Negative Paypal Balance from Return Request

[lonado-0]

I recently sold a laptop on here that simply just went missing (no scans or anything) and now the buyer has issued a request for a refund. Due to me already taking the funds from the purchase out of my paypal account my balance is negative and I can’t issue a refund. Do I simply have to place the funds back into the account to make it at $0 and then the refund will go through? I don’t want to accidentally pay double to issue a refund.

[daw365]

You actually have to transfer double that amount which put your balance in the negative: The amount to bring the balance to zero, plus enough to cover the buyer's entire original payment including sales tax. You'll refund the tax amount to the buyer first, then eBay will pay you back that tax amount immediately after the refund. And then the hold which put your balance in the negative will be lifted, so you can transfer that released amount plus the sales tax eBay paid back back out again.

Or, if you don't refund on your own, eBay will either themselves pay the refund to your buyer, lift the hold causing the negative balance, then come after you for reimbursement, or eBay will charge your reimbursement method instead. This solution is simpler (you don't have to transfer double the amount into your balance and wait 3 to 5 days for it to clear) but will earn you a deadly case closed without seller resolution defect.

[perrance78]

What do you mean by "just went missing (no scans or anything)"? Did you ship the item to him? Is he doing a return?

Unless Ebay/Paypal made a change in their refunding processing. You should be able to just click refund and it deducts the amount from your bank account. I havent done a refund since last year.

[lonado-0]

So once the balance goes to zero, I can refund the buyer through paypal and get credited the money I transferred to make the balance zero? Or do you mean I need to double the amount in my account to have a positive balance for the refund? I don’t understand why I can’t just make the refund without the balance existing in my paypal account. This is all very confusing and I’m concerned about losing money by doubling the total. 

[niceclothesamongotherthings]

Did you ever figure it out? I am going through the same thing right now

[trendyzapstore]

Always make sure to save at least 10% - 25% of your total earnings on PayPal account, Through that, you can avoid negative balance on PayPal account. 🙂

[cityslickercreations2004]

I am very confused on what you are trying to ask. I do know this:

if you are refunding the buyer via PP you need to have the funds available in PP. Transfer enough money to your  PP to bring your balance so it is at least equal to the amount you need to refund.  

I would be surprised if PP allowed the transfer with a zero balance. But they may just use your back up payment method as the funding source.

[owlcatcollectibles]

I am having the same issue right now.  It is so frustrating!!!  I have a different question:  I just made the switch to Ebay's managed payments, so why are returns still having to go through PayPal??  Is it because the original purchase was through PayPal?  I was thinking Ebay was making things easier with managed payments but apparently this is not the case.  I hope this will not be an ongoing thing as I have never had this problem before with returns, and was looking forward to cutting Paypal out of the equation all together.

Thoughts?

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.