PayPal **bleep** me over on a dispute; what should/can I do?

[RAR-Books]

Someone paid me for an item a couple of weeks ago, and three business days later had already filed a non-receipt dispute, and minutes later exclated their own dispute to a full-fleged claim. I responded by immediately submitting the tracking number (which Paypal ALREADY had, since it was generated by their own shipping label), and returned a couple of days later to also provide a screenshot of USPS delivery confirmation to prove that the item had been received a mere week after payment had been made. Boom, done, everything on time and proven, and nothing more to worry about, right? I mean, there's no better method of resolving a non-receipt claim than by proving on-time receipt of the item. 

Wrong; Paypal, "after carefully considering" my information (and requiring NOTHING from the buyer to substantiate their part of the claim), decided in their favor anyway, and returned funds to them from my account. Thus, the buyer gets not only the item they bought from me, but their money back on top of that. 

What more would PayPal have needed from me? I gave them tracking that PayPal itself generated, on-time proof of delivery, all to satisfy a dispute that was clearly wholly petty in the first place on the part of the buyer...what else? 

How can a seller possibly be protected if Paypal's own tracking numbers AND proof of on-time delivery are not sufficient to settle a nonsense dispute by a buyer? Wouldn't that simply incentivise buyers to file unfounded diputes, knowing that even proof of delivery of an item isn't sufficient to prevent refunds out of the sellers' accounts too? 

Addendum: Paypal's "appeal a resolution" option doesn't work! It offers me the option of providing tracking information as the appeal. But since I had already provided tracking when the item first shipped, the tracking information is already filled out in the "provide tracking" section of the appeals page. Which is an acknowledgement on Paypal's part that they had indeed already received that information from me, and yet diregarded it anyway. Strangely, trying to resubmit the tracking number results in a weird error in which PayPal states (I am not making this up) "you did not enter a tracking number" right above the part of their own website where they display the tracking number they'd already had in their system since the item originally shipped!

[DPCreations]

Details:

Date of purchase/sales?

Date of shipping?

Date of delivery?

What shipping service?

Was tracking number added to the transaction detail when you purchased label?

When was dispute filed?

Did you phone PayPal customer service to appeal?

[Whac-A-Mole]

is the payment $750 or more,it would require signature confirmation?

[RAR-Books]

The payment was the night of March 8th, making Firday March 9 the first business day. The item was delivered to the buyer the following Friday, or exactly one week. The dispute was filed the Tuesday morning after payment, even though PayPal had tracking in its system from it's own "Create shipping label" function.

No, the item was not high dollar; it was actually only $25. 

New information: last night, the buyer emailed me to acknowledge that only had they received the item, but that they had also communicated this fact back to PayPal and told PayPal that all was fine! Thirteen days later, PayPal concludes the buyer has been "done wrong" by me.

tl;dr summary:

Buyer created a dispute on a Tuesday for an item they had not received since Friday, even though that's maddeningly impatient. 

PayPal had tracking in their system from their own "create shipping label" function.

I also provided PayPal with a screenshot of USPS delivery confirmation to prove the item had arrived in just a week. 

The buyer ALSO informed PayPal that they had received the item in a week, and that all was fine. 

PayPal "carefully considered" all of this, and concluded in favor of the buyer, who now keeps both the item they received AND their payment is refunded.

Am I missing something that I ought to have done differently? Or am I right to be frustrated with PayPal's conclusion on this case? 

[Whac-A-Mole]

Due to High volume of disputes ,Paypal robot tackles the case first,it is nothing but a piece of software programmed to perform tasks like taking the tracking number you uploaded to the carrier site and check to see if it has been delivered.

You said you print the label on Paypal,then Paypal should have no problem finding the tracking number which said delivered.

have you tried doing it yourself to see what the site said about your tracking number?

so now the buyer said they haev received the item,then they should refund the money,the case is closed and it canno be re open,so he has to do it by finding the transaction and refund.    

[RAR-Books]

I agree, Sumiko; the buyer (or heck, PayPal) ought to retrun the payment to me. It would be the right thing to do. They acknowledge they received the item, and yes, the PayPal tracking number DOES show delivery (which makes PayPal's decision against me for non-receipt of the item even more maddening). Rightfully, morally, I ought to have the payment returned to me, since I did everything by the book on this transaction, and the buyer has acknowledged they received the item after exactly one week to the day--hardly grounds for a "non-received item" ruling. 

Unfortunately, it appears that PayPal has rewarded the buyer's impatience with a gift of my money and the item itself, removing any incentive from the buyer to return payment to me. 

Interesting to know that PayPal does not regard its own tracking numbers, USPS delivery confirmation, and statements directly from the buyer acknowledging reciept of the item as sufficient grounds for protecting a seller against an automatic refund. 

[DPCreations]

Check your PayPal transaction entry on your summary or activity page.  Is there an option to click for tracking information?  If not, then it means the tracking number was not part of the transaction.  If the option is there, does clicking on the option give you tracking and delivery information.  This is the information available to PayPal.   Your screenshots from USPS don't matter.

[RAR-Books]

I appreciate that; my screenshots from USPS were merely supplemental information I provided to PayPal during the dispute as an add-on document under "compelling evidence" to reinforce my claim that the tracking number corresponded to a completed, verified delivery.

The tracking number itself was generated by PayPal through it's own "create a label" option, which means that the PayPal system did have access to that tracking data already.

I was simply reminding PayPal of that fact when I also re-entered that same tracking number into their "submit tracking information" option under the "add compelling evidence such as a tracking number" portion of the dispute response.

It's sort of like PayPal telling me, "Prove that you have a  tracking number by pointing us to the tracking number we've already given you", and then not believing their own tracking number when I comply. 

What it comes down to is that PayPal issued me a tracking number that they themselves can verify in their own system, and the buyer has also acknoweldged to PayPal that they've received the item right on time. Then 13 days later, PayPal concludes I haven't delivered the item. 

[DPCreations]

So I am understanding the tracking number was NOT part of the transacton on your activity page.  That's where PayPal needs the information.

[RAR-Books]

I don't understand what you mean by that. I've repeatedly pointed out tracking WAS part of the process, generated by Paypal itself as part of its own "create shipping label" function, and that I also re-supplied that tracking number back to PayPal in my "compelling evidence" response to the dispute. If tracking hadn't ever been part of the transaciton, I wouldn't be so upset with PayPal because I'd understand that they simply made a decision based on my omission of that. But since it's never been missing, that's why I'm wondering why PayPal ignored it in their determination. 

Nothing about the tracking is in dispute. Not even by the buyer, who simply launched a dispute out of petty impatience three business days into their wait, but who subsequently conceded that the item DID arrive on time.