eBay sale payment sent to wrong email address

Nick1881

Nick1881

Nick1881

Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2007
Posts
9,861
Location
Nuneaton, UK
So my Dad sold something on eBay for £480 + £20 shipping.

Someone bought it and in eBay it was showing on one page as waiting payment from the buyer and a reminder had been sent, on another page it was showing as payment on hold. My Dad spoke to eBay and they assured him they had the money and would release it upon proof of delivery.

The item was delivered but no money appeared, he spoke to eBay again and they said the money was released and provided the transaction ID. Spoke to PayPal they said the transaction didn't exist. Back to eBay they noticed the email address is wrong, @homail.com instead of @hotmail.com

I spoke to Paypay again and they are saying to ask the buyer to cancel the payment and send it again. I'm very worried about doing this, the guy has no incentive to pay now, he has the item and could save himself £500.

I don't know what to do now and I don't want my Dad to lose his £500.
 
explain what's happened to the buyer, most people are decent and will do the right thing. The buyer may have some doubts which need cleared up from PayPal/ebay so he might need to do his own investigations as well to make sure he feels he isn't paying twice and being scammed but hopefully it will sort itself out easily enough.
 
Nick1881 said:
The item was delivered but no money appeared, he spoke to eBay again and they said the money was released and provided the transaction ID. Spoke to PayPal they said the transaction didn't exist.
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Sounds like a scam very possible if the transaction ID doesn't exist not to mention that email address! If the buyer has the item.... open a dispute saying never received the funds ASAP.
 
mrbell1984 said:
Sounds like a scam very possible if the transaction ID doesn't exist not to mention that email address! If the buyer has the item.... open a dispute saying never received the funds ASAP.
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I'm confident that guy has paid, it wasn't his fault the address was wrong. I wouldn't have sent the item without payment but eBay assured us they had the money.

Afterwards I found out that it would have shown in Paypal as pending, I didn't know that at the time and just assumed eBay had the money and hadn't released it to PayPal.
 
Might be worth checking out the laws against deception/fraud etc.. just because the payment has gone wrong that doesn't mean someone has a disclaimer to just nick your stuff as far as I know.
 
Nick1881 said:
I spoke to PayPal again, they are still saying they can't do anything.
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of course they can they have the payment on hold. It's their bloody systems. Contact the buyer and let them know what has happened. They may need to contact Paypal to explain it from their side.

I'm not sure if they can cancel the payment now since it's on hold. Never been in this situation before regards to a hold payment on wrong addresses.

A quick Google says this;

If the incorrect address is a valid email address for you, or you can create it, then add that address to paypal. Then the money will come through. If it is not a valid email you need to ask your buyers to cancel their payment and repay to the correct paypal address. Do not post out until they have done this.
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I'm not convinced how could you know it was on hold when it was the wrong address where it was sent too? You wouldn't have got the notification and it wouldn't be on hold...
 
I've been doing the online chat with PayPal as we can't get through via phone.

Their last reply was "I am sorry, we don't have an option to make a change on the completed/unclaimed payments."
 
mrbell1984 said:
Are you telling us that there is a payment on hold in your dads Paypal account for that eBay sale?

If this is the case then it has to have gone to the right Paypal otherwise there wouldn't be a notification in Paypal.
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No they payment never showed in his PayPal account because it was sent to the wrong address.
 
When making a listing on eBay you have to select the payment options you want to accept. I had recently signed my dad into Chrome so it syncs everything for him, I think at some point since then google had stored the mis-typed email address with the t missing from hotmail. I think google autocomplete filled in the email for Paypal box.
 
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First thing to do is contact the buyer
Either they will cancel the payment and
Send it to the correct email
Or they wont
If they won't you are no worse off than you are now
If they check they will see it was sent to homail instead of Hotmail and is unclaimed
Pointless worrying about whether they have an incentive to do it or not
You won't know if you don't try
 
OK update, finally got through to PayPal on the phone, they were much more helpful than on their live chat. After checking the eBay item, all my Dads details and checking the delivery tracking status they have moved the money into his account. It is still pending until the buyer confirms receipt in eBay, if he doesn't then it will automatically clear in a few weeks.

I'm glad we are getting somewhere, we have been stressing over this for the last few days.
 
Nick1881 said:
OK update, finally got through to PayPal on the phone, they were much more helpful than on their live chat. After checking the eBay item, all my Dads details and checking the delivery tracking status they have moved the money into his account. It is still pending until the buyer confirms receipt in eBay, if he doesn't then it will automatically clear in a few weeks.

I'm glad we are getting somewhere, we have been stressing over this for the last few days.
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Glad to hear you made progress
And yeah even though it's a pita getting through always better to phone them
 
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