Paypal charges with withdrawing money

[MeganT2]

I sent $40.60 to a seller on marketplace via paypal as a friend/ family member so that the seller would not be charged. About 5 days after I sent the money the seller advised she only had about $14 when she tried to withdraw the money. At my end, it's saying I sent the full $40.60. The currency was the same. What happened to her money? I feel really bad that this happened to the seller as she did a great job and didn't deserve this. What can we do?

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@MeganT2 

You are not allowed to send funds using the friends/family option for purchases, not only is it against paypal rules but you risk your account being permanently banned for doing so. Yes the seller does not have to pay a fee but if we all did that Paypal would cease being able to fund the service. Be careful because Paypal regularly check those payment types to check that buyers are not using that option.

Secondly if you sent that amount and used friends/family then that is what they would have received. Any fee with f/f payments is always on the senders side (if they used a credit card). I expect the recipient had the full amount in their balance but then bought something and funds from their balance was used instead of their normally funding source of a bank or card so it confused them and they thought you sent less. Tell them to check recent buying transactions and see if any of them were funded via their balance ie your payment rather than their normal funding source of a bank or card.  

[MeganT2]

Thank you - I am very inexperienced with paypal and online transactions as it probably shows.