Unclaimed payment

[InkySkink]

I recently purchased an item on eBay and despite paying immediately as usual, my payment was listed as 'unclaimed' .

As soon as I realised I contacted the seller to investigate what had gone wrong. After trying every possible method of payment through PayPal and calling payPal directly, the only information payPal can give me is that the sellers address is either not connected to a PayPal account or is unconfirmed.

After contacting the seller once again With payPal's response I received the following reply-

"I'd double-checked, and my details are definitely the correct one and I don't actually have problem receiving payment from other bidders though, so I really can't understand why this would happen as an isolated case! "

Has anybody else had this problem? And how do I get the seller to investigate beyond checking that they have the correct e-mail address attached?
And is there any way to get eBay/PayPal to investigate?

I had this problem buying a maternity dress, 4 days later after I had messaged her about it, she asked where the payment was (stuck in paypal limbo) I told her she needed to log into her paypal to sort it. 3 weeks later of no messages she replied and sorted it out.

After 28 days paypal will automatically refund you if the seller doesn't log into their paypal and sort the issue out. Usually something stupid like confirming something.

Thank you for replying.
I have asked seller again to check on their PayPal account. I don't even know if they can see the transaction in payPal and it is frustrating because payPal can't give me any information as it would breach the seller's privacy.

If the seller doesn't come back to me eventually at least saying I have tried X, Y and Z would it be reasonable to leave negative feedback?

The attitude currently seems to be that it's my problem and I need to sort it out, but I don't
know if she has taken any steps on her end.
At least I've tried everything I can think of including calling payPal.

The seller is now trying to persuade me to pay by cheque.

This doesn't seem right. Some sort of scam?

If you send a cheque you have no paypal protection.

Is it an expensive item? And is it coming from abroad? The message seems to be in broken English.

It isn't even an expensive item. Less than £5 with postage. The listing is from England (Reading). And there's no way I'm paying by anything other than PayPal via eBay. The seller is adamant that they have put in the correct details despite the fact there is no sign of the transaction on their payPal account.

perhaps they have a paypal account that is not the one on the ebay order.

Ask them to send you the email address associated with that account, or to pay you 1p from it.

they have the wrong email address on the listing. If you log into paypal you can tell the the address the money has gone to. They probably made a typo. If they have access to the wrong email address they can add that to their paypal and then accept the payment. But don't pay by cheque.

If you clicked pay now and paid that way it doesn't matter what email address you have, it would be automatic.

I gave neutral feedback, if the item wasn't so lovely when it eventually came I would have given negative. I vaguely recall saying she was an incompetent seller who failed to respond to messages to deal with their error. (hormonal pregnant lady, and it was a maternity item lol)

Wait and see how it pans out before you judge what feedback to leave.

The seller needs to sort it out or ring paypal and deal with it. Make sure you explain that they need to do this as you are unable to as the buyer.

yummy you are wrong - if the payment is unclaimed the seller has entered the wrong email address to the listing. Ringing paypal will do nothing - the seller has to accept the payment, and if they have made a typo they cannot add an incorrect email address to paypal as they won't be able to click on a confirm link sent to an email address which doesn't exist.

Erm that's not even exactly what I said. If you clicked pay now, as you said it can't be linked to a non existent email address, if you typed the email address in through pay pal not eBay then the buyer could have typed it incorrectly. If you click pay now if there is an error it's down to the seller.

Might be nothing to do with email addresses though. I had sent a payment to someone and it was sat there unclaimed for 3 weeks, until the seller finally read her emails, logged into paypal and clicked a confirmation. But equally she had never sold on eBay before and from feedback been a member for years but not used a lot. Paypal told me the seller needed to log into her paypal or if that didn't work ring them as the problem was the sellers end. I was told it would automatically be refunded within 28 days if left unclaimed.

If the payment is unclaimed you can cancel it from your Paypal account. Then once claimed back you can try o resend. It could have just been a glitch in the system.