Payment cancelled 4 weeks after going through?!

[charmony]

Paypal just emailed me that a payment to me from 1st June "didn't go through", and in my account the payment says "cancelled". This has never happened before, that a month after receiving the payment (which was never listed as pending or anything like that), it gets "cancelled". I don't post items until the payment has gone through - obviously I posted this four weeks ago.

eBay doesn't show the payment was cancelled or anything unusual (the buyer never reported the item was not received).

Does anyone know how this can happen?

[padi*0409]

Credit card chargeback maybe ?

[tazzieterror]

Did you receive an email from PayPal after the purchase saying "...You can now ship any items..."

If so, I'd be writing back to PayPal and seeking clarification on why they've told you to ship the item if the payment had never cleared, and then pushing for them to reimburse you.

[charmony]

So I just checked my emails, and this particular one was an echeque. Used to be that until an echeque cleared it didn't appear in the day's orders for processing - it would remain on the "Awaiting Payment" page until it cleared.

The email says that until it clears "you'll see the transaction status set as "Pending"" - which I'm fairly certain was not the case (at least, eBay didn't say Pending). I don't recall this particular transaction but I only ever post orders on the "Awaiting Postage" page and there was no note or anything saying it hadn't cleared. It just went out with the day's orders.

I don't use tracking on small orders so there's no way I can prove the item arrived. Therefore I'll get no help from Paypal or eBay.

[tazzieterror]

Ok, that's unfortunate. It might still be worth asking PayPal about it just to clarify what their current process looks like - it's been a while since I've sold something that was waiting on an eCheque to clear, but I'm sure PayPal or eBay sent me multiples notifications as part of the process to let me know when I could safely send.

[designers*n*more]

It's a long shot, but you could email the buyer and ask them to pay for the item.  If they're honest they will, if not sadly I don't think you'll get paid.

eBay still advise to wait if payment is an echeque and PayPal will email to say that you've got funds.