Consumer complaint received 2022-04-15
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: UT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
This is quite complicated. It is better if you read it with the pictures attached, so I prepared a small webpage ( but I will still include just the text below this link ) : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX/PaypalXXXX ****************************************************************************************** In early XXXX I purchased a XXXX XXXX from XXXX. When it was time to pay, I clicked on their Paypal payment button and it guided me to several ways to pay. I chose. So when I changed over to XXXX I selected a XXXX  and when it came time to pay, I clicked on their Paypal payment button. I expected XXXX  to be as good as XXXX  and allow me to choose HOW I WANTED to pay, but all XXXX broke loose! Instead of allowing me to choose which credit card I wanted to pay with, ( as XXXX did ) they automatically paid it with my XXXX XXXX XXXX  account. WHICH I HAD DISCONTINUED AS A PAYMENT OPTION!!! ( I would have previously taken XXXX XXXX  OFF OF PAYPAL, but Paypal requires a bank account to be listed and Paypal would NOT let me take XXXX XXXX  oFF! - so XXXX XXXX was left on Paypal- BUT I NEVER EXPECTED PAYPAL TO AUTOMATICALLY TRY TO GET MONEY FROM IT!!!! ) As soon as I realized that they were charging the XXXX bill to my unusable XXXX XXXX account, I hurriedly CALLED PAYPAL but they are very difficult to get on the line, with a typical wait of an hour ( they probably have the worst Customer Service in the world )! So I hung up and I opened my XXXX  account and I went ahead and PAID MY XXXX  BILL WITH MY XXXX  XXXX CREDIT CARD. Then I got back on the phone and after a long wait, I said to the Paypal woman, " Since there's no money in the XXXX XXXX account, I paid Freelancer with my XXXX XXXX Credit Card. You need to change the NOT PAID to PAID. She told me that she couldn't do that, because with an automatic payment, if the Paypal customer has inadequate funds, PAYPAL ITSELF GOES AHEAD AND PAYS THE FEE! SO XXXX HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID NOT ONLY BY YOUR CREDIT CARD BUT BY PAYPAL : THERE'S A DOUBLE PAYMENT AT XXXX! '' She told me I needed to contact XXXX  and have them REFUND THE MONEY THAT PAYPAL HAD PAID THEM. She said my Paypal account would continue to show a negative unpaid balance until this money was refunded. Once refunded, that would settle the issue. 

WHICH IS LOGICAL... 

This took me the next 3 weeks or so to get XXXX  to REFUND THE MONEY BACK INTO MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT. ( Freelancer.com is also a MESS TO WORK WITH!!! This is the 4th big problem I've had with XXXX! Years ago, I'd go to pay for a XXXX and their button would do nothing. So I thought I hadn't paid, or it hadn't processed, so I'd click the button a 2nd or 3rd time. Then found out that it was charging me TWO TIMES FOR THE SAME TRANSACTION. THEN I'D HAVE A XXXX OF A TIME GETTING MY MONEY BACK FROM PAYPAL!!! ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I finally saw the REFUND FROM XXXX concerning this latest nightmare : [ REFUND Picture goes here ] Logically, since XXXX WAS PAID ( FROM ME BY XXXX  XXXX, WHICH I CAN PROVE IF YOU REQUIRE EVIDENCE THAT IT WAS PAID- BUT I HAVE NOT PROVIDED IN THIS LETTER ) AND SINCE PAYPAL NOW HAD AND HAS THE {$200.00} USD IN MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT, you would think the issue is over. But after a week of seeing that my account was still in the negative ( they had not taken the money!!! ) and after receiving an email that I owe an unpaid balance of {$200.00}, I called Paypal and after a long wait, I explained to the rep that the money is there : get it and change the amount unpaid to paid. ( Note : over the last 2 months I have called Paypal probably a dozen times about this, so I can not remember each conversation exactly. ) But these reps hee-haw around, acting like they can not do anything. Several times I have been put on long holds, as they supposedly transferred me to someone who could resolve it, and at least a couple times THAT person would also put me on a long cellphone hold as they again transferred me to someone else who was supposed to resolve the issue! No one at Paypal wants ( OR CAN??? ) take the money that XXXX has refunded ( SEE THE EVIDENCE ABOVE ) and finally after sending me many emails reminding me that I have an unpaid balance, and after several phone calls, they told me that my account had been turned over to COLLECTIONS. At last, I thought, I can get it settled! But the collections rep was also very firm and committed to getting me to pay an ADDITIONAL {$200.00} BESIDES THE {$200.00} THAT IS ALREADY THERE!!! 

( AT THIS POINT I STARTED WONDERING IF SOMEONE AT PAYPAL HAS EMBEZZELED THAT MONEY??? THAT IS MY REFUND ( OR RATHER PAYPAL 'S REFUND FROM XXXX???? ) The REFUND shows that it is there, that it WAS REFUNDED- BUT PAYPAL SEEMS TO IGNORE IT!!! 

After arguing with the Paypal Collections ( who I thought would resolve all of this ) I asked for their phone number XXXX and I tried talking to the rep 's supervisor ( if I recall correctly? ) But that person also was unworkable and firm in trying to get me to pay an additional {$200.00} ( 1- I had already paid {$200.00} to XXXX  ; and 2- I didn't and don't currently have an extra {$200.00} to pay it a second time ; and 3- several reps have told me if I pay it - THEN THEY WILL REFUND THE {$200.00} THAT THEY CAN SEE IS IN MY ACCOUNT BACK TO ME!!! ( ( ( ( TALK ABOUT IDIOTIC!!!!!! They expect me to pay them with money that is already there, and then they will pay me back the {$200.00} that I ahve sent to them!!! ) ) ) ) I have repeateDly trieD to finD a smart person at Paypal to logically take the REFUND THAT IS THERE. I can find no one at Paypal with XXXX on them... 

They continue to insist that I pay it again, and they continue to send me email after email stating that I have an unpaid transaction that needs to be paid. 

About a month ago I decided to call Paypal again. This time the rep told me that the " REFUND FROM XXXX '' had been paid to me. I told her that there is no {$200.00} record in either my XXXX XXXX account OR in my XXXX XXXX account. She was NOT disbelieving and hard to work with as the other previous reps had been. She was polite and really tried to solve my problem and said she would put a " TRACE '' on what happened to the money REFUND and that Paypal would contact me and let me know what happened to that {$200.00} REFUND that they say they've refunded back to me... 

THAT WAS OVER A MONTH AGO. I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THAT " TRACE '' But I continue to receive harassing emails saying I have an unpaid balance that needs to be paid by me. 

When will this Paypal idiotic nightmare be resolved? 

Can you help or do anything to help this to get resolved? Are they going to ruin my credit rating? Or have they already diminished my credit? sincerely, XXXX XX/XX/2022 XXXX XXX-XXX-XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation