Paypal closed dispute and paid seller despite seller never responding or shipping goods, why?

[Kimmy-h51]

Hey can anyone tell me how to contact a real person at paypal?

i made a purchase from a company i have used before. In all purchSes their website says to make sure i click the confirm button after paying at paypal to ensure i am redirected back to their site and so that their website links my payment with the purchase

on other occasions that was fine but the last time I got a website security error when i clicked the continue button,  i refreshed several times and it took me back to their site but all items were still in the shopping cart showing as not paid for. And my email had an automated email from them with instructions on how to pay by bank deosit or other non cc means

i checked paypal and the payment showed as processed. It was also processed on my card

I tried to phone the company, first on their main landline number.  It was disconnected.

I then tried a mobile number i had been contacted on by 5e company for past orders.  It had a generic machine generated voice mail which was not what it has had in the past if they did not pick up.  I left a voice mail anyway

I also emailed them

I had no reply till a week or so later when they emailed me asking me to close the PayPal dispute so they could ship my goods.  I went to do that but got a warning if i closed the dispute i coupd not reopen it if things went wrong.  Given the number was changed and no one would call me i was a little suspicious the company might not be operating o might be hacked as some sellers here have been hacked in recent times.

Somi emailed them back explaining why i couod not close the dispute because if they never sent the goods i coupd not raise another,  i promosed i wouod close it as soon as i received the goods, and also pasted in to them screenshots both of the PayPal warning message telling me if I close the dispute I would have no recourse of anything else went wrong, and of the PayPal terms and conditions and bar protection which promised if they sent evidence of shipping the goods they would be protected if I did not close the dispute and would still get their money.   A week or two later I still have not heard back from them and when I checked on PayPal it said that the dispute was going to be automatically closed in one more day as the seller had not replied I emailed the sun or a second time and asked if they had sent the goods and whether they intended to and inform them that if they did not respond to the dispute within a day with tracking numbers it was going to close, I assumed it would be closed in my favour as that has been my experience with PayPal before if the seller does not respond to a dispute or provide evidence they have shipped something I have gotten my money refunded.

Fast forward another couple of weeks and I log into PayPal after not finding a refund on my account and not receiving the goods and find that PayPal have closed the dispute no reason as given it just says it is close it does not even see what their decision was it just says close and payment processed as far as I can tell they have paid my money through to the seller who never responded to the dispute never sent my goods and never provided any evidence they had sent the goods why the hell has PayPal done this?

I tried to by clicking on the link at the bottom of the closed dispute page,  request help regarding this dispute and it took me through a great big long convoluted list of menus and forms where I had to select every item separately and also what type of product was and then I got given three options for why I wanted further help with the dispute - none of which were that the buyer had not sent the goods. I could only choose that the goods were not the right goods or that I had already returned them or that the buyer had agreed to refund my money. none of these three options remotely fitted my situation. I even tried each option thinking maybe there would be a text box on the form where I could explain what had actually happened, seeing as PayPal wouldn’t let me say what had happened,  but it was impossible to get through any of the three options without giving ridiculous information that does not fit my case.

Really feels like PayPal has just paid the money to the seller despite it being abundantly clear that I never received the goods and the seller never responded to the dispute.   The PayPal forms that I’m supposed to use to find out why the heck they did this, seem to be intentionally engineered to make it absolutely impossible for me to actually request any help with this!

I also after much searching, managed to find an option to chat with a PayPal representative online, however every single time I try and send a message I get first an automated reply asking me about stupid US tax requirements which don’t even apply to me seeing as I don’t live in the US, and then when I try again I get a message saying nobody is available please try some other time.   There doesn’t seem to be any option to leave a message and have it responded to when somebody is available

I am going to lodge a chargeback request with my bank on Monday, who in the past have been very good at processing these, and as far as i am concerned if PayPal or the seller end up with a merchant fee for a chargeback then they deserve it because the seller never did anything to fix this and PayPal breached all their buyer guarantees by paying a seller who never shipped any goods or responded to the dispute or to the buyer!

PayPal used to be good at refunding your money if a dodgy seller never sent anything.  It feels like they are not any more

Has there been some fundamental change between PayPal being a protective service for the buyer to it now being a dodgy outfit who wil pay the seller eve. If they haven’t sent any goods?  Should I just close my Paypal account?   (Either that or turn evil, and use it to sell items i don’t own and never send people and make lots of money because it looks like Paypal would pay me anyway!)

Right now that is what i am inclined to do once this chargeback is processed as Paypal dont seem to give the slightest **bleep** when a seller is ripping off a buyer.  They claim to be there to protect you but the seller has a dodgy site, no contactable email or phone, despite being in my country, and the seller has not responded or sent any evidence of shipping my goods.  So what on earth process do Paypal have where they determine this means they should award the disputed money to the seller??

#baffled and frustrated beyond belief!

[Kimmy-h51]

And omg it took me like 5 attempts to post that, it told me the subject was too long then that i needed to select a topic tag, which i did then asked me to do the prove you are a real person thing, then told me to select a topic tag again despite there being one already selected and all other fields being filled out with the correct number of characters etc, and i went around in circles several times selecting a topic and tagging photos of buses and motorbikes etc and still being told to select a damn tag when i nad already done so.

In the end i screen recorded this ridiculous nightmare as it was so impossible to post this message!  Really starting to feel like PayPal have invested time and money into enduring no one can actually complain!

if anyone wants to see the recording reply, and if this forum will allow  me to post a youtube link i will upload it there so the whole world can see the train wreck that any interaction with PayPal seems to be now.

Sad, Paypal used to be a trustworthy way to ensure if i paid for something, i received it. Now i don’t know what it is…

[Kimmy-h51]

My ipad and this forum also seem to have some major conflicts as it is not picking up on half the characters i type and also wont let me move the cursor back to correct any typos.  So in the end i gave up and dictated my post, which i was unable to correct dictation errors in, so please excuse any words which don’t make sense, that is why… (my internet is fine and my ipad is new and has tons of space free, it’s definitely an issue with this site and not occurring elsewhere). Seems anything related to getting some assistance with PayPal is a really steep uphill battle just to request help!

[gr3y05]

Iam undergoing the same issue. The item got lost by the shipping company. The shipping company hasn't admitted it yet, and just say they could not locate the item. The tracking is not updated and is still saying it's on the way. Paypal did not sent me any notifications. And everytime I contact them. Different agents give different adviced. The next agent on chat said paypal is requesting a report from shipping agency that item is lost AND NOT CLAIMED. Shipping taking more than a month now for that **bleep** report. Also on another transaction. Paypal charged me twice on my bank account, and still asking for money for the 3rd time on my paypal money, even if i only had one transaction clearly.

[Grifffro2929]

I going thru the same thing. I have confidence PayPay will come thru. Unlike you, I will not leave Paypal, but make sure this is correctly handled. 

I was charged for a subscription I do not use anymore. I was on vacation when I was charged. I immediately filed for a refund but did not have all the requested info. Paypal denied the refund. I now am at home and have some additional information. Also, I cannot log into the site where I paid for the subscription. It's not a lot of money. The subscription went thru on Jan 28, and I reported the issue on Jan 28th. Strange that a non used online subscription to an account not used in over a year cannot be immediately refunded.