Consumer complaint received 2020-05-11
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:
My complaint involves the Paypal organization and its mishandling of financial transaction disputes with merchants wishing to withhold funds without being able to provide the product or service the payment went to them to cover. 

As I am sure you are very well aware- as a financial transaction- intermediate Paypal is called upon from time to time to intervene in the financial process of a return, for product or services either not delivered, not provided, misrepresented or damaged/broken, etc or no longer available.

This concept seemed simple and straight-forward enough to me recently when dealing with a merchant/service provider *XXXX* licenser of live sporting events both here in the states and overseas, who had become unable to provide the regular seasonal broadcast programming due to the Covid-19 pandemic ( all seasonal events for the year have so far been either canceled or indefinitely postponed ) but for which they have been also choosing to ignore requests for a refund for directly. 

As such, I went through the financial institution to which had handled the transfer of my funds to XXXX XXXX originally for the season 2020, now no longer active or in actual existence presently I, e Paypal. In this process, Paypal gives you only one option to call upon and that is their Disputes Process, or to which they fondly refer to themselves as their " Resolution Center ''. Sounds refreshing right? 

So back on XX/XX/XXXX, I began this disputes process by diligently and honestly filling out a new dispute form with Paypal regarding the issue with XXXX XXXX, which had themselves made it clear that despite there not being any new live or actual race events taking place for the year 2020 they would not be canceling the season or returning anyone 's request for refund. 

With this, I provide proof of purchase, which was taken from my own Paypal transaction history profile right on their own website to confirm, along with specific details on what was going on both with the race-event season I.e. " XXXX '' paid for by me and its concurrent cancelations since the onset of the season later in XXXX early XXXX. The later clearly defined under the Corona Virus pandemic curtailments now both here in the states and globally at this point, along with XXXX 's unwillingness to even respond to my requests for a refund. *All very easily verifiable, especially for the financial institution charging a fee to transfer these funds to the merchant in question. 

Regardless of these facts or the details laid out in the dispute to Paypal, within their so-called " Resolution Center '' or with even a response coming back from the merchant in this case Paypal waited until one or two days before the hard cut-off period for the merchant to respond ( 45 days I believe in this case ) before siding to allow the merchant to keep my funds anyway. 

To summarize here ... 
1. I paid for a service unobtained. In the case a licensing clearance to view a season of motorsports racing now canceled or simply unavailable/ revoked since before the season even got underway in XXXX. 
2. After not receiving any response back from the merchant themselves XXXX XXXX to my request for a refund was first made I proceeded with the disputes process afforded to me as my only option through the financial transaction provider Paypal. 
3. To which the merchant again does not reply, nor bothers to provide any excuse or evidence of any type to contradict or defend their actions. * In fact as far as was viewable to me within Paypal Resoltuins Center

forum carrying the dispute the merchant never reply at all.

4. In turn, and despite this Paypal waits for the full 43 to 45days and then just before the expiration date for the merchant to respond chooses to side with the merchant anyway and as such chooses to overlook all the facts involved both in the case itself and their own guidelines covering timely responses to disputes of this type overseen by them. 
5. After which Paypal has continued both to refuse to reverse this decision or provide any detail, evidence or even a given response from the merchant, who clearly didn't have to respond because Paypal was taking the initiative to address the matter on behalf for them. Almost as acting as a representative for the merchant instead of non-partial reviewer. 


Thank You Kindly for your consideration in this matter XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation