Dispute

[katik27]

Hello, I would like to ask for your help.
I purchased items from a seller, but after receiving my payment she have realized that she can not ship to my country. She recommended me to wait, and then after 21 days cancel my order and click on PayPal that I did not received my order. She told me that she could not send me my money back before, because money I sent was on hold/pending.
So after 21 days I opened a dispute and after seeing it she contacted me by WhatsApp that my money has already released to her PayPal account and that PayPal will send them back to me. She told me that PayPal already know that I did not receive my order, because she did not add tracking information. Should not she respond to my message via PayPal dispute and offer me money back?
She told me that the money status is pending because I clicked that I did not receive order and that PayPal automatically send it back to me. I do not believe it, I think PayPal will do it only during claim.
I think during dispute I should make a deal with seller via PayPal, so she should offer me a refund and I should decide if I accept it, right? 
Please, help me. I have not opened a dispute or a claim before and I do not know what to do in situations like this one.

[kernowlass]

@katik27 

Just escalate the dispute to a CLAIM and then after a further approx 10 days paypal should send the held funds in her account back to you.

[katik27]

Thank you so much for your answer. So it looks like PayPal really held her money and she can not respond in the dispute and send me a refund? I hoped it can be resolved in dispute as PayPal advices. So I have to escalate the dispute to a claim.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@katik27 

If she is a new seller then her funds would be pending for 21 days so any refund would come from her bank account and not those pending funds.

She should really refund you and then wait for the funds to be released to pay her back again.

However if she does not have enough funds in her bank account then she would have to wait 21 days to refund you.

So by opening a dispute with paypal it could shorten that process but yes as she can't refund you then you need to escalate to a claim for paypal to become involved as by opening a dispute her pending funds are 'held' by paypal until the dispute / claim is resolved.