Refund made to paypal accnt instead of credit card by mistake...now paypal charging me a fee...

[wembly71]

Looking for advice though I think I am pretty much out of luck as paypal will not offer me assistance.  I originally made a purchase through the hp home store Dec 2.  I changed my mind about the purchase which led to a long dispute with HP about cancelling the order and receiving a refund, which I will skip most of that.  I finally got HP to agree to refund my money, but instead of refunding my credit card, they sent it to paypal as a payment to me instead.  Because it was sent as a payment, paypal took a 26 dollar fee.  After calling paypal on the phone, they are not willing to assist me in the matter saying they are not responsible as HP mistakenly sent it as a payment instead of a refund.  I can't call HP today as they operate on a monday through friday schedule.  I have already involved my credit card company and as hp told them the money was refunded, they are not able to do any other steps.  As I am completely at wits end at hp and now paypal, and I know some will see this as an over reaction...but does anyone have any recommendations that might net me a full refund, or should I just take the 26 dollar loss and close the paypal account as I am not inclined to do?

[kernowlass]

@wembly71 

Why would you close your paypal account because your seller mad a mistake and why is paypal responsible in any way?

[wembly71]

IMHO, in terms of the refund, Paypal is responsible. To have 2 different customer support people tell me on the phone that the seller made the mistake in the refund, we can't help you, I just don't see how. I thought part of the purpose of using paypal was to protect my financial data, be it credit card or what not, from the seller so they do not have that data. I made the purchase from hp using Paypal using a linked the credit card in my PayPal profile. If my credit card number/expiration is not sent to HP via the transaction, how are they suppose to credit the money back to me except through PayPal. Am I misunderstanding that process?

[kernowlass]

@wembly71 

All someone has to do to issue a refund is click on your transaction in their paypal account and then click on the issue refund option at the bottom of that details page, the refund then automatically goes back to the funding source you used in the first place.

Instead it sounds like your seller just used your paypal email address and 'sent' you a payment instead. Nothing paypal can do about that as its all automated. 

HOWEVER if the company had used the 'friends/family' option (if available in your country) to send the refund then even though they did not use the refund option you would not have paid any fee.