Chargeback with Paypal

Need some advice here before I progress further:

I sold a website, the guy paid with paypal. He doesnt want the site anymore for certain reasons and wants a refund. I said I'll provide a full refund via paypal. He says if anything goes wrong he will file a chargeback (since he paid from a debit card).

Here's the problem:
He claims his paypal account has been locked, and so wants me to transfer the money to him via a bank transfer. He says that it takes 7-14 days to reopen his paypal account, but he doesn't want to use paypal again.

What's the best course of action here? Is refunding via paypal the only option I should take? Thanks

 

I wouldnt refund with him period..

He sounds like a scammer to me, wait til paypal reopens or if you can, call them. They usually will tell you what the deal is.

But BEWARE, it smells fishy

 

Yup a dogy character best thing to do is call paypal.

 

This is a tough one. It seems to me that if he ran his
debit card through paypal, then he has no recourse but
to chargeback paypal, not you. Then paypal would
have to chargeback to you, but he doesn't have an
active paypal account.

Personally, I would be worried about him, it is safest to
pay him back the same way that he paid you, that way
you know that the same person that owned the credit
card (or debit card) gets the money.

 

Totally agree with wizardofx here. It does sound fishy for many reasons. RED FLAGS are flying in my eyes and I have been doing business online since 98, so I do have some experience with scammers.

I would tell him that you will do a refund through paypal only to make sure that the transactions is on par. Also, do you still have ownership of the domain/site? How do you know he will give it back if not?

If he still doesn't want to offer a 3rd person that you trust to handle the transaction to make sure you get the domain back.

 

In any case like this. The best bet is to call Paypal, they normally can & will tell you anything that is goin on with the account, I already told Lapsa what he should do in an instant message. Paypal would have frozen the funds already if they were fraudulant, they have advanced much faster than that.

 

You can return his money but like wizardofx said, return it to where it came from. Do it through Paypal because if you were to do a wire transfer, he could still do a dispute in Paypal and you will lose the money twice (assuming it is really his debit card). If it is not then you would have been scammed.

Ignore his request for the wire transfer and insist on going through Paypal as moderator.

 

not really dodgy or fishy to me. I, myself, has been under limited for now coz some dude chargeback for me. So, it could be his case too. But why would you under any obligation to refund him the money via bank transfer?

Tell him to setle his paypal first.

 

this is what hes doing this is a total scam now he has your site, hes made a digital copy of it, and now wants to return the site, get his money back. then hell reopen the site under a new domain and away he goes he got your content for nothing.

If i were you id just ignore him, theres no way for you to control the fact that he can copy it indefinately.

If i sell a site, its no return no refund.

 

cobby, now that was exactly what I was thinking all along nice post, that totally deserved a rep. those who are thinking to pay it back, no way no how

 

thanks...

Im a services supplier online i know when scammers scam and thats totally a scam if i ever heard one. Ive seen it done, and so many fall for it. Probably worse than that is the guy probably used a stolen creditcard to pay for it. The nets full of these guys. Usually you can smell them coming tho. But many just dont see this as a scam thats why it works so well. Yeah i bet he wanted a wire transfer....

 

There is no way anyone should send any sort of refund via any other method than the original paying method, its just asking to get ripped.

 

Always refund the same method as received, this is the classic way either to launder money or more often gain funds from a stolen card

 

this is why you DONT use paypal for large transactions.. ive had this happen to me and lost $2500 bucks =(
paypal wont do crap about it either.

 

Don't refund from any other method just use refund link in transaction details.

 

One important question: How can we avoid chargebacks? Can we avoid chargebacks by making transactions only via paypal balance?

 

Thanks for the help guys. He's decided to keep the site now.

 

That wont help, as if someone has a stolen paypal account that has money in it, they can pay you from that. You're still going to get the chargeback.

 

There is no way to avoid them, it is one of the risks of accepting anything other than cash and you simply build it into your pricing structure.

Some companies will protect you from chargebacks but they typically have higher transaction fees and also will frequently withdraw their services to you after you have received a couple.

 

Depending on the product/value, you can ask for an ID scan which will deter it. If its an electronic delivery then it doesnt really matter, you dont lose anything with the fraud and paypal just take the money back with no chargeback fee (unlike a proper merchant).