Consumer complaint received 2021-04-05
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, a man renting a room in my apartment in New York XXXX sent me his rent payment for the month of XX/XX/XXXX for the room he was occupying in the amount of {$1000.00} via Venmo. I transferred this rent payment to my bank account and paid rent to the landlord of the apartment via check. On XX/XX/XXXX, Venmo deducted the {$1000.00} the mans XX/XX/XXXX rent payment from my Venmo balance citing that the man had reported this rent payment as an " unauthorized charge. '' Venmo emailed me on the XXXX that they had deducted the amount of {$1000.00} and did this without warning and without providing any details as to what the claim was that was being made by the man, the details of their investigation into the claim, or why they ruled in his favor in an email titled Dispute Update. Upon receiving this email from Venmo stating they had deducted the amount, I immediately called Venmo and was told by the representative I spoke with that only " account specialists '' handled disputes and to reply to the initial email they sent me. I replied to the email as well as sent a separate email to the disputes email. I sent two emails to the email address of the account specialists that provided for the matter and included the information of the man, our sublease contract for his rental of the room, his rental application, his guarantor application, and offered to send them all written correspondence between him and myself including emails, XXXX messages and text messages through the phone number that was also connected to his Venmo account proving his tenancy in the apartment during the month of XX/XX/XXXXto display they had deducted this money from me following an erroneous claim by the man that it was an " unauthorized charge '' from his account. I also offered to get a witness statement from the other roommate in the apartment to testify to his residence in the unit for the month of XX/XX/XXXX. 

In the interim, I contacted Venmo twice on their chat help to attempt to obtain more information regarding the claim and their practices in determining outcome and provide further information regarding the pattern of the man paying me rent and bills via Venmo, all which he paid and labelled accordingly, as well as a security deposit which I returned to him upon him moving out. Over the chat, all Venmo representatives I spoke with refused to offer me any new information other than that the claim had been filed by the man on XX/XX/XXXX - 106 days after the man had paid me the rent on XX/XX/XXXX. They repeatedly said I needed to wait to receive a reply from an Account Specialist. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, an Account Specialist named XXXX replied to my email. XXXX provided no details involving the claim or Venmo 's investigation into the matter nor any response to the information I provided them regarding the man 's tenancy in the apartment and the rent payment. They stated that I needed to contact the man to attempt to get the money back from him or contact the local police in order to escalate the matter and that I could reply to them with further questions. I have replied to them and have received no further contact from them. I have been unable to obtain any new information over the phone or through emailing the account specialist that replied to my email. Venmo has taken {$1000.00} from me without giving me any evidence or reason for doing so nor taking any of my information regarding the man 's tenancy. They have withheld all information from me regarding the matter and have not been co-operative in ensuring a thorough investigation took place but rather took an unauthorized amount of {$1000.00} from my account in response to a fraudulent claim a man made regarding a rent payment he made to me for a room he was occupying 106 days after he had made the payment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief