Refund from seller appears as a payment

[MKgirl]

Hi, I wonder if someone can help me please. I recently purchased an item on ebay, which the seller subsequently agreed to accept back and refund me my money. This was done, and the refund was made in full and appeared in my PayPal account, however, when I clicked onto the "details" of the transaction, PayPal have processed the refund as a payment received by me, and have charged me commission of just over £12 on this transaction, as if I had made a sale! Is this because the seller put through the refund incorrectly at their end, I.e. as a payment thru PayPal, rather than clicking onto the refund option for the item in question in PayPal? If this is the case, how can I get this changed and get my full refund back from PayPal? Has this happened to anyone else? Many thanks

[kernowlass]

You are right, the seller has gone to "send money" rather than clicking on the details of the transaction and scrolling down to the refund option.

I would contact them and state if you refund (properly) the payment you have received then she can then refund your original payment..........tell her when she does it that way you get a full refund and she gets back the fee she was charged when you paid. 

[MKgirl]

Thank you kernolass, that is a good idea, however, if I did that, isn't there the risk that they might potentially decide not to refund me the second time and they keep the item and the money? secondly, if i follow your suggestion, would they have to bear the loss of that £12 commission and claim it back from PayPal? Who now needs to do what? Sorry, I am a bit confused?

[kernowlass]

As i said when you refund you get back the charge paypal has charged you to receive the payment.

So the seller would have a refund of the £12 he was charged when you originally paid and you will get back the £12 you have just been charged when you refund that payment.

Up to you how you go about it, if you want you can ask him to refund you properly first and then you can refund the payment you have just received that you were charged on but then he may reluctant to do that as he will wonder whether you will send yours back.

Catch 22 really.

[MKgirl]

Ok thank you, I think I understand that part now. It really is a catch 22 situation, would PayPal intervene direct with this transaction if either myself or the seller requests their help? Or do we have to sort it out ourselves? Apologies for so many questions and thanks again for your help.

[kernowlass]

Well if you go down the dispute route and file for item received but not as described then you may or may not win and if you do win you will need to provide a tracking number to prove delivery of  the item back to the seller....if you can't do that don't file.

Either way personally i would try to sort it out friendly like!!!

If it helps you can get their telephone number via advanced search top of ebay pages  > use the contact member option on the left > fill in the details and ebay will email you their telephone number.

The incentive to him is that if he does comply with what you want he will be £12 up.

[MKgirl]

Thank you, I will try contacting them and try sorting it out somehow. If no luck, will contact PayPal direct. Thank you.