Lack of understanding about disputes

[AdamMS]

Hi, I have a merchant account, and occasionally I have disputes.

Sometimes, the result of the dispute is as follows:

You can see that the result is very clear, PayPal decided in the buyer's favor and also mentioned that 20$ has been refunded, so far so good.

But sometimes, I get this closing result:

In this case, you can see again, that the dispute was closed in the buyer's favor, but you can also see that there is no mention of the amount refunded, and also a note that says: "You can issue a refund to your buyer for this case from the transaction details page"

So what happened here? If the case was closed in the buyer's favor, it means that he won the money back, no? So why did PayPal give me a note saying I could refund the money?

Thank you.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @AdamMS,

Thank you for returning to the PayPal Community Forum, and welcome back!

I can understand your confusion! Not looking at your account, I will make my best guess at the circumstances that led to the difference, and if I'm incorrect, you may need to contact Customer Service for further investigation.

The first case was closed because you refunded. The second case was closed by PayPal. My guess is that it was a dispute for an item Significantly Not As Described. In those situations, the case closes in the buyer's favor, and usually the refund would be pending the return of the item. A seller would still have the option to issue the refund prior to the completed item return. Does this match the scenario above? 

If you find that you do need further info from Customer Service, you can find your contact options by clicking Contact at the bottom of the PayPal website.

I hope this helped!

Olivia