Just thought I'd share my experience with the community....
I purchased an item on 30th September from eBay and used my Credit Card as payment source (has been used previously). I got the usual "Thank you for your payment" message; however, when I went into my Summary shortly afterwards I noticed that the payment was showing as "Pending" I've had that before so thought nothing of it - just assumed it would eventually say "PAID". I was then abroad for two weeks.
On my return, no item. I checked "My eBay" and it said "Your payment didn't go through so the order was cancelled. Please pay for this item again" However, on checking my Credit Card the payment was sent to an account which said PAYPAL *(EBAY USERS ID) and Paypal <removed>. I phoned my CC company to verify this and they confirmed the money had been sent to said account.
I approached Paypal as it states CLEARLY "PAYPAL" on my CC statement (so does every other payment I've made to eBay using my CC) so I assumed Paypal processed the payments on eBays behalf and then forwarded the payments to the correct merchants Paypal account. Paypal have said (after five emails back and forth) this is NOT a paypal account number so I can only assume this is eBay's own payment system account number and they have not bothered changing the PAYPAL descriptor over to EBAY when they split(?) as eBay and PayPal used to be merged.
I'm now having to dispute the transaction with my credit card company to get my £29 back. So be warned - if you use eBay's payment system there is the possibility that the same will happen to you. Always pay by PAYPAL as you have to log in and can track payments on your account thus it's easier (and quicker) to get a refund when things go wrong!
