No refund, however paid twice?

[chrissteel1980]

I am probably being very thick here, but I seem to have paid for an item twice?

I bought an item, in Dollars from a Sterling account so to keep it simple, for lets say 50, which was then refunded as the seller made an error and didnt have the item in stock. My Paypal balance was initially debited the 50, which was then refunded and has a temporary hold on it. In the meantime my Paypal balance is less the amount on hold. Fine and no problem. Should be say 200, is 150 with a -50 pending under my adjusted credit balance. This is fine and I understand the refund takes 5-7 days.

This morning, the same amount has debited my bank account but isn't showing on my Paypal balance. 

So in my eyes, I have paid once from my Paypal balance, as my balance is less the amount of the payment. (150 instead of 200).  Then I have paid once from my bank account, as the 50 has debited this morning.

I am awaiting a refund, which is showing as on hold, but only one refund. I shouldn't lose any money in this transaction as the seller issued an immidiate refund, however my Paypal balance is less the 50 and now my bank balance is less the 50.

I have therefore paid in total 100, with one pending refund of 50.

I called customer services and the advisor didn't understand what I was saying and eventually just said to wait a week and everything will be ok.

Can anyone shed any light on the situation?  I'm sure it will eventually right itself but I'm mystified!

[PayPal_paula · Accepted solution]

Hi Chrissteel1980,

Welcome to the PayPal community forum.

From reading your posts it sounds like your payment may have only been taken once. When a payment is funded using your bank account and it is refunded before the funds clear a temporary hold is placed on the refund itself. This would not hold any funds on your PayPal balance just the refund itself. You will then generally see the funds leave your bank account. It takes 5-7 working days for the funds to clear from your bank account to your PayPal account. Once they have cleared your funds will then be added to your PayPal balance. Once they are added the temporary hold on your refund will be removed and your refund will be added to your balance.

If you are seeing that funds on your PayPal balance are being held then it may be due to something else like a claim.

I hope this helps explain it for you and if you have any questions please do let us know.

Paula

[chrissteel1980]

Hi Paula, thank you for the reply. You are exactly correct, the amount being held is in sterling and is roughly the same as the amount I'm due to be refunded, which is in dollars so I had assumed they were the same transaction. I had actually had a buyer file a case on eBay for the amount being held but had received no notification from eBay so they are actually two seperate transactions.  The dispute and the refund. The buyer had opened the case in error and has now closed it releasing the held funds, so I am just awaiting the refund in the next few days and all is well again! This is down to my error, through not checking the exact amount of the refund and noticing it to be different with the amount being held. I would say notification from eBay would have been helpful as this would have solved the issue immidately. Thanks for getting back to me, your assistance is much appreciated.