Refund problem

[Katrilotta]

Hi! I bought some items from a seller and I sent her a certain amount of USD and her account got blocked for suspicious activity apparently (even though everything was ok). Now she did a refund for me, but I'm almost certain she did something wrong with the refund because I only got half of my money back. She had a certain amount of balance on her paypal account, but not as much as the refund should've been and I'm guessing she didn't know that it doesn't matter (or does it?). 

Should she have added the original amount for the payment to the refund even though she didn't have enough money on her account? Because her account got blocked she hasn't been able to withdraw any money from her account, so the balance should be there. 

[PayPal_Dian]

Hey Katrilotta, 

Thanks for posting your question ion our Community. I am sorry to hear that you did not receive a full refund. 

When an account from a seller is blocked it means that they are not able to withdraw the balance. However, there is no guarantee that the balance is sufficient for all the refunds. 

If you did not receive a full refund you can open a dispute for the remaining amount. This link will explain how you can open a dispute. 

I hope this helps. 

Dian

[Katrilotta]

Hi! Thank you for your reply. I just don't understand where the remaining money is then? If I've paid for a certain amount of money for an seller and seller's account is blocked before they can withdraw the money, why wouldn't they be able to refund the whole amount back to me regardless of their balance? The money should be there, right?

In my case there's 177 USD missing, from a total of 388 USD (seller was able to refund 211 USD back to me). Where is this missing money at the moment? What happens to it after the seller's block is lifted? Will she receive it back to her account, does it come back to me or where does it go?

There was a dispute raised about the whole amount, but the seller said that she is willing to refund the money back to me. I thought that she is able to refund the whole amount back to me, because that is what I paid and what should be on her account. There isn't any information that I found on Paypal's pages that if the seller's balance is smaller than the amount which needs to be refunded it is not possible to refund the whole amount,(in the case when they haven't been able to withdraw the money from their account).

In my case, I shouldn't have closed the dispute, right? There should be some sort of a warning that you're not able to get all of your money back if you come to a solution with the seller about your refund. If the dispute would still be open and it would be decided for my favor would I have received ALL my money back? Who would do the refund then if the seller doesn't have enough money on their account?

And what happens to the the remaining money after the seller's block has been lifted if the money is not on her account?  Where is the money?

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Katrilotta,

I'm sorry to hear that you closed the dispute without having received the full refund. Once a buyer closes a dispute or claim, it cannot be reopened. Closure of the dispute by the buyer indicates that all resolutions have already occurred satisfactorily. Only through an open claim can PayPal ensure that the full amount is refunded in accordance with PayPal's Purchase Protection, regardless of the balance in the seller's account.

Olivia

[Katrilotta]

Thank you for your reply.

I would still like to know what happens to the money (177USD) that is currently not on the seller's account balance, which she was unable to refund back to me? Will the seller have an access to that money when the block for their account is lifted?

I think it should be clearly stated in Paypal's instructions that even if the seller is willing to refund the money, they cannot do that if their account does not have enough balance and you should keep your dispute open to get all the money back.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @Katrilotta,

If there were a dispute that were found in your favor that required the seller to refund to meet the terms of the dispute, the full refund would have been given to you and that refund would make the seller's account become negative. The funds would be required to be paid back in that case.

It sounds like instead, you closed the dispute because the seller was voluntarily issuing a refund outside of the dispute? If that is the case and the refund was voluntary from the seller and the seller only refunded a partial amount, the seller is not beholden to refund more because there was no dispute that compelled the refund. 

If you maintain communication with the seller and the seller is able to resolve their limitation, perhaps the seller will honor the agreement the two of you made outside the dispute process and issue the remainder of the refund.

Olivia