eBay auto refunded me for purchase from 0 feedback seller- banned user, item arrived

[hjmnk39]

I saw an auction for old banknotes from from a new 2021 (0) feedback seller. I figured it was slightly suspicious (only the zero feedback) but I figured there's probably lots of Canadians worried now thinking they're old banknotes are worthless, due to he new "legal tender" laws that came into effect this year. So somebody making a new eBay account to try and get a few bucks out of them seemed pretty reasonable to me -honestly surprised I haven't seen more-. And I figured even if it was a scam, PayPal is usually pretty good with getting money back.

I made the purchase after winning the auction on January 18th, the seller said he sent them late on the 19th, and on the 21st I got an email from eBay saying I was refunded...

I never requested a refund or reported it, everything seems to have be done manually on eBay side. 

Fast forward to today (the 26th) and the items arrived.

Idk what to do.. a dude trying trying to make an honest couple bucks got his account nerfed by eBay and now he's out of his both his money's (the $9 in old banknotes, and the $19). 

How could eBay do that to him without even giving the items a chance to arrive? Maybe it was some procedural thing with selling that the seller was unaware of? (IDK I've only ever bought on eBay).

Obviously I don't want this man to be out of his money, but I really don't think there's anything I can do at this point - (the envelope the bills were in didn't even have a return address).

And honestly I think it should be up to eBay at this point to refund this person, as I was willing to pay for the item before there eBay took premature action.

I also completely understand that ebays intent was obviously to prevent what they thought was suspicious activity from a seller and to protect the buyer from being scammed. And I'm pretty positive this system protects a lot more people than it hurts, this situation is hopefully just an outlier.

I know some people might be thinking I'm crazy and saying just take the money and keep my mouth shut , but if I was in the other situation I would be absolutely livid and feel violated.

Anywho I hope someone from eBay can see this and do justice for the seller.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

- (the envelope the bills were in didn't even have a return address).

Well, not just a newbie, but kinda dumb.

I guess they don't teach letter writing in school anymore.

However, all is not lost.

Because you have been in a transaction, you can use eBay Messages to contact him and ask for his Paypal email/ID.

And recently we learned.

@ricarmic wrote:
For future reference, if you have a payment email from PAYPAL if you "reply" to the email, it exposes the buyers email address which you can harvest and use.....

[hjmnk39]

Another person also privately messaged me saying in theory it should be a transaction number from PayPal.
-the sellers account is gone, I tried to feed back and message but when I hit send eBay says that option isn't available. The only way I can access his profile is through the old links eBay email me after winning the auction, there's no way to link to it directly from the site or app anymore.-
But anyway I clicked on the transaction number from the email from PayPal and I was able to get an email address for them. So I sent them an email, and they got back to me. So I guess I will be able to work things out.
Not that I have any real obligation to do so, but I don't want to see you the average dude get screwed over by some automated system. Maybe if it was a billion dollar corporation like Walmart or something I wouldn't feel as bad, but I mean times are tough enough for people out there.

Anyway thanks for the help everyone 😊

[snoopwiz]

Not that I have any real obligation to do so, 

Unless moral obligations count.

[alacar-8]

It might have something to do with the listing of currency and bullion etc. that I have a foggy recollection of being banned from the platform.  I could be fully out to lunch here, it has been known to happen.  If you can't repay the guy, well, every once in a while the sun shines on a dogs butt.  I hope that he gets hold of you and you can get things straightened out!

[femmefan1946]

No - the currency and  bullion question is about the new Managed Payments program that German and US sellers are mostly enrolled in. Some Canadian sellers are also enrolled.

It has no effect on buyers, except to add ApplePay and GooglePay to the ways they can pay.

Basically, the company handling MP for eBay cannot deal with coins and bullion for some reason. But today I noticed a mention that US sellers had been told the question was resolved and they would be able to list using MP, although the date has been moved back to March. (source-Auctionbytes newsletter)

If this is bullion or coins, I would take them to a trusted local dealer or jeweler to check for authenticity, if OP doesn't have his own equipment.

There is some scam about "gold" Chinese pandas which has been going on for years now.

[byto253]

Getting the item authenticated is a good idea, unless you really know about it. 

You may also have gotten lucky and avoided trouble or a scam.  I bought an item a couple of years ago, payment went through ok and it was not refunded back to me.  Before it got to me an avalanche of negative and scam feedback hit and Ebay closed the seller down.   Me, I was happy as I got a nice item at a very decent price but figured I dodged a bullet.   

It sounds like you are doing your best to make reasonable efforts to pay for you item.  About all you can do is run those to their logical end and if there is no avenue, you can keep it with a clean conscience.

[rosepeak]

I don't think you're crazy at all. I think anyone should be concerned in such a situation and try to find a way to make things right. So kudos for doing the right thing.

[patken123]

I have sent refunds back to at least 5 different eBay vendors and that's within the past 4 years, I always sent their money back through PayPal, 80% of the time I found the sellers email address in the original transaction notice sent by PayPal but there were times the email address was rejected ( for different reasons, most common was the address was in Chinese) in which case I contacted the seller and asked for a valid address.it has always worked out great and did not take much time .