Consumer complaint received 2021-07-27
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Dear CFPB, Below is the chronology of the case 1. I bought product from merchant in installment payment without time limit. The invoice worth {$2700.00} USD. Invoice attached here. For your information, invoice is paypal invoice. I paid in total {$1200.00} months ago and i have no idea that PayPal did not count the invoice as buyer protection but only count each payment made for 180days buyer protection.

2. Before pay the remaining balance of the invoice {$1500.00}. I contacted seller in XXXX. Why XXXX? Because XXXX  is the only place we communicate as i dont have her XXXX number nor her mobile number. Seller online but did not response to me. I tried XXXX call as well but ignored. And then, i tried to contact her via XXXX  pretend to ask about one of her listings and replied immediately. Attached XXXX  inbox and XXXX  response from seller. Therefore, it can safely concluded that seller avoid me purposely. 

3. Something sounds not right for me so i decided to open case of previous {$1200.00} payments and found out already passed time limit. Because i trust PayPal i paid the remaining balance of {$1500.00} through PayPal invoice in order to open the case despite the fact that seller ran with my {$1200.00}. With a hope that PayPal can investigate this to its roots. 

4. As you can see, balance paid by XX/XX/XXXX and i fill a dispute right away. Normally it takes 7 days before i can escalate it to a claim. But because i called PayPal. And told the whole story also provide XXXX XXXX XXXX evidences. PayPal cs escalate for me because i told PayPal cs that in the invoice there is terms and conditions made by seller saying that in any events if buyer change mind there is 5 % restocking fee and the rest of the amount that already paid will be converted to a store credit. I told PayPal cs previously i will honor the terms and conditions made by seller for 5 % restocking fee but i refuse store credit because sellee is not selling anymore for the past half year. So store credit is no point. How to buy from someone who doesnt sell for half year already? 

5. Because seller avoid me after took my money i decided to cancel the transaction because i dont want problems. Shipping from usa to XXXX as shown in invoice is {$160.00}. In case items received broken/incomplete PayPal only cover shipping refunds at maximum {$20.00}. And in this pandemic situation, you can also browse news XXXX is the epicenter of covid 19 in XXXX. I wont jeopardize myself to go to post office/shipping carrier with a risk to be exposed in covid.

6. I never fight for 5 % cancellation fee mentioned in terms and condition of PayPal invoice but seller has shown unethical business practice because case escalated to prevent her to ship the items but yet she still ship it.

7. I raised my concern to PayPal and PayPal said i can refuse package from XXXX. Paypal will take care for me. But in this pandemic everyone needs money and i have conscience so i stop the shipment while still in USA. If i refuse the package after arrived in XXXX seller will loss another {$160.00} shipping cost back from XXXX to USA. Im being considerate here and try to save money and trouble for everyone but this is what i get in return.

8. All calls i made to PayPal usa are recorded. I called PayPal on XX/XX/XXXX1 to ask why case estimate pushed back to XX/XX/XXXX and PayPal cs keep assuring me to wait until XX/XX/XXXX PayPal promised i will get full refund of {$2700.00} invoice value if seller still not respond. And when i called PayPal XX/XX/XXXX PayPal also assures me if within a day seller still not response to PayPal case will be closed in my favor. But all are empty promi

ses. Fortunately i record all the call as precautions. 9. Paypal
emailed me on XX/XX/XXXX stated that PayPal has credited temporary provision refund to me but it doesnt reflected in my credit card. Therefore, yesterday i called PayPal. PayPal cs admitted its a mistake and never credit any refunds to me. What kind of mistake is this? Is this mistake acceptable for a big company like PayPal? Attached the email from PayPal.

10. PayPal cs asked me to confirm with XXXX. If package confirm returned successfully and received by seller. I already provide statement from XXXX upper management specialist confirmed that seller has received back her package on XX/XX/XXXX. If PayPal wants to confirm the legitimate email from XXXX. PayPal is free to call and confirm with XXXX rather than keep me hanging and keep dragging me? Its such a huge amount of money. I would not pay {$1500.00} and makes me sink even deeper risking loosing {$2700.00}. 

11. I would like to clarify regarding seller statement on the case. First, seller excuse not to reply me because i change my XXXX name so she doesnt know me. Its total lie. Regardless what ame i changed into, the XXXX  has the message logs between me and her. She can scroll and find out who im. Or else, if shes lazy to screenshot she can ask me who im. And if she doesnt reply because she doesnt know me why she replies in XXXX  to a stranger who ask for her item availability? Second seller accused me to block her from XXXX. Attached the screenshot of the message in XXXX  of seller asked why i block her. My questions are if i block her how come i receive her message? And the funniest thing is, She has XXXX  dollar of my money why would i block her? Shouldn't be the other way around? 

12. Attached here the copy of XXXX label, airway and commercial invoice filled by the seller that i received from XXXX XXXX. As shown the package value written by the seller is {$2700.00}. It match the total value of the PayPal invoice billed to me. Its undeniable evidence prove that i never receive any items in the PayPal invoice before. Therefore as recorded on my call with PayPal. Paypal will refund me total of full amount of the invoice {$2700.00}. Please crosscheck the commercial invoice with XXXX to confirm if the commercial invoice sent to me by XXXX that i attached here is a correct commercial invoice seller provided to XXXX. 

13. Paypal change case filled on XX/XX/XXXX yesterday from item not received to item significantly different. How come PayPal justify its actions? Item returned to seller not even out from USA yet. Merchant can use it against me by saying im a liar. How come i claimed item significantly different if i never see it at all? 

14. After that i immediately call PayPal and make a complaint about this. PayPal then change back the case to item not received. But its back to square one. Back to first step of dispute. Exactly the first step at XXXX XX/XX/2021 the first time i filled the case. Its dragging, twisting and just unjustifiable. 

15. PAYPAL refuse to be responsible for their merchant invoice issued to me with excuse that its not an invoice eventhough the invoice has PayPal head logo on it. Paypal CS also asked me to provide additional information such as XXXX confirmation stating that seller already received her package back and send it to XXXX but yesterday when i spoke to the dispute specialist she said its wrong information as inbox not monitored but PayPal cs told me kust ignore the auto reply email because they will still add the additional documents. After that the specialist ask me to attach the additional information to paypal.com/il/uploaddoc. I did uploaded but she said she dont see any documents uploaded after that she asked me send to XXXX but then i also receive an auto response asked me to login and leave message. 

16. I have reached out to upper management through XXXX but all of them no response and some of them read my message but ignore me. Attached the XXXX  messages. 

17. Paypal refuses to provide me full refund of the total invoice of {$2700.00}, despite there is a XXXX XXXX XXXX evidence which is commercial invoice seller provided to XXXX for the value of package that match the total invoice of {$2700.00} and cornered me saying that i keep bringing the value of invoice. I would like to ask CFPB which seller in conscious mind will send buyer a package with product valued at {$2700.00} when buyer only paid for {$1500.00}?

18. Paypal stated that {$1500.00} i paid not through invoice. When in PayPal APP shown clearly its paid through PayPal invoice. I dont know why every PayPal agent even specialist always say different from another and always try to escape from responsibility by asking me who is the agent that provide me such information 19. PayPal cs promised me that PayPal will go through this case and will provide me FULL REFUND OF THE TOTAL INVOICE OF {$2700.00}. Because proven that the value of the package match the value of the total invoice.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation