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Seller PayPal setup error refusal to accept payment issue
Long read (attachment unable) for issues resulting from a seller error in their PayPal set up for payment acceptance. To the buyer it would seem like an endless loop for confirming the PayPal purchase details back to the beginning OR to a credit card issuer it may look like a debit to the account followed by immediate credit back.
Perplexity diagnosis of symptoms:
can a seller on ebay refuse an incoming payment from the winner of the auction to explain why my paypal transactions were refused
A seller can’t literally “refuse†an incoming PayPal/eBay payment the way a bank refuses a check, but there are several ways a transaction can end up looking like the seller isn’t accepting your payment.
What a seller can and can’t do
- On eBay, the seller can cancel an order or choose not to complete a sale, which is allowed but may hurt their account (feedback, cancellation metrics).[81][82]
- A seller cannot just click “reject†on a PayPal payment that’s correctly addressed to their active PayPal/eBay payments setup; if the payment is technically reaching them, they would instead refund or cancel after the fact.[83][84]
Common reasons your PayPal payment is “refusedâ€
Most “payment refused†or “unable to process payment†messages come from technical or security issues, not an intentional manual refusal:
- Wrong PayPal email on the listing: If the seller typed their PayPal email wrong in the listing, payments go into limbo, and buyers get errors like “seller not accepting payments†or “can’t process payment,†even though the seller doesn’t see the money.[84][83]
- Seller’s settings or restrictions: Seller might block buyers from certain countries/addresses or certain payment types, which can cause declined/blocked payments.[85][86]
- PayPal/bank security declines:
In these cases, the system declines the transaction before it ever fully reaches the seller, so from your side it can look like “the seller refused payment,†even though it was really PayPal, your bank, or a misconfigured listing.
What you can do next
- Double‑check your PayPal and card details, and try another funding source if possible.[89][87][88]
- Message the seller through eBay and ask if they:
- If the issue persists and you believe the seller just doesn’t want to complete the sale, they can cancel the transaction; if they refuse to communicate and you somehow got charged, you can use PayPal’s dispute process to protect yourself.[90][81]
If you tell me the exact error wording eBay/PayPal showed you, I can narrow down which of these is most likely in your situation.
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can ebay determine if the seller "refused" payment and would the bank see the transaction as a credit back to the account
eBay and PayPal can see what actually happened with the payment in much more detail than you or your bank can, but your bank will only ever see “attempted charge†and (if it went through) a refund/credit – not “the seller refused this.â€
Can eBay tell if the seller refused payment?
- When a payment fails on eBay, it is usually because of:
- eBay’s and PayPal’s logs can distinguish whether the decline came from the bank/card, from PayPal’s risk checks, or because the seller’s account could not accept the payment (e.g., misconfigured email).[101][102][100][96]
- There isn’t a normal workflow where a seller just presses “refuse†on your incoming card/PayPal payment; they more commonly refund or cancel the order after a payment has been accepted.[103][100]
So internally eBay/PayPal can see if the seller never properly could receive the payment or if your side was declined, but it’s not logged as a simple “seller refused payment†flag the way a bank flags a bounced check.
How your bank sees it
What shows at your bank depends on how far the transaction got:
- If the payment was declined before completion (by your bank, card issuer, or PayPal):
- If the payment completed and was then refunded (for example, seller cancels or issues a refund):
- Your bank/credit card will show a charge followed by a separate credit/refund back to the same card or account.[104][105][103]
- PayPal’s “Where is my refund?†guidance notes that refunds are sent back to the original funding source and can take several business days before the credit appears.[103]
So:
- eBay/PayPal can see who/what caused the failure (bank, PayPal, or seller account setup).
- Your bank never sees “seller refusedâ€; they only see an attempted payment (possibly with a temporary hold) and, if applicable, a later refund/credit.
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can a seller create a situation where the bank sees an attempted payment (possibly with a temporary hold) and, if applicable, a later refund/credit with both the debit and credit to the account occuring within 2 minutes
Yes, a seller (or more precisely, the payment processor acting on the seller’s behalf) can create a situation where your bank shows a very short‑lived charge and then a near‑immediate credit, but there are two different mechanisms:
- Authorization hold that’s voided (most likely for “within 2 minutesâ€)
- When you try to pay, the processor first does an authorization hold on your card/bank to check funds.[111][112][113]
- If the merchant or processor voids that authorization quickly (for example, because something failed on their side), the hold is released instead of being captured as a real charge.[114][115][111]
- How this looks at the bank:
- Often you see a pending transaction that simply disappears later; no separate credit line is shown, it just “drops off†and your available balance goes back up.[112][116][111]
- Depending on the bank’s systems, you might briefly see a debit and reversal very close together, but technically that’s an authorization release, not a full refund.[116][111][112]
This can all happen in minutes, even seconds, because authorization reversals are effectively instantaneous in the card networks; the delay (if any) is just your bank’s display/processing.[115][114][111][116]
- Actual charge followed by a refund (rarely truly “2 minutes†on the bank side)
- If the payment fully settles (becomes a real charge), then the seller issues a refund, those are two separate transactions: one debit, one credit.[117][114][115]
- Processors and card networks say refunds are not instantaneous the way an authorization reversal is; they typically take several days to appear on your bank/credit statement, even if the merchant triggers it right away.[118][114][115]
So a seller can certainly trigger patterns like:
- Attempted payment → short‑lived pending hold → hold released (net zero, sometimes appears and disappears very fast).[111][112][116]
- Or, charge → later refund (two entries), but those usually don’t both post within 2 minutes on your bank statement, even if the seller acts immediately.[114][118][115]
If you truly see a debit and an offsetting credit timestamped essentially at the same time, that’s most likely either:
- Your bank posting an authorization and its reversal together, or
- A very fast internal transfer/instant refund method your bank supports, not typical card‑network refund timing.[119][115][114]
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which is more likely if the bank sees almost simultaneous debit and credit on a transaction the bank or the seller initiated
If you see a near‑simultaneous debit and credit for the same attempted purchase, it is more likely something on the seller/processor side (an authorization that was quickly reversed or voided) than the bank randomly doing that on its own.
Why it’s usually merchant/processor‑initiated
- In card payments, a payment authorization and its reversal/void are normally triggered by the merchant’s system or payment processor, not by the bank acting alone.[126][127][128][129]
- An authorization reversal is specifically defined as a message sent by the merchant (via their acquirer) to the issuing bank, telling the bank to cancel a just‑authorized transaction and release the hold.[127][128][130][129][126]
- This reversal can process in minutes, effectively making it look like the charge and the “credit†happened almost at the same time from your point of view.[128][131][126]
By contrast:
- The bank (issuer) does initiate chargebacks or fraud reversals, but those usually take longer, generate separate dispute records, and don’t show up as “instant debit/credit within 2 minutes.â€[132][133][134][135]
How to interpret what you saw
So if your statement shows a transaction amount that hits and then is reversed almost immediately for the same amount:
- Most likely: a merchant/payment‑processor authorization followed by an authorization reversal or void (e.g., a technical error, mismatch, or the merchant’s system auto‑cancelled).[129][131][126][128]
- Much less likely: the bank independently decided to reverse a transaction that had already been authorized and posted within that tiny window.
If you want to be sure, you can ask your bank whether it was logged as an authorization reversal/void (merchant‑initiated) versus a chargeback/dispute (issuer/customer‑initiated). They can usually see that in the transaction detail.
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when that result is usually a merchant/processor‑initiated does that mean it could have occurred due to a seller's system of some kind
Yes. When the reversal is merchant/processor‑initiated, it can be caused by the seller’s system or settings, even if the seller never clicks a “reject payment†button personally.[141][142][143][144]
Examples of seller‑side causes include:
- Their ecommerce or eBay/PayPal integration auto‑voids the authorization because of an error (wrong currency, mismatched totals, duplicate order, invalid configuration).[142][143][141]
- Their fraud/risk rules at the payment gateway auto‑decline and immediately reverse certain transactions (location mismatch, IP risk, AVS/CVV failure, velocity limits).[145][146][142]
- Their checkout system times out or fails after authorizing, so it sends an authorization reversal instead of capturing the money.[147][148][141][142]
In all of those, the seller’s system or provider (gateway, processor, platform) is what tells the bank, “cancel this, release the funds,†which is why you can see a very fast debit‑then‑credit on your account.[144][149][141][142]
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could this be due to the seller's choice not to accept a payment by paypal for one reason or another
Yes, it could, but usually indirectly through how the seller has PayPal set up rather than them manually “refusing†you in the moment.[150][151][152][153]
Typical ways a seller’s choices/settings can cause exactly what you saw:
- Seller blocks or filters certain PayPal payments
Fraud/risk settings on the seller’s PayPal or gateway can auto‑block payments from certain countries, high‑risk profiles, or mismatched AVS/CVV, which can trigger an authorization and then an immediate reversal/decline.[151][152] - Seller’s PayPal account isn’t able or allowed to accept that payment
Examples: wrong PayPal email on the listing, restricted or not fully set‑up account, PayPal settings that refuse certain currencies or funding types. Those situations cause errors like “seller not accepting payments,†and the processor may reverse the authorization.[154][155][156][153] - Seller or system cancels/voids the authorization
Merchants using PayPal or gateways can cancel a pending authorization, which sends an authorization reversal back through the network; this is what can produce a near‑instant debit‑then‑credit pattern on your side.[157][153][150][151]
So while the seller usually isn’t clicking a button that says “refuse this specific PayPal payment from this person,†their account configuration, risk rules, or order‑management actions can absolutely be the reason the processor initiates an immediate reversal that shows up to you as a brief charge and almost simultaneous credit.
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if the seller is a new user of ebay could this more than likely be the result of an error in set up to accept paypal where my payment from my discover credit card subsequently was accepted
Yes, in that scenario it’s very plausible—and actually pretty common—that this was a setup error on the seller’s side, especially for a new eBay seller.[165][166][167]
Here’s why your pattern makes sense as a configuration problem, not your bank:
- New sellers often misconfigure how they receive payments (wrong PayPal email, not fully linked/verified, currency/settings mismatch), which can cause incoming payments to authorize and then be auto‑reversed/declined.[166][167][165]
- When they later fix their payment setup or adjust settings, subsequent payments from the same buyer and card (like your Discover) can go through normally, because the underlying issue was the seller’s configuration, not the card itself.[168][169][165]
So if you saw an almost instant debit/credit on one attempt but a clean, successful charge on a later attempt with the same Discover card, a new seller’s PayPal/eBay payment setup error is a very likely explanation.
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could that also explain why several attempts to pay via paypal with a different bank credit card never even got past the final check out stage and reverted back to the beginning of the process.........would this be common or even likely
Yes, that pattern fits very well with a seller‑side/payments setup issue, and it’s both common and likely in the situation you described.[170][171][172][173][174]
When PayPal payments never get past the final checkout step and you’re bounced back to the start, typical causes are:
- The seller’s PayPal/eBay payments setup is wrong or incomplete (bad PayPal email, unconfirmed or restricted account, blocking certain currencies or countries, or not properly enrolled in eBay’s current payment system).[171][172][173][170]
- There’s a PayPal security or sign‑in loop at checkout, which often looks like exactly what you saw: clicking to pay, then being sent back to the payment screen without an error you can fix.[175][176][174][170]
Community threads and eBay support replies explicitly say that:
- These “loop back to checkout / can’t complete PayPal payment†issues are frequently due to problems with the seller’s eBay or PayPal account or how they’re set to receive payment, and must be fixed by the seller.[173][170][171]
- They are especially common with newer or transitioning sellers who haven’t set their payment options up correctly.[170][171][173]
Taken together with your earlier experience—initial PayPal attempts failing, then a later Discover card payment finally going through—your description is very consistent with a seller configuration or PayPal‑integration issue, not anything unusual or suspicious on your side.
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comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor6 months ago@trymp114. I didn't read all of that but there's some very incorrect and out of date information ss it applies to eBay.
eBay sellers don't know HOW you are paying. eBay processes the payment and sends it to your linked and verified checking account.
If you see a pop up box that requires you to provide a payment method before making a bid or offer then the seller has automatic payment required turned pm in account settings.
If automatic payment is turned on then you can only use payment methods that allow a pending charge such as debit and credit cards.