It’s a situation none of us want to deal with, but most of us will have to deal with sooner or later. You buy a product online and the product arrives damaged. Or the wrong color. Or it just doesn’t work. Or the description does not match the product. Or it doesn’t show up at all.
What do you do?
If you purchased the item via PayPal, you have options – but you will have to be patient. There are several steps that need to be worked through to get your payment back. First, a little clarification and a warning.
PayPal delivers what it says Purchase Protection Program To anyone who buys something through its service, there is a way to get your money back if something goes wrong. The basic steps are outlined in: PayPal’s Help page on what to do if you have not received your item or it is different from the described. We’ll go over them shortly. First, some information.
The Purchase Protection Plan is only available if you have used PayPal to make a purchase, yes. if you simply sent someone money – for example a friend, or a relative – then once the money has been accepted by the other person, there is no way to get it back (unless they agree to return the money). Consequently, if you are purchasing a product and the seller wants you to send the payment as a friend via PayPal not as a purchase – don’t. It could be a scam and if it is, you won’t have any recourse.
There is a list of transactions PayPal’s User Agreement page Not covered by the Purchase Protection Plan. These include, among other things, real estate, certain vehicles (in other words, if you buy a car you are not covered by insurance, but you are covered by insurance for a bicycle), gift cards or donations.
Another thing to note: If you notice an unauthorized transaction on your PayPal account – in other words, someone has managed to withdraw funds from your account without your knowledge and/or consent – immediately contact PayPal using this page (you can tell them via a form or messaging app) or you can call them at (888) 221-1161.
All told, here’s how to get a refund when you make a purchase through PayPal and believe you should get your money back:
- First, go PayPal’s Solution Center. Click “Report a Problem” to open what the company calls a dispute. You have 180 days from the first time you make the transaction to do so.
- After you open a dispute, you have 20 days to contact the seller via PayPal to see if the issue can be resolved this way.
- If you are unable to resolve the issue (or have never heard from the seller), return to the Resolution Center, find the entry listed for your appeal, and click “View” > “Forward to PayPal”. Now the dispute has officially become an allegation.
- PayPal will begin investigating the claim and will email you updates on the status of its review. If it detects that your claim is legitimate, you will receive a refund to your PayPal account.
by PayPalIt usually takes about 30 days for a claim to be resolved, although it may take longer. You can go to the Resolution Center to see if something is up.
We spoke to someone who’s been through this process, and while it may have felt like a long and complicated journey in their case (especially since they did it for a small amount of money), it finally paid off. They bought a dress from a site that sells second-hand clothes, they could not get the dress and they could not get a response from the seller. They contacted PayPal and the process proceeded as described above: first they sent a message to the seller via PayPal, then PayPal took over the negotiations. When the seller still did not respond, received a refund. They reported that it took a little over two weeks.
But what if you are still not happy at the end of this process?
Once PayPal decides on a claim, the claim is considered closed. If you are not satisfied with this decision, appeal the decision By going to the Resolution Center within 10 days, finding your case in the “Closed cases” section, clicking “Appeal” and following the instructions.
On the other hand? There are always traditional choices: Better Business Bureau, attorney general’s office for your state – or Twitter, of course.
