Ebay Return Results in Negative Balance. Cannot Move Money in PayPal to Resolve.

[thedecadentdogs]

I had a situation where a buyer bought an item from me, received the item as described and then requested a return in Ebay with a reason that the item was NOT received as described (falling under Ebay's Return Guarantee).  This resulted in a hold being placed on the original sales transaction and sent my PayPal account into a negative balance.  When I tried to move money into my PayPal account to resolve the negative balance the Move Money process would not complete and presented the attached screen.  I wanted the item returned to me BEFORE I issued a refund and I wanted to resolve the negative balance in my PayPal account immediately.  The only way I could resolve the negative balance was to issue an immediate refund within Ebay and not require the buyer to return the item.  Once I issued a refund in Ebay my Paypal Balance was no longer negative.  This presents a problem for Ebay sellers.  A customer can buy an item, receive the item, then request a refund that the item was not received as described.  When they do this, the Paypal payment that you previously received is  "Held" and deducted from your PayPal account balance.  If this deduction results in a negative balance you have no recourse to satisfy the negative amount other than refund the order in Ebay.  You cannot move money into your PayPal account under this circumstance.  So long story short, you are out the item that you sent the person, you are out the funds and the buyer has a FREE item they are no longer required to return to you to have their funds returned to them.  It is an easy way to scam a seller out of their item for free.  I contacted PayPal customer support twice and PayPal Merchant Services customer support.  On the second call to Customer Support I was informed that this is a known issue within Paypal and they are working to resolve it under support ticket CSTS17235.  Hopefully it will be resolved by 2/28/20.  In the end, I should be able to move money to my PayPal account under any circumstances.  However that is not the case with an Ebay order return request that falls under Ebay's Return Guarantee.  Whether or not the refund request is valid or not.  I have since blocked this buyer and reported them to Ebay.  However, I am still out the purchase price of the item, the item itself and the shipping cost.  Given that there is a support ticket open to address this issue and it is being worked on, I clearly am not the only one who has fallen victim to this Ebay scam.