I don't understand the part where they say DO NOT REFUND. A refund would have cancelled the item. Was it an expensive item?
If the purchased wasn't authorized, this tells me the persons account was hijacked. The monies MUST have come from the person who says they didn't authorize the purchase and any monies returned, MUST go to the original source so I am confused. I think if I were told this by ebay and it stressed me out, since I have the item, I would just refund the monies, or ignore it, hold on to it and let them come and take it at some future point. After it's resolved, and should they punish you, then I would ask why. Maybe by then, there will be someone to talk to because I find via email, complaints get confused.
I just wrote to ebay the other day about one issue, and the response was sent to me regarding an earlier issue from several weeks ago that had nothing to do with the reason I recently wrote to them about.
They do seem to make things stressful.
I once purchased a painting that was obviously a fake. (norman rockwell) I bought it just to inform ebay that it was a fake! ($4000!) I called ebay to let them know I did research on the buyer and there was a newspaper article from a legit newspaper in NY about the seller. The seller sold 20 paintings that week! ALL BIG BUCKS! They told me, go ahead, all looks well, pay the seller. I did. So I got the painting and it was a fake. By the time I got the painting, I looked at the sellers account and they were NARU! I called ebay and told them, I TOLD YOU! They said, DESTROY THE PAINTING! We do not want you to return it and it winds back on ebay! (They said they would refund me because I had buyer protection.) So I was like HUH? They want me to destroy it? That's crazy. So I put it aside and waited for the return that they said would come soon because the seller was NARU. $4000! So day 9 I call ebay and they changed their story, they because it was over $1000 that I needed to prove I returned the item. GOOD THING I I DIDN'T DESTROY as they first told me! & GOOD THING UPS WAS ONE DAY SHIPPING! I packed it up and sent it back to the address ebay had provided and the next day it arrived to it's destination, showed ebay the tracking and they gave me the $4,000 back! I warned them from day 1!!! MIXED MESSAGES GALORE. So I think the person who sent you that message may not have been well versed in that type of situation. Talk about stress.
If you refund the monies via paypal,... not sure how it couldn't go back where it came from. Very weird. Keep the money and relist the goods and that MIGHT also correct it? I was waiting for funds from a buyer who never paid and the only way I could get the fees back was upon relisting. (they thought I was trying to get out of the deal so I could sell locally to the buyer and save fees.) So it wasn't until I relisted when they realized they were wrong. This is a risky place for sure. We are small business dealing with big business so our BIG problem, is a TINY problem for them.
They'll figure it out eventually. Not sure how they can hold you responsible for not shipping. Keep all the information/messages to show them if you need to.
