Mistake with email address leads to costly lesson. users of paypal beware

[CanCollect]

How does this make sense- and please someone tell me how this could not be resolved. Paypal needs government oversight now.

So my friend has a small business, it  generates an added $400-$500 a month for him- his product is cool and people ask me all the time for info

Recently i received an email from a friend in Germany, he wanted to buy but said my friend had not answered his messages - my friend was away and I responded to my buddy and explained that he would be back in a few---send him the Paypal- hell ship it to you when you get back.

so about 20 mins later i get an email from paypal advising that  i received a payment, i knew right away it was my buddy who probably sent the paypal to my email by accident, i hadnt used my paypal in a while and when i went in - i hit the refund button - the message flashed saying the refund was sent and a message to recipient was sent.

3 days later i get an email -from my buddy asking if i could refund that paypal to him--and i told him i had. 

im out later and try to use my debit card and i get a declined message. check my bank and im told that Paypal attempted to take $150 out of my account -and its incurred a NSF fee of $50 as a result- even better my utility bill which should have cleared came back as NSF as well- im th eproud owner of an extra $100 in nsf fees ------

So i call the ever helpful PAYPAL support center---im told that this was a purchase that i initiated and because i had a negative balance in my Paypal account they withdrew from my chequing account-which they advised had insufficient funds to cover my purchase and as a result i would also incur fees from PAYPAL......wtf -

then im told my buddy isnt getting his refund either- i have to pay him back.

Then i explained that i wasnt buying anything-this was a payment to the wrong email address and i refunded the amount i didnt except it. Im still told theres nothing they can do--when asked about the NSF fees my bank is charging im told y a supervisor that he will send me a email to take to my bank to do away with the NSF fees-----that email was suppose to come today-----did i get it - nope

So paypal community if you can-explain why this transaction cant be cancelled and why paypal is allowed to get away with it

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@CanCollect 

Only thing I can think of is that the funds of the payment you received was on PayPal's 21 day funds availability hold and had not reached your available PayPal balance yet so when you issued refund, PayPal checked your PayPal balance and since there was no money 'available' there, made it negative and it took to issuing the refund through your bank account and the rest is history.

You'll have to reconstruct the order of the transactions in your bank account to see exactly what initially caused the NSF because according to your story when PayPal attempted to take funds out of your bank for the refund, there was already no money hence why PayPal had to make a second attempt or the first attempt bounced.