Disappearing refund

[Denise66]

i sold a working sewing machine on eBay and after the buyer got it she claimed it wasn't working.

she opened a claim for return through eBay.

fair enough, something might of happened to it between states.

i have never had a claim for return before so I thought I would just return the money on the transaction that she paid.

since PayPal was down for about 18 hours that day I had a brilliant brainwave. I would just pay her through her PayPal address.

after a couple of hours I go on eBay and going through their refund process it repays her the refund again.

according to my buyer she has received one refund and not the other.

now where do I go to for help as the first refund doesn't seem to be covered.

is there anyway to track it down.

i am out over $80.00

[kernowlass]

@Denise66

NEVER refund unless you use the refund option as you will have no proof you have refunded especially if its as a result of a dispute.

Also you are not supposed to refund until you have the item returned to you.

How did you send the refund, what option did you use??

[Denise66]

i have never had to refund a return before and obviously did it very wrong.

i sent her money back through PayPal but not as a refund, using the email address that was on her purchase. Now I notice even though the email address is the same her last name is different. She is claiming she didn't receive it.

the second refund went through eBay's return and refund section.

i know I'm an idiot and I will probably have to chalk it up to experience. Expensive experience 

[kernowlass]

@Denise66

I know you sent the first refund back as a payment but which OPTION did you select when you went to send money???

[Denise66]

Sorry, obviously having a blonde moment. Or a lot of them over the last couple of days.

i must have sent it as a gift as PayPal said I can't query the payment as it wasn't for goods or services.

dumb and sounding dumber.

[kernowlass]

@Denise66

Thats a shame, well your only other option is that if you funded your paypal payment via a card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you.

[Denise66 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for you help. Think I will have to write this one up as experience and be super vigilant next time

Denise