Consumer complaint received 2024-04-19
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc (MA)

On XX/XX/XXXX, my company sent {$10000.00} to a contractors company name. The transaction automatically was sent to a PayPal.XXXX  name that was identical to my contractor visually. However, my contractor never claimed the XXXX name with his company name and someone else received the funds.

Due to an admitted technical error on PayPals end, these funds were not received.

Once we learned from Contractor that the funds werent received, we explored the matter with him and identified that this was due to a technical error on PayPals end. 

TIMELINE - XX/XX/XXXX : Payment sent - XX/XX/XXXX : Contractor informs us that he never received the money. He files a help ticket on the Paypal Mobile Website. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : We call Paypal after Contractor reports his attempt at resolution was unsuccessful. Support person agrees automatic assignment of XXXX name to not-contractor is a technical error and we should receive a refund. We receive no written confirmation however despite requesting it. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : An official claim is filed via Paypals Resolution Center that we receive. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : We received an email stating that our claim has been denied because additional requested documentation was not provided, but we never received that request. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : We call Paypal. Representatives again admit fault and says the money will be refunded to Paypal account in 3-10 business days. 

- At XXXXXXXX XXXX ET, we then receive an email stating that our claim has been denied because it was submitted more than 180 days post-transaction. 

- At XXXXXXXX XXXX  ET, we receive an email stating that theyve updated the reason for our claim, but reason is still listed as 180 day. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : we call paypal again. Same outcome. 

- XX/XX/XXXX : we call Paypal again. Same outcome. 

TECHNICAL ERROR Contractor payPal company name has been his name since he began his account 10+ years ago. When you pay contractor on PayPal, his username is the only text visible more information is never shown. Ive included a successful payment to them for comparison in the attached. They are identical. 

At some point, PayPal rolled out a feature called PayPalXXXX This allows users to have a username that can be searched by to send money.

Contractor never assigned himself a PayPal.XXXX username, so 2 accounts were using his name, one that was not his. However, there was no identifiable difference on our end between this user and contractor user. 

Instead of automatically giving contractor his company name XXXX when he didnt claim it, PayPal allowed the assignment of his URL as an @ username to another user, who received the funds and did not reply to our number of inquiries regarding the matter. We have successfully paid this contractor dozens of times prior to this and all are visually identical. 

During each of these occasions, PayPal representatives admitted fault and promised reimbursement of all funds within a variable number of days between 3 and 10 depending on the representative. 

However, each time the resolutions department assigned arbitrary reasons to refuse to honor what the customer representatives promised. Some of these reasons included : - The original claim was submitted more than 180 days post-transaction.

- Additional requested documentation was not provided ( we never received the request ).

DOCUMENTATION INTENTIONAL WITHHOLDING OF RECORDS PayPal does not provide customers with case reports in their Resolution Center. PayPal also does not provide customers records of all times theyve called customer support regarding a claim. This violates consumer transparency best practices and should be addressed organizationally.