How long after a vendor with thousands of PayPal transactions under his belt issues a refund will I see it in my email/PayPal transactions page?
I have a beef (no product) with a vendor that’s turned into a PayPal dispute. I plan on escalating it to a PayPal claim tomorrow, though ~36 hours ago, he emailed me saying he issued a refund. I can’t see it, and he won’t give me the PayPal transaction number. I don’t want to call him a liar if a refund issued on a Friday night takes a couple days to show up on my end.
Do not close the paypal dispute until you see the money on your account! Some sellers say that they refunded you so you can close the dispute and then you are screwed. wait for the money to register on your account, and make sure it is issued as a REFUND not a payment because they can also reverse it after you close your dispute then they make a claim and get it back.
How fast you see the refund depends upon where it is coming from. If it is from a balance in the PayPal account, it is immediate (unless you made the payment less than 72 hours prior, in which case, PayPal sits on the money for a few days before you get it back.
If it has to come out of the seller’s bank account, PayPal treats it like an electronic check. They get the money in 24 hours, and then sit on it for another 2 days. For a number of reasons, it is never a good idea to keep money in either a PayPal account, or much money in an account that is connected to a PayPal account.
In either case, PayPal should notify you that the refund is coming. If they haven’t notified you, then the seller hasn’t issued it yet.
As others has said, under no circumstances should you close the dispute until you either have the money in your bank account (transfered from PayPal), or have spent it from your paypal account.
I ordered the product on 2-9. MANY unanswered emails and a broken promise later, I opened a PayPal dispute on 3-9. A couple more promises came and went. I can file a claim 7 days after starting the dispute—that’s tomorrow (Monday). I have used the dispute page to email him and document the hell out of this fiasco.
Oh, now he’s saying he shipped the product. But the website still shows my order as “processing” and he won’t give me a tracking number. I think he’s saying the right things to game the PayPal claim system.
Refund should show up immediately. He could have closed the claim by issuing a full refund through the dispute process. If you've filed a dispute PayPal automatically holds funds for the full amount of the transaction until the dispute is "resolved".
If he ‘conveniently’ sends a product after a dispute is lodged its his own fault for complicating the matter. Thats IF HE REALLY DID. Id still expect a refund and if it arrives you can contact them and remake the payment.
Richard, I am so sorry I recommended them as a possible source for warm white XM-L2s in an email to you. Ten years or so ago, I had a good business relationship with them. I had no idea they turned into the flakes I’m dealing with now. Believe me, I won’t close the claim till the money is in my PayPal account and then swept into a bank account.
It will definitely complicate things, as I have already bought (and received) the stuff from other sources. No way am I paying shipping back to China (probably half the value of the order) after telling him I accepted his offer of a refund a couple weeks ago. I have no idea if he shipped after I filed the dispute, as my order still shows “processing”, and he still refuses to provide a tracking number (that I paid extra for) despite several requests for it—all documented on the PayPal site.
This is all your fault, RMM, as you didn’t have those parts in stock :bigsmile:
As already stated, the dispute is automatically closed by PP if a full refund is issued. Once a dispute is opened, you should direct any and all communication through the PP dispute page so it's all documented. Regardless of what a seller promises, you still have to protect yourself and escalate to a claim if purported actions are unsatisfactory (promises aren't worth anything). If you ever actually receive an order after getting a refund through PP, you can always do the honest thing and resend payment.
Unfortunately, shady business practices seem common with these China-based "gadget" retailers. Thankfully for those in the States, there are some awesome domestic sellers, in addition to the few great Chinese ones.
Waddya know, On claim day I check my email and there’s a notice from PayPal that I received a refund late on 3-15. Might have had something to do with this email I sent (through PayPal) to the deadbeat a couple hours earlier:
“Last chance to issue a REAL refund. Your email to me on 3-14 saying
[QUOTE=Deadbeat]“Hi, Kurt
A refund has been sent.
Best Regards,
Elvis Law”[/QUOTE]
This was clearly a lie, trying to get me to drop the dispute. I’m not going to fall for it.
Please refund my money.
I will escalate this matter to a claim tomorrow AM. I am retired and have nothing but time on my hands.”
Then this morning:
(From PayPal) A Refund was issued 3/15/2015 20:58 PDT
Notice the time of the refund? That was an hour and a half from the “last chance” email I sent to him last night. I checked my PayPal account and sure enough, there’s a refund in it. I immediately swept that money into a low-balance bank account that I keep for PayPal transactions—I’m a seller too.
Of course, he had to complicate things and ship also. He FINALLY sent me a tracking number last night, even though my order still says “processing”. I will have a chat with my mailman and leave a note on my mailbox to refuse delivery of any package with that tracking number, as I have already sourced those products from other vendors. He did have the elusive XM-L2s in 7C tint, but I have since found the even more elusive 90CRI 3000K XM-L2s, and like them even better.
Thanks for your help and advice guys. RMM: This is still all your fault because you were out of stock and I had to play the Chinese lottery. :bigsmile:
Those time date stamps might mean what you think, or they might be coincidental and the earlier refund notice he gave was legit, PP may have just been slow to process it. The date might be when PP approves it, not when he notifies them of the refund.