Can't refund eBay buyer since I can't link my bank account nor debit card

MilesBFree
Contributor
Contributor

I have been around and around with PayPal Assistant folks on chat but no luck. 

I got a useless message from eBay when i tried to issue the refund that said it could not be completed at this time.  Contacted their help desk and they said there may be a PayPal issue.

Contacted PayPal and they said i do not have sufficient balance to issue a refund, so to add funds from my bank account.

I have no bank account linked so had to add one.

I tried to link my checking account.  PayPal retrieved my bank info like checking account number, so I know the account ID and password are correct, but it failed at a later step.  It said to try again later.  I waited a bit and retried a couple of times and kept getting the try again later message. 

So I contacted PayPal assistant again, and one person said that there are "additional security factors needed", but no one at PayPal can tell me what those are or how they can be entered.  One person at the PayPal Assistant did say that they needed to validate is the bank was a "safe and trusted" bank but that seems to be nonsense - this is one of the top 2 or 3 banks in the US, and it showed up in the drop-down menu for banks which can be linked. 

In any event, apparently PayPal has locked any further attempts to link that bank account for 72 hours.

So after a LOT more chatting with the folks responding on the PayPal Assistant chat, one finally suggested using a debit card.  OK, i thought, i am saved!  But no luck - that also failed with a "We're sorry. We're not able to process your request right now. Please try again later." 

I suspect that what PayPal froze was not the bank account, but the PayPal account (since neither a bank account or debit card will work). 

So there appears to be no other way to add funds to my balance so i can issue the eBay refund. 

PayPal does not know why the link attempt failed, so I am worried that after 72 hours it will fail yet again and lock the account for another 72 hours and my eBay buyer will open a case against me and give me a bad rating.  And my rating is a perfect 100% positive after over 500 transactions and it will be trashed due to PayPal! 

Any ideas? 

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MilesBFree
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Summary in case anyone else has the issue of needing to refund an eBay buyer but your balance is not enough: 

1.  You can not add to your balance from your linked credit card

2.  You can add a bank account but this will take 3 days for PayPal to approve that.  eBay gives you 2 days to refund the return so this is useless

3.  You can add a debit card but that won't work - you can not add to your balance via a debit card (or maybe this also requires a 3 day waiting period after adding the debit card; either way this does not help)

4.  You can install the PayPal app on your mobile device and deposit a check.  If you want the check deposited in under 10 days they will charge you $5 or more (it's a percentage of the check amount).  This did not work for me since the deposit was rejected since the system thought the check was written by someone else besides me (even though I wrote it).  Actually, it just occurred to me that what the error message should have said is that you can't write a check to yourself or get one from an immediate family member...  Maybe ask a neighbor to give you a check in return for cash and risk looking like a deadbeat or them thinking you need cash for something nefarious

5.  Another suggestion from PayPal was to take the rejected check to a store that accepts PayPal and deposit it there.  I suspect that that will have the same issue with the system not accepting a check from you or a household member.  This is likely yet another useless suggestion form PayPal and wouldn't work anyway

6.  Get a friend or family member to PayPal you enough money to increase your balance (this is where I am now - waiting on my wife's send of money to me to go through)

7.  The next suggestion is pure desperation - I feel horrible about not being able to refund the eBay buyer who returned an item - you could buy one of your own listed items on eBay, pay for it yourself, and thereby increase your PayPal balance (or have a friend or family member buy it).  Then re-list it.  I have not checked eBay's terms of service to see if buying your own item will violate that.  eBay may also prevent this in general so people can't do that over and over to jack up their seller rating.  In any event, if you are as desperate to refund the person as I am, read the terms of service and comply - I am not responsible if you violate that.  This is more brainstorming and not a recommendation.  This is the horrible situation PayPal has put me in... 

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MilesBFree
Contributor
Contributor

so PayPal Assistant person said he could help me get the debit card set up, and had to send a text with a verification code.  Once that was done he must have made some sort of change to the account, and the debit card linked successfully. 

However, that apparently can't be used to add money to the balance.

So still stuck.

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MilesBFree
Contributor
Contributor

PayPal needs to train the Assistant staff - they can't determine why the bank account can't be linked, nor why I can't add to the balance from the debit card I linked and made the default payment source. 

Latest update:  a person on Assistant suggested installing the PayPal app since it can be used to add funds.  But it wants either the bank account linked or to cash a check.  I attempted to cash a check but PayPal first cashed it and then declined it and told me:  "Oops, it appears someone you live with wrote you this check. We generally do not accept checks from people in the same household."

I wrote it myself so know it was not someone else in my household.  

This whole thing is idiotic.   It should not be this hard to add money to an account due to the web site being bug-ridden! 

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MilesBFree
Contributor
Contributor

Summary in case anyone else has the issue of needing to refund an eBay buyer but your balance is not enough: 

1.  You can not add to your balance from your linked credit card

2.  You can add a bank account but this will take 3 days for PayPal to approve that.  eBay gives you 2 days to refund the return so this is useless

3.  You can add a debit card but that won't work - you can not add to your balance via a debit card (or maybe this also requires a 3 day waiting period after adding the debit card; either way this does not help)

4.  You can install the PayPal app on your mobile device and deposit a check.  If you want the check deposited in under 10 days they will charge you $5 or more (it's a percentage of the check amount).  This did not work for me since the deposit was rejected since the system thought the check was written by someone else besides me (even though I wrote it).  Actually, it just occurred to me that what the error message should have said is that you can't write a check to yourself or get one from an immediate family member...  Maybe ask a neighbor to give you a check in return for cash and risk looking like a deadbeat or them thinking you need cash for something nefarious

5.  Another suggestion from PayPal was to take the rejected check to a store that accepts PayPal and deposit it there.  I suspect that that will have the same issue with the system not accepting a check from you or a household member.  This is likely yet another useless suggestion form PayPal and wouldn't work anyway

6.  Get a friend or family member to PayPal you enough money to increase your balance (this is where I am now - waiting on my wife's send of money to me to go through)

7.  The next suggestion is pure desperation - I feel horrible about not being able to refund the eBay buyer who returned an item - you could buy one of your own listed items on eBay, pay for it yourself, and thereby increase your PayPal balance (or have a friend or family member buy it).  Then re-list it.  I have not checked eBay's terms of service to see if buying your own item will violate that.  eBay may also prevent this in general so people can't do that over and over to jack up their seller rating.  In any event, if you are as desperate to refund the person as I am, read the terms of service and comply - I am not responsible if you violate that.  This is more brainstorming and not a recommendation.  This is the horrible situation PayPal has put me in... 

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MilesBFree
Contributor
Contributor

I was able to get the money from my wife's send via PayPal and refund my eBay buyer.  This was the only thing that actually worked.  PayPal is horriblt **bleep** up.  Going to see if it is possible to use Venmo or other with eBay now. 

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