How can I tell if a customer paid with a Paypal Account?

[deniser]

I have a strange situation where a customer made a big order, then returned it, I refunded it and she is now saying she doesn't have the money despite having received an email to say the refund has cleared.

We use Paypal to process payments on this particular site. You can pay whether you have a Paypal account or not.

I had assumed that refunds go back to the place the money came from in the first place so if a Paypal balance then back to a Paypal account and if no Paypal account then back to the credit card or current account if they paid with a Debit Card.

She says that the money has not reached her card. The email she has received says the money is available to her as a Paypal balance.

She is adamant that she doesn't have a Paypal account and that she paid with her credit card.

How can I check by what method she paid in the first place? Logging into my Paypal account doesn't give me any obvious answer to my question. She does have a "confirmed" address though so doesn't this mean she must have a Paypal account?

If she had paid by a credit card but had a Paypal account, is it possible that Paypal could have put the refund into her account rather than back to her Credit card?

Any help gratefully received as she is demanding her money back onto her Credit card and getting quite agitated about it.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

If PayPal says the transaction has been cancelled / voided or refunded, then typically it will have been. To the PP account balance if there is an account (irrespective of source), to the source if there wasn't a PP account.

Many card providers however (especially international ones) take the full 7 working days (not 5 working days / 7 actual days, 7 WORKING days) to make the balance adjustments visible to the cardholder.

 

[Low Cost Sourcing]

It might be better for the customer to contact PayPal directly regarding the transaction to try and find out what is going on. The transaction number of the initial purchase should help them. As you are using PayPal and they are their own entity there is little you can do especially if you can show that the refund has left your account.

Do some of the work for them by giving them the transaction number and telephone number and simply advise that you have done everything you can your end by refunding and then investigating as much as you could but it is PayPal who will be able to advise exactly where the funds are.

Hope this helps

 

[antropy]

Perhaps her husband uses the same card and it's linked to his PayPal account?

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

It might be better for the customer to contact PayPal directly regarding the transaction to try and find out what is going on. The transaction number of the initial purchase should help them. As you are using PayPal and they are their own entity there is little you can do especially if you can show that the refund has left your account.

Do some of the work for them by giving them the transaction number and telephone number and simply advise that you have done everything you can your end by refunding and then investigating as much as you could but it is PayPal who will be able to advise exactly where the funds are.

Hope this helps

This seems the best thing to do. You have done your part by refunding them using the method provided. If there is a query with the customer not receiving the refund and it is past the expected crediting date (5-7 business days) then they should take it up themselves with PayPal with the transaction reference provided. Hopefully this will satisfy the customer that you have done as required/requested.

I would recommend taking screenshots of the transaction/refund within your PayPal account in case there is a problem and it isn't showing at PayPal's end (unlikely but best to be on the safe side).