Consumer complaint received 2019-02-11
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: PA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
I sent 3 Paypal " Friends and Family '' money transfers to my daughters ' mother ( XXXX XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX ( {$500.00} ), XX/XX/XXXX ( {$3400.00} ) and XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ) for her to put down payments on 2 investment rental condos and to pay for my daughters school tuition and books. I received corresponding transaction receipts and email " Transaction Detail '' confirmations ( see attached ) and in all cases no mention of any fees was made and in fact each emailed " Transaction Detail '' report stated XXXX XXXX would get the full amount I sent her. On XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered the emailed " Transaction Details '' confirmations XXXX XXXX received did not match the ones sent me, she had in fact not received the full amount as stated in my confirmations and emailed " Transaction Details '' confirmations, and instead {$340.00} ( 4.41 % ) had been deducted from the 3 money transfers ( see attached are copies of the corresponding email confirmations XXXX XXXX received showing large fees deducted ). ( Please note, that on a XX/XX/XXXX money transfer of {$2500.00} ( see attached ) fees of {$4.00} were listed on my emailed " Transaction Details '' confirmation and it stated that XXXX XXXX would receive {$2500.00} and that is in fact what she received. So if they could list the fees on this transaction, Paypal should have listed the fees on the other 3 transactions. Had Paypal they done so, knowing Paypal has a maximum {$4.00} flat per transaction fee for " Friends and Family '' money transfers I would have known there was a problem and stopped the transaction. ) I went back over the website to try to figure what happened and realized there is a box to uncheck if you want the funds sent as a " Friends and Family '' money transfer and apparently I mistakenly did not uncheck the box, so the funds were regarded by Paypal as a commercial purchase from a merchant instead of funds to a family member resulting in much higher fees ( {$340.00} in fees instead of a maximum total of {$14.00} ). Again, had Paypal listed the transaction fees on my confirmation and my emailed " Transaction Details '' confirmations I would have caught and corrected any mistakes on my part.

So I thought well no problem, I will just phone Paypal, explain what happened,  and get the incorrect fees reversed. I was sure wrong. Instead, I spent all day Monday, XX/XX/XXXX on the phone or on hold or passed from incompetent foreign representative to incompetent foreign supervisor ( all with weird first names like XXXX, XXXX or XXXX ) at some call center in the XXXX and having to repeatedly explain to each what happened and that I wanted the fees reversed. All I got was a big run around with them saying fees in error can not be reversed. No matter how many times I called or how many different Paypal numbers listed ( including XXXX corporate headquarters ), all my calls went to incompetent XXXX. When I would ask how to reach or be transferred to corporate Paypal in the USA or for them to email corporate to call me I was told that was not possible. They would tell me they had no USA phone numbers or emails and the XXXX call center was the final authority. Finally one supervisor ( I think her name was XXXX ) glibly told me I could simply have XXXX XXXX send the money back to me and for me to then send it back to XXXX as " Friends and Family ''. After I explained the money was already spent, she told me that all we had to do was have XXXX XXXX phone Paypal and request a " fee reversal '' for " final approval ''. Of course the " solution '' the supervisor gave me was just a lie to get rid of me. When XXXX XXXX did phone Paypal on XX/XX/XXXX like we were told and asked for a " fee reversal '', she got the run around too. She spoke with XXXX representative XXXX ( employee number XXXX ) and was told Paypal can not refund mistaken fees and since a mistake was made in their favor they get to keep it. 

Basically, when there is a problem, Paypal " customer service '' is run like a two bit scam operation designed to wear you out and have you give up instead of actually solving the problem like a good corporate citizen would! Frankly, I think I would have better luck dealing with the XXXX " princes '' running their scams.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation