Refunds and scams

[Bmarca94]

I was recently scammed in a very unique way where this person purchased an item in hand , (in person) and the payment went through friends and family so no other information was needed . After 2 weeks that has passed, I checked my account on PayPal and the amount I got paid for the item was reduced from my account and it made me go negative! How was it that the buyer was able to get his money back from filing a dispute and the transaction was done through friends and family ?? He basically got the item for free AND his money back ?? Good job PayPal please someone answer with feedback or opinions ! I'm in a though spot because someone just bought an item from me though online but I want to issue and refund to the buyer but now PayPal is keeping THAT money as well and putting it towards my negative balance for NO reason ??

[kernowlass]

@Bmarca94

Firstly you should not accept paypal for a collection transaction as you would have 0 seller protection.

Secondly its against paypal rules to accept family / friends payments for selling and can lead to your paypal account being limited.

Thirdly accepting family /friends stops a buyer opening a Paypal dispute for non receipt or item not as described as the buyer would have no buyer protection BUT that does not mean they can't file an 'unauthorised transaction OR do a chargeback' via their card issuer.

If they did that and won then paypal would reimburse them BUT you would not lose out if you had seller protection BUT you don't get seller protection if you accept family / friends payments, you wouldn't need it as you were not supposed to be selling anything.

[Bmarca94]

So the back story of what you didn't know is that we were doing a trade and the money was sent to cover the costs of traveling and to equal the value of the item's cost so technically I wasn't selling him the item through pay pal, HE decided to add money as a GESTURE to finalize the order . I have pictures of the buyer agreeing to the terms and sending me the address he wanted to meet up and trade . How was that the payment wasn't authorized if he sent it to me ? I don't understand how that works and how PayPal lets him return his money without knowing the full story. I also don't understand how You say pay pal doesn't accept purchases but why were they asking me for a tracking number if it was a meet up and he received the item ? Pay pal shouldn't be asking me for tracking info if Firends and family doesn't allow you to sell items am I wrong ? You kinda contradicting yourself by saying that because pay pal asked me for tracking when it was never done through goods and services .

[kernowlass]

@Bmarca94

I can only tell you what an unauthorised payment means, whether it was authorised or not i have no way of knowing and its not up to me to decide thankfully.

He added money via friends / family so everything I have said about that is correct.

1. He had no buyer protection IF he filed a Paypal dispute for non-receipt OR item not as described.

2. You would have no seller protection IF he filed an unauthorised transaction OR a chargeback.

He did option 2 so you lost out.

Can't see what you mean by 'paypal doesn't accept purchases' ????

Paypal will ask you for tracking in the event of an unauthorised dispute to see what address you sent the item to, this helps decide if it was a genuine unauthorised dispute or not, it does not help you with your friends / family transation though as you were not covered.

So I am not contradicting myself at all.