Payment query

[Curlaun]

Hi, I'm new to paypal and I recently paid to for items through PayPal but the seller was a private individual and I didn't select friends&family so they were unable to recieve the money and they didn't send the items to me. The seller got an email from pay pal stating that they were not friends or family so the money seems to still be with PayPal. The seller has been in contact with me and is genuine but they have not encountered this problem before and are unsure what to do also. Please advise me how to retrieve my money from PayPal. Thanks

[kernowlass]

@Curlaun 

Genuine sellers do not break paypal rules and ask you to send a payment using the friend/family option when they are selling.

They are sellers regardless of which paypal account that they have.

A friends / family (or gift payment) is intended as a transfer of funds from family or friends to one another. For this reason, there is no processing fee when payment is made with bank or PayPal balance.
However as it is a gift payment, there is also no buyer protection as no goods or services should have been exchanged.

If he was not a close mate or family member you should never use that option as it enables the seller to evade paying his Paypal fees and negates your buyer protection at the same time.

You would also not be able to open a dispute (apart from one citing an unauthorised transaction), which would be automatically closed as you did authorise the initial payment.

Be careful as using that option for purchasing goods is against Paypal rules and can lead to account limitation.

If you funded your Paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will help you but unfortunately they may decline as well as it was a gift payment.