Payment in error dispute

[JonathanHR]

I have just received notification that someone has opened a dispute against me for a payment.

I haven't sold anything on Ebay recently, so I assume that this payment was made in error, and he has entered the wrong email address on the payment.

The dispute resolution steps only allow me to either show the goods have been despatched (there are none to despatch) or the pending amount has been refunded, requiring me to refund a payment I never asked for and is mrked as 'pending' in my account.

I don't want to hit refund, as the persion involved has made no attempt to contact me, even thpough he must have my email address for the original payment.

I believe this is some form of scam, where I hit refund, but discover his original transfer never took place, and so PayPal authorises a refund against my card details, so he or she receives a refund on a non-existent transaction. Is this possible?

The dispute resolution says I have 7 days to respond, but I owuld prefer to time out the transaction by waiting the 30 days.

[kernowlass]

@JonathanHR

Well its never 30 days.

You or he can escalate it to a claim within a few days of opening the dispute and then if you do not refund paypal do so and then they chase you for the funds to reimburse them.

UNLESS you have the funds in your paypal account balance in which case paypal will just take the funds and pay him back again.

You can let it time out if you want to..

[JonathanHR]

Thank you for the response; my key query is could this be a possible scam? I am aware of similar refund scams on eBay (purchase pays too much, asks for balance to be refunded, purchaser complies then discovers original payment never completed), so wondering if something similar could be happening here.

Luckily my PP balance is zero, so there is nothing to take the money from.

[kernowlass]

@JonathanHR

(purchase pays too much, asks for balance to be refunded, purchaser complies then discovers original payment never completed),

Normally that is scammers that don't use paypal and the funds are not in your paypal balance but they are told to refund via western union and then the payment is released etc.

But if you have no funds in your paypal balance then how come they could open a dispute and say they paid you?

If they were not your funds why would you withdraw them to your bank account?

[JonathanHR]

Sorry, if this wasn't clear:

There is a sum in my account, marked as 'pending', from the person has made the payment.

My account balance is currently zero and before this transaction was zero, as the pending sum is being held subject to the dispute, and so is not counted as part of my balance.

I have made no attempt to transfer it anywhere - it isn't even *properly* in my account.

I don't want to hit refund on something which isn't even mine - the sum isn't in my account, so how can I refund the person? My concern is that if I do go ahead with hte refund, I am accepting responsibility for a sum which I haven't asked for, nor even have in my account. 

Surely PayPal needs to sort this out?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@JonathanHR

OK well if i were you i would give paypal a call and ask them to release the pending funds back to the buyer.

That would solve your problem as you would not get a black mark on your account AND paypal would not take from your bank account to refund the buyer if you did use the refund option.

>>

Click on the words "Contact" at the bottom of your paypal account summary page and use the phone option (if there is one in the country you are in) > click on the "call us" option on the left (fees "may" apply so check the cost with your phone tariff first, as you sometimes have to wait a while to connect).

When you get through don't select any options just hang on till you get transfered to an agent or say the word "agent".

Free number from any UK landline.

[JonathanHR]

Hi,

Thank you - spoke to an agent. She carried out the refund/voiding of the transaction.

It turned out it was fraudulent - the other party had accidentally revealed their password & someone had tried to use it to transfer money - but by mistake used my account.

All dealt with. Thank you for your help.