Why am I being charged a dispute fee because of some stranger's mistake?

[c22brown]

I have had a PayPal account for more than 20 years and never had a problem until now. Some person I do not know sent me money by mistake. Prior to this, we have never had a buyer/seller relationship and I have not sold this person anything nor have I requested money from them.  Ultimately, that person did get a refund of their money but PayPal charge ME a $15 fee. Why am I being charged for that person's mistake? I have tried unsuccessfully to file a claim in the Resolution Center but both times have not gotten a satisfactory response nor have I gotten my $15 back. HELP! How do I contact a PayPal representative who can understand what I am explaining so I can get my money back?

[kernowlass]

@c22brown 

So if someone made a typo entering an email address or phone number and the payment went to you by mistake then why would you not click on that transaction and just hit the 'refund' option?

As the buyer had to resort to filing a dispute/claim then paypal had to get involved to issue the refund on your behalf then you were charged for that service.

[c22brown]

That is what happened and I did what I could to initiate a refund. Yet I was still charged a fee. I absolutely do not understand how I am being charged for that person’s mistake.

[kernowlass]

@c22brown 

Easy enough to refund, you click on the transaction and hit the refund option bottom of that details page.

If you didn't then it would go to a dispute and hence the charge.

[c22brown]

You are clearly not understanding. I did not sell anything to the person who sent me money. I don’t know anything about the processes to handle this situation. I submit a dispute and so did the seller. We both submitted a dispute. I didn’t just click refund because it appeared that by doing so I was going to be stuck with paying fees for having received the money. I just want my $15 back. I didn’t initiate this situation. I didn’t ask for money to be sent to me. I sent an email to that person clearly telling them I was fully cooperative to get their money back to them but that I didn’t want to be responsible for any associated fees to do so. Yet in the end I am the one being penalized with a $15 fee. And your words come across that somehow this is my fault.

[kernowlass]

@c22brown 

I know you were not selling anything, the funds just arrived in your balance by mistake.

So why would you even consider going down the dispute route???

As soon as I saw it I would have hit the 'refund' option on the transaction with a message to the sender saying it was sent presumably in error so I have refunded it.

Why would either you or the sender open a dispute when there was no need?

You sent a message to the buyer or sender saying you would cooperate with them getting their money back so why didn't you just refund and add that message to the refund at the same time?

You chose to go down the dispute route for absolutely no reason when you could have just clicked on the transaction and hit the refund button, so yes it was your fault you were charged, instead of hitting refund you opened a dispute or told the sender of the funds to open one for no reason? 

[c22brown]

As I’ve said, because I was going to be stuck paying the fees for having received the money in the first place. Simply giving a refund in full does not make the fees for receiving money go away. If I had simply refunded the full $130 that was sent in error to me I would have been stuck with the $3.89 fee PayPal charges to my account. So I thought the appropriate route was to submit a dispute that included my explanation. Could I have simply refunded the remaining $126.11 to the sender? Perhaps that would’ve been the better action and that person would’ve lost the $3.89 for their mistake. But I’ve never been through this before and thought I was doing the right thing. In the end I lose $15 and that doesn’t seem right. 

[kernowlass]

@c22brown 

You would not have been stuck the fees if you had refunded minus the fee element.

IF you were charged a fee then just hit the refund option and send a refund back to the sender with a message that you have deducted the fee element as that would not be returned as part of any refund that you issued and as it was their fault you feel they should pay it....sorted. 

Anyway have you thought of just giving paypal customer services a call and asking if they will refund the charge as a goodwill gesture?