I bought an item in December from a seller in China, beautyforever.com for $165.91 USD. About 5 minutes after the purchase through Paypal I noticed an automatic recurring payment of $190.91 USD to the same seller.
I cancelled the automatic recurring payment in Paypal and it said cancelled so I went on with my day completely forgetting about the issue. I was extremely surprised when I noticed some days later that the same amount had been charged to my American Express card. At that point I was very confused so I investigated further and it seems like while I cancelled the "recurring" part of the automatic payment, $190.91 USD was still charged for the same item I bought for $165.91 USD about five minutes earlier on the same day. Why would I buy the same item in one evening at different prices, the second purchase being $25 more expensive than the first?
I went through the process of opening a case on Paypal saying that I did not authorise the payment, which was true, but I received an email saying the case was reviewed and Paypal has determined there was no unauthorized use and the case was closed.
I then contacted the seller, explaining the same thing to them and they said they understood, they would refund me, but I need to close my case with Paypal before they can refund me. I explained to them that I do not have an open case with Paypal, but they said on their end they can see an open case and that I should contact Paypal to close the case otherwise they would not refund me.
I had to open a case again with Paypal to explain all this because I did not know how else to get in touch with Paypal to close a case when there was no open case. I explained the situation and attached the email exchange I had with the seller. Paypal came back to me after 7 days to say my dispute has been declined and the case closed because they received tracking ID from the seller. But of course, there is a tracking ID because I did buy an item from them, the same item I was charged $165.91 USD for.
I do not understand how in all of this I have been unable to speak with a Paypal representative/agent. It is from one automated voice to another, from one chat message to email. I actually wept out of frustration this morning. Am I really foregoing $190.91 USD when I did not buy the item and what was sent to me was for the $165.91 USD item I bought? Is there no way to resolve this without my getting cheated?
I have messaged the seller again and I have not received a response but the fact that they kept insisting that I close a dispute that was not open on Paypal before they can refund me makes me think they never had any intention of refunding me. Please help.
