Won dispute but still have to refund money and won’t get the item back.

[MS216]

I (the seller) won the initial PayPal dispute, but now PayPal has put a hold on the money because the buyer opened a dispute with his bank and the bank will clearly side with their customer and PayPal said I will have to refund the money and the buyer is NOT required to ship item back. How is this even possible? It’s a lose lose and PayPal is not doing anything to support me as the seller. Are their any options for me?

[vuxoru]

I have the exact same issue. Buyer claimed he didn't receive the items he paid for. I provided proof of this and the buyer was just putting his word against my evidence and screenshots. Paypal ended up siding with the buyer regardless of my evidence and just claimed the evidence wasn't enough. So if the deal went as its supposed to the buyer will always have the upperhand on the seller and the so proclaimed "seller protection" is just a complete joke at this point. Might as well go around stuff ask for refunds for a full time job 50% of the time it will work, mind blowing. Currently really reconsidering if I even want to keep paypal as a payment option at this point.

[PayPal_JonK]

Hello @MS216, @vuxoru, 

Welcome to the PayPal Community Forum! I'm sorry to hear a recent transaction hasn't gone quite as you had expected. Facing a dispute is never an ideal situation, I completely understand. PayPal tries to cover our buyers and sellers as much as we can equally. Unfortunately, there are situations on both sides where PayPal is limited in what options we can offer. One of those situations is when a buyer goes to their card company to dispute a transaction. We will fight as much as we can in those situations, and provide the card company as much detail as receive from you the seller, but ultimately it is up to the car company on who wins the case. 

With that in mind, I pulled a few resources that may offer some guidance for future transactions: 

What is covered in Seller Protection

What is a chargeback, and why did I get one?

What is Chargeback Protection?

My apologies for any inconvenience this has caused. Best wishes on your future transactions, 

 - Jon K

[MS216]

Thanks for your response, but I am not eligible for charge back protection since I am not a business and the 2nd article on what is a chargeback, theirs 5 reasons it says on why you can receive one, and the sellers proclaimed issue is not on that list. The seller is claiming the condition of the product that I marked as used and provided multiple close up high resolution pictures of, is not what they expected. I don’t know what more I could have done when I listed this expensive item for sale besides properly say it’s used and provide good pictures. Even though I did that, I still get the short end of the stick. I find this completely unacceptable and would really like to know what PayPal is going to do for me in this situation. I will happily refund the buyer, but to refund and then not get the product back in return, is beyond wrong and anyone with an ethical mind would know that.

[nomanbasheer]

I exactly had the same issue and I was told by a friend that Paypal will not favor me so I better issue the refund.

My seller kept the goods and I also issued a refund.

This tantamounts to a complete loss for sellers. As per policy buyer has all the right to ask for a refund but then they need to return the product in proper condition. But here customers want a full refund and are not willing to return. 

I reckon that situation can be exploited by many scammers.

[Gammarat]

This is a serious problem. I just was notified I have a dispute via a link from PayPal two weeks after it was filed. 2 weeks ago a purchaser of something from me received this product and released the escrow agreed payment to me. Then aggressively texted me on my personal number not through PayPal that the product was damaged even though like other responses here I'd sent very close up high definition pictures of everything. His accusation in his message was suspect from the beginning. Before knowing about the PayPal involvement, I overkilled him with responses asking every kind of question possible to offer a resolution. There were 30 items I sent him so saying they were damaged could mean anything but he was specific about how and I looked up online and they could be repaired I offered to pay for repairs I offered to pay for everything offered everything possible and he didn't respond then I go see him PayPal that he put that I sent him damaged goods and now I won't respond to him. Obviously the guy's not very bright because I'll be able to show that I did respond. I'm curious if my response being an overly open willingness to make it right assuming he wasn't scamming me at the time wouldn't be good evidence now for me but it would show I haven't been ignoring him? My willingness to make things right after reading these stories which fit the exact mold tells me 100%. This was a plan thing and I should have known because he knew I'd never used PayPal before and he lied to me about how the escrow process worked which I priced my items lower based on timing that wasn't honored and when I called him out on it in a manner like it wasn't that big of a deal he got real **bleep** with me claiming he didn't lie but everything he told me from the beginning that was going to happen didn't happen. Now he's lying in this resolution thing. I'll just shut down PayPal and they can put me on whatever list I don't care. I won't be a part of being scammed ain't going to happen. The last thing I thought I'd find here is my story being the worst case scenario for me because I could show pictures the product was freaking perfect but I never would have imagined finding this story that they don't have to return the product? Lol. Even if it's damaged in the way he says it would only be possible for 4 of the 30 items. What a scam This is. I don't even blame it on the person of course if you give a platform for someone to start an LLC and then buy things from people and then get their money back and keep the things no matter what it's going to be abused. I'll be reporting this to the better Business bureau and everyone about PayPal.