Consumer complaint received 2023-11-30
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Our company is XXXX XXXX and we are an ecommerce business serving the spa and salon equipment XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX  at XXXX XXXX  EDT, we processed a payment through PayPal with Transaction ID : XXXX for a gross amount of {$270.00}. XXXX XXXX then fulfilled and delivered the order accordingly which is evidenced by the two tracking documents attached herein to this complaint. The two, third-party tracking documents are from XXXX and USPS. Then, on or about XX/XX/, the client apparently filed a chargeback with their credit card for items not received which triggered PayPal dispute XXXX for the PayPal account of XXXX XXXX. Since PayPal does not permit communication between the card issuers bank and the merchant and/or the merchants bank, PayPal requested that XXXX XXXX provide evidence that we did, in fact, deliver the items to which we presented the aforementioned tracking documents. At this point, due to the fact that PayPal hides their communication with cardholders/card issuers banks, I dont have any documentational evidence of what occurred but, due to the fact that PayPal then subsequently decided their side of the PayPal dispute in favor of the buyer and against XXXX XXXX, it is safe to assume that they did this as a reaction to the cardholders bank first deciding the chargeback in the buyers favor. 

This response from PayPal was inappropriate and goes against their own seller protection rules which I have attached herein to this complaint and which I will go over briefly here. Under their protected transactions paragraph ( the document of which is attached herein and which was pdf printed from PayPals website on XX/XX/XXXX  ), they indicate that : We cover physical goods that are sold and shipped with proof of delivery from within the United States to buyers around the globe. We also cover intangible items ( digital items and services ) subject to the Intangible Goods Additional Requirements below within the United States to buyers around the globe. To help ensure youre protected, provide compelling evidence to show the item was delivered or the purchase order was fulfilled. 

XXXX met these and all of the other requirements pertinent to PayPals seller protection documents and original transaction, which I have attached a screenshot of herein, was seller protection eligible. 

Therefore, Paypal should be obligated to follow their own rules, refund XXXX the full {$260.00} net amount of the original Transaction ID : XXXX as well as the {$30.00} dispute fee inasmuch as this should have never been a dispute that XXXX XXXX lost as XXXX XXXX followed all of PayPals Seller Protection Rules to ensure that the transaction was protected against this type of charge. 

As a side note, it appears that PayPal subsequently ( and maybe fraudulently? ) then labeled the dispute as a Missing refund or credit dispute which appears to have no relevance to the actual item not received nature of this dispute. It is our guess that PayPal labeled the dispute in this way to avoid having us make the very contention we are making now which is that this should have been 100 % covered by seller protection due to the fact that it was a complaint for item not received. There is, additionally, a note at the top of the dispute which states that Your buyer reported that they didn't receive a refund you agreed to. XXXX XXXX never agreed to any refund for the transaction which is the matter of this dispute and we request that PayPal provide any evidence of XXXX XXXX agreeing to a refund and, subsequently, to explain why this note is on the dispute report if there is no evidence of such a refund agreement. Finally, it is our guess that PayPal did all of this because they decided that they didnt want to cover item not received chargebacks from credit card companies which turn into item not received disputes in PayPal . However, the cant just change they rules as they go along and nowhere in their seller protection documents is a distinction made between item not received chargebacks through credit card issuers and item not received disputes through PayPal. Seller protection simply, and clearly, is supposed to cover all eligible transactions for item not received. 


Please note that we have attached relevant documents including documents which reference the transaction, the dispute, PayPals seller protection documents as well as the tracking documents which prove that the items were, in fact, delivered.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation