Item returned by buyer with no return request?

[fortune12321]

tl;dr I'm super confused by a series of events around an item I sold a month ago that has been returned to me with absolutely no messages from the seller and I don't know what is going on. 

So the item was purchased on the 1st of September and delivered to the buyer on the 6th. On the 21st of September I received an email from Paypal saying that they had recently informed me that the payment was made without the account holder's permission / was the result of a transaction error (I had received no notification from PayPal prior to this email and assumed it was a phishing attempt).

On the 24th of September I received another email stating that the case had been decided in my favour. I was pretty confused by this, as I hadn't done anything and I still hadn't received any messages from the buyer. Today I received a package in the mail which contained the sold item in it (just in a paper envelope - when I had sent it in several layers of bubble wrap and some cardboard). From the tracking number It seems it was sent back to me on the 24th of September shortly before the email from PayPal telling me the case had been decided in my favour was sent.

I have no idea what is going on or how I should proceed, is the buyer expecting a refund or something (despite never contacting me through ebay)?

[kopenhagen5]

It sounds like the buyer's account was hacked and PayPal have provided them with a refund out of PayPal buyer protection.

If this is the case then the buyer has returned the item and you are not required to refund.

In such a case I don't know if PayPal will ask for some of the funds returned to PayPal if they become aware you have the item back.

But I feel if it is returned without tracking PayPal are not interesting in pursuing it further.

In which case you have all your fees covered and the item back for the inconvenience.

If the account was hacked the buyer did the correct thing in contacting PayPal as it has nothing to do with the seller hence no contact from them.

[melbourneclearance · Accepted solution]

As long as you still have the money in your PayPal account, you are not obliged to do anything nor shouold you.

It is possible that the first PayPal email got junked by your email program. I check my Junk folder everyday and plenty of legitimate emails end up there. The buyer obviously complained to PayPal about an unauthorised transaction and returned the item on their own accord. PayPal ruled in your favour because you had a tracking number and the item was already sent, which was all PayPal needs to protect the seller.

You can choose to refund the buyer minus all expenses like the original postage and ebay fees and packaging, etc, etc. But you are certainly under no obligation (morally or legally or ebay/PP-ly) to do so.

[melbourneclearance]

No, PP will not pursue their loss from the seller for receiving the item back. After all, the seller may not be able to re-sell the item (no longer new is one of a million possible reasons).

If PP had refunded the buyer, PP will say in their decision that it had ruled in the buyer's favour but under seller protection it has released the fund it locked. If it says that PP has ruled in the seller's favour, then it means the buyer is out of money and item. But personally, I wouldn't be crying a river for this buyer. This buyer certainly owes the seller an explanation for the troubles.

[digital*ghost]

I've had a couple of people raise PayPal disputes with the claim that their PayPal account was used in an unauthorised transaction - these are actually quite good, in a way. I don't mean it's good when they occur, of course, but they can be better than other kinds of disputes (more so if the buyer is being dishonest) because PayPal has the tools to verify whether the account holder's claim is legitimate in a few different ways, and they will use them.

The ones I had opened against me were all found in my favour because at the conclusion of their investigation, PayPal found no evidence that the accounts were compromised as the buyers claimed. None of them sent the item back, though, so I wasn't faced with this kind of conundrum.

I sometimed get unauthorised returns, as well - as in, the buyer just sends an item back without contacting me and the first I know about is opening the package. I nearly always have to go searching for matching transactions / details to find out who it was, too. It's frustrating, and technically I would be within my rights to deny a refund and just tell them if they want it back, they can send me the postage cost, but they've all been in as sent condition so I will usually not contact them and just issue a partial refund, of item price minus all costs incurred. If there were other aspects to the return that were weird, annoying or suspicious (eg pieces missing, etc), or it was outside of my stated window, I might handle things differently, and I'd also block them. 

[kopenhagen5]

Thanks MC wasn't sure if PayPal distinguished at seller's end if they refunded buyer or not.

(Congrats on the green star)

In that case OP, I would wait and see if buyer contacts you (which they may not as they have possibly been caught out in a lie) and if they do, suggest they can have the item back once they pay postage again.

[melbourneclearance]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

(Congrats on the green star)

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Thanks, kopes!

Next target is long, but it's a shooting one.