@Cambridge1
Not exactly. It’s what I call the two-step process.
By default, payments are authorized and captured simultaneously (one-step) resulting in payment completing instantly and deposited in the merchant PayPal’s balance. You’ll see your transaction in the “Completed” section of your PayPal account activity. You can dispute these transaction.
In the two-step process, the authorization (the agreement to pay merchant) is put through and the merchant may capture the payment at a later time/date. Sometimes within 3 days, sometimes within 30 days, depending on the merchant’s business model and order processing flow. They also have options to reauthorize (to extend the capture date) and capture more than initially authorized if sales taxes, shipping and gratuity, etc, apply later on. Your transaction will also be under the “Pending” status until merchant takes action to claim/capture the funds to complete the transaction or void the authorization altogether in which case the authorization will eventually disappear from your PayPal account activity and the funds on hold are released.
An pending authorization cannot be disputed. It has to complete first. Alternatively, you may ask the merchant to cancel the order which may or may not void the authorization so you’d have to wait for the authorization to expire in 30 days. Longer than 30 days, ask PayPal or your bank or card issuer to void it.
Kudos & Solved are greatly appreciated. 🙂
