Never got the money back from Pending Transaction

[Raii6]

So I tried to order something on Hot Topic in May, something went wrong so they didn't go through with the order, and the money I paid -through paypal- was Pending. I contacted them more than once and all they said it'd take a while to reflect in my bank account.

Been almost 3 months now! And the Pending Transaction disappeared and so did my money.

Another similar issue is refunding. I got refunded by Skillshare on August 8 and so far I see nothing in my bank account or my Paypall balance.

Is it just the way it is with Paypal? Trust it and you'll never get your money back?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@Raii6 

The funds will be released back to your funding source after 30 days if the payment was not captured by the merchant. If it was, locate the completed payment transaction in your PayPal account, click it and click "report a problem" to file Item Not Received (INR) dispute. 

If the completed transaction cannot be found in PayPal, it means that the merchant did not capture payment and the pending authorization had expired after 30 days, dropping off from your PayPal activity entirely and funds are released. Look over your funding source (bank account or credit card) accounts again. Funds could've been released back into your funding source balance 30 days later from date of transaction.

If you can't locate the completed transaction in your PayPal account, then you'll have to contact your funding source of the transaction and have them look for the completed transaction on your account and have them correct it since the issue appears there and not in PayPal account activity.