Closed Dispute Scammer - I'm **bleep**, huh?

[natacross]

Hey guys,

I have a feeling I know the answer, but figured I'd ask the community just in case someone had a freak case of something turning out good. Long story short, I bought an item from someone on an app called Grailed (they offer protection, however it's just PayPal's protection). The item came in and turned out to be fake. The seller, who has 500 5-star transactions, was open to taking the return - he didn't fight it at all. So, after a couple days of no response I opened up a dispute because I wanted to get this process rolling and completed ASAP. Well, that same impatience led to me kicking my own **bleep** later.

He eventually messaged me saying "did you open a case? It's in PayPal's hands' now." I educated him how it works since I've sold bought/sold for 10+ years and have been on both sides of this. I stated no, there's a refund button for you and it'll close the case. He kept saying it wasn't there. Now, while odd and rare, I have SEEN it from my end where the refund button is "missing." Because of that, it opened up just enough trust from my end when he said "maybe if you closed the case it would go back to normal like it typically is when I refund someone?" Well, there's my kiss of death. I did. Like an idiot (I know). And, as you could imagine, communication stopped. 

The payment was made through my PP balance (so no bank involvement - EFF). Naturally, they told me once the case is closed there's nothing they can do outside of court. However, after I mocked the seller for being a scammy scumbag he actually responded. He tried telling me all this bs about how he's "so dumb with PayPal" and "why don't you just open a chargeback with your bank?" He was well aware he'd lose the money if that could happen, but I explained I couldn't. I told him numerous times that you could just call and make this all go away - yet, he clearly doesn't. I have more than 5 messages on file stating he would be willing to refund me if he knew how...could that do ANYthing for me?

Come to find out, I googled his name/address - the kid has been arrested for attempted burglary. It's a total laughing stock at this point. He claims that's not him, yet the arrest article literally has his name and address in it. They match my shipment details, lol. 

So anywho, after this novel - is there absolutely ANYTHING I can do to get my money back here? It was a substantial amount (3K). Any help is appreciated. 

[sharpiemarker]

@natacross 

Uh oh, but you closed the case. 😢 

I have heard others says that their seller said that there wasn't a way to refund within the dispute too but who knows and I can't bank on the fact that maybe, just maybe, it's the site acting wonky so it's best to err on the side of "to heck with this, I am escalating". lol Especially with $3k on the line. Man o' man. I wonder why the reason why the refund button is not available though. The help documentation says you can refund within dispute. Maybe the money was on hold and temporarily unavailable but the held money is for covering disputes though. Its unpredictable so you don't know for sure if the held money can be used to refund or it comes out of one's PayPal balance or bank account. There's conflicting information; the documentation says one thing but users report another.

You can try calling customers service and grovel to open the case back up again if they even technically can. Explain what happened.

To contact customer service for assistance:

Log on, click HELP on top menu, scroll down to click CONTACT US, and then scroll down to click CALL US or other contact options.

Call early, during business hours, west coast time to try to get a US rep. 

Or contact via social media:

Facebook (US): https://www.facebook.com/paypal

Twitter (US): @AskPayPal 

[Dell14z]

Don’t beat yourself up. You have proof that the refund was promised to you. PayPal can intervene and help you with your issue. 

As stated here many times, using a credit card is smarter than your PayPal balance. Banks are easier to chargeback funds and get reimbursed.  My bank told me in person that I should never use my balance for anything other than transferring money to my bank account. They said PayPal protection is not for a buyer and they hear too many tales of woe. 

I just had a dispute over a refund and my bank refunded my money quickly. 

[natacross]

Unfortunately, yeah - the bank wasn’t used or this would’ve been solved. Certainly didn’t expect this to happen, so easy to say in hindsight. I asked about reopening and they said there’s literally nothing they can do. However, I didn’t drive home the promise to refund and I have literally 5+ messages stating he’d do it. I don’t have faith they’ll flip it based on that, but won’t hurt to try.