Paypal hold for unauthorized transaction 2 months later!

Apr 29, 2008
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I got an e-mail from paypal today saying that they are withholding funds for a sale I made on August 12th because the buyer is now saying the purchase was made without their authorization. Fortunately, it wasn't for anything expensive, but why would a buyer pull something like this nearly 2 months after receiving the item for $29!!! Do I have a leg to stand on, or am I out the money?
 
That is weird. I guess it could be legit. If the buyer didn't in fact authorize the transaction, regardless of how much it cost, would you want to pay for something on your CC that was illegally used? No. So maybe it's a legitimate claim.

Otherwise, I would think that the buyer would contact you and say they've changed their mind or whatever. You never know with PP these days. They're always pulling all kinds of crap with our accounts.
 
I got an e-mail from paypal today saying that they are withholding funds for a sale I made on August 12th because the buyer is now saying the purchase was made without their authorization. Fortunately, it wasn't for anything expensive, but why would a buyer pull something like this nearly 2 months after receiving the item for $29!!! Do I have a leg to stand on, or am I out the money?

Well, as long as you sent it to the confirmed address and you have delivery confirmation, you should be fine under buyer protection. So even if Paypal has to pay back the CC company, you won't be responsble as you followed the rules and SHOULD be covered under seller protection.
 
^Yup, that's true, except they will still hold the funds for 30 days. Which means if you withdrew the money from the sale 2 months ago, which most people would, your account balance will be negative until Paypal takes its sweet time and makes a decision. Brilliant, isn't it?
 
It's really annoying, but what probably happened was the person was confused by the charge on his/her credit card bill (perhaps wasn't used to seeing what it looked like since it says PAYPAL*whatever). You might even try e-mailing the ebay user directly to ask if he/she meant to dispute the charge.
 
The ebay user is no longer registered. They did have a confirmed paypal address, I just hope I still have the signature confirmation info. It's been two months and I JUST cleaned out some of my USPS receipts. I guess I could try e-mailing them at their paypal provided email address. What do you think?

Two months is a long time to just notice a minimal charge on your card. I check my CC balance constantly and always know if something has gone awry. Not to mention, if the address was confirmed, wouldn't the item have been shipped to the address linked to whoever is making this claim?
 
:nogood:

If I found a strange charge on my cc statement, I would first contact the retailer/seller. I would not file claims without trying to fix the matter with the seller. I'm I way off here?
 
OP- for a $29 transaction you don't need signature confirmation, just an electronic delivery confirmation that Paypal can confirm. Did you print/pay for the label from Paypal? If so, check Paypal for the transaction OR check your email for the confirmation e-mail.

Otherwise, yes hunt for that receipt for the DC number.

Was it USPS or a courier?
 
It was USPS. I normally keep all of my receipts in an envelop, but did clean out some of the older ones recently after blogging on TPF and learning USPS just reassigns the tracking numbers anyway. I'm visiting family in NJ today, but will look feverishly tonight!
 
As long as you have the delivery confirmation info you should be okay. I think you can keep ebay emails up to two months so if you sent her the delivery confirmation number check your Ebay messages for it. This is if you can't find the receipt. You can try emailing the person as it may just be a misunderstanding.

Always get delivery confirmation for anything under $100 and keep your receipts. In general anything over $100 I send by signature confirmation. $100 here and there can start to add up if people claim not to receive. I may be anal but I keep receipts for shipping for years. You never know. I had someone do the same thing to me more than 6 months later. I'm not sure how they could make a claim from that long ago but they did. She had the never to claim an unauthorized charge but I had her signature when the package was delivered and Paypal eventually sided with me although they took $10 for their efforts.