PayPal Resolution Center

PayPal has made considerable progress since the days when it initially showed up on the internet business scene, back when eBay purchasers were all the while mailing paper checks to venders. Today, they offer a wide scope of dealer administrations, including working as an installment processor and an acquirer.

Commonality and accommodation attracts numerous vendors to PayPal, yet perhaps the greatest favorable position is the PayPal Resolution Center, which is intended to determine shipper debates without including the client's responsible bank. All in all, it assists vendors with staying away from chargebacks. How might shippers utilize the PayPal Resolution Center to keep their clients cheerful and ensure their income?

The PayPal Resolution Center is situated inside PayPal's site and fills in as a spot where purchasers can resolve issues with their record or exchanges, for example,

  • Getting a restriction on their account lifted

  • Reporting a problem with a transaction

  • Reporting an unauthorized account activity

When a transaction issue cannot be resolved to the buyer’s satisfaction, they can choose to escalate the issue, turning it into a dispute. PayPal will evaluate the claim and render a decision.

Even when a dispute is filed and PayPal sides with the buyer, it’s a much better outcome than getting hit with a chargeback. PayPal disputes don’t affect your chargeback ratio—the rate of chargebacks to transactions that payment processors use to determine how “high risk” you are.

However, they do charge a dispute fee of up to $20 per transaction. While recovering a sale is always the preferable outcome, and a merchant-initiated is the next best thing, a PayPal transaction reversal is still less damaging than a chargeback.

Problem with a Purchase PayPal resolution center

Did something go wrong when making a purchase with PayPal? Did your order not arrive? Did something arrive that was very different than described? The first step is to dispute the transaction through PayPal. We’ll facilitate communication between you and the seller to see if things can be worked out. Many disputes are caused by misunderstandings, and they're often easy to resolve. However, if you and the seller can’t reach an agreement on your own, you can escalate your dispute to a claim. We’ll investigate and make a decision in favor of either you or the seller.

How Does the PayPal Resolution Center Work?

The first thing that happens when a buyer goes to report a transaction issue at the Resolution Center is that PayPal will have them communicate directly with the seller to attempt to resolve the issue directly.

If you’re the seller on the receiving end of a Resolution Center message, this is a great opportunity to figure out what will satisfy the buyer and give it to them. Usually, a refund or a replacement product is all it takes, and that’s a small price to pay to keep a customer happy and avoid the hassle of a dispute.

When the buyer and seller cannot reach an agreement, the buyer can escalate the dispute. PayPal will take the transaction amount back from the seller until they adjudicate the matter.

PayPal will investigate the transaction and may ask for additional information from both parties. Once they reach a decision, they will return the held funds to the victorious party.

Buyers who use their credit cards to fund their PayPal account still have the ability to call their issuing bank and dispute their credit card transaction with PayPal. When this occurs, PayPal will determine which transaction the chargeback relates to, debit the seller’s account, and open a dispute in the PayPal Resolution Center.

At this point, the seller will have 10 days to submit evidence that the chargeback should be reversed. PayPal may then attempt to represent the charge along with the seller’s evidence. If they beat the chargeback, they will return the seller’s funds.

My order never arrived: Paypal Resolution Center

My order arrived – but there’s a problem Paypal Resolution Center

If you fulfill PayPal Buyer Protection requirements and your order never shows up, you'll get a refund. It's that simple.

Open a dispute in the Resolution Center to get the process started.

How to open a dispute

If you purchased the item from one of our merchants, follow these simple steps:

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.

  2. Open a dispute in the Resolution Center within 180 calendar days of your purchase, by clicking on “Dispute a Transaction” under “Report a problem”.

  3. Select the transaction and click Continue.

  4. Select “Item dispute“.

You can open a dispute if the item you receive is significantly different than how it was described. For example:

  1. You received a completely different item.

  2. Example: You purchased a tennis DVD, but received a tennis racket.

  3. The item's condition was misrepresented.

  4. Example: The listing said “new,” but the item was clearly used.

  5. The item is missing parts or features, and this was not disclosed.

  6. Example: You bought a table, and it showed up with only three legs.

  7. You purchased a specific quantity of an item, but received the wrong amount.

  8. Example: You bought two laptops, but received only one.

  9. The item was substantially damaged en route to its destination.

  10. Example: Your antique vase was broken in transit.

  11. You received a counterfeit version of the item.

  12. Example: A "genuine" diamond bracelet ended up being cubic zirconia.

How to escalate a dispute to a claim

If your initial attempt to resolve the problem with the seller is unsuccessful, you can escalate your dispute to a claim.

Here's how: Paypal Resolution Center

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.

  2. Click on your existing dispute in the Resolution Center.

  3. Select “File a Claim.”

You must file your claim within 20 days of when the dispute was first opened. Then, we’ll review your case promptly and provide a final decision.

Is PayPal at Checkout the Answer?

Payment cards remain the preferred choice for consumers when shopping online. However, you can take advantage of mechanisms like the PayPal Resolution Center and Seller Protection by adding PayPal as an option for customers at checkout.

One study found that PayPal had an impressive conversion rate among consumers. Unlike payment cards, which require several information fields, buyers can simply log in to pay with PayPal, removing significant friction from the checkout process.

While this offers a definite advantage, we can’t overstate the importance of general chargeback reduction to manage your risk. The best approach is to identify chargebacks based on their fundamental source—merchant error, criminal fraud, or friendly fraud—and deploy tools and strategies to mitigate those risks. Want to learn more? Click below to speak with one of our chargeback experts today.

How Does the PayPal Resolution Center Avoid Chargebacks?

What Other Protections Do PayPal Sellers Have?

When merchants process online payments through PayPal, it functions as a shield that absorbs all of the actual chargeback activity when disputes occur. This is not to say that PayPal chargebacks are harmless, simply that they protect merchants from the consequences of an excessive chargeback ratio, like the unpredictably rising fees of a high risk payment processor.

Because PayPal’s buyers and sellers share the same platform, it’s easy for PayPal to put them directly in contact with each other when disagreements crop up. By facilitating communication, they increase the odds that a mutually agreeable solution can be reached.

Lastly, while buyers can dispute PayPal transactions with their bank if they used a bank card to make the purchase, they cannot do this if they used PayPal funds or PayPal Credit—the PayPal Resolution Center is their only option.

PayPal Seller Protection is a program offered at no charge to all sellers who qualify. Qualified sellers must have a business account with PayPal, must be located in the United States, must be selling tangible physical goods, and must meet certain other shipment and transaction criteria.

The program protects seller from liability for two dispute categories:

  • Item Not Received

  • Unauthorized TransactionThe intent is to protect both buyers and sellers from theft and fraud. Instead, PayPal covers the losses. In the case of “Item Not Received” disputes, the seller must be able to provide proof of delivery to the shipping address provided in the original transaction details.

While not every merchant will qualify for PayPal Seller Protection, it really is a nice benefit that allows for some peace of mind regarding the ever-present threats of online fraud and package theft. Just make sure you follow their requirements carefully and save all necessary shipping and delivery information they ask for.

Conclusion

In terms of filling the roles otherwise filled by an assorted array of banks and processors PayPal has a lot to offer merchants. The PayPal Resolution Center is significant for its streamlined, common sense approach to the dispute process that puts communication at the forefront.

Of course, it’s easier to maintain a streamlined process when it’s entirely contained to a single platform. Outside of the PayPal environment, the dispute process requires various independent stakeholders to work together to create fair and reasonable outcomes—and while checking out with PayPal can be a smooth and painless process for its users, the majority of merchants still have to accommodate their many current and potential customers who, for whatever reason, choose not to use PayPal.

For merchants who accept PayPal payments, use of the PayPal Resolution Center must be factored in as an important part of their dispute and chargeback management process. Merchants should monitor the PayPal Resolution Center daily to make sure they’re responding to all messages and inquiries as timely as possible, and PayPal disputes should be analyzed along with other chargeback data in order to determine the root causes of your chargebacks. PayPal may protect you from some disputes, but it’s still important to learn how to prevent them in the first place.