Chargeback Fee Question(Please Read)

[itsjinx]

I have a simple question that I cannot find answers to. I have read all the Terms Of Service and I have spoken with 3 different PayPal representatives from their Dispute/Chargeback department. The premise of the question is that I am a merchant seller and I sell digital services and ocasionally I get chargebacks on orders and I always submit proper evidence to dispute the chargebacks and I win about 50% of the time.

HOWEVER this basic question does not seem to have a consistant answer:  If I "win" a chargeback, does PayPal refund the $20 chargeback fee back to me?


I am well aware of the T.O.S. which stats that customers who meet seller protections are not liable for chargebacks and/or the $20 chargeback fee(I'm in the USA). Since I do not meet seller protections due to selling a digital service, I am well aware that I am liable for chargebacks and the $20 fee. But what is not as clear is whether or not that $20 fee is supposed to be refunded back to me after either a chargeback has been won by me or the buyer cancels the chargeback. I have spoken to 3 different paypal reps who said that the fee is supposed to be sent back to me if a chargeback is cancelled or decided in my favor. They all were adamant about the fact that the fee should automatically be refunded once the chargeback funds are returned back to my seller account, however I have over 25 transactions that were charged-back and then decided in my favor or cancelled and not one of them refunded the $20 fee at any time. Once I tell any of the PayPal reps about this, their reactions are identical as they are dumbfounded/confused and have no idea why the fee's were not refunded and they willfully refund me the fee's for all the transactions but I am trying to figure out if this is going to continue with future chargebacks and if this is a rampant problem that many sellers experience.

[Whac-A-Mole]

It is my understanding that a chargeback fee is only levied when the seller loses the chargeback,not before.

I wonder if this is another one of Paypal policy when it withhold your payment when there is a chargeback,at the same time,withhold another $20 just in case you dont have any fund in your account and skip town.

you should go into your activities history and check to see if there is a $20 transaction besides the withheld amount every time there is a chargeback?or the withheld amount is $20 more than the disputed amount?

You are lucky you win 50% of the chargeback,how did you do it?

[Whac-A-Mole]

if you do enough business,have you considered getting your ownmerchant account,the discount rate is lower,the reason why Paypal is 2.9% is because of the risk it takes.

[itsjinx]

Thanks for the reply. I am certain that the $20 fee is never being refunded because I have to call paypal support to tell them and they always manually refund the $20 everytime because they can clearly see the chargeback fee was never refunded once I won the chargeback