PayPal take money twice and support not interested.

ttm

Today when checking my credit card statement I noticed that the same amount had been debited twice from my credit card. When I tracked this down I discovered that the amount was a PayPal payment I had made as one off subscription payment for an organisations magazine for my son.
So I call PayPal and they will do NOTHING as they say its up to me to sort it out with the merchant.

Hmmmm, so there’s me thinking that PayPal was a secure way to pay and then I have to go chasing a merchant that is allowed to take the payment twice. I haven’t contacted the merchant yet, I decided to write this up first. Even if he did take the payment twice by mistake PayPal should have a system that prevents that?

Anyway when I called PayPal I was amused to find I couldn't identify the person I spoke to who said he was called Oliver, when I asked if this was a name that would identify him and the call I was making he said everyone at there was called Oliver. I couldn't have a call reference as they
didn't give them and that all the information would be written down in my PayPal details which I couldn't have a copy of. OK I admit I'm an awkward customer but how do I know what Oliver, or Oliver or Oliver has written?
The original reason I was given for the double payment (by Oliver) was that the first payment didn't authorise in the allowed time, 3 days (although it was immediately debited from my Credit
Card by PayPal) so the merchant reauthorized a week later and got paid; I would get a refund at the end of the month. So my understanding was that PayPal had charged me twice and had one lot of my money. I pointed out that at the very least this was a good way for PayPal to make money debit too much and pay it back at the end of the month. Then I also said that taking unauthorised money from an account was theft. At this stage I was told I had to take the issue up with the merchant and ask them to authorise a refund, I think this was said to me a dozen times so you can guess the sort of conversation I was having. I kept pointing out that it was PayPal that had my money and that I wanted it back and kept getting told to contact the merchant who I had been told only had the money he was due. OK so I asked and persisted in asking for the issue to be escalated; eventually I got put on to Clair.

Now the most disturbing thing here is that Clair (I didn't ask how many other Clair clones there were as it seemed pointless) gave me a different story. She told me that the merchant had been paid twice and thats why I had to get back to them. At this point my argument changed to
wanting to know why the merchant could take my money twice when I had authorised it only once and only had one notification from PayPal that the money had been processed. Clair who was of the I've let you had your say now its my turn school then proceeded to tell me that PayPal
only acted as an agent for the transaction and all my details were given directly to the merchant - I expect that was a misunderstanding on my part lets hope so.

I was assured by Clair that if the merchant didn't refund my money PayPal would, but my argument will only ever be that I used PayPal's system, they trade on security and they created the system that allowed me to be charged twice. Therefore PayPal's problem.

So POINTS ARISING

1) The original representative I spoke to tried to get rid of me by saying I would get a refund at the end of the month, which later turned out to be untrue.
2) I was told two different stories about who had my money
3) PayPal have a system that allows merchants to deduct the same amount twice.

btw I also made it quite clear that I after the call I would be writing this up online and I wouldn't want to break a promise to Oliver or Clair.

Vikings

If you sent a duplicate payment - i.e two payments the exact same within quick succession then yes, you will have to contact the recipient and ask them to refund you. The reason for the two payments could have been a lapse in internet connection, clicked the button twice, any number of reasons really. But PayPal won't be able to find that out, all they know is that two payments were sent to the seller.

If PayPal reversed payments because someone asked them to, there would be a lot of unhappy customers out there, and thats the reason they cant just take the money back for you.

You mentioned a subscription payment also, were the two payments made at the same time or a week/month/year later?

ttm

LOL I must have been online on a very slow connection for a long time then as the payments are dated a week apart.

If I had believed the PayPal rep then I'd be waiting for a (non existant) refund that he said I would get at the end of the month, it was only that I pushed for the refund there and then that the story changed. I suspect that was the point he looked things up but he still continued to tell me that the merchant had reauthorised a transaction that hadn't worked out. I take that to mean the merchant hadn't taken my money the first time and then took it when the transaction was reauthorised. I put this to the PayPal rep and he didn'd disagree but insisted that the merchant had to authorise the repayment. I also only had ONE notification of payment from PayPal even though they deducted the amount twice. Am I stupid to expect an email from PayPal every time they take money from my credit card account?

Subscription :rolleyes: nearly didn't use the word as I'd guessed that someone would misunderstand what I was saying even though I added the works "one off payment".

So if there "any number of reasons really" there are really any number of reasons not to use PayPal.

Our man in Havana

Open a dispute with the seller, then escalate to a claim. Don't fap around on the phone with them.

ttm

Sorry but I didn't mention eBay anywhere as this was a payment on a website that was nothing to do with eBay. The PayPal rep was at great pains to to explian that there was a big differnce between an eBay sale that used eBay and an merchant sale on a website that used PayPal.

Our man in Havana

Where did I mention ebay?

You can dispute non ebay transactions too you know.

ttm

Actually it was a payment to a charity - so I'm not chasing the overcharge, I'm just annoyed that PayPal have a system that allows double payment and then force the person who has been overcharged to sort it out.

Our man in Havana

Tbh, they would do that if it was an ebay purchase or any other type of purchase. You have to try and sort it on with the vendor first and then claim from paypal.

Their phone support is woeful as you found out.

ttm

Had a customer satisfaction survey from PayPal this morning. Sufice it to say I told them how unimpressed I was with the service. Not sure if it made any difference but got this email this evening......

Dear XXX XXXXXX,
Due to a recent processing error, PayPal charged your credit card twice for a PayPal transaction you made between August XXX and August XXX
We will be crediting the duplicate transaction directly to your credit card within the next 2-4 business days. Please note that processing times for credit card issuers can vary and it may take up to 30 days for the credit to appear on your statement.
If you have any questions regarding this situation, please contact PayPal Customer Solutions at: (888) 221-1161.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
PayPal

OK but would have been nice if support or escalted support could have done that in the first place; Bond-007 you couldn't be more right.

Vikings

Ok so the second payment was a week later, this is not a double charge or duplicate transaction or anything like that its simply a subscription that you signed up for. Whether the vendor made that known on their site when you were paying for it is another thing, but if I were you I would go to your PayPal account now and go into the transaction details and cancel the subscription. If you don't you might just find that a 3rd payment will be made next week.

Contact the recipient and ask them to return one of the payments as you won't be able to claim a refund from that payment from PayPal.

ttm

@ Vikings

Just try reading the whole thread before you post :rolleyes:

Our man in Havana

ttm wrote: »

@ Vikings

Just try reading the whole thread before you post :rolleyes:

Nothing like going in half cocked.

Vikings

My bad!!

May as well leave the info there in case anyone needs it in future!!

Glad you got everything sorted in the end

ttm

Still not all sorted out yet. PayPal are refunding me and merchant has just refunded me so if I get my money back twice I still owe the merchant for the goods. Why is nothing simple.

sunny2004

ttm wrote: »

Still not all sorted out yet. PayPal are refunding me and merchant has just refunded me so if I get my money back twice I still owe the merchant for the goods. Why is nothing simple.

madness !:D

Our man in Havana

ttm wrote: »

Still not all sorted out yet. PayPal are refunding me and merchant has just refunded me so if I get my money back twice I still owe the merchant for the goods. Why is nothing simple.

Time to close your Paypal account.