Paypal payment not received from Buy It Now instant payment auction. EBay thinks buyer paid.

[seanherman]

I recently sold a record on ebay with a Buy It Now option to an individual from Germany.  I'm a brand new seller, and thought the purchaser "Pay Instantly" option would be a good idea.  Unfortunately, it seems I've been duped by the Pay Instantly option.

If I check my EBay payment history for the item, it claims that the buyer paid for the item.  On the paypal side, no payment ever arrived.  There's no record whatsoever, and no payment confirmation email ever arrived.  The buyer claims to have language difficulty, and could not provide me with the transaction ID number until just recently.  I tried running this problem through the Paypal resolution center, but I am redirected to the Ebay Resolution Center.  At EBay, I cannot file an Unpaid Item Case, because ebay believes the buyer has sent payment.

Is there any way to check if a Paypal Transaction ID is valid?  I suspect I'm being duped here, but the buyer may have made an honest mistake.  FWIW, I've also included a PDF export of my entire transaction history through July 22nd, hosted on scribd.  EBay reports that the item was paid for on July 20th.

Ebay Item ID: 300446967040

Buyer EBay ID: http://myworld.ebay.com/geerdsche

My EBay ID: http://myworld.ebay.com/taraturg/

Paypal Transaction History: http://www.scribd.com/doc/34711045/Jun-22-2010-to-Jul-22-2010-Paypal-Transactions-seanherman-gmail-c...

edit: I tried including the transaction ID provided by the buyer, but got an error message from the message boards that the number "is not permitted in this community".  Do Paypal transaction IDs include sensitive information?

[surplusdealdude]

The message boards are strange in what they allow and don't allow.

The transaction number wouldn't help us anyway.

I think you have a 'Paypal glitch".  This started showing up a few months go and, unfortunately, it's fairly common now.

The posting of your transaction has been delayed for 3-4 days - that's the way it usually works.

I'm pretty sure that the transaction WILL post, so I suggest taking down the listing so you don't sell it twice.

Just to be safe, don't ship until you see the transaction appear in your paypal account, though.

[seanherman]

Thanks very much for the response surplusdealdude.  I will keep waiting, but would note that 7 days have already elapsed since the buyer (apparently) paid.  From ebay:

Our records show that you received payment for Inca Ore - Birthday of Bless You (Not Not Fun) OOP LP (300446967040) on Jul 20, 2010.

If nothing changes, do I have any recourse?  I am communicating regularly with the buyer, but could very well receive negative feedback for this transaction for making the buyer wait so long.  Since I am a new seller, negative feedback on my very first sale will obviously make it difficult or impossible to ever sell through ebay in the future.  Ebay and Paypal are both leading me down dead ends whenever I attempt to file a question.  Since well over 4 days have elapsed, would you recommend I continue to wait for another week, or should I begin looking for other options?

[surplusdealdude]

If it's up to 7 days, then something is wrong.

Phone Paypal - their number comes up when you click on 'contact us' and give them the transaction number - they should be able to trace it.

[seanherman]

Thanks for the follow-up surplusdude.  

For what it's worth, the transaction ID I'm seeing in the paypal URL when I click My Ebay->Sold->More Actions->View PayPal transaction from my ebay account (which directs me to my account summary, with the transaction still missing) is different from the Paypal ID the buyer forwarded me.  I will try calling Paypal.  His transaction ID started with 77598...L, the ID in my URL above started with 6GB97...M

Since I never received an email from paypal confirming payment, I never received a transaction ID.  Am I right to assume that the URL I'm directed to when I click My Ebay->Sold->More Actions->View PayPal transaction does in fact provide the correct transaction ID?  See where I'm finding this number below (hxxp added instead of http to avoid another forum error):

HXXP://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_view-r-trans&id=TRANSACTION_ID_PAYPAL&fdata=BUNCH_OF_GIBBERISH&ev...

[surplusdealdude]

The transaction number for the sale and the one for the payment will be different.

I think you have the right path for those numbers ( I don't click on ANY links in here, sorry).

See what Paypal has to say.