Do I have to pay the seller fee if the buyer cancels their payment while the money is on hold?

[lilimark]

Dear All,

I’ve received a payment for goods and services instead of payment for friends and family from a friend. First, the money is on hold. Second, there is a huge transaction fee (5%). We would like to cancel this payment and find another way for her to transfer the money to me. Can she cancel the payment and get back her money? Do I still need to pay this extreme transaction fee?

Best,

Lili

[kernowlass]

@lilimark 

Its against Paypal rules to accept a family / friends payment for selling goods/items and you risk your Paypal account being limited if you do so. This is because you are trying to avoid paying the fee for the service paypal is providing you with.

A buyer would not be able to open a Paypal dispute for non-receipt of item or item not as described as they would have no Paypal buyer protection.

However they can still open a dispute for an unauthorised transaction OR do a chargeback (via their card issuer) and you may well lose as you would have no Paypal seller protection.

[lilimark]

Thank you for your reply!

I think I might not have explained my situation well. This payment is a personal payment. I am not selling anything here, and I do not even know what kind of information I need to provide to move forward with this payment. I don't use Paypal frequently, I thought I am just sending a link to my friend so that she knows my account and then a personal payment within paypal costs nothing, that is why I chose PayPal. I made a mistake. But this has cost me a huge amount of money (about 180 USD for fees...) I was wondering whether I have any chance to reverse this and get back the money. Paypal should see on my account that I do not have much activity and I haven't had any seller-buyer transactions yet...

Lili

[kernowlass]

@lilimark 

If you sent an invoice or money request then that was a goods/services payment.

If you wanted a friends/family payment you could either send a paypal.me link OR ask the sender to go to send money > friends/family.

Sadly you can't change a payment type once sent, you can refund but unfortunately the fee is not returned as part of any refund that you make.

Your best bet is to contact customer services and ask if they will refund the fee as a goodwill gesture? 

[lilimark]

Thanks again, I think now you fully get the situation. I really appreciate sharing your views on the topic. Since then, I did manage to reach customer service and they did reverse the transaction as a goodwill gesture. That was a big big plus for PayPal.