Complicated refund situation...

[Anonymous_User]

Complicated refund situation... Hello! I am just here for a quick question about a refund I made. A few days ago I purchased a product through google play store (using paypal) and I had the money in cash but it wasnt in my bank yet. I figured I could leave the paypal receipt pending and have paypal charge me later once the money is in my bank. I've done that multiple times now. The thing is, I ended up not being happy with the product so I refunded it the same day. Now the payment of course lists as refunded, and money has been sent to my bank account...money that I never really paid to begin with. And it feels like I'm in big trouble because it feels like I stole money... (even if I was gonna pay the receipt at a later date) Am I in trouble? Do I need to pay this money back to paypal? What should I do? Thank you for the help! I'm just a bit paranoid about this.

[kernowlass]

@Anonymous_User 

If you funded the payment to the seller using bank transfer. What PayPal do here is credit the recipient on your behalf (so there is no delay in despatching your item). Then if you receive a refund in the meantime they are unable to issue this until the original bank transfer completes.

https://www.paypal.com/cshelp/article/where-is-my-refund-help130

[Anonymous_User]

Yes. I understand that. The thing is I never truly paid the receipt and now the refund money has been sent to my bank account. Paypal never actually retracted money from my bank because I didn't have enough balance. But now they've sent money to my bank account that I *never actually* spent. Should I be concerned about this or am I fine? I am very confused in this situation. Thank you for the help!

Edit: I paid with a debit card, so the money for the refund was sent to my bank through that debit card. The original payment was from a purchase through google play (it was a purchase of added content in a mobile game) and it was google play the one who issued the refund.

[PayPal_Bindu]

Hello @Eldihart 

Thank you for joining the PayPal Help Community!

I do understand your concern about the refund received for the payment which wasn't funded by your bank account. When a payment is paid using bank, a payment to your seller completes instantly and PayPal waits for a bank transaction to clear which usually takes 5-7 business days. If there's any refund processed in the mean time, it would be automatically adjusted to the payment which PayPal funded on behalf of you and there will be no credit processed to your bank account as PayPal didn't received any funds from your bank account. For this one, I recommend you to review your bank statement to see if the mentioned payment is credited to your bank account. If you see the full credit in your bank, please contact the support team to look into this refund transaction further. You can contact the team by clicking the "Contact us" option at the bottom of PayPal page. Support is also available through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Thanks for the help @kernowlass!

Best wishes,

Bindu