Received a refund twice!

[robin.masters]

Well, I'll try to be specific.

Bought an used product, sold as fully functional, which finally was defective in varios functions. So, opened a SNAD return ticket through eBay. The date limit for the seller to accept it expired, so eBay kindly asked him to accept it. As it was an international buy, eBay couldn't give me a shipping label so I created one with DHL, and sent the item. On march 29 the item arrived to the seller, but I did not receive any notification from eBay.

The time for the seller to make a refund expired, but still didn't got any notification from eBay. As the item showed as delivered on the eBay case page, but on the resolution center still showed as not sent, I contacted via email with the eBay support of the seller's country. They told me the case was closed to my favor, but still didn't got any real mail notification from eBay or PayPal confirming the refund. So as 10 days passed after the delivery of the item and I didn't got any notification, I asked again the seller and he told me that on his eBay's case page it showed there was a problem and that he should see on PayPal. I asked him then to make a refund but declined, so I opened a case on PayPal.

They asked me with proof of delivery and so, and they closed the case to my favor and made me an instant refund. PayPal notified me this with an email.

But guess what? Some hours later, I received another payment on PayPal from someone called eBay-Paypal, of the same amount, with a note detailing the seller's name and item. But I saw it because I accessed PayPal for others purposes. No PayPal email about this payment. No eBay mail neither.

So what should I do now? I don't know if I should refund this amount to eBay, or to PayPal, or to the seller. Did they got the money twice from the seller?

Hope some knows what to do. I plan to call PayPal to ask them. Asking the seller can be problematic, should I wait for him to notice and ask? If I tell him and he has bad attitude, he can tell me to refund him even when they only got the money once from him. And what if later eBay asks me for the refund?

Regards

[te_1556]

The instant refund at your PayPal claim was a reversal of your actual original payment. The payment from eBay was an advance on the seller's reimbursement method. 

Don't contact your seller, unresponsive to case, then evasive. Wait for eBay (it won't be PayPal) to contact you.

If you refund the refund on your own, you may have nothing in the end.

[robin.masters]

That's why I'm not sure of contacting the seller - maybe then I get a problem with eBay! Even more when he wasn't very helpful, to say at least. Will eBay contact me then? Shouldn't I contact them?

Regards

[robin.masters]

Well, I received an email from an eBay representative, giving me apologies for the problems and they gave me a discount coupon. And they told me to be patient that they will try to make a payment (???).

I replied them giving thanks and explaining how I opened the PayPal case because of not seeing movement by the eBay side, how I won the case and PayPal refunded me the payment, and how hours later I received another refund from eBay.

And then they answered saying that they reviewed the detaild of my buyer protection case on eBay and could not find an open dispute with PayPal (???), that I just reported a return request to eBay. But, that their research indicate that the seller has twice returned the money probably by mistake, and that they recommend to contact the seller and pay him.

I then received a message from the seller excusing for all the problems that occurred, and that he was sorry. I answered him that by my part is all ok, and questioned if at his part is all ok? And that I will leave a positive review on eBay. And he tells me that everything is ok.

So I think I should wait a little to see if any of the two parts claim anything? Because eBay tells I have to refund the seller, but the seller seems to be ok at the moment... I want to dothe right thing, I only do not want to make the wrong movement and then that eBay claims anything to me.

Regards

[myboardid]

First, the seller should have given you money to pay for the return, but you paid for it yourself.  So keep that much of the second refund.  Then use Paypal to send him the remaining part of the second refund.  His email address should be in your order details or Paypal transaction record. 

You will not hear from eBay again, they will not follow up on what their CSR said.  They really don't care. 

[daw365]

If you send the seller a PayPal payment now for the full refund less what you paid DHL for return shipping,

then your seller reverses the second refund simply by proving -- eBay will finally pay attention because it's a chargeback -- the first refund at PayPal,

you will have sent a gift in cash to your seller.

[myboardid]

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@daw365 wrote:

If you send the seller a PayPal payment now for the full refund less what you paid DHL for return shipping,

then your seller reverses the second refund simply by proving -- eBay will finally pay attention because it's a chargeback -- the first refund at PayPal,

you will have sent a gift in cash to your seller.

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Actually, no, the seller cannot prove anything to eBay if the OP sends the money NOT attached to the original purchase. 

[3eyedfishcatcher]

I had a similar issue were the seller was dragging their feet so paypal just took care of it out of their own money. They do have a discretion fund to make things right for buyers. Then the seller was willing to issue a refund but needed me to file a claim. So I had to stop the seller from acting and issuing a 2nd refund for the same item.  In this situation you may not have to do anything as the 1st was from paypal and the 2nd was from the seller through ebay. I would call paypal and have them look these transactions over. I suspect the 1st refund from them will need to be cancelled as the seller finally did the right thing and paid you back. That or paypal will bill the seller creating another issue as they eventually processed the return so you really should call paypal as they have access to the full transactions on their end.

[daw365]

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@myboardid wrote:

---

@daw365 wrote:

If you send the seller a PayPal payment now for the full refund less what you paid DHL for return shipping,

then your seller reverses the second refund simply by proving -- eBay will finally pay attention because it's a chargeback -- the first refund at PayPal,

you will have sent a gift in cash to your seller.

---

Actually, no, the seller cannot prove anything to eBay if the OP sends the money NOT attached to the original purchase. 

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I too have trouble keeping a count of my fingers. Say transaction was $100 and DHL was $$30.

Original payment:

Buyer > PayPal > Seller

Result: Seller has $100

First refund:

PayPal reverses the payment

Buyer < PayPal < Seller

Result: Buyer now $0 (paid $100, refunded $100)

Second refund:

eBay charges reimbursement method

Buyer < eBay < Seller

Result: Buyer now $100 (refunded $100 twice)

Buyer repays $100 - $30 outside:

Buyer  > PayPal > Seller

Result: Buyer now $0 ($30 already spent on DHL for return shipping)

Seller files chargeback on second refund:

Buyer > eBay > Seller

Result: Buyer now -$100