Consumer complaint received 2021-08-21
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: NJ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I have a XXXX XXXX XXXX and contracted with a client for services for their daughter 's bat mitzvah that was to take place on XX/XX/2020. The client was sending emails around saying that the party would go forward as late as the night of XX/XX/XXXX. On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, I received information from the venue that this client had cancelled their event with them. When I contacted them to confirm, the client was excessively rude, threatened me and then hung up on me. We had purchased all of the food, ordered the rentals, had the party fully staffed and prepped much of the food, as well, requiring staffing the kitchen in the days leading up to do so. The contract reads clearly what the cancellation penalties are and, in spite of the fact that we had no obligation, we were prepared to work with them on a future date, crediting whatever was possible. 

The client had paid a large portion of the party through PayPal using the client 's business, which happens to be a credit card company, to do so. They asked for a full refund, declining our offer to work with them on an alternate date. I responded by restating the terms of the contract, which states that a cancellation at that late date did not warrant a refund. In fact, they still had a balance due, which I did not pursue. 

The next thing that I heard anything about this was when I received a dunning letter last month stating that I owed PayPal {$6500.00}. Apparently, the client applied for a charge back from PayPal more than a year after the payment was made as an end run around his contractual responsibilities. PayPal claims to have sent one email, which I did not receive or I would have responded immediately with my documents to refute this claim. I have received a ton of spam related to PayPal and have forwarded much of it to them, never hearing a reply back. As I do not use PayPal very often, I do not check my PayPal message box on their site and had no other way to know what was transpiring. He used PayPal so that he could pay by credit card. I do not accept credit cards and the client was upset from the start about that. In retrospect, I have to wonder if he uses credit cards as insurance in case he doesn't like the outcome of something. It is much easier to get a refund from a credit card than it is if using cash or a check. 

When I tried to reach out to PayPal to settle this, their response was basically, too late. They allowed a charge back well past their printed time to acquire one, so I do not know why they can not revisit this issue. At the very least, they should be required to confirm that contact has been made before they can proceed with such a claim. They seem to want to bear no responsibility and the end result is that they are allowing this client to break our contract with no consequence. PayPal is now a vehicle to circumvent a contractual agreement, something I believe that only a court has the right to do. 

As I was given no way to escalate my complaint, independently I found the email address for the CFO of PayPal on XXXX and sent a couple of messages directly to him, but got no response. I am very frustrated and upset that they seem to not care and not be held to the same standards as other financial institutions. There are no consequences for PayPal or the client when they don't follow the rules. I do not know if my client 's status of being in the credit card business had any affect on the way things were handled, but I am quite sure that they utilize PayPal more often than I do, making them a more attractive client than I am and returning the charge did not impact PayPal at all. I am a struggling small business owner and this is a burden, more dramatically while being a XXXX during these times.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation