Access Card Purchase Declined Three times, But payment deducted from Paypal Balance

[chrispointon]

I went to make a purchase from an online vendor earlier this afternoon, using my Paypal access card as payment. Upon entering the payment details, the checkout reported that the card had been declined, I tried a second and third time just minutes apart, but the transaction was constantly rejected by the merchant.

I then got Three automatic emails from Paypal, stating that each transaction amount had been deducted from my Paypal balance - Three transactions of £245.56 totalling £736.68. Upon logging into my Paypal access account, I see that they are listed as 'pending' and haven't yet actually been paid. So they are effectively in limbo.

I contacted the Paypal Access Customer services only to be told that I would either have to get written confirmation from the Vendor stating that they wouldn't be taking these payments or wait for the "pending" transaction status to time out on 25th November.

The Vendor states that they use a Merchant Payment Provider (Hipay) and never see or have any control over the actual card processing, whilst Hipay state that they won't talk to me, as i'm not their customer, and they recommended I speak to my card issuer (Paypal) to get the transactions cancelled, so how exactly am I supposed to get either of them to write to Paypal, when neither of them want ownership!.

Surely Paypal Access can see that the payments have been duplicated in quick succession from the timestamp and amount, and that each of the three payments has been physically declined by the card processor at the other end. Isn't the fact that the payment has been declined / rejected enough proof that they won't be taking the payment?.

£736.68 is a lot to have missing from your account and effectively in limbo for the best part of 2 months. Any advice on getting the balance returned sooner than 25th November would be appreciated.

[PayPal_Jessica]

Hi Chrispointon,

Welcome to the forum. 

I am sorry to hear that this has happened. I understand that you already contacted PayPal Access Card Customer Services and that the issue is still not resolved, but they would be the team that could help you to follow up in this case. You can call them on 0845 505 8801 between the hours of 8.00am and 7.00pm, Monday to Friday or 9.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday. Alternatively you can write to the Customer Services at PO Box 3883, Swindon SN3 9EA. 

Thanks,

Jessica

[chrispointon]

Hi Jessica

it was the Access Card Call centre who advised me to call Paypal because they couldn't release the pending payments until 25th November.

I spoke to a representative at Paypal, who was going to get an Account Specialist to cancel off the pending payments and put the balance back into my Paypal account. I was promised an email, "within 48 hours" from the Account Specialist with an update - which hasn't happened.

I'm struggling to understand why payments which were immediately declined by the Vendor at check out stage, were even deducted from the balance, the transaction never happened, no payment was taken, no contract of sale has ever been entered into.

Having over £700 on hold until 25th November is only achieving one thing - stopping me spending it with Ebay and other Paypal merchants.

[PayPal_Jessica]

 I understand your frustration in this case and I apologize for the delay you have experienced to get a response. If the issue has been escalated, you should usually receive a response within 48-72 hours. Unfortunately, we can't discuss specific account information here, but if you don’t receive an update of the issue, the best thing would be to contact us by phone or email from the Contact Us section in your PayPal account to make sure that we can follow up on this. 

Thanks,

Jessica