I want to start off by saying that I've been using PayPal since 2006. I haven't had a single dispute on a transaction in years and I'm now scared for the future of my account. PayPal is my bank and my lifeline. I am scared because the policies and support of this company are questionable.
I recently had a dispute of $400 where the buyer simply put 'commissioned piece not received' and literally no other information. I sell digital services in the form of front-end web development and articles for freelance writing. Despite all of the evidence I had, despite the text of her saying she was only doing this because she needed money for her credit card bills, the case I escalated was closed a few hours later. No one would look into it and despite numerous attempts to contact support and Twitter accounts, the only answer I would get is "the case has been closed."
I am frustrated, I am angry and I am scared. I now have $270 that will be taken from me in about 10 days or so due to the credit that was given to me from the dispute. After having voiced my opinion about how this system is broken and favors buyers, I now have someone emailing me saying they're thinking about disputing their services too, which is in the tune of $800 because they want to go on vacation (100% serious). I am scared because I know no matter what I upload or what evidence I provide, they will get their money back as a buyer, despite them having received the services rendered.
So many people on PayPal use this website as their livelihood. The carelessness of the support put so many people into a rough situation and cased being decided within a few hours is asinine to me. I have tried contacting the executive escalations email but have gotten no response. I feel completely helpless on this site I used to love. I have been here since 2006 and have had hundreds of clients among thousands of transactions with barely any disputes or issues.
I feel hopeless because I know that when this person inevitably opens a dispute, I will be negative $800 and there is nothing I can do about it. I have been told to provide evidence which I have and can but it didn't matter. I am seriously doubting the case was even looked into and any attempts to contact customer support result in the same generic response of the 'case was already closed.' I cannot fathom how PayPal can be so careless with people's livelihoods and people's money.
A short story: in 2014, I randomly woke up to an email that said they were closing my account and holding my money for 180 days. I frantically called support and tried to get answers to no avail. No one would help me or even tell me why this was happening. I Google'd executive numbers, finally found one who I think no longer works for the company and called them. Within 30 minutes, my account was unlocked and I was told: "It was an accident. Employees sometimes have to manually review accounts and your account was accidentally flagged for closure." I'm mind baffled as to how things like this can happen and how support would not help me at all. All of my calls were answered by people who I could barely understand that gave me the same generic responses.
PayPal, I love working with this site and this site is my bank, it's my livelihood but I have never in my 12 years of working with PayPal been more terrified as a seller to use this platform. I feel helpless and at the mercy of customers who can just open up a dispute and get their money back with no effort on their part. It's absolutely insane to me that customers of digital goods don't even have to describe what digital goods they haven't received. They can simply open up a dispute saying their items weren't received and the case will more than likely be closed in their favor. PayPal's customer support needs a complete revamp. It's often answered by people who don't even look into your issue and simply repeat the same generic responses.
PayPal earns billions a year. Some of us as sellers feel like we aren't protected. We need a revamped and more sensible dispute policy, we need customer support that actually listens to us and looks into our issues rather than reading from a script. I am out $400 and I have accepted that. There's nothing I can do and I will have to move on knowing that someone got away with fraud. However, I fear this will happen more in the future as more clients learn they can get away with this. Please PayPal, reform your customer support and actually look into situations rather than repeating something from a script.
