entire purpose of Disputes?

If I end the dispute, the seller can hold my money indefinitely. 

Please help - I am on the phone with PayPal but they have kept me on hold for 30 minutes....

[minty1]

Hi Nikon6

If you close the dispute first the case cannot be opened again as the seller knows this, you can escalate it but I'm not sure if you will be refunded for this as it's  virtual goods?

But if you close the case I doubt you will hear from the seller again!

[ymv1020]

I previously posted my similar experience with a seller. they asked me to close my claim before they could issue a refund. i told them i rather take my chances with my paypal dispute. spoke to a paypal rep who told me that indeed that's a dirty move from the seller's part. i just escalated my dispute to a claim. I changed the reason from item not received to item not as described. i'll keep you guys posted on what happens next.

[ymv1020]

Same thing happened to me. called the costumer service for amiclubwear.com because i only received 1 of the two items i received. After waiting for a while and finally speaking to someone, they told me the same B.S. which i inmediately suspected to be a dirty move. they told me that they couldn't refund me the money unless i close the dispute and that b/c i received one of the two items (mind you, the cheaper item), they wouldn't be able to refund me the whole amount. Right now i'm waiting to speak to a paypal rep to tell them what's going on. most probably i'll escalate my dispute to a claim.