Consumer complaint received 2021-01-05
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
Paypal promoted an offering through XX/XX/XXXX that if users spent $ XXXX at select merchants, they would received a {$25.00} bonus " approximately five ( 5 ) to seven ( 7 ) business days after verification of Eligible Purchases '' Attached, please find that I completed those three purchases on Paypal to XXXX on XXXX. I have yet to receive a bonus despite clearly meeting the requirements. I've attempted to correct this with both twitter and paypal correspondence. On twitter, the response was " I am not able to review a customer 's PayPal account and then discuss any details here due to security and privacy rules, I would not be able to determine a specific reason for why you did not receive a reward '' ; on Paypal help, my inquiry was simply closed without any response at all. 

Further, Paypal never revealed officially that they reached their stated limit of XXXX offers. However, they promoted this offer as late as XX/XX/XXXX on social media ( see image attached with promotion and timestamp at bottom of phone screen grab ). 

After reviewing comments on XXXX and on other financial oriented sites, it seems I and perhaps tens of thousands of others were enticed into using paypal by a promotion Paypal XXXX have known had reached its limit but continued to promote anyway. 

Here is the text of the disclaimer that was in the offer I responded to. 

*Terms and Conditions Offer Period : Starts at XXXX XXXX Eastern Time ( ET ) on XX/XX/XXXX and ends at XXXX XXXX  ET on XX/XX/XXXX ( Offer Period ) Eligible Participant : Open only to residents of any one ( 1 ) of the fifty ( 50 ) United States or the District of Columbia who : ( 1 ) have or open a U.S. personal ( including PayPal, PayPal Cash and PayPal Cash Plus ), premier or business PayPal account ( Valid Account ) ; and ( 2 ) are eighteen ( 18 ) years of age or older ( Eligible Participant ).

Reward : Once the steps described below are completed and verified, Eligible Participants will earn the {$25.00} USD cash ( Reward ). Reward will be added to the Eligible Participants Valid Account within approximately five ( 5 ) to seven ( 7 ) business days after verification of Eligible Purchases ( defined below ), but may be available sooner. Rewards are only available to the first XXXX Eligible Participants to successfully redeem the Reward and will no longer be awarded once the limit is reached, as determined by PayPal in its sole discretion. There is a limit of one ( 1 ) Reward per Valid Account. You need to have a PayPal Cash, PayPal Cash Plus, or business PayPal account to have a balance. If you do not have or open one of those accounts, you can only transfer your Reward to your bank account or debit card linked to PayPal. 

Eligible Purchase ( s ) : Purchases of {$35.00} USD or more made at XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( including purchases at XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, but excluding XXXX XXXX ) ( collectively, Participating Merchants ) in USD using a Valid Account during the Offer Period ( Eligible Purchase ( s ) ). Eligible Purchases do not include : ( 1 ) send/receive money transactions ( including those marked as a Goods and Services payments ), ( 2 ) charitable donations, ( 3 ) purchases made using PayPal.me ; ( 4 ) PayPal Cash Mastercard, PayPal Cashback Mastercard, PayPal Prepaid Mastercard, PayPal Extras Mastercard, and PayPal Business Debit Mastercard purchases made using the card directly and not through your Valid Account, and ( 5 ) in-store purchases at Participating Retailers. If an Eligible Purchase is returned, refunded, results in a failed capture, or otherwise does not complete during the Offer Period, that Eligible Purchase will not qualify toward earning the Reward.

How to Qualify : The are different ways to qualify for this Reward depending on whether the Eligible Participant has an existing Valid Account or opens one during the Offer Period : Eligible Participants with Valid Accounts as of the start of the Offer Period must activate the offer as described in the invitation to participate and, then, make three ( 3 ) Eligible Purchases.

Eligible Participants who sign up for Valid Account during the Offer Period must then make three ( 3 ) Eligible Purchases. Signing up for a Valid Account is subject to verification by PayPal.

Miscellaneous : Valid Account must remain in good standing from the time of participation through Reward fulfilment to redeem a Reward, as determined in PayPals sole discretion. PayPal may provide an alternate reward of equal value if it is unable for any reason to fulfill the Reward. PayPal reserves the right to cancel, suspend or modify this offer in part or in its entirety at any time without notice, for any reason in its sole discretion. Similar offers may run at the same time ; qualification for this offer does not constitute qualification for any other offer. PayPal is not responsible and/or liable if any e-mail, Reward, Eligible Purchases, or offer-related materials or correspondence are lost, fraudulent, abusive, stolen, late, incomplete, illegible, interrupted, delayed, altered, defective, misdirected, tampered with, or irregular in any way or if any participants e-mail address, Valid Account, or other contact information does not work, is deleted, or is changed without participant giving prior written notice to PayPal. Offer is void where prohibited and if Eligible Purchases are fraudulent, abusive, not completed through legitimate channels, or irregular in any way. Certain offers may not be transferable. Participation is subject to the PayPal User Agreement. Any questions relating to the offer will be resolved in PayPals sole discretion and its decisions related to the offer will be final and binding.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief