There seems to be an occasional glitch in which ebay/paypal shows a payment, then later removes it from the records, with no trace and with no notice that it has been removed.
This has happened to me twice. Complained to Paypal most recent time, no response. A payment showed up on my ebay page. I linked to Paypal, printed shipping label, mailed package. THEN the payment vanished from ebay page. And from Paypal. The item showed on Ebay as no checkout, no payment, but package sent. On Paypal page, the only record was the shipment.
I contacted Paypal asking what is going on, got no response. The buyer was more cooperative. Although he offered no insight into what had happened (i.e. whether he he in fact paid previously or not) he paid promptly and it was recorded this time.
Similar thing happened several months ago. Payment was received, including Prority Mail shipping. I linked to Paypal and printed label. Next morning before dropping it in the mail, I reviewed ebay and Paypal pages and found the payment I had honored was GONE. Not only that, but the EMAIL from Paypal notifying me of the payment was gone, as well. I knew that email HAD BEEN THERE because that was how I first noticed that the payment had been made. No trace of anything except the shipping label transaction. A few hours later a new payment showed up from that buyer, but this time it was for a smaller amount and paid for Parcel Post.
I was able to cancel the first label and have a new one printed. Sorry now I did not complain to ebay and paypal then; felt kind of foolish with no documentation. In both cases, the only ''documentaion" I had was the record of the shipping label that Paypal allowed me to print, and the absence of any payment record that would have been necessary to print the label in the first place.
My concern is not that they may have made mistakes, may have shown payments that were not actually made, but that for whatever reason they appeared in the first place, somebody was (1) able to remove them from the records; and (2) no notice was given to me that they were being or had been removed. This is NOT an appropriate way to handle financial records, and causes mistrust in their system.
It seems a terrible waste to have to print out every ebay and paypal page immediately when it appears, in order to have a correct record for the tiny percentage of times they play games, but it may be necessary.
