Payment reversed AFTER I sent item, only email I get tells me not to send.....oops a bit late!!

[re-bjorn]

I sold an item to someone in Australia, (£70 + £16 P&P) and with bad weather and Christmas affecting post I thought I would send straight away. Unfortunately the next day I received an email from Paypal saying the payment had been reversed and I should not send the item. No mention of what to do if I had already. There was no claim or dispute in paypal for me to see what the problem was. There was no dispute or problem in ebay either just that paypal had been refunded. I had not heard from buyer at that stage.

Eventually I got through on the phone to PP support and they told me it was on temporary hold and that i would get the money back when it was delivered. Seemed strange to me that was completely different to email and online (where my paypal account details clearly state reversed and problem closed) but at least happy I was not going to lose out after all. I gave them the tracking number for the Intl Signed for service I had used (luckily!). RM website though still only says the parcel has been passed to Australian postal system and it has been like that for about 3 weeks now.

Since sending I have had several emails from the buyer saying they do not know why it was reversed, or why their ebay ID has now been suspended & can they pay a different way? I don't see why they would do this if I had been scammed...but I do want to believe people are mostly honest. As they are in Aus, I couldn't take a cheque and didn't want to give my bank details in case they are scamming but have set up a moneybookers account to request funds (I hadn't ever thought of using anything other than PP before!) They have not paid though and claim to have not received requests. They also say they haven't received the item yet but have gone quiet again now.

My questions now are

- have I been scammed or is this just an admin error somewhere in ebay / paypal?

- what happens if the tracking number never gets further than passed to Aus postal service?

- if i have done everything correctly to be protected by paypal seller protection how come I am left out of pocket?

- what else should I do....??? any help much appreciated

[PayPal_lucy]

Hey there re-bjorn,

If the payment has been reversed then there wouldn't be an admin error. The payment would have flagged with our internal security system and would have been reviewed.

In order to cover you for seller protection your tracking information would need to update and show delivery. Once this happens do contact PayPal directly and let them know. You can also see what Royal Mail say about the item, maybe it has been lost or even delivered and they have not updated the website as of yet.

Keep us updated on this and how it goes.

[re-bjorn]

What does anyone else think.....I got this email from the buyer. I just don't know why they would bother sending this if they knew they were scamming.

No definately didnt do it on purpose as really want to purchase this from you, are you willing to hold it for me until we can sort it out?
I also went into the Resolution Centre as it told me to do and there were no disputes etc so still havent heard back from paypal yet and tried having the instant chat thing to no avail.
I am so sorry for this as I am still unsure as to what the problem is and am trying to resolve it asap.
I have tried to change my postal address, do you think this is the cause? As I have had this account with PayPal for quite some time now and never had a problem as with my ebay account.

Again my sincere apologies if you can hold on to it I would be greatly appreciated.
 
Merry Christmas.

I would like someone to look into the payment and find out exactly what it was that flagged it in internal security and caused the reversal. Even if you cant tell me what, you could reassure me that this has been done. Otherwise I feel that paypal has no concern over the loss it has directly caused me. Your only help is suggesting I ring up Royal Mail and ask if they happen to have more information about a parcel they passed to the Australian post office 3 weeks ago in case they know its been delivered but haven't updated their tracking website.....seems to me that would be a further waste of time.

[PayPal_john]

A payment can be flagged by PayPal's security system for many reasons, we couldn't really look into it here. However, this is what the PayPal seller protection policy is about:

Was the payment marked as eligible for seller protection? If yes then did you supply enough information to be covered under it? You say the tracking number says it was passed to australian post. This on its own wouldn't be enough to be covered under the seller protection policy, you need proof of where the item was sent to, this should be on the Proof of Postage slip if it isn't on the website.

A copy of this would need to have been supplied to PayPal, or else if the buyer has issues at their end they would need to have sorted these out....

[scooter_chum]

I know this is an old thread but the same thing happened to me. Paypal put a hold on the funds after an item was paid for. The item was paid for on May 5, 2013. Paypal put a hold on May 8, 2013. By that time, I had already printed shipping and unfortunately I already shipped the item earlier that same day. Buyer says he did not initiate the hold. Why did paypal do this? I shipped to the address that is shown on Paypal and ebay. And now that I do not have the product anymore, paypal suddenly pulls the funds out?

Just now, May 21, 2013, around two weeks after the hold, I received an email that Paypal decided to reverse the transaction, meaning they returned the money to the buyer. This after I showed them that I had shipped the item to the address shown on Paypal and ebay, using USPS with tracking info. They did not even give a reason why this is so. So I'm out the money, I'm out the item, and most likely I won't be able to use insurance because tracking info is showing progress.

Why is paypal putting sellers at risk? At this point it's paypal and not even the scammers in the world that's making it hard. The strain on cashflow is bad enough, that's two weeks of not having access to funds I could've used to pay for bills and other on going expenses. But now the payment is returned to the buyer even if the item is already on its way and I have already spent for expensive international shipping out of pocket. Not only did paypal not provide Seller Protection, Paypal itself is the one pulling funds out in this case.

Please don't tell me to work with the buyer or to wait for delivery confirmation, that's now how transactions usually work! Sellers ship once paypal and ebay say it's safe to ship. We sellers then try to protect ourselves through insurance and through following paypal policy. But do we now have to protect ourselves from paypal too? So when do we know if it's even safe to ship?

[PayPal_Siobhán]

Hi there scooter_chum,

Holds can be placed on payments for many reasons. 

Did you provide PayPal with the receipt for postage you received from the post office?

If not, I would suggest uploading a copy to your account & asking that the decision is appealed.

Let us know how you get on!

Siobhán

[Tadas6]

What to do if I add receipt of post ofice and paypal did itself reversal? I havent receive the item from buyer, but lost the money? who i should contact? thank you

[PayPal_Conor]

Hi Tadas6,

Welcome to our Community 🙂

I'd like to help you with this one.

If I understand you correctly, PayPal has reversed a payment as the outcome of a claim or unauthorised payment case. If so, we do offer Seller Protection to make sure you don't lose out in these situations.

As we don't have access to account specific details here, it might be best to contact us through one of our other social media channels so we can research this further for you.

We are available 24/7 to answer private messages sent through our Facebook page (http://goo.gl/4BO8de) and respond swiftly to any tweets directed towards @AskPayPal!

Why don't you send us a Tweet or Facebook message so we can take a closer look at this case Tadas6?

Conor