Item not as described and not functional, refund issued to paypal. Never received. Cannot contact.

[suzanne4699]

Not sure if this is not the correct forum for this, but if anyone could assist me in where to proceed from here I would be grateful.

In April I purchased a camera lens which turned out to be defective and not as described:

- I initiated a return through eBay and contacted the seller.

- Seller agreed to take it back and issue a refund.

- I returned the lens to the seller, with tracking. (BTW, seller appears to have re-listed and sold the very same lens again on eBay)

- Seller DID issue a refund to me as agreed, BUT however...

- The refund was subsequently cancelled and is showing a status of "cancelled" and "removed" in my Paypal account.
- I contacted the seller regarding this and they said they had issued a refund, so as far as they are concerned, I have been reimbursed.
- I contacted the seller again and pointed out again that the refund had been cancelled and I have not actually received the funds. The seller did not answer this last message.

- Opened a case with Paypal. They denied the case because the seller did issue a refund. Paypal did not address the issue of the refund having been subsequently cancelled by the seller (or it didn't process/clear).

-Paypal has closed this case and I cannot seem to find a way to contact them regarding the cancellation/removal status problem.

-Tried opening a Money Back Guarantee case with eBay but I just keep going around in circles on the eBay site trying to find a way to convey the cancellation info to them. eBay just always returns me to the "Refund Status" area of the item purchase which says "Refund Initiated". I cannot seem to get past that point at all and cannot seem to find a way to contact eBay either through email or phone. I've spent all morning trying to figure this out and have gotten no where.

I have no idea how to proceed from here as I cannot contact either eBay or Paypal and just really need to speak with either one directly to explain what is wrong.

So frustrated by this entire process and still out the money for the lens purchase.

Thank you for any help anyone can provide.

[ypdc_dennis]

tyler@ebay 

[femmefan1946]

Do you back your PP account with a credit card? This is one of the reasons why this is a good idea.

Since the problem is with Paypal, and eBay does not own PP anymore, perhaps you should also be raising it on PP's not very active Discussion/ Community Boards.

[pjcdn2005]

Are you asking if they used a credit card for the purchase? If so, then yes they can file a claim through their card provider. But if they simply have a cc on file with PP which is what "account backed with a cc" means to me, they can't file a claim with their cc provider.

[pjcdn2005]

I would phone PP if you haven't already done so. Sign into your Paypal account and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on contact us. There will be a couple of questions for you to answer but eventually there should be another contact us on the bottom of the page that gives you a toll free number and a pin number.

[ddragon444]

I can't believe it what an absolute terrible story but I don't think it's uncommon unfortunately…

Part of this email is directed to eBay the people that moderate this. My shopping on eBay has been horrendous… And now we have this person that is begging for help. Fix it no excuses just help this person immediately.

We cannot have honest people shopping on eBay and all the fraudulent scams taking place this is not what we are living as good people for this is not what life is all about. Do the right thing get it done. We don't want to live in a world of this type of criminal activity.

suzanneyou have all my deepest concerns and sympathy. don't let the world take your good heart keep it pure … But don't give up the fight. Not until you have to.

God bless you… I'm so on your side

[suzanne4699]

Thank you very much ddragon44 (-:

[suzanne4699]

Thank you very much pjcdn2005, I will try to contact Paypal directly via phone. It's easier to explain this via a conversation with a human I think.

[suzanne4699]

Hi femmefan1946,

My PP account is backed with a credit card, but that is not how I paid for the purchase. That's a good suggestion to keep in mind for the future though, so will keep that in mind. I'm going to contact PP directly through their phone number and see where that gets me. Thanks for your reply.

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for the tag @ypdc_dennis!

Hi @suzanne4699 - that sounds like a truly nasty experience, and I'm sorry to hear how frustrating the entire situation has been. 

When it comes to protection available to you, the eBay Money Back Guarantee (eMBG) can help as long as another avenue hasn't been pursued. From what it sounds like, you've also opened a PayPal dispute. Because that form of protection has been initiated, we won't be able to offer coverage via the eMBG. 

I do agree with other members who encouraged you to contact PayPal, because it sounds like they should be able to tell quite quickly if you received a refund (if it was cancelled via PayPal I'd imagine they could see that very plainly). Definitely worth an appeal with their dispute team. Best of luck!