Consumer complaint received 2024-05-04 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
I noticed a reoccurring charge of {$150.00} for a XXXX subscription that occurs in XX/XX/2023, the same time as many other charges that happen during holiday shopping. I knew this should not be since I already pay for a XXXX subscription that occurs as a monthly charge and is a legacy bundle, so the price should be cheaper than the yearly price I am charged. 

Speaking to PayPal, the company that was used for online shopping, XXXX, the merchant in question, and XXXX XXXX the bank that holds my credit card, we eventually came to the conclusion that the payments have been made in the past and are using my PayPal account for this account. I do not access to it, nor do I know who would, but is not set to my current home address or previous home address and the account is using my funds to pay that unknown subscription. So both XXXX and XXXX have concluded that the account must be fraudulent. In this case, XXXX immediately cancelled the questionable subscription and cancelled the payment as well. 

These talks, however, did not include so much of PayPals help. In the time from XXXX to early XXXX, PayPal has not helped in gathering any sort of information to reach said conclusion. In fact, they were not able to provide any information except stating that the reoccurring annual charges have been present for at least 2 years and each time, the amount had been paid. They were unhelpful with any forms of communication with me and my bank, giving conflicting and misleading information that dragged investigations on much longer than needed. 

For example, they would continually not give any information to myself stating only my bank ( XXXX ) was allowed to contact them to get sensitive information. However, when XXXX would contact them, they stated they could not talk to them because the information pertaining to me was sensitive information and they could not disclose this to anyone except myself. And when I would contact PayPal again stating everything they have told myself and XXXX, they would repeat what they said earlier : they can not talk to me and will only disclose information with my card holder XXXX. And this circling of information would continue over and over again. 

Another example, when I had called XXXX enough times stating the contradicting information from above, XXXX would conference me into a call with PayPal. The first phone number XXXX was left with from PayPal was actually to another bank that had no affiliation to my PayPal account or my payment history. The second time, the PayPal agent then tried to hang up and tell me to call back without the XXXX agent because they could not disclose my bank information with another party present, even though it was the bank in question. And when they reluctantly agreed to have a conversation with the XXXX of us present, they said they could not look into the payment information of the charge in question because XXXX needed to speak with the merchant who is demanding the payment and would not look into the matter themselves. When trying to ask why they would not or why they have not, they would shut down the conversation and proceed to hang up. A future call to them with a different agent had the line immediately disconnect as soon as they picked up, which would happen if the PayPal agent consciously hung up on us. All XXXX agents who were helping me with the case all noted how unhelpful PayPal was being during the investigation. 

But even in the very end with speaking with all parties, PayPal would not disclose any helpful information in a possibility of a fraudulent purchase. And with PayPal not disclosing any information, XXXX refused to move forward, even with their own evidence showing PayPal stonewalling, avoiding conversations, and even lying about forms of communication. What makes the investigation between both parties even more frustrating is that, without my intervention, neither institution would speak to the merchant that was supposedly asking for money XXXX. 

Through the investigation, I spoke with XXXX agents over and over again over the same unknown account. Although they have a policy where they can not disclose the information about the account ( except that they are using my payment method for their account ), and they have another policy that they can not disclose any written information and therefore must contact XXXX for their own notes on the case, they did say they were open for communication for the case and provided me with case numbers that could be used to refer back to their notes taken on the case. And each time I tried to speak to PayPal and XXXX to provide the information I gathered from XXXX and even provide the case numbers for our conversation ( and even took screenshots of an online text conversation with a XXXX agent before the chat was closed and deleted on my end ), neither PayPal or XXXX would take my information and contact XXXX to learn more from the company rather than myself, a biased XXXX party that could potentially provide skewed information that would need to be looked into anyway which would ultimately lead to the opening talks with XXXX if they actually followed through in their investigations. But PayPal said, again, they would only speak with the bank. And XXXX would not take the information I provided, stating it was not enough to go off of and would only accept information from PayPal and that PayPal should contact them. 

In the end, in the very end of all this at the early part of XXXX, I tried to appeal to say that at the very least, I should not be charged for the one annual charge in XXXX because XXXX is no longer asking for that money. The moment the investigation opened up on a fraud account, the fee was cancelled ( and the account was closed ). When I tried to tell this information to PayPal, they stated that this was a matter then between myself and my bank as PayPal is a 3rd party that does not handle money directly and only sends payment requests to banks. XXXX, however, states that the request has been made by PayPal who is acting on behalf of XXXX and PayPal has demanded the money and with the current way these transactions are handled, XXXX has already paid PayPal and therefore PayPal is responsible for cancelling the payment and/or returning the money. And just like before, when trying to relay what one says about the other, both parties refuse to move forward in the investigation until one opens communication with the other. And from there, neither of them have tried to contact the other and I have been left with a fraud case against my credit. 

After 4 tiring months of investigation with neither XXXX nor PayPal offering proper help for a charge that has obvious signs of fraud tied to it, I could not get either side to help me with my financial crisis. To protect my credit, I dropped communication with both sides, paid the amount due on my card, and removed my card information from the PayPal account ( it is still alive to continue to have access to payment history with that account ) and have locked away the card to no longer be used in the future ( I do not have a bank account with XXXX, so I am cutting ties with them as much as I can without harming my credit ). When the reports with CFPB are submitted, reviewed and closed, I will close the PayPal account officially and will let the credit line with XXXX run dry until the account is deemed dormant and closes.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief