I agree about the stepping in thing. From what I've seen here, it always ends badly, regardless of what spin eBay like to put on it. That's why i was reluctant and why I asked the question (albeit in a very long winded way!). I mostly wanted to know if anyone did have the dispute go in their favour in this situation.

The PayPal thing has got me stumped and yes you're right, I do need to ring them. I've never had a dispute of any kind opened against me, either through MBG or PayPal so wasn't 100% sure what happens there (only what I've read here). I always thought it was just the disputed amount that was frozen. I just hope I don't get penalised from eBay because they tried to auto take me fees and couldn't. In the past if there has been no funds in there the fees have come from the attached bank account.

Using the bank account for payment through PayPal has always gone straight through, yet on Sunday it said it would spawn an echeque. I've never had an echeque from using that payment method (although I know others do). Most of the time these days I leave money in PayPal for purchases, but sometimes it does get low so it takes whatever is left in PayPal and the rest from the bank account. Very strange!