PayPal refunded my buyer instantly

[zulu_99]

So I got the email from Enay saying my item had sold and the PayPal email saying the buyer had paid but when I went to do the shipping label it showed I had refunded the sale. I messaged the buyer and they said they had paid and were expecting the item.
I am set up for auto feedback and my positive feedback is on their profile.
I called PayPal and they said I needed to contact the buyer as the problem was at their end. Luckily this is for a low value item and I have decided to send it out even though I haven't been paid to avoid negative feedback
I need to figure out what is going on in case it happens with a higher value item, I cannot find any reference to this problem??
Can anyone help?

[clarry100]

Did all this happen within the first hour of the original purchase?

If so then the buyer can cancel the sale themselves inside an hour and get a refund.

If they have done this and you send out an item you have not been paid for you will lose the item and the postage costs.

If you have not received any money do not send the item, simple.

Don't worry about feedback you can mitigate that with a smart response.

[zulu_99]

Hi, yes it was almost instantly. The buyer has said her PayPal shows the payment as 'pending'. She has over 1000+ 100% positive buyers feedback so I have no reason to believe she is being dishonest.
I did not receive any emails stating the sale had been cancelled or the payment reversed,
When I look on my 'all orders' list it is shown as 'you refunded this payment'

[phorum_junkie*]

Ask the buyer if she is able to cancel the pending payment from her end and to remake the payment if she can. If not ask them to call Paypal and ask them why her payment is showing as pending to her and as refunded to you. 

I would not send anything off until it is sorted.

If it is still ongoing after 4 days try and open an unpaid item account, if the payment is pending you won't be able to, if it is then the buyer has not paid and must do so. If they don't and you close the dispute 4 days later they will not be able to leave a neg and even if they could it would be better to get one than to be out any money IMO.

It doesn't matter how many pos feedback they have for buying, they cannot receive anything else.

[clarry100]

Perhaps the payment for some reason has reverted to an echeque. In this case it would show as pending.
But you should have received an email from PayPal about this.

I agree with all above who have said do not send until this problem is sorted out. Sounds like the buyer needs to call PayPal. If they receive your item there is no further incentive for them to sort this out.

[digital*ghost]

This has been happening to me for over a week, though I haven't had any in the last couple of days - and it's all the same group of buyers, as well.

One buyer went through the buy / pay process around 8-10 times (I can't remember the exact number) and only 3 of those were actually successful. 

Most of the unsuccessful orders did not appear on eBay at all, however I did receive payment notifications for cleared payment. When I couldn't find the orders on eBay, I checked my PP account history and every single time the payment was reversed almost instantly. One order did show up on eBay but was also refunded straight away. 

When I contacted PayPal about the issue, they said it had something to do with eBay's fraud prevention measures (if I had been drinking coffee when I read that, I am sure I would have spit it over the screen, as I thought eBay's only form of fraud prevention was to ensure anyone but them paid for it). 

Unfortunately, despite all of the buyers that this affected continuing to buy and pay for items until a successful order was made, not a single one of them has responded to my messages about it, so I have no idea what they are seeing on their end, however just the fact that they try to buy again after a failed attempt suggest quite clearly to me that they are aware the orders (or rather, the payments for them) aren't successful. 

I did (and would) not post any of the items that were not paid for, and if anything like this happens again, direct your buyer to the PayPal account history - they will be able to clearly see that the funds were reversed.

It concerns me that it's the same group of people, too. I have actually had this happen on rare occasions as a once-off with a buyer, and the second attempt goes through fine, but the same buyers continually experiencing this while many others are proceeding through just fine, makes me think it should be easier for the issue to be isolated to whatever common denominators there are for those buyers - if only PayPal would stop blaming eBay, and eBay would stop blaming PayPal long enough to just look for and fix it. Makes them both look like a bunch of amateur idiots who don't care as long as they don't have to take responsibility for it. 

Spoiler

I feel a little bit better, now 

[zulu_99]

Thanks for the replies. PayPal were no use whatsoever and told me to resolve it with the buyer the buyer is under the impression the money will go out as it is shown as 'pending' at her end.
I have asked her to cancel the transaction and buy again but I doubt I'll ever hear from her again. What annoyed me the most is that she got my positive feedback for a void transaction and I got no explanation off eBay or PayPal about what happened

[digital*ghost]

Ran out of time to edit... Sorry, just saw that your buyer did check their PP account and the payment shows to them as pending, which is interesting (that could explain why there would sometimes be a couple of days in between attempts for some of the buyers who had this happen with me).

You could always send here a screenshot of the PP transaction details that show it was refunded, perhaps even suggest she call PayPal to confirm. 

[lm-entertainment]

seems to be the never-ending problem doesn't it digi? for a tech-based company, ebay seems to lack a lot of the "tech." from the fees everyone pays, the least they should be able to do is make sure that the website is running smoothly.

don't know how many years those "page not responding" errors have occurred for and they still haven't gotten to the bottom of it. it's bordering on ridiculous. 

[digital*ghost]

I think they use the Homer Simpson version of "user experience".