Consumer complaint received 2016-01-05
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: TX
Product: Money transfers
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other service issues

Complaint:
This complaint covers several issues with PayPal where they are overstepping their authority as a money transfer company. 
First Complaint : PayPal " randomly '' by their own CSR statements, holds funds in pending on fully established accounts that are in good standing even though the funds have been received. ( I suggest you XXXX - " PayPal Pending '' where you will find multiple threads and sites including PayPal 's own complaint site where you will find literally thousands of complaints for this action. ) Then they force the " seller '' to ship the goods with pending funds and wait for receipt and acknowledgment by the " buyer '' before the funds are released to the seller. ( Copies of e-mail documents attached ) The seller 's balance sheet shows that the funds were received and " completed '' then moved to " pending ''. While the account balance at the top of the PayPal home page shows the total balance including the pending funds, the actual ledger page shows these funds have been removed. ( ledger sheets attached ) Question - Where are these " pending '' funds actually being held and by who? Is this a kiting operation since thousands of sellers have funds being held in pending at any given time. Per PayPal CSR " Everyone has to do this occasionally. It 's a random thing we do for security purposes. Just ship the item! ". Note : This statement was made by the CSR after having been transferred to EBay, being told by EBay it 's not us and another EBay CSR saying OK I 've released the funds check your PayPal now and seeing nothing change then being transferred back to PayPal. The holding of funds prior to shipment on established accounts is redundant as other rules in the agreement will automatically put seller funds into pending upon a complaint until it is resolved - even if it is up to 6 months after the sale. This brings up the next complaint. 

Second complaint : PayPal is acting like a " Warranty '' company by forcing sellers to refund money up to six months after the sale. Even in the case of a " New in the Box '' item most manufactures only have a 90 day warranty. Additionally the resolution to warranty of most new items that fail during the first 90 days is to contact the manufacture 's toll free number for a return merchandise authorization with paper work that expressly states " do not return this item to the place of purchase ''. By using the reason " not as described '' a buyer can return an item that failed or that they physically broke for a full refund beyond the manufacture 's warranty period or the sellers usual 30 day warranty period without inspection and without recourse by the seller. There are many documented cases where the seller had money removed from their account for a refund on an item and did not even get the item returned back to them. The buyer kept the item and the money. This becomes even more dubious when many of the items that are sold on EBay, XXXX and other online companies are " used '' or " for parts or not working '' and carry no manufacture 's warranty. Even when the seller warrants a product to be working for a period of time, PayPal overrides that period of time. Unless PayPal is willing to absorb the cost they do not have the authority under law to enforce these kind of refunds by taking money from a seller up to six months after a sale. I would think that this is a violation of Federal Trade Commission regulations. 
Third Complaint : PayPal is a Bank as it operates as a complete banking system. Not only is it holding money for customers in accounts that draw interest which is captured and used by PayPal. Purchases made with the PayPal Credit card show up on my PayPal balance sheet. I just made a credit card payment on the PayPal site from my bank account. That payment is also being held as pending and may cause a late payment as the credit card has not acknowledged payment as they usually do.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation