Refund from a negative balance. (?)

[androidj4m3s]

5 weeks ago I sold something in ebay to a person from the Netherlands. (I'm in uk). It apparently never arrived, and so the person has opened a resolve case (through paypal, not eBay). Since the item wasn't tracked, I've got no choice but to refund. Not got a problem with that, things do go missing. HOWEVER Since the sale was 5 weeks ago, I have long since withdrawn the money. When the buyer opened the case, paypal emailed me and said they had taken the sale price from my account. At that time, my paypal balance was £0.00 It is now (minus) -£17.43 My question is, how do I send the buyer a refund if my balance is negative? As it is, I'd have to clear the negative balance first, before sending the refund. So I'd end up paying twice(?) I tried to press the refund button, but it just says I can't do that because of insufficient funds. I get my wages on the 20th, the buyer has agreed to wait until the 21st before escalating to a claim. What do I do? If I clear my balance AND refund, I'll have to pay twice. Which obviously I don't want to do. Bit confused, tbh. Any advice?

[PayPal_paula]

Hi androidj4m3s, 

If your balance is currently negative it means that we already have the funds on hold to cover a refund to this buyer if needed. For example, if we find the case in your buyers favour or you decide to refund your buyer the funds will be taken from the funds we have on hold for the case. 

As you said yourself, you withdrew the funds for this transaction and this is why when we went to place the funds on hold your account was taken negative. So by you clearing your negative balance, you will be just adding the funds back to your account to cover the refund. You will be only paying for this once not twice but I can understand why you would think that. 

I hope this helps explain it for you. 

Paula 

[MzUnique]

Hi, i have a negative balance on my paypal due to a buyer opening a case on ebay.

If i pay this off, will this go back to the buyer, or would i have to refund the buyer seperatly so i would be refunding twice?

I am so confused please help

[Ljp13]

Why nsf charges me -$377?

[saifyy]

i also have a negetive balance of 26 euros. which i have already paid via my bank account and i also have the transaction dates in my bank that i have paid back the 26 euro. Butt i logged in today after (3 days) and it now says i have a negetive balance of 24 euros..?? I i can't even find a way to messege paypal to clear this up neither can i go in the detail section to chechk why i have the 24 euro negetive now. Please help!

[ads248999]

Wrong!

I spoke to a chap at PayPal UK. When I saw negative balance, I transferred money from my bank to PayPal, this brought my balance back to zero but then I needed to still refund the customer. The PayPal rep told me there is a held balance which covers the refund if needed and we cannot see this. The only way for me to make this refund was for the PayPal rep to refund "manually" over the phone and perform PayPal fee reversals from the invisible held money. There is no freaking way I would make a double payment to cover a negative balance then also transfer more money to refund. That doesn't make sense.

PayPal is already a big crook when it comes to interest gains on held payments with shifty practices as a deposit broker but it needs to get its act together and this is just another one of those ambiguous situations.

[Alex_c60]

I have had this same problem, except I have paid my negative balance of £62.59 so it is back to £0 and this has not solved the claim opened, he is still wanting his refund, so I am going to have to pay double?

[PayPal_DavidR]

Hi there,

Welcome to the PayPal Community.

If you still need help issuing a refund you can call our customer service on freephone 0800 358 7911 who can assist with this.

-David R

[TOMASZ26SKI]

HI  androidj4m3s

please I need your help I had the same situation, I cleared my account but I don't know  how to pay the buyer back.

Many thanks for help

Tom

[PayPal_Sophie]

Hi TOMASZ26SKI,

Welcome to the Community Forum! If your buyer has filed a dispute and you have resolved the resulting negative balance, you just need to choose to refund them through the buyer claim case.

If the case is opened with PayPal, here's how to do that:

1. Go to www.paypal.com/uk and log in to your account.
2. Click ‘Resolution Centre’ near the top of the page.
3. Click ‘View’ under ‘Action’ in Resolution Center Cases.
4. Click ‘Grant a full refund’ or ‘Offer a partial refund’ near the bottom of the page.
5. Follow the instructions for the refund you want to offer, and then click ‘Issue Refund'. 

If the case is opened with eBay, you may need to contact them directly for assistance with this. Any other issues, please feel free to contact PayPal Customer Support. Alternatively, you can contact us via Facebook (www.facebook.com/PayPalUK) or Twitter (@AskPayPal) for assistance.

Hope this helps!

Sophie