A friend just copy/pasted this to me and want to know if he lost or won the dispute in this email. If he Won, can the buyer reopen the dispute? If he Lost, is his money gone for good? Thanks.
Unfortunately this means the money + PayPals settlement fee is lost. Now I'm just curious how much that settlement fee was I never knew they charged a fee for that.
As it is clearly stated, Paypal tried to help the seller fight the buyer's chargeback request but the buyer's bank denied Paypal's appeal so the buyer won and got his money back. Because the buyer won, Paypal is charged a chargeback fees which it needs to pay to the buyer's bank out of its own pocket apart from losing all their fees. The seller would have to share in paying this chargeback fee. The buyer cannot reopen the dispute since he already won the case.
It sounds as if your friend lost. Paypal is saying that they were "not successful" in their attempts to challenge the buyer's disputing, which means that the buyer won. They are also making your friend pay for the fee that they themselves were charged for trying to dispute the CC company.
Personally, I am not sure what the appeal of Paypal has when it comes to virtual items. We all know that no one is protected when it comes to virtual items, not the buyer or the seller. However, most time the one who paid usually would get the right of way, which is the buyer. Although paypal allows you to pay for service, the platform was never made for virtual items and they would rely on hard evidences, ie independent 3rd party verification of proof of delivery. This would not work with virtual items and anyone using it to receive money through it would always be at the mercy of the buyer. As you would be well aware, with the numerous reports of fake accounts with fake details and people here teaching one another how to foil Paypal and cheat others, it certainly have turned to become a good platform as a thief marketplace. Paypal spoilt the market by offering lower fees than all its competitors and in order for them to turn a profit, they neglect the essential components of fraud protection which would be bad for online businesses particularly when it comes to virtual items. There is certainly no way you can independent prove you deliver anything. The only way a seller can be protected is to withdraw all their money and during a chargeback, never use paypal again. It certainly promotes bad business practises all way around. There are other platform around for online payment which are catered for such products or services. They may be more expensive but certain worth the while.