I sold some computer hardware on April 28, shipped the equipment via USPS on April 29, and emailed the buyer the USPS tracking number for his package. The package was lost in transit, and the buyer opened a dispute on May 12, asking for a refund of his payment.
The open dispute resulted in a negative balance on my account, so I called PayPal Collections to add money to my account to cover the refund amount. The deposit was added to my account, but PayPal apparently placed a hold on my account balance because of the ongoing dispute. Because of this hold, I was unable to complete the refund.
Since I didn't want any bad feedback from the buyer for withholding his refund, I sent him a payment via debit card through PayPal in the amount of his original purchase, noting in the transaction description that the payment was his refund. He was satisfied with this arrangement.
On June 6, Paypal FINALLY resolved the dispute in the buyer's favor - which I expected - and the hold on my balance was lifted, but then they debited my balance to issue the buyer another refund. I've explained to them through both the Resolution Center and the Message Center that I've already refunded the seller, but no one seems to understand that the seller has now received duplicate refunds. I've even called PayPal Collections again, and the representative I spoke with was sympathetic, but he was unable to help me because he's not in the right department to handle an issue like this.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance.
