An Odd Paypal Situation...

[jayb]

I've been taking a lot of payments for my book via Paypal, with only a minor issue or two so far in almost 400 transactions.  However, tonight I had kind of an oddball thing happen.  A customer purchased a copy of the book, and I received the normal email saying that I had money in my account.  But, seven minutes later, this customer opened a dispute regarding this payment, saying that he had not received the merchandise.  Of course, I haven't sent it yet    Paypal has taken the money back out of my account pending resolution of this "dispute".  I sent an email to this guy asking about the situation, but I'm wondering if this is a normal way of getting out of a Paypal payment if you change your mind about buying the product, or if it is something different.  Any thoughts?

[rcodecj]

Sounds like the buyer changed his mind and decided that was his only way to back out, rather than contacting you.
Based on the date of the dispute vs the purchase date, I don't see how he could win any dispute.
It is normal for Paypal to take the money out of your account during any dispute.
If it were me I would call Paypal so they know what's up.
You say you sent him an email asking him, but you will also have to converse with him through paypal, then paypal will make a decision.
I figure you're not worried about the money, and would have reimbursed him, had he been honest about it, and said he had buyers remorse.
There's always the chance he hit the wrong button I guess.
It will be interesting to hear what the guys excuse is.

[jayb]

I was able to get in touch with him, and it turns out that he just had the wrong address tied to his Paypal account, and didn't want the book to get shipped to that address by mistake.  He has provided me with the correct address, so as soon as he closes the dispute and the money is released into my account I'll send out his book.  I guess he just didn't want to rely on emailing me the correct address after the Paypal order went through with the wrong one.

I was reading about this on Paypal's web site, and their site says that you can't dispute a transaction until 7 days have elapsed after the purchase, to allow time for shipping the product.  Yet my customer was able to file his dispute within 7 minutes!  There must not be a block in Paypal's software to prevent this.

[Qikbbstang]

LOL welcome to Pay Pal. Believe me if that is the only PayPal headache you get your doing great.  Sucks to have PayPal syphon off their hefty percentage but they are the only one on the block.  Fortunately the low price of your book and limited mkt of good-guy FE nuts make it low risk of getting scammed, but if one does high dollar stuff on PayPal the need to document and by their "RULES" use a certified delivery means because they really sway toward the buyers side and you can end up eating a bunch of dough.