Consumer complaint received 2018-12-10
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2018 I arranged, via a XXXX posting, the sale of 4 tickets to the XX/XX/XXXX XXXX/XXXX concert in XXXX. The buyer, known as XXXX XXXX ( email address XXXX ), agreed to the terms of the sale, which were as follows : I would send a Paypal money request for the agreed amount of {$840.00} to the email address above. Buyer would respond with payment, at which point I would transfer tickets electronically via XXXX. The payment and subsequent ticket transfer were completed at XXXX XXXX EDT when the buyer accepted the XXXX transfer. 

At XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email notification from Paypal that the buyer ( same name and email address ) was disputing the payment, claiming he did not authorize it. At that point, Paypal put a hold on the payment amount, even though it had clearly been deposited to my account ( I would never have transferred the tickets otherwise ). I provided to Paypal ample evidence that the sale was agreed to by both parties, that the payment was received by me, and that the buyer had accepted the ticket transfer. This evidence included all emails exchanged with the buyer, emails from Paypal documenting the request and payment, and emails/screenshots from XXXX clearly indicating the tickets were transferred by me and accepted by the buyer ( using the same name and email address ). 

On XXXX XXXX, I received a notice from Paypal saying they had concluded their investigation and that the funds had been debited from my account because We were unable to verify the shipment information you provided. No additional details were provided about why they were not able to verify the ticket transfer. I had provided ample evidence that the ticket transfer to the stated recipient had occurred. 

I sent a reply to Paypal that same day requesting additional explanation, and requesting a contact person authorized to discuss this issue. I received no response after two weeks, so on XX/XX/XXXX, I filed complaints with both the XXXX XXXX XXXX   ( XXXX ) and the Ohio Attorney General against Paypal.

After PayPal received those complaints, I was contacted by XXXX at PayPals office of Executive Escalation, who said that the buyer had disputed the charge with his credit card company ( since the transaction from Paypal was funded by a credit card ), and Paypal had to wait for that to be resolved before they could take further action. Eventually, the credit card company ruled in favor of the buyer on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Paypal refuses to provide any details on the dispute with the credit card company no explanation of their decision or even the name of the card company. So I have no avenue to challenge their ruling, or to find out if the name of the complainant matches the name that was shown to me via the Paypal and XXXX transactions. The actual dispute case in Paypals system does indeed show the same name and email address. 

Paypal also says that I am not protected under their Seller Protection Policy because the tickets were transferred electronically rather than mailing hardcopy tickets with a tracking number. They claim these are digital goods, so are not protected. Their policy states that digital goods such as downloaded music are not protected, but does not say anything about ticket transfers. My contention is that they are not the same thing, and that I provided clear evidence that the tickets were delivered to the buyer. After multiple rounds with the XXXX  and the Ohio AG, Paypal continues to refuse to refund my money on these grounds. 

Note that I have also tried twice to contact the buyer at the above email address to ask why he disputed the payment, thinking perhaps he may have confused it with another transaction. I have received no reply, which lends credence to this being a case of theft/fraud. 

I would like Paypal to be held accountable under their Seller Protection Policy. As stated above, I do not believe that a ticket transfer consitutes digital goods in the way their policy describes such goods, and I believe I provided ample proof of delivery to the verified buyer. I want Paypal to immediately refund the {$840.00} that they improperly removed from my account. 

I have attached evidence showing the emails with the buyer showing the agreement to purchase the tickets, the payment from the buyer, the successful transfer and acceptance of the tickets by that buyer, and the subsequent illegitimate disputed submitted by the buyer to Paypal.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief