Opened a dispute on paypal closed my ebay dispute

[franpozz-39]

I am a buyer who was likely scammed by a seller.

I contacted them today after receiving an empty box full of cardboard rubbish instead of an iphone 15 pro max, but they said i cannot prove i do not have the phone stashed somewhere and it is likely someone tampered with the package.

I was following the procedure suggested by the eBay money back guarantee. Then, whilst waiting for the 10 business days before asking eBay to step in, I was foolish enough tonight to also open a claim through PayPal, through which I had paid.  I immediately received a response by ebay saying the case had been closed because I had initiated a dispute through the payment method. I was completely unaware of this, and I was simply too overzealous and mad that the seller is still gaslighting me. 

Now I read that if I close a PayPal case, I cannot reopen it and I am also unsure if I would be allowed to reopen it on eBay - my hunch is probably not. Now I read that the eBay protection is superior to PayPal but I had no idea as I normally do not pay through PayPal! 

The last line of defense would be to appeal to Amex which is the card linked to the PayPal account, but I will only do it after. I had no idea that Paypal dispute would mean automatic cancellation of the ebay one, I basically shot myself in the foot out of being super careful, and lost an entire evening (today). 

I am really worried now that I will never see my money again... I am thinking of speaking to an agent tomorrow but I seriously doubt they would be able to help me.

[tressygirl]

No point contacting eBay. 

It's a shame after 10 days opening an eBay case,  all you had to do then was to escalate it, eBay would have stepped in and forced the refund.  Opening a PayPal case at the same time looks like you are after 2 refunds,  hence the eBay one closed.  You cannot open another with eBay for this item.

Is the PayPal case still open?  Escalate it after 48 hours.   PayPal do take longer to investigate cases so you may have a little longer wait here for a result.

@franpozz-39 

[plpmr]

when taking advice here please remember these are the UK boards and you are in Italy.

[franpozz-39]

So, the seller have cancelled their ebay account in the meantime. Paypal said they received some info from the counterparty (not sure if from ebay or the seller itself at this point). I will hear back from them by 22 December. I had also filed an ActionFraud report with all the info I had (just the scammer username sadly), which I have attached to the paypal dispute. 

I was so stupid, it was the first time I have been scammed and for a high amount, and for some reason I feared that acting as soon as possible was crucial to not let the seller claim that I had instead received the item. After reading various reddit posts I realised I was the victim of a common scam but it was too late. I did not realise it would make me look as after 2 refunds, I simply wanted to escalate as soon as possible to help solve the issue fast, and try to block any payments.

Finger crossed, as the amount is substantial and I fear now it would need to be either ebay / paypal themselves refunding since the scammer disappeared (see below, their handle was frpla-5710)

 

[franpozz-39]

I was registered in Italy in the past but I am resident in the UK in 2024.