# PayPal refund advice, please.



## John M (May 10, 2016)

I sold a plant to a customer and asked for payment via Interac e-Transfer. However, she sent the payment via PayPal. I don't take PayPal. My customer has since resent the payment to me via Interac e-Transfer; but, of course, she wants her money back from PayPal. 

However, she can't find how to cancel a payment and get her money back. I know nothing about PayPal and can't even get their website to open with my outdated computer. Does anybody know how to cancel a PayPal payment and get your money back? Any helpful advice that I can pass on to my customer would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## Bob in Albany N.Y. (May 10, 2016)

John, I'm not a lot of help here, but I do believe it is up to you to some how reject the payment. Can someone else jump in and help John out.


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## Heather (May 10, 2016)

In my experience the easiest thing to do is to send the money back via paypal but I think she could probably contact customer service.

Here's a link about cancelling payments. I think since you don't have an account she may be able to do this. 
https://www.paypal.com/selfhelp/article/FAQ637


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## Clark (May 10, 2016)

Shame on you for not offering paypal.


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## John M (May 10, 2016)

Thanks Bob and Heather. Unfortunately, I can't reject the payment without having an account.....and if I had an account, I woudl've simply accepted her payment. Heather, I can't get that link to open. I just get an error message saying I don't have permission to access the site. The issue is my old computer system. I'm trying to deal with a few things first and then get my computer system upgraded; but, that doesn't help me now. However, I'll forward the link to my customer and hopefully, it'll lead to getting this issue resolved. Thanks.


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## Heather (May 10, 2016)

Yeah, I think that you can't access it because you don't have an account, but she should be able to. So, hopefully that will help.


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## gonewild (May 10, 2016)

Since you dont have a Paypal account you dont have to do anything.
Until you accept the funds Paypal still has her money and at some point they will void the payment and credit her back the money. So in reality she still has her money, it's just stuck in the Paypal system. After a short time she can request a refund from within her account and she will get the money back.

It's her mistake so she will need to understand she has to wait for Paypal's system to sort it out.... and it will.


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## Stone (May 10, 2016)

gonewild said:


> Since you dont have a Paypal account you dont have to do anything.
> Until you accept the funds Paypal still has her money and at some point they will void the payment and credit her back the money. So in reality she still has her money, it's just stuck in the Paypal system. After a short time she can request a refund from within her account and she will get the money back.
> 
> It's her mistake so she will need to understand she has to wait for Paypal's system to sort it out.... and it will.



Agree. It's not your problem John...as long as you have your money and she has the plant.....


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## John M (May 10, 2016)

Thanks Heather and Lance. So far, all she's been able to find out is that if I don't accept the payment within 30 days, the transaction will be voided and then she'll get her money back; so, she knows it's not gone. However, what we'd like to do is for her to simply cancel the payment and get the money back now, not in a month....if that's possible. You'd think such a simple thing would be possible. If not, that's not very user friendly of PayPal.

Anyway. Thanks for your advice.

Edit: Mike, if that's the only thing to do.....wait for PayPal to sort it out and give her money back when they realize I'm not taking the payment, then, that's what will have to happen. Yes, I have my money and my customer will get her plant...that's all been arranged. But, it'd simply be nice if my customer could quickly and easily correct this and get her money back without having to wait a month. Anything more than a couple days is unreasonable.


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## cattmad (May 10, 2016)

she should have gotten an e-mail from paypal confirming the payment was made even though you have no account.

On the bottom of that e-mail should be a link that says to cancel this payment click here


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## bigleaf (May 10, 2016)

As a seller on eBay you can cancel an order without going into Paypal. I did that just today. It's pretty simple. You have to do this on your computer. I don't know if this is doable from your phone app. 
I will see if I can get a screen shot for you.

From the list of orders waiting on shipping
There is choice to cancel order like this screen







Even though this is no fault of yours. You will be out of 30 cents on this transaction.


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## John M (May 10, 2016)

Thanks Cattmad, I will tell her.

Bigleaf, thanks also. But, this was not an e-Bay sale. It was just someone sending me money for a plant I told her about in an e-mail.


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## gonewild (May 11, 2016)

John M said:


> But, it'd simply be nice if my customer could quickly and easily correct this and get her money back without having to wait a month. Anything more than a couple days is unreasonable.



Most things about Paypals methods are very annoying.
The reason it takes the extended time to get her money back is actually intended to be a protection for you, the seller. Paypal gives you plenty of time to dispute her canceling the order, to make sure you actually are not supposed to get the payment. 
As far as Paypal knows you may have gotten the email saying she sent you money and then shipped her the plant assuming you would get the payment from Paypal and once you sent the plant that money would have become yours and not hers to claim as a refund. They do have both buyer and seller protection.

Trying to get help from Paypal on the phone is a waste of effort.


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## Ray (May 11, 2016)

gonewild said:


> Trying to get help from Paypal on the phone is a waste of effort.



I totally disagree.

I avoided PayPal for years, then they approached me with a discount rate I couldn't pass up, so I did a six month trial. It worked out so well that I ended up using them as my clearing house for all transactions. 

On rare occasion, when an odd situation like this occurs, or I have screwed something up, I have had to call them. I have never had to wait even a minute, and everything is resolved to my satisfaction in no time...


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## gonewild (May 11, 2016)

Ray said:


> I totally disagree.
> 
> I avoided PayPal for years, then they approached me with a discount rate I couldn't pass up, so I did a six month trial. It worked out so well that I ended up using them as my clearing house for all transactions.
> 
> On rare occasion, when an odd situation like this occurs, or I have screwed something up, I have had to call them. I have never had to wait even a minute, and everything is resolved to my satisfaction in no time...



You are fortunate. We've used Paypal since it was started and on more than a few occasions have needed to resolve an issue and using the phone was not efficient and very frustrating. Maybe they have improved now.


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## John M (May 11, 2016)

gonewild said:


> The reason it takes the extended time to get her money back is actually intended to be a protection for you, the seller. Paypal gives you plenty of time to dispute her canceling the order, to make sure you actually are not supposed to get the payment.
> As far as Paypal knows you may have gotten the email saying she sent you money and then shipped her the plant assuming you would get the payment from Paypal and once you sent the plant that money would have become yours and not hers to claim as a refund.



That actually makes sense and at least provides a good reason why cancelling a payment and retrieving the money takes a while. If I took PayPal, I'd be pretty miffed, if after I shipped a plant I learned that my customer had cancelled the payment and received their money back already. At that point, I would have no payment; but, I'd also not be able to prevent the plant from being delivered to the person who decided to not pay for it. Thanks.


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## Ozpaph (May 15, 2016)

I love PayPal - so simple and safer than credit cards


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