Resolution center case being closed despite being asked by paypal wether a payment was authorised

[Gabrielnodoubt]

A few days ago I was sent a series of text messages by paypal, asking me to confirm if I had paid out to a company I had never heard of, three times inside of a day. I can confirm it was paypals actual contact details as I still had previous text messages in the same conversation when being sent confirmation codes and the likes.

A quick google search showed me the company in question, "Omnyex Ecommerce" had targeted people that have bought steam keys, or xbox game keys from people that resold them, and repeatedly charge people a similar figure months after a transaction.

I saw these texts a few days after, and went onto my paypal account yesterday to see what had happened with the situation, assuming payment would be declined if I didn't answer, which I hadn't, but the payments were counted on my recent activity. I opened a case with the resolution center to refund these payments, which I thought would be fairly simple as I didn't get to confirm that i had made them in the first place a few days before, but was told there were no grounds for it, despite flagging it up to me in the first place.

On what grounds are non authorised payments not refundable?

[PayPal_david]

Hi there @Gabrielnodoubt.

Welcome to the Community!

I'm sorry to hear what has happened with the recent payment that has been sent from your account without your permission.

I'm sorry to hear that your recent unauthorised payment claims have been refused. When these types of investigations are reported to us, the relevant teams in PayPal fully investigate the transactions to see if they were unauthorised. A claim would be refused if we are unable to see any evidence of unauthorised activity or if the activity appears to be consistent. 

If you would like to appeal the outcome of this case, this can be done by sending us an email through the 'Help & Contact' page at the bottom of the PayPal website. Alternatively, you can contact us directly via Twitter @AskPayPal or via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PayPalUK and we can look into this further for you.

I hope this helps.

David.

[Gabrielnodoubt]

Hi David,

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I only wish I could say those methods had worked.

Unfortunately, I've tried what you've suggested, indeed almost immediately when I started having issues.
Assistance was initially helpful, but I've been whatever the internet-text based equivalent of "hung up on" on the twitter front, with the person I communicated with saying they needed an account manager to take over to proceed further, and then never replying.

I've also used the help message system, and three seperate agents suggested the same thing, or stuff that runs contrary to what the paypal site describes (My appeal option wasn't there under my available actions, and I was told that was because I lost my dispute. then what would the appeal be for in that case?)

After I had told them these things hadn't worked, the company my charges were made to were unresponsive (as they likely have no desire either to refund me, or perhaps perpetrated this themselves) the assistants then also, too left without even telling me where to go or what to do next.

Essentially, I do feel a little messed around by this, and am having at this stage to have my bank deny any charges made by paypal while they deem whether they should open their own investigation into this if paypal keeps trying to charge me for a transaction I did not give consent too. I've certainly had my faith in paypal hit a little by this, and I really can't see myself continuing being a patron if this resolves in the manner it has been undertaken.

[PayPalMichelleW]

Hi @Gabrielnodoubt,

I'm very sorry for this frustrating experience.  For this situation, I would suggest you contact us to provide additional details.  I know you have reached out to us already but I would like to suggest that you contact us again.  Also, if your Twitter conversation was escalated it may not have been reviewed yet as all conversations are reviewed in the order in which they are received an escalated.  To contact customer service, please click Contact at the bottom of the PayPal website for available options, or reach out by Facebook or Twitter.  I hope this helps.  

Thanks!

MichelleW

[Gabrielnodoubt]

I'll continue trying to reach the twitter account, hopefully I am able to catch a response.
It wouldn't really be causing any stress if paypal continued trying to charge my account while this was going on, but as that's happened I feel a compulsion to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Regardless, thank you for your response, I'll continue to keep at it for now.

[PayPal_Jenny]

@Gabrielnodoubt

Thanks. I am sure our Social Media Team will try their best to help you. 

Jenny 

[Gabrielnodoubt]

Hi Jenny,

Unfortunately I've still received no response, or even acknowledgement since monday after repeated tweets to the @ askpaypal twitter account.
I've also reached out to the company making the charges, numerous times on twitter. Twice with customer support emails now and again, no response or acknowledgement.

I find it staggering that there is seemingly no protection for these kinds of cases in place, I was sent an email by paypal at around 4:30 am my time, re-explaining why my case was denied (again, the same rhetoric of being not unauthorised was used.) and was told the items purchased were of the digital kind, and thus intangible, my interpretation of that, if it is correct is that I wouldn't be able to claim that I had not received the items as they were 'sent'.

After having located both the receipt for purchases AND an email noting a password change on paypal in my email's trash folder (which is so laughably incompetent of anyone that accessed my account it reaches farcical) I've found finally what the charges were for, two microsoft gift vouchers.

As far as I'm aware, I have never made Xbox purchases on my paypal account, I have made games console purchases, but not Xbox ones, as the last time I owned such a device was nearly 3 years ago.

I fail to see why the most basic common sense; that two Xbox gift vouchers were purchased, as I have now seen the reciept, and that my password was changed the same day, compounded by the slightest bit of individual search into other cases on twitter or google, where your customers have been charged almost the same amounts, by the same company, and are all protesting it to be astounding. Either all these people, and myself included must be pulling the most co-ordinated hoax, and yet doing nothing to make our cases seem varied and unique to remove suspicion, or we are telling the truth.

The truth that these purchases are not authorised with consent by the account manager, and simply stating that they were purchased by the account in question is not taking into account the individual that purchased them, as account owners are seemingly offered Zero protection here.