Bank refund is "Pending"?

[hassy786]

Hi,

So I paid a seller on a selling website (Gumtree) for a laptop which was costing me £500 and I performed the transaction by choosing "Goods and services" so that I would be protected by PayPal if anything goes wrong and ones the payment was sent to him, I told him I would like the tracking number as quick as possible. 

He replied back to me the same day and told me he refunded me my money due to not being able to dispatch the item to me the same day as he has been very busy with his family and has not had the time but will do the next day definately. He said he refunded it as he wanted to make me aware that my money is safe. 

Now the payment was through PayPal and I am sure of it that he has refunded the funds as it says in Paypal that the funds are "Pending". What does "Pending" actually mean as it has now been 2 days and it still says "Pending"? I am just worried that its £500 and I do not want it to just disappear like that 😞 

The funds are in PayPal therefore the seller has definately refunded the funds but I do not know why PayPal is telling me that the funds are "Pending" and still "Pending" after 2 days? It was a payment made from my bank account using Paypal if that matters.

Thank you. Appreciated if any one can help me. 

[kernowlass]

@hassy786

A seller can only issue a refund via funds in their paypal balance or an echeque.
So if its an echeque it has to clear through from the sellers bank account > paypal > and then it is credited to you and the hold lifted.

Sounds as if he may have withdrawn the funds from his paypal account and then later decided to refund you so the payment then had to come from his bank account as per above.

DO NOT pay again until you have a CLEARED REFUND and be careful how you proceed as this appears to be a weird thing to do.

[hassy786]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

So how long does it take for the funds to be clear from his account etc so that I can receive them?

Also, Could you tell me what you think is weird about it? The seller is 150miles away from me and the item I saw was at a bargain price therefore I had told them that I would transfer the money through PayPal to stay protected and ones he received the funds, he can dispatch the item with tracking however on that day he told me he got too busy with his family therefore went and refunded the funds back to me as he "wanted to make me aware that my funds are safe" therefore refunded so that I would have my money back with me that day. He then said, I thought you where in a rush to get the item as quick as possible so I refunded however if you want me to dispatch it to you the following day then I would need to resend the payment to him so he can send it out the following day.. In which I said "No" to because of the fact that I still havent received the funds due to them "Pending" and wouldnt want to resend the same amount as that would be stupid. He agreed and said I could wait for the funds to come back.

Thank you.

[kernowlass]

@hassy786

Depends on the bank but "normally" paypal state 5-7 days.

Sorry what i meant by "weird" is someone refunding you just because they were late sending out your item unless of course you said you did not want to proceed with it??

Normally a seller would apologise and ask if you would not mind waiting a bit longer for it and not refund first.

Just seems a bit weird to me but may be he is new to selling or some other reason but if you are happy to pay again once the refund has "cleared" then of course thats up to you.