has PayPal ever charged your credit card.....

Has PayPal ever charged your credit card to get back funds for itself or for others?

I bought an eBay item that was totally misrepresented.
I filed a dispute with PayPal and escalated it to a claim when the seller refused to cooperate.
The seller issued a refund but did not use the PayPal refund process -- they instead sent me a separate PayPal payment, which PayPal took their customary fee from.
Feeling that that was the best I was going to do I accepted the fee loss, canceled the claim, and returned the item.
Now the seller is saying that he never received the returned item and is using his payment to me to file a claim against me for non-receipt of goods.
FYI:
My original purchase was protected by eBay's Buyer Protection Program.
The seller's "purchase" from me is not.

Given that I have no proof of delivery (I have a D/C number that still shows the item in limbo) what do you think the odds are that this scumbag is going to prevail?
My PayPal balance is zero so there's no money there for PayPal to take but do they typically charge my credit card to get the funds if he does?
If he loses the claim but then disputes it with his credit card company, will PayPal try to take the funds from my credit card at that point?

Anybody ever run into anything similar?

By my reading of the rules I think I'm protected but with PayPal's reputation, I just don't have a comfy feeling about any of this.

From my understanding of how Paypal works, I think you're going to have trouble.... Since this is a separate transaction as far as Paypal is concerned, if you have no proof of postage/receipt, then Paypal will almost automatically find in favour of the "buyer"/i.e. the guy who paid the money.

IMHO, you shouldn't have accept that credit card payment and taken the loss in paypal fees, but have insisted that the original transaction be reversed/refunded, as that basically zeros out your previous payment to this bad seller.. By cancelling your previous dispute, you basically told Paypal that the problem with the previous transaction was resolved...

Looks like this guy knows the rules and is using them to scam you...

As far as I know, Paypal won't charge your credit card, but they will close down/restrict your account if you have such a dispute...

Sounds like a potential scam - especially since he didn't refund by PayPal. The fact that the D.C. does not show it delivered though is an indication that the P.O. may have lost or gotten it delayed (we've all seen that I'm sure). So it may yet show up if the guy is honest then you may be allright. Can you state his eBay ID (PM me if you don't want to post it here). And from what I've heard PP will charge your CC if they believe the other guy. Good luck

The package showed up so all is good.

I wasn't worried about PayPal finding in his favor.
I was just worried about what PayPal would do if they did.
Since the transaction wasn't guaranteed I would have been very surprised if they'd charged my credit card to get the money.
Taking my balance is one thing but an unauthorized charge to satisfy an unguaranteed dispute is an other.
I know that one time, a dispute was settled in my favor yet I did not receive 100% back because PayPal claimed that they couldn't recover the funds.