Refund eCheck from eBay seller "declined by sender's bank"...scam?

Gaslight

In brief:

I bought a small TV on eBay to stick on a shelf in my room and connect retro consoles to play vidja while I lay in bed. I paid with PayPal. When the TV arrived, I quickly ascertained that it doesn't work - doesn't even power on - despite the assurances in the listing that it did. Google search turned up a number of people with the same model with the same symptoms indicating a bad cap on the mainboard.

I opened a case on eBay, asked for and was immediately issued a refund (like, within 30 minutes). I was told the refund was being processed through PayPal as an "eCheck" and would take until today to clear.

Today I got an email from PayPal stating:

An eCheck payment from (seller's name) was declined by the sender's bank. We will automatically try to process this payment again in 3 business days. It then usually takes 3-5 days for the money to be deposited into your account.

I have gotten refunds for items through PayPal before but this is new to me. Certainly the sum I am due isn't going to make or break me, but the idea of waiting another 3 days makes me antsy. Should I be concerned about the "declined by the sender's bank" thing? Is it possible this guy emptied out the bank account his PayPal account was connected to in order to screw me out of my refund? Should I try contacting him, or should I immediately escalate the case on eBay?

ED!

Weird. When I was scammed out of 1300 bucks on eBay, I opened a PayPal account and within a week was refunded the full amount; maybe they're just waiting to see if they can get at the sellers funds first.

admanb

PayPal almost always sides with buyers, so if it doesn't come through in the next few days follow-up with them.

The Ender

It means the check bounced.

I agree with @admanb ; if PayPal bounces a second time, follow-up with them and you should be able to get your refund.


I wouldn't bother escalating on the eBay front - either the guy is broke or the guy is waiting on money to go into his account. In either case, he'll just give you the runaround.

Gaslight

Well after posting this last night I googled and found a couple of other people this had happened to saying it was a scam, basically the digital equivalent of check kiting. So I went ahead and escalated the case with eBay and the eBay rep was like, "We see your refund hasn't processed yet so we'll wait to resolve the case for 10 days." And I was like "Yes, my refund not processing is why I escalated the case." Ugh.

eBay owns PayPal now so it's not even possible to pursue a resolution on PayPal independently of eBay...if you try to open a dispute on the PayPal transaction it says "We see you've already opened a case on eBay, blah blah blah..."

darqness

Ultimately eBay will refund you if they have to, and go after the seller themselves.

The Ender

darqness wrote: »

Ultimately eBay will refund you if they have to, and go after the seller themselves.

That's been my experience as well.

You just have to wait, unfortunately.