Formal Complaint about PayPal

[Bazzinator]

I would like to make a formal complaint about PayPal.

Is there any Ombudsman, Consumer Watchdog available for this? 

I know it's probably too much to ask, but do PayPal have any internal complaints area for investigating complaints about their own staff?  It's not really misconduct that I want to complain about, it's just ineptitude and unsuitability for the jobs they are doing. I have emails with responses and names of PayPal staff that clearly show that whilst they are performing professionally in terms of courtesy, they are not performing professionally in terms of taking the time to understand and resolve issues. 

I do have names of the support staff, and email evidence that can be clearly shown to be neglectful and lazy.

Please help.

PayPal have no regard for their customers. PayPal are a law unto themselves. There is no simple way to complain to anyone about PayPal, so they do as they please. If you try to get a resolution through website links you will find that many of the links are non functional because PayPal do not want to hear from you. If you phone them you will be placed on hold for extended periods because PayPal are hoping that you will get tired of waiting and just go away. If you are a business customer and have access to PayPal through business email you will invariably receive copy/pasted replies, because the support staff at PayPal just see your email as a nuisance to be dealt with quickly. They will not read your email. They will skim over it, entirely missing the point, and then copy/paste a prearranged text that usually doesn't  answer the question.

By doing the above, PayPal staff hope that your problem will become another staff members problem when you re-contact them about the non-answer they give. This creates frustration for the customer and vast numbers of unnecessary cases, revised cases, resubmitted cases and appeals. If PayPal handled all inquiries efficiently on the first contact, some estimates are that PayPal would reduce the number of complaints, cases, phone calls and emails by around 83%.

However, because PayPal have let the situation escalate to the point where support staff are inundated, support staff see their only option being to reply to written complaints by a quick copy/paste rather than addressing the problem efficiently, and to leave callers on hold for extended periods. This creates the vicious cycle of Customer contact - PayPal fob off - repeat Customer contact - repeat PayPal fob off - repeat Customer contact...

If you are patient enough to wait for someone to answer the phone, don't be surprised if the operator seems a little vague. They do this because they really can't be bothered talking to you, and they are hoping that you will become frustrated and hang up.

The whole point of PayPal "customer service" is to frustrate the customer to the point that the customer no longer wishes to waste any time complaining. I'm not sure what page of the PayPal training manual this is on, but it should be moved to page 1 because it seems like it is the prime directive for PayPal support staff.

If your time is valuable, just cut your losses, hang up, and bag PayPal out to as many people as you possibly can. 

[kernowlass]

@cinderfella 

ok see what you mean now. 

So are the funds pending to your bank account or can't you withdraw them at all?

[cinderfella]

I cannot withdraw my own money.

I am now contacting the Martin  Lewis show about PayPal.

Its not going to sound good when it is announced that my Alicante property deal fell through due to complete indifference shown by PayPal customer care !

Bad publicity is bad publicity !

[cinderfella]

Spoiler

Incidentally not only has PayPal cost me phone calls of £80 but a lost flight of £100 plus & hotel fees of £150 due to their complete indifference. I have to stay in Alicante until the notary can be visited by which time I may have lost my €6000 euro deposit too !!

[cinderfella]

In fact the only way PayPal can now make up for their total ineptitude is to not only pay an extra £500 in expenses to me but to ‘pull strings’ with Transferwise to ensure that the funds at an exchange rate of 1.17 goes directly into the sellers account by Monday.

I wait in hopeful anticipation.

[cinderfella]

Well folks we have many banks taking care of their reputation,

the black horse bank

the listening bank

& then we have PayPal, the Fcuking useless bank

true coz thy don’t give a flying fig about customers !!!

[Bazzinator]

PayPal are mediocre at best when it comes to customer service. The best you can expect is cut-and-paste replies until you escalate the complaint. The mere fact that they have 48 hour turn around on replies and 72 hour money transfer times shows that they are not serious about service. Escalate it, and give it publicity. When it comes to customer service you can place PayPal in the same bucket with Microsoft, Hostgator, Telstra and Australia Post.

[Boo70]

I have been going round and round in Paypal circles trying to get a refund for an item I return to a Chinese seller. Went through the resolution process, but my complaint expired before the goods I returned reached the seller in China, so of course they have not provided the promised refund. Paypal tells me the complaint has expired. On the positive side, Paypal did refund me the cost of the postage to send the item back to China. The item was originally sent to me from an address in Australia, but the seller insisted to return it I had to send it to China. I have tried to email the seller,but my emails are bouncing back!!!

I will not be using Paypal again.

[dixon30]

I am having a similar poor experience. Bought two sets of cast iron pan sets from a Chinese seller and received two pairs of broken sunglasses. The seller said I can have a refund only if I send the glasses back undamaged, an impossibility as they arrived with cracked lenses. I have taken photos and got letters from NZ post but paypal keeps sending me emails saying ‘ you can get a refund if you send these back to the seller!’ The seller has said however they will deduct for damage. I cannot win, and this has been going on for months. I send the same photos, emails and statuatory letters to show the seller should claim from China post and refund as instructed by NZ post but I get a new email saying - the seller will refund! No they won’t ! They will only refund for items sent in perfect condition as per their email stating this clearly. This is so wrong - I will never buy again from China and only use PayPal for companies with their own legitimate customer service departments. I am still replying with the photos and evidence. Will make an ombudsman complaint next. Hopefully, someone at PayPal will actually read my evidence and photos and common sense will prevail.

[Bazzinator]

I wouldn't hold my breath. PayPal have very few human staff, and 90% of the human staff are trained to act like robots so they don't have to do anything more than copy/paste in between playing video games. 

[sijackson]

I have been going around in circles with a very useless and ignorant Paypal rep called Angelica who I think is just a bot, either that or she is totally useless at her job, never answering the questions and just talking utter utter nonsense. I would ask a question and get an answer that is totally unrealted with the question.

I am done with this criminal operation which is Paypal