Don't offer Credit Services if you can't offer your account holders competent customer service.

[TheJables]

My experience with PayPal's customer service over the last few months has been bafflingly poor, to a point where I eventually cancelled my PayPal Credit Account and am currently considering doing so with my base PayPal account. Here's a rough summary of the sequence of events...

1. A little over a year ago (November 2016) I Pre-Ordered an item on a website. This item was due to ship in February of next year.
2. The item never came in February and instead was constantly pushed back and delayed all the way until July.
3. In July I finally received an email stating the item had been shipped out. This included a tracking number showing that the shipping label had been generated.
4. A few days had gone by and there was no update showing the item had been received by the carrier and actually shipped out. I attempted to contact the website to discover that the store I had ordered from had closed up shop, leaving my purchase in limbo.
5. Reviewing the PayPal dispute guidelines, I opted to first reach out directly to the seller to see what was going on with my package. After multiple attempts and no meaningful, non-automated response, I decided to file a dispute.
6. In September I officially filed my dispute with Paypal. 
7. A few weeks later, I finally decided to check in on the status of the dispute. It noted that additional information was required. At no time do I remember receiving any email correspondence asking for this additional information. Willing to admit this may have gone into a spam folder of some sort though.
8. I updated the information with the accounts of the purchase timeline and the fact that the shop had closed down.
9. Almost two months go by and not so much as a word or update from PayPal on their end regarding status or what exactly is going on. I call in to check and I'm told that my ticket will be escalated and I should receive a call within 48-72 hours. Never receive a call.
10. Almost a week goes by before calling in again. Told the same thing, should receive a call in 48-72 hours, again...never receive a call.
11. Finally call in one more time to cancel my PayPal Credit account. Before doing so, I confirm with the agent what will happen with my reimbursement for the dispute since it was originally made with PayPal Credit but I'm shutting down the account. The agent tells me that it will simply be refunded directly to my PayPal balance. This is important to note...because it was an absolute false statement relating to what ACTUALLY happened.
12. Finally receive a message stating that my dispute was ruled in my favor and that the money is being refunded to me. It's now been a full year since the intial purchase and over three months since my original submission of the dispute.
13. Days go by and I continually check to see if the balance on my PayPal account has received the money from the dispute as I was told by the agent prior to closing my account, but there's no change.
14. I contact PayPal via chat (because the Phone Service disconnected my after jumping through the automated system's hoops to try and get an answer...) The agent tells me that since it's a Credit concern, I have to contact PayPal Credit separately, via phone, and request a disbursement to my account. Again...the agent said this would just happen automatically, not that I'd have to request the balance transfer.
15. I call PayPal Credit and ask for the transfer of the postive balance in my now closed Credit account into my base PayPal account. The agent tells me no such transfer is possible, but that they must cut a check and send it to me. This now conflicts with the story to original agent told me when closing my acocunt and the chat agent told me when trying to request the refund transfer.

The transparency and response time on PayPal's end regarding purchase disputes is abysmal. At no point did I feel that PayPal was truly looking out for me as their customer, instead I had to constantly call in and bother customer service to get an updates. I was also consistently lied to, both in regards to the fact that I'd be receiving contact from PayPal regarding the matter as well as the process in which I'd receive my refund. If this is the best PayPal can provide then my time and money are not worth the headache and I'll simply find some other means of mangaging money between my friends and family members.