Thursday, March 28, 2024

Christopher Elliott/Consumer Advocate: A Missing PayPal Payment, but Where’s the Money?

paypal & credit card logos

*Kelly Stout’s rent money is missing, and she thinks PayPal has it. But does it? And if so, how do you recover a missing PayPal payment?

Q: I need help with a missing PayPal payment. I paid for my rent recently through PayPal. PayPal withdrew the money from my bank account but my landlord never received it.

I contacted PayPal, which traced the money and promised to return it to my account. But I haven’t seen the money. My landlord is demanding that payment right away and I need those funds returned ASAP. He is threatening me with eviction. Can you help me get PayPal to return my $951? — Kelly Stout, East Rochester, N.Y.

A: I’m sorry your money is missing. PayPal should do everything it can to find and refund the missing money quickly, especially since you could get evicted. Under state law, the next step would have been a 14-day eviction notice, which fortunately you didn’t receive.

Paying your rent with PayPal is a little controversial. PayPal offers two kinds of accounts: a personal account and a business account. Some landlords, in an effort to skirt PayPal’s fees, accept rent payments through their personal accounts. That’s a violation of PayPal’s terms. PayPal may also hold the money when the amount is suspicious. In other words, your payment might not go through.

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PayPal Logo

You kept a thorough paper trail of the correspondence between you and PayPal — good job. But as I reviewed the efforts you took to fix the problem, jumped out that might have helped to resolve the situation.

At first, you were polite in your communication with PayPal. But then PayPal incorrectly claimed it didn’t take the money because of insufficient funds in your bank. After a representative refused to immediately refund your money, you became combative. (“YOU TOOK THE MONEY. I want my money back now. And I will be contacting a lawyer.”)

OK, I understand you were upset. But when a company says “no” you need to be extra polite. It isn’t so much the yelling (ALL UPPERCASE) but the legal threat that could have really thrown your case under the bus. When people threaten to take a company to court, the complaint often goes straight to the legal department, where it dies. But you were lucky. That didn’t happen to you.

Another reason you might want to remain calm and cordial: At some point, you may have to forward your paper trail of correspondence to a manager at PayPal. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the PayPal executives on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org.

I contacted PayPal on your behalf. It found that it had indeed taken your money but that your landlord never claimed your payment. PayPal refunded your $951.

Christopher Elliott’s latest book is “How To Be The World’s Smartest Traveler” (National Geographic). Get help by contacting him at https://www.elliott.org/help

 

© 2020 Christopher Elliott.

 

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