Consumer complaint received 2020-12-07
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: VA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I opened a dispute case ( case number XXXX ) with Paypal in XX/XX/XXXX regarding the transaction discussed below. The transaction happened on XX/XX/XXXX, with an amount of {$190.00} and I was the buyer of the product. The merchant claimed itself to be a California company, located in XXXX XXXX, and had a 14-day return period. However, due to the duplicated transaction ( I purchased the item twice by mistake ), I had to return one. I contacted the company, and was informed that I had to ship it to XXXX to return. Given that the product was a very XXXX XXXX XXXX, the shipping to XXXX was quoted to be close to XXXX dollars. I called Paypal at the point, and the agent confirmed that the company was listed as a Californian company, so he opened a dispute for me. He also told me that if the company did not reply with a California address in 10 days, the case would be ruled in my favor. He also mentioned that even if it was not, I could always get my financial institution to dispute it. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was notified that the case was denied by PayPal through email. I called Paypal again at that point, and another agent changed the dispute for me, provided a temporary credit of {$190.00}, and told me to wait for another 10 days. When it was close to the end of the 14-day return period, and I still did not hear back from Paypal, I called my credit card ( XXXX card ) company, telling them about the issue and having them initiate an investigation. Immediately after my call, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received another email from PayPal notifying me that my case was denied again, and PayPal would request the provisional credit ( {$190.00} ) back, and post a negative balance on my PayPal account. Later on, my credit card company decided to rule in my favor after their investigation and issued me a refund. However, a few weeks later, I was notified by XXXX XXXX that PayPal posted its temporary credit through my XXXX, and therefore there was a refund from PayPal to me on my card statement, as a result they could not refund me -- so they took back their refund. Now on my credit card statement, there was the charge of XXXX from Paypal on XX/XX/XXXX, the temporary credit from Paypal of XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX 's refund of {$190.00} and another charge from Paypal of XXXX at the end of XXXX, XXXX. At the same time, I have a negative balance of {$190.00} on PayPal. 

I called my credit card company and told them that PayPal did not actually issue a refund because PayPal took back the provisional credit and asked me to pay back the full amount in my PayPal account. XXXX 's reply was that they could not see this debit from their side ( because Palpal is requesting it through Paypal account, not through my credit card ), and they could only observe the temporary credit issued to me on my XXXX card by PayPal on XXXX, XXXX. They could not give me another refund if PayPal had already issued me a refund ( which Paypal did not, but XXXX couldn't see it from their end ). 

I called PayPal many times afterwards. None of the many agents I talked to could resolve the issue and I was told to write to the Chargeback department. I did so ( see email attached ), and informed them that XXXX card had put the {$190.00} refund back to the Paypal 's Chargeback account with them on XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX card representative gave me this date on the phone ), and they should look for it there and issue me the refund. 

After I sent the email to Paypal 's chargeback department, all the replies I got are automatic replies in my Paypal account ( not through email ) stating that it would take them 90 business days to solve the case. Before 90 business days were over, I received a letter in the mail from a debt collector to collect the {$190.00} for Paypal. I called the debt collecting company and told them about the ongoing dispute, and they said they would take it back to Paypal. I did not hear back from either Paypal or the debt collector after that. Last week ( around XX/XX/XXXX ), I received another letter from a different debt collector to collect the same {$190.00} from Paypal. I called them to tell them about the dispute between Paypal and me, but they said Paypal had decided to take back that account from them, so they couldn't do anything at that point. Today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I received an email from Papal telling me that they have sold the debt to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and provided a phone number for me to call. I called the Paypal 's phone number listed in the email, the customer representative told me that she did not have access to my account, she could not tell me what department she worked for, and neither she or her supervisor could provide a phone number to a department within Paypal that could help me solve the dispute. In addition, she said that other than customer service and her department ( which she wouldn't reveal what department that was ), none of other Payal 's departments were working today due to the pandemic. Basically there is no one within Paypal that can look into the issue and resolve the disputed debt for over a year. 

The case was simple to begin with -- if Paypal could refund me as the very first agent promised ( as the merchant never got back to Paypal within 10 days after Paypal first reached out to them about my dispute ), there would be no negative balance on my account ; or, if Paypal decided not to refund me right away, my credit card company had ruled in my favor in their own investigation and would have issued me a refund. Paypal 's action to first issue a temporary credit to my credit card, and then take the credit back by posting a negative balance on my Paypal account leads to the current situation where I received no refund either from Paypal or my credit card company. Furthermore, they failed to resolve such a simple issue for over a year after I called and emailed them numerous times, never got in contact with me in person about this case within the 90 business days as they promised, and they transferred the debt to three different other debt collecting companies during the process. In XXXX, XXXX, they simply sent an email saying my dispute about unauthorized transaction was denied -- which was not even the issue of the dispute here. Toady, I realized that Paypal had closed my account with them, so I could not even obtain the automatic communications they sent me within my Paypal account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief