PayPal Friends & Family Payment Fees!!!

[kailes2872]

I am thankful for these fees. I established a nice rapport with a seller and took a deal off EBay. He sold me the lot and I paid F&F. The shipment was very slow and I thought that I was scammed. He offered to refund the money until the cards arrived.

Later that same day (2 weeks later), the cards arrived. I felt terrible that I thought he had scammed me. The refund he sent was as an echeck and was going to take 5 days to clear. There was no way to cancel the refund. I attempted to send him another friends and family payment. For some reason, it sent as an Echeck. He asked if I could try to send as an instant transfer and he would cancel the echeck. Again, feeling bad that I had overreacted and had cards in hand. I happily did this. To my surprise (despite having ample funds in my direct transfer checking account), it pulled from my credit card and charged me a 2.9% fee.

Alas, the refund did not clear after two weeks and two attempts. PayPal cancelled it. The seller went radio silent. I was out $985. Because I had paid the fee (even though I was trying to send F&F) I was able to put in a dispute claim to PayPal. If that didn't go well I would file a dispute with the cc issuer.

After PayPal made 3 attempts to reach the seller to no avail, the informed me today that my account would be refunded. It would take up to 5 days and I have already had two refunds denied due to seller insufficient funds but, at least I was able to get it resolved. I think I am out of the friends and family business. That 2.9% saved my behind even though I was trying to give it away. I will have to start assuming the worst in deals. The safeguards are there for a reason. In this case they protected me from myself.