Consumer complaint received 2020-11-25
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: AZ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
I have an account with PayPal. I signed up for PayPal as they promised that my online purchases would be safer and more secure using them rather than sharing credit card information on various internet sites. I had them linked to my bank, and I also kept a separate balance in my PayPal account since I sometimes used the PayPal debit card to complete my purchases. On or around XX/XX/2020, I tried to place an order online using the said card, which was declined. This appeared odd to me since I knew that there was close to {$200.00} in the account itself last I had checked. I looked at my billing and found at least XXXX  fraudulent charges on my XXXX account, linked to my Paypal account. I called XXXX immediately to report these false transactions on XX/XX/2020. On XX/XX/2020, I received an email from XXXX, denying all of my disputes. Oddly enough, though, they had refunded one of these transactions. I then called PayPal to dispute these same items since I believed it was their job to protect consumers against fraud, and they could dispute the charges with XXXX. They took less than 24 hours to deny these same claims as being " ineligible '' for a refund because I had a billing agreement with XXXX. Thus, no investigation was performed. As one representative told me after I expressed my belief that " fraudulent charges '' were not covered in my agreement with either XXXX or PayPal, " it's your own fault for connecting your XXXX account to PayPal. '' My understanding was that Paypal strongly encourages you to do just that. In any case, after denials by both companies ( and no reason at all given by XXXX XXXX, I looked at my XXXX billing statement and found evidence to the contrary. Every dispute, including some matters I had not disputed at all, were shown as refunded. I took screenshots of every transaction, attached below, and sent these to XXXX and Paypal. XXXX promised me they would get to the bottom of the issue and figure out what was going on. Finally, today, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a phone call from XXXX, letting me know the exact problem and Paypal 's fault. XXXX, in fact, HAD slated these items for a refund. But, because I went to Paypal, which apparently was a mistake, they were waiting for Paypal to file disputes on these items. They never did since they had already decided that the billing agreement trumped everything else and had never placed a claim with Paypal. My understanding of Paypal is that they are only a fiduciary and are supposed to dispute items for me, not perform their own internal examination and decide my claim was not worthy of being disputed. The current state of the issue is this : ( a ) XXXX is ready to refund my money but needs Paypal to dispute the items ; ( b ) Paypal refuses to dispute the items after deciding that they were not covered and thus, will not contact XXXX ; ( c ) Paypal is supposed to allow customers to escalate their disputes into claims if the dispute is filed within 15 days of the charge. I tried to escalate my dispute, but PayPal closed my dispute, giving me absolutely no way to escalate, re-dispute, etc. I wish I had never gone to Paypal initially, but XXXX did not exactly help by immediately denying the claims without reason. All I know is that I'm currently XXXX and really could use the {$130.00} back that XXXX agrees is owed to me. How is PayPal, serving as a fiduciary, only, and allegedly " on my side, '' get to decide whether or not they will investigate fraud? I have no idea how to handle this situation other than filing a suit against both companies.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation