Paypal Q

I bought some camping gear recently (multiple hobbies), and cancelled an item before shipping. I had paid for this through Paypal, and have been waiting for a credit from the merchant. This has been several weeks with no action and no response to emails to the merchant. What is Paypal's policy here? I am about to contact them, but was wondering if anyone has had an issue like this. It is pretty disheartening, as this is my first experience with their service, and only my second buying things online

Thanks, Hippie

My satisfaction with paypal refunds has had a 100% correlation to the willingness of the person with your money to refund it. I have never been successful at getting money back from PayPal except through a willing refund.

Basically, you call your credit card company and they say, "Well, you charged a service (from paypal), not merchandise. And as far as we're concerned, you got the service you paid for (i.e., the money was transferred)." Then you contact PayPal and they say, "we are not responsible for items that didn't ship for whatever reason. Contact the seller or your CreditCard company."

Their guarantees and whatnot have always been worthless in my experience. However, I've heard of other people getting satisfaction from them, so may I just didn't pursue it hard enough. It's not like anybody anywhere really WANTS to refund money that's already in their pocket.

I used to sell online a lot and had someone pay for an auction. Then after I shipped the item but before they got it they cancelled the payment. PayPal was no help, all they said was that the other persons account was frozen for some reason. I basically harassed the buyer through emails, etc. until they sent me a money order.
Don't let up on the seller, email and if at all possible make phone calls.
Was this an Ebay purchase?

No, this was a direct purchase from a merchant in CA. This could all be part of their M.O. as it took me a few weeks and emails before they shipped my product.

I've had fairly good success with resolving issues through PayPal. The only time I really got screwed was with Bidpay. That should have been a red flag, but you do what you do when trying to score a rare item.

In your account go to Resolution Center tab, then to "Open a Dispute". I have used this 2 or 3 times and it has always worked.

I used the "resolution" center once when I had a problem. It was resolved quickly and to my satisfaction. But do it quickly, I think you have 30 days.

Lorena