@munchkin83munchkin wrote:
I contacted paypal and explained the situation to them. I also added that if they chose to refund the buyer, I would have no choice but to take the matter further against the buyer, as in my opinion committing fraud and I would also take action against paypal if they removed money from my account.
Within 1 hour I received a message from paypal saying that they had decided to refund the buyer.....but due to the unique circumstances of the claim, they would cover the refund themselves and not remove any money from my account.
Thought I would let you know the outcome in case it might be helpful to other sellers
That is really strange, TBH.
If a buyer opens a PayPal claim, the eBay claim becomes void, and can not be re-opened. I have to wonder what it was about the ebay dispute that made them think of going to PayPal instead (being told to return?)
But, a normal PayPal dispute would / should have resulted in the same thing, but with the added benefit (or disadvantage, depending on your disposition) of the buyer having to pay for tracked postage while ebay technically requires the seller to pay - and that's only if the claim was escalated, and if the claim was then found in the buyer's favour (it isn't always with PP), or the seller agreed to accept the item back. To go from being opened, to that decision, in such a short timeframe is very unusual (the one and only time PP did that with a case of mine - where I was the seller - I had actually accepted the return, but the buyer didn't send the item back, they did send something, and I went to great pains to prove it wasn't what I sent them, and that was ultimately the decision PP reached - refund to the buyer, but not from my account 
).
