Consumer complaint received 2025-04-22 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX. I made a purchase on XXXX for an electronic using the " Pay with XXXX '' option. Using my XXXX balance, I paid for a transaction ( {$630.00} ) knowing that I had just received a XXXX balance transfer of {$770.00} into my XXXX account, in addition to {$82.00} dollars I already had in my XXXX balance prior to the {$770.00} dollar transfer. Since {$850.00} dollars covers the total {$630.00} dollar transaction, I assumed I would have a balance left over and continued on with my day. 

A few hours later, I received an email stating that XXXX used {$210.00} of my balance towards an " Outstanding amount '' and that I now owed {$420.00} to XXXX that had to be paid before my account would be unfrozen. Since I assumed this might be because of the bank transfer and my transactions occurring over the weekend, I assumed it had to do with the {$770.00} dollar transfer not completing and that I would get the amount back afterwards. Thinking this, I paid the {$420.00} amount via a debit card transaction. 

However, a day later ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I noticed that the amount that XXXX pulled from my balance ( XXXX ) and the amount I paid via debit card ( XXXX ) matched the {$630.00} transaction amount. Suspecting that I was either double-charged or there was a glitch in the system ( my own app did not show a double charge ), I chatted with customer service via XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX functionality, who responded that it was because of bank transfers taking a while to process. I then followed up on the XXXX to ask when I could expect my money, to which I got a response on XX/XX/XXXX to the following : " After the payment, there was a two capture of transaction that was made for authorization - <Transaction Vendor Redacted> for {$630.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. the {$850.00} was taken out for the transaction while the remaining {$420.00} was recovered from your linked debit card ending in <Redacted> '' Having confirmation that the first chat support representative was wrong and that there were indeed two direct charges, I instead called XXXX  customer support on XXXX and another representative confirmed that they saw two duplicate charges and filed a dispute on my behalf. I was then instructed to upload my invoice for my purchase highlighting that it was a single purchase of {$630.00} and not two.

While this was happening, I contacted XXXX and the vendor and stated that I was charged twice and had filed a dispute with XXXXPaypal . They responded that they only saw one transaction on their end, and provided me with the transaction ID as well as other screenshots. I then called Venmo customer support via phone on XX/XX/XXXX, provided the update to suggest that it was a Venmo system bug, and they again asked me to upload supporting evidence so that they could amend my dispute However, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received an update that my dispute was denied because " we found that you were only billed one for this transaction ''. This was despite confirmation from multiple customer support members along with the fact that I needed to fund additional XXXX from my debit card. I immediately contacted customer support via chat the same day, and AGAIN a customer support representative confirmed a duplicate charge and filed an appeal on the dispute on my behalf. 

Today, on XX/XX/XXXX, I got an email stating that they somehow " could not find a duplicate transaction '' and could help me no further. 

I am filing a complaint because of all of the above. I have confirmed conversations with multiple XXXX customer support representatives confirming that I was double charged, whether I see it on my app or on the vendor 's side. My own personal confirmation, which should be obvious to anyone who can do common math, is that I had a XXXX balance in excess of my original transaction amount ( XXXX ), AND I paid an additional {$420.00} out of another account. 

As XXXX  continues to deny having double-charged me despite their own confirmation of doing so, it has led me no choice but to file a complaint both with the CFPB along with my state regulator.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation