~~Inadvertently Paid Twice for an Item~~

[jaymor8]

What happens if you accidently pay twice for the same item with Paypal? A friend of mine did this and she's really upset about it. She emailed the seller and he didn't respond. She emailed Paypal and they didn't respond. Is there a way out of this or is it a lost cause??

Jackie...

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
Have your friend file a claim with PayPal stating they didnt receive the goods from the Vendor for the 2nd payment.

If the Vendor isnt going to give a refund then give the vendor a bad name with PayPal

She should refer to both payments made and then PayPal will ask the vendor to prove he shipped 2 items to your friend.

I would suggest that she also leaves negative feedback for the vendor on eBay.

Vendors that are out to cheat should be shut down by eBay as they give all of us a bad name.

There could be a more normal solution to this problem that someone can give you but this is the first that came to my mind.

PS I have got a couple of super classical guitars to email pics to your hubby tonight both at an unbelievable price.

I have to wait until my son comes home as we had a power outage today and my business server is down right now (and we blew our very expensive battery back-up after one of the last major power outages we had about 5 months ago).

Malcolm

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
I just checked the PayPal rules and the only way she can cancel a payment is if the payment has not been claimed by the vendor and that is usually only if he is unverified.

I doubt that and there is no other way other than the vendor giving her a refund (she should generate a PayPal invoice to the vendor and then send him PayPal reminders every day) and if that doesnt work, file a complaint and a claim for a refund and put the burden of proof on the vendor to dispute her claim.

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

Mal - thanks a lot. I'll pass that along. Doesn't sound all that promising though, does it? I mean, what a prick to take advantage of someone like that. It was so obviously an error...the same item number and the same amount and same title, within seconds of each other...there should be blocks in the Paypal setup that would prevent you from sending twice with the same data. Whatdoyathink??

Malcolm, are you in Ottawa???

Jackie...

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
Yes I am in Ottawa, Yes what a pric to take advantage of your friend.

I understand why PayPal wont allow a reversal though and I, as a seller am glad.

Can you imagine getting in a PayPal payment and then shipping only to find that 2 hours later the buyer reversed his payment and got his money back while your goods are enroute to him?

You have to remember also that PayPal is not only for eBay. I often sell items that were not listed on ebay and am getting paid thru PayPal so the eBay item numbers mean nothing to the PayPal system.

In a way your friend's situation is not unlike someone handing a clerk at the store $20 for a $10 item and not getting their change back. Your friend authorized the payment and unfortunately must take some responsibility for that. However in this case, it is very clear for the vendor to realize the mistake and give her a refund.

As I said, I think the best way is for your friend to invoice him with a PayPal invoice and send daily PayPal reminders for a couple of days. Then file a claim with PayPal and eBay for not receiving the goods.

If she funds PayPal with a charge card, call up the charge card company and file a claim. They will immediately reverse the charge with PayPal and credit her charge card account(that really pLLsses off PayPal, I know it does because I did it one time).

Malcolm

[jaymor8]

Malcolm - how do you do that with the paypal invoice? What would she do exactly?

Yer soooooo smart 🙂

Jackie...

[deltone]

Your friend should try contacting the seller via the ebay form, as perhaps the seller didn't get her emails. In the past few days, I've had TWO buyers pay me twice. At least it sure looks like it to me, unless I'm missing something. In both cases I emailed the people just to be sure that I'm not missing something but I've yet to hear back from them. I certainly have no intention of keeping two payments for these items, but before I refund, I want do make sure that I'm not overlooking something as I've already sent the parcel.

I've been using Paypal for months now, and then boom, all of a sudden these two people go and pay twice. Then I read your post so I'm wondering if there isn't some sort of glitch with Paypal. Very strange!!!

deb

[jaymor8]

Thanks Deb. I'll pass it along!!

Jackie...

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
If she is going to send a PayPal invoice, she clicks on "Request Money" link, she copies his email and pastes it where it calls for her to input "Receipients email address". She enters amount, currency, and clicks "Service" under TYPE. She should put in a caption for the subject, such as "REFUND OF DUPLICATE PAYMENT"
and then fill in all the details in the NOTE area.

If he did receive her emails and ignored them, then it is unlikely that he will give her a refund through PayPal.

If he does refund her by paying her invoice, she will be out the PayPal fees which will be a % of the amount she filled in but I guess there has to be some consequence for her errors.

PayPal was purchased by eBay less than a year ago and from what I have seen (and heard about PayPal before) it is pretty well run now.

The only problem I have with using eBays and PayPals help programs is that they can take forever to address and answer your questions and besides, who makes them judge and jury?

I know I have sent in questions and never received any response. Especially one instance when I paid for an item and after 5 months eBay did nothing nor did PayPal until I filed a claim with my credit card company.

I got my money and 3 months later (8 months after I paid for the item) PayPal tells me that after their extensive review, I was in the right and the vendor did not send me the item. DUH, No Kidding. Thats what I had been telling them for 7 or so months.

So why is that vendor still allowed to trade on eBay and have a PayPal account? Because he pays them fees.
(Sorry, there I am blowing off steam again).

[jaymor8]

That's ok Malcolm. I understand. But, I wanted to let you know that I just got a call and the seller made good and did the refund. And, as she explained it, the message in the refund said, 'here's your refund, as requested!' LOL. In other words, had it not been requested, it would have been ignored?

Anyway, I am proud of this seller. He did the right thing and she told him so. So it looks good on all of us who appreciate honesty and live it in our everyday lives. My only question remains, that Paypal should really do something about blocking the possibility of this happening. I agree that it would be disastrous to allow people to take back their payments, but there should be a happy medium, n'est-ce pas??

Thanks everybody!!! Feel free to talk amongst yourselves 😉

Jackie...

[treasure-pot]

... so then I says to myself "What have you got yourself into this time, boyo?"...

Sorry Jackie... you meant to talk to someone else and not yourself, right? :>)

[amberwoodottawa]

Jackie
Hurray! Always love a happy ending.

Malcolm

[deltone]

I'm glad your friend got her payment back. I'm STILL waiting to hear back from the two double payers. How very strange that they've not responded. I'm curious as heck to know why they paid me twice!! I'll email them again tomorrow as I hate having these payments in my account if they don't belong to me, but I hesitate just refunding till I know why this has happened, in case there is a good reason. sigh

[jaymor8]

Deb - well I guess there could be worse thing right, kiddo??

Good luck with that!

Jackie...

[deltone]

LOL @ Jackie! Oh ya, definately worse things! I have a few pita situations going on right now, both on ebay and just in general. I'd take double payments any day! LOL