Hey. I recently bought an item from a guy on eBay, but through the invoice on Paypal route. I paid the invoice and then two days later he sends me some vague messages saying there has been a problem and he will refund me.
However he seems in a rush to get me to ‘open a dispute’ over the transaction as he claims that the money is being ‘held by paypal’. I told him I have no grounds to open a dispute and if he wants to refund me he can do it by cancelling the invoice (at least do it from there) or even start a dispute himself if that’s what he wants to do.
I’m pretty sure what he is telling me is a load of bull, but since I’ve never actually invoiced someone else I don’t know for sure - and obviously many of you have, so I’m just wondering what I should do.
The thing that confuses me is I can’t work out his angle on a possible scam if that’s what he’s attempting, so I’m unusually hesitant in doing anything yet. All advice is welcome and appreciated, thanks.
Thanks all. My thoughts are that he’s just a bit of a Paypal noob and I feel like he intends to refund me. I just wanted to tread carefully in this peculiar situation.
@xuzu This type of thing actually makes sense. When you first open an eBay/PayPal selling account, they hold the money that buyers pay you for quite awhile to make sure you aren’t scamming. So, he probably doesn’t have the money right now, and if he refunded you, he believes it would come out of his personal account and not from the money you paid. He believes if you open a dispute it would be easier for him to refund you.
Now that isn’t correct, I’m sure that there’s a way to refund while the money is still being held. But like you said, he’s just a PayPal noob and doesn’t really know how to do stuff yet. No scamming here that I can tell.