Hello, this is my first post so I hope this is the right place for it!
To cut a very long story short, I need some advice regarding the sale of an item - I sold a pair of brand new shoes on ebay for £109, but the seller didn't pay for 4 days, by which point my son was unwell. I'm a single mother so I couldn't get to the post office. Then I caught the flu too, so it was a good week before I could post the item, but I kept the buyer updated throughout as I realised how frustrating the delay must have been for her (especially as she made me aware of this by bombarding me with rude emails). The day I posted them, she had opened a ebay case against me for non receipt of item. I messaged her to once again apologise and to explain that I had posted them (by Express 24, which cost double the listed postage). This time she replied very politely and said that her boyfriend had opened the case as she had used his Paypal account without asking (fraud?!) and he thought she was being ripped off (I have 360 100% positive feedback other than one unfair neutral, by the way). The tracking showed that the goods were received at 08.10 am the following morning, but I messaged her to double check that she was happy with the shoes. She didn't respond. I came down with another bug a few days later, so completely forgot about the case she'd opened and didn't receive any emails that paypal say they sent because presumably they went into the junk folder on the Hotmail account I use specifically for Ebay (I can't find them, anyway). On Friday I checked my Paypal account to transfer the money I'd been saving from ebay for my car insurance, to find that the £109 had been refunded to the buyer. I've never had to deal with claims against me before, so I was unaware that this would happen. I sort of assumed that as I'd posted the shoes, it would be fine. If I hadn't been feeling so horrific I probably wouldn't have been so naive! Two appeals later Paypal say that they're unable to return the money back to me because I didn't respond to the case within the correct time period. The buyer, obviously, is not bothering to respond to my (very polite considering the circumstances!) messages (she has definitely been online as she's left feedback for other sellers). I rang Paypal again today but the department I needed was closed, so I was told to ring back again tomorrow. I have a horrible feeling that they're still not going to do anything about this though, so I'm considering legal action. I'm essentially £180 out of pocket (original cost of shoes, plus postage, plus ebay and paypal fees etc) and I'm a young, lone parent with a minute income and a hell of a lot of outgoings, so I'm feeling pretty wounded and incredibly panicked as I need to pay around £1000 towards insuring and fixing my car this month, which is already going to be pretty tight as it is. Am I going to be able to open a Small Claims case, and if so, against whom? The buyer or Paypal?
Sorry for the long post (and lack of paragraphs!) but my head's in a muddle and I really need some help with this.
Thanks a lot in advance! x