PAY PAL question

[UltraMarginal]

So, I bought and paid for an item (WJPrime) on eBay, which should only be mentioned in the non-official section.

needless to say it's a good price and the seller has reasonable looking reputation/history.

A couple days after payment I get shipping notice.

A few days after that I get a notification from Paypal that the payment has been refunded with the following message from the seller:

because there is problem with payment, so we have to stop package, and refund to you, another i have resend bill to your paypal, you can go to your paypal, and accept to pay for item in time, then we can ask post office continue to send package, thanks

I have checked the Tracking number I was provided with China Post and there are no hits. I am pretty sure they are yet to send the item. I also used my Credit card which is more than adequate for value through paypal so there is no way there was actually a problem with payment.

I have just today (2 days later) received an invoice from the seller for the same amount. I'm wondering if there is still buyer protection through Paypal for something like this?
I don't think it's a gift of money since it's an Invoiced amount, but I do wonder if this is the sellers way of trying to avoid paypal fees? Would they still not be paying fees on the invoiced amount? Just no longer paying eBay fees since they had refunded the item.

I feel like making the payment and once the figure arrives, I'll report them to eBay. but that also feels a bit dirty.

[drifand]

Check with Paypal, if there are any issues and what happens if something goes wrong.

I think it looks like he is avoiding Ebay transaction.

[MEEEGGGAAATTTRRROOONNN!!!]

Don't you both have to officially cancel on eBay in order for the seller to get back the fees?

I remember having to do that, but it was years ago and I don't remember clearly so I could be wrong.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yep, definitely would go directly to paypal to see what's happened. I'd go as far as letting him know that's what you're doing.

Paypal is pretty rock solid, a "problem with payment" sounds like a crock to me.

[ZoonMaster5000]

Basically it sounds like he's told eBay you defaulted on your payment and now he's still doing the transaction via the backdoor at PayPal without ebays knowledge.

Pretty dodgy but at least you will still be covered by PayPal.

[Bladestorm]

Sounds like he's trying to pocket the profit from the eBay fees by avoiding processing the payment through them. The way he is doing it he only has to pay the paypal fees.

I'd tread with caution and talk to eBay/Paypal as you don't want to get in trouble because he is trying to do the dodge.
Buying an item you've already brought or discussed buying on eBay through other means (even just through paypal) is against eBay policy so you don't want to innocently be pinged with a mark against your account.

Good luck with it.

[UltraMarginal]

Well, before I could act on it in any way, I received an email from eBay saying that the listing had been removed. Noting that I had received a refund they said that if I was asked to pay otherwise and had, I needed to talk to the money transfer organisation and organise a refund.

I've since been and checked out the seller again and all his listings have been removed, and in the last week he has 5 negative feedback for doing exactly the same thing to 5 others.

I can't even leave negative feedback now as the listing no longer exists.
I have not sent any money. I wonder if it's a hacked account because it had over 100 positive feedback and has been around for a while.