Consumer complaint received 2026-04-21 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: PA

Complaint narrative:
The PayPal Purchase Protection is supposed to reimburse customers " for eligible online purchases if items dont arrive, are missing parts, or differ significantly from the description. '' On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a complaint against XXXX XXXX after purchasing a bus ticket via PayPal on XX/XX/XXXX. The reason/issue was " Not as Described '', and the explanation included one of the two requests for a refund I sent to XXXX ( parent company of XXXX : " Formal Dispute : Service Failure, Safety Incident, and Mechanical Abandonment. Im requesting a full refund of {$49.00} as the service provided was significantly not as described and a safety hazard. On XX/XX/XXXX, while traveling on XXXX Booking # XXXX ( Line XXXX ), the driver was involved in a collision with a parked vehicle in XXXX. Following the impact, the bus suffered a critical mechanical failure ( identified by a XXXX representative as a " blown battery cable '' ) and became inoperable. The carrier failed to provide " Duty of Care '' for the passengers due to : 1 ) Delayed Contact & Lack of Communication : The driver never provided no safety briefing or ETA, and XXXX took 2 hours to acknowledge the delay, never commenting on the collision. 2 ) No Essentials : Passengers were stranded for 90+ minutes without access to water or basic necessities. The XXXX rep I spoke to told me we would at least get water but that didnt happen. XXXX ) Service Failure : I arrived in XXXX over 2 hours late due to negligence and poor vehicle maintenance. I have attempted to resolve this directly with XXXX via their website ( as directed ) on XX/XX/XXXX, but they issued a form-letter denial claiming " services were provided. '' A crashed and broken-down bus does not constitute the service I purchased. I subsequently submitted a Formal Dispute of Refund Denial on XX/XX/XXXX ( which I have proof of ), but they failed to respond to it. During the chaotic issues, I took 7 videos & 14 photos to document it. Due to severe negligence on the part of XXXX, I also filed an FMCSA Safety Complaint, for which I also have photo evidence. Ill attach as much evidence of the disabled vehicle and delayed email contact from XXXX ( almost 2 hours after the collision ) as this system allows, and Im requesting a full refund to my original payment method. '' I thought it was more than apparent since XXXX violated multiple Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ( FMCSA ) regulations including : The PayPal Purchase Protection is supposed to reimburse customers " for eligible online purchases if items dont arrive, are missing parts, or differ significantly from the description. '' On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a complaint against XXXX XXXX after purchasing a bus ticket via PayPal on XX/XX/XXXX. The reason/issue was " Not as Described '', and the explanation included one of the two requests for a refund I sent to XXXX ( parent company of XXXX : " Formal Dispute : Service Failure, Safety Incident, and Mechanical Abandonment. Im requesting a full refund of {$49.00} as the service provided was significantly not as described and a safety hazard. On XX/XX/XXXX, while traveling on XXXX XXXX # XXXX ( Line XXXX ), the driver was involved in a collision with a parked vehicle in XXXX. Following the impact, the bus suffered a critical mechanical failure ( identified by a XXXX representative as a " blown battery cable '' ) and became inoperable. The carrier failed to provide " Duty of Care '' for the passengers due to : 1 ) Delayed Contact & Lack of Communication : The driver never provided no safety briefing or ETA, and XXXX took 2 hours to acknowledge the delay, never commenting on the collision. 2 ) No Essentials : Passengers were stranded for 90+ minutes without access to water or basic necessities. The XXXX rep I spoke to told me we would at least get water but that didnt happen. 3 ) Service Failure : I arrived in XXXX over 2 hours late due to negligence and poor vehicle maintenance. I have attempted to resolve this directly with XXXX via their website ( as directed ) on XX/XX/XXXX, but they issued a form-letter denial claiming " services were provided. '' A crashed and broken-down bus does not constitute the service I purchased. I subsequently submitted a Formal Dispute of Refund Denial on XX/XX/XXXX ( which I have proof of ), but they failed to respond to it. During the chaotic issues, I took 7 videos & 14 photos to document it. Due to severe negligence on the part of XXXX, I also filed an FMCSA Safety Complaint, for which I also have photo evidence. Ill attach as much evidence of the disabled vehicle and delayed email contact from XXXX ( almost 2 hours after the collision ) as this system allows, and Im requesting a full refund to my original payment method. '' I thought it was more than apparent since XXXX violated multiple Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ( FMCSA ) regulations including : The PayPal Purchase Protection is supposed to reimburse customers " for eligible online purchases if items dont arrive, are missing parts, or differ significantly from the description. '' On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a complaint against XXXX XXXX after purchasing a bus ticket via PayPal on XX/XX/XXXX. The reason/issue was " Not as Described '', and the explanation included one of the two requests for a refund I sent to XXXX ( parent company of XXXX : " Formal Dispute : Service Failure, Safety Incident, and Mechanical Abandonment. Im requesting a full refund of {$49.00} as the service provided was significantly not as described and a safety hazard. On XX/XX/XXXX, while traveling on XXXX Booking # XXXX ( Line XXXX ), the driver was involved in a collision with a parked vehicle in XXXX. Following the impact, the bus suffered a critical mechanical failure ( identified by a XXXX representative as a " blown battery cable '' ) and became inoperable. The carrier failed to provide " Duty of Care '' for the passengers due to : 1 ) Delayed Contact & Lack of Communication : The driver never provided no safety briefing or ETA, and XXXX took 2 hours to acknowledge the delay, never commenting on the collision. 2 ) No Essentials : Passengers were stranded for 90+ minutes without access to water or basic necessities. The XXXX rep I spoke to told me we would at least get water but that didnt happen. 3 ) Service Failure : I arrived in XXXX over 2 hours late due to negligence and poor vehicle maintenance. I have attempted to resolve this directly with XXXX via their website ( as directed ) on XX/XX/XXXX, but they issued a form-letter denial claiming " services were provided. '' A crashed and broken-down bus does not constitute the service I purchased. I subsequently submitted a Formal Dispute of Refund Denial on XX/XX/XXXX ( which I have proof of ), but they failed to respond to it. During the chaotic issues, I took 7 videos & 14 photos to document it. Due to severe negligence on the part of XXXX, I also filed an FMCSA Safety Complaint, for which I also have photo evidence. Ill attach as much evidence of the disabled vehicle and delayed email contact from XXXX ( almost 2 hours after the collision ) as this system allows, and Im requesting a full refund to my original payment method. '' I thought it was more than apparent since XXXX violated multiple Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ( FMCSA ) regulations including : 49 CFR 396.7 : Unsafe Operations ; 49 CFR 392.2 : Applicable Operating Rules ; 49 CFR 374.303 : Adequacy of Service, and therefore did not deliver the service " as described ''. PayPal 's Purchase Protection is supposed to " reimburses you for eligible online purchases if items dont arrive, are missing parts, or differ significantly from the description ''. Despite all of the evidence I provided, they denied the claim I filed on XX/XX/XXXX as soon as XXXX finally responded to them on XX/XX/XXXX. Their denial reason is " if an item is materially similar to the seller 's description, we do not consider it to be significantly not as described. '' I called to appeal on XX/XX/XXXX and the rep told me she changed the " reason code '' to " purchase was incomplete '' so the abundance of evidence I provided would be examined. In less than 15 minutes after the call, I got an email stating my appeal was denied for the exact same reason. After that I called again and spoke with " XXXX '', who told me I should call the police if XXXX crashed into another bus repeatedly and the bus had mechanical failure within 10 minutes after leaving the accident scene. She also said PayPal Protection can not be applied unless it fits exactly into the few options of " reason codes '' they provide. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, she said PayPal has no supervisors but she eventually told me " someone '' will call me within 72 hours to take my complaint. At this point, I'm losing trust in the PayPal Purchase " Protection '' because it fails to actually protect customers in circumstances a seller on their platform clearly fails to deliver a service " as described ''. In this case, I " received '' a service that was technically " completed '', but : our lives were put in danger ; XXXX took almost 2 hours to communicate with us after a collision and subsequent bus breakdown in the middle of a busy XXXX intersection ; they failed to provide any provisions ( including water ) while we were stranded even though a rep told me they would do so ; and the driver eventually got us to our destination over 2 hours late. According to PayPal, XXXX should be protected instead of their customer who went through this horrific experience using the " service '' they collected money for.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation