PayPal making unrequested and unauthorized transactions in my bank account

[VapAndrei]

Hi,

This issue is ongoing and I'm trying to discuss it with PayPal Support. I thought it was a good idea to have this in public, should anyone ask themselves in the future "Can and will PayPal take money out of my bank account without notifying me?". The answer is simple, YES.

Here's the story. On Feb 21st I put in an instant withdraw request from my PayPal balance to my bank account. Within 30 minutes, the money arrived. After 3 days get an SMS alert from my bank, that PayPal transferred money into my account. Upon checking my transaction history, I noticed that there were two transaction from PayPal to my bank account, with the same sum - basically, after 3 days PayPal sent me the money again.

In retrospect, then and there, I could've transferred the funds to another account, unlink my credit card, call the bank and tell them to limit my online account activity. Any of the above would have left PayPal with a decent money hole, because they've made an error.

Without thinking twice, as soon as I got home, I logged in to my PayPal account, and started typing a message, explaining to PayPal support that they've sent me the money twice, in error, and I'd like to return them. I thought that funding my account with the money mistakenly sent, would do the trick.

Whilst I was typing the good samaritan message, I get another alert from my bank. Surprise, surprise. PayPal simply stuck its hands in my bank account, without my authorization.

Now there's where I draw the line. PayPal, or any other entity for that matter, simply should not take it upon themselves to take money from someone's account, to cover up their mistake, without even a courtesy notification to the owner of that account. In this case, sure, it was their money (which I clearly intended to give back), but I see no reason why they wouldn't contact me about it.

Personally, I'm not a fan of significant transactions to and from my account, made without my knowledge or approval. Basically, PayPal just showed me that they can take all the money from my account, should they think I owe them something, without asking, without letting me know. WHICH IS NOT OK.

What I wrote here, I wrote in a complaint to PayPal. Yesterday, I got a reply to that complaint:

"Please be advised we have reviewed your email and it is with regret that we are unable to fully understand your issue.

We require you to re-phrase your email and resend it to us"

Really? I think I was pretty clear the first time. Who hired this guy to offer support?At any rate, I re-phrased the whole story & made it stupid-simple. Hopefully that helps the little support guy in understanding what has happened.

I'll keep this updated, should anyone be interested as to why PayPal thinks it's alright to deposit unrequested money and then taking the liberty of taking money of someone's account without their say-so, or knowledge.

Cheers!

[PayPal_Brooke]

Hi @VapAndrei, 

I am sorry to hear of the issues you are having with your PayPal account. So this can be looked into further, please contact our customer service. You can call, send a private message through Facebook or a direct message through Twitter. 

Enjoy your day.

Thanks,

Brooke

[VapAndrei]

Hi,

Well, that's what I've been trying to do since the situation arose. As I said, the first time I tried to explain this situation to the support, they just replied "they didn't fully understand the issue" and asked me to "rephrase it". Nice huh? Whatever happened to just reading what I wrote? I was pretty darn clear.

I did rephrase and asked for a different PayPal rep to look into it since the first one clearly couldn't be bothered. They asked me for the bank statement two days ago, which I provided and up until this point, it's been radio silence.

I'll keep trying though. I need this explained since I don't want significant transactions on my bank account, which I didn't ask for and I certainly don't want PayPal to be able to withdraw any amount of money from my account whenever they see fit without checking with me first.

Thanks

[PayPal_Brooke]

Hi @VapAndrei, 

I am sorry that has been your experience with this. I would suggest continuing to reach out to we can help you get this matter resolved.

Thanks, 

Brooke

[VapAndrei]

A week+ in and the people at support haven't given me any clarity into this matter. The last message I got from support said they had "opened a ticket to their internal department", whatever that means. I was not notified about anything regarding a ticket or given an update about someone, anyone looking into my issue.

I bet if I just drop it, I won't ever hear the end of the story. Thing is, I won't drop it and requested to be updated on the status of the magical "ticket" that they opened.

Funny how PayPal moved so fast when making an unauthorized withdrawal from my bank account, but when I ask them to clear it up for me.. it takes more than a week (and counting).

[VapAndrei]

@PayPal_Brooke 

UNBELIEVABLE! SOME OTHER SUPPORT GUY REPLIED JUST NOW AND TOLD ME TO CONTACT MY CARD ISSUER, BECAUSE IT'S THEIR PROBLEM, BASICALLY. NOTHING ABOUT ANY TICKET WHICH THEY PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED.

I ALREADY DID CONTACT THE BANK AND THEY ASSURED ME AFTER LOOKING AT MY ACCOUNT, THAT PAYPAL HAS SENT ME MONEY TWICE AND HAS MADE A WITHDRAWAL FROM MY ACCOUNT WHICH THEY ASSUME THAT I AUTHORIZED -- ONLY I DIDN'T.

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? IS PAYPAL REALLY FULL OF AMATEURS AND UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF MEMBERS WHO LIE THEN SWITCH, THEN LIE AGAIN WITHOUT GIVING ME ONE DAMN EXPLANATION?

WHERE THE HELL IS THE BUTTON TO MAKE FORMAL COMPLAINTS AGAINST THESE SUPPORT GUYS??