Who pays for instant refunds?

[Judith22]

I'm in the US and just received an *instant* refund for a not-received claim for an Etsy purchase. My question is who pays for that refund. I'd like to know because if the package ever comes I will contact the seller (in India) and pay him the money. But if the refund came from PayPal, not him, I don't see any reason to repay him should the package ever arrive - since he still has his money.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Judith22 

The seller may have refunded / paypal may have taken the funds if the seller had any in their paypal account balance OR if the seller did not refund then paypal would refund you and put the sellers account into negative until they paid them back again.

[Judith22]

@kernowlass Thanks. So either way the seller pays? I am curious because Etsy has just begun systematically refunding not-received and not-as-described cases out of their own pockets (ie out of seller fees) and I was wondering if PayPal was doing the same. 

[kernowlass]

@Judith22 

Don't know anything about Etsy but if it was a paypal dispute then that is what happens.

The seller would either end up paying OR decide to leave the account in negative and stop using their account BUT paypal would then send the debt to a collection agency to collect for them (worst case scenario). To be honest would be very surprised if paypal did not fight to get any money owed  😁

[Judith22]

@kernowlass @Thanks for the clarification! Have a good evening.