PayPal Reviews

PayPal's Direct-Debit Automated Loophole Excludes Consumer Rights for Long-Term Rentals. Dear Consumer Advocacy Team,

I am writing to expose a severe consumer protection blind spot involving PayPal's Pre-approved Billing Agreements and their systematic failure to protect consumers when high-dollar merchant services result in legal uninhabitability and health hazards.

Recently, I booked a 30-day relocation stay on Airbnb. Because of a historic 'billing agreement' link established years prior, PayPal's automated system processed a payment of $2,527.23 by executing a direct electronic ACH debit from my bank account, entirely bypassing my credit instrument options and without prompting me for a transaction-specific confirmation or password.

Upon occupying the unit, it was discovered to contain active, severe black mold contamination across the bathroom walls and ceiling. The airborne spores triggered acute physical injuries, including severe skin rashes and systemic headaches, forcing an emergency health evacuation after just four days.

When a dispute was raised, PayPal unilaterally denied consumer reimbursement. In an official corporate response tracked through the CFPB (Case #260611-****7481), PayPal defended their actions using two highly alarming positions that the public needs to be made aware of: The ACH Sweep Loophole: PayPal explicitly admitted that because a blanket billing agreement existed, they are permitted to debit a consumer's direct bank routing number by default without a localized payment selection prompt at checkout if no preferred source is locked into that specific deep sub-setting. The 'Expectations' Gaslight: PayPal ruled that a toxic biological environment that violates state health codes and causes physical injury does not qualify as 'Significantly Not as Described' under their Purchase Protection, instead choosing to classify a legally uninhabitable dwelling as a mere failure to 'meet expectations.'

Because bank accounts lack the strict 'Quality of Service' clawback rights afforded to credit cards under the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA), PayPal's automated mechanism effectively strips consumers of their financial recourse the moment they sweep a bank routing number for a high-value platform transaction.

I have fully documented this case, including the CFPB determinations, payment logs, and physical photographs of the biological hazard. I am sharing this information to help your organization investigate, warn, and protect the broader public from this predatory payment architecture.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Gottlieb

I'm so pissed PayPal has been holding my money since June 29th and told me they're holding it until December. That's my bill money and I need it.

They said they're gonna be holding onto it in case there are any fees or anything that has to be paid. I put money on there twice and took the money right out. There aren't gonna be any *** *** fees to pay; they can see that from their end just as well as I can see from mine. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever dealt with in my life with PayPal.

I've never had any trouble. I need my money, and I need my money now.

They're holding $245 and they want to hold it until December. That's ***
Casie Breaux
@casiebreaux108 find me here; that's how to find me some money and my username.

Issue description: Unjustified account deactivation and withholding of personal funds ($300.00). PayPal has permanently restricted my consumer account and is withholding $300.00 of my personal funds due to an automated system misclassification. PayPal's automated compliance system flagged an incoming transaction of $300.00 and erroneously classified me as a 'seller' or 'merchant' operating an unauthorized business. In reality, I am strictly a consumer. This $300.00 transaction was a direct refund from a merchant for an item I previously purchased. The merchant issued the refund as a standard transfer rather than utilizing the 'issue refund' button, which triggered PayPal's automated merchant risk flags.

I have already provided PayPal's customer support with irrefutable documentation, including: complete chat and conversation logs with the merchant explicitly arranging this specific refund; proof of the original transaction showing I am the buyer. PayPal's customer support has refused to manually review this evidence, relying instead on automated responses to permanently close my account and freeze my $300.00 balance. Because this money is an incoming refund to a consumer and not a commercial sale, there is absolutely zero risk of a chargeback or financial loss to PayPal.

I request that a human compliance analyst manually review the uploaded chat logs and transaction history to verify that this was a consumer refund. I request that PayPal immediately overturn the permanent account restriction, or at an absolute minimum, grant me immediate access to withdraw my $300.00 balance, as holding consumer refund money constitutes an unfair and deceptive business practice.

I tried to create a PayPal account and my email address was already in use. I have never had an account; I spoke with 3 customer service reps.

I was told to email unsolicitedemail@***.com. This was extremely unhelpful. I sent an email at 5:46 PM and received a generic response at 5:52 PM from Jahangir. I immediately called customer service again and was told to email them again.

This was about as useful as adding more sand to the desert. I would rather have another pelvic biopsy than deal with their customer service. If they put half the effort into resolving the issue as they did playing phone tag, they would be a stellar company.

I really wish I wasn't required to give them a 1 out of 5. I don't know which was more useless: the customer service or the dismal AI user interface.

I had a personal account for well over a year, taking in rewards from money-making apps and product testing payments. Those funds were then used to purchase Amazon gift cards or transfer to my checking account.

All but one transaction, I made an order on Amazon for over $40 for several items; one of the items was an adult product. My gift card balance was $2.75 short, and I had PayPal cover the two dollars and seventy-five cents. This triggered Amazon to send PayPal a complete itemized invoice. So much for Amazon's policies about maintaining privacy and discretion.

The adult item violated PayPal's standards of morals enforcement, and they permanently 'restricted' my account, allowing nothing. They closed the account. Excuse me??? I'm an adult.

I purchased an item that Amazon can legally sell, which didn't violate any laws in my state. PayPal, you are not my parents, nor do you have any authority over my personal life. I just verified five different sites that only sell adult products that accept PayPal. I want to PayPal to get into chat and recorded the entire conversation; I will attach it now.

An undefined problem with my transaction history... Violation of my privacy, forcing their moralistic policies on me for legally purchased products. Now changing the reason.

Let's see. Spies, liars, delusional God complex.

I have a limitation on my account and let me give you a little bit of background about me. I am a 24-year-old Handyman who works with a lot of clients in the ***.

I use PayPal as a payment method for my clients to be able to pay me for different jobs and services that I provide as a Handyman. *** discussed this numerous times with PayPal in the past as I had issues with invoices and holds on money I made from my clients and Ive been running through PayPal for almost a year then out of nowhere out the blue PayPal decides to put a limitation on my account and block all the features on my account with no valid reason Ive tried contacting PayPal numerous times for a reason to why theres a limitation on my account and I keep getting hung up on with no valid information. Ive submitted to Better Business Bureau about my issue and have submitted numerous appeals to PayPal yet to receive a resolution as Ive done nothing wrong per user agreement as it is legal to sell your services and be paid for them as PayPal advertises for Business now I have money tied up in PayPal and cant receive it until 180 days thats November 2026.

I shouldnt have to wait that long for only nine dollars in my account. I will be surely done with PayPal and will never do business with PayPal again because it has hurt my business and my clientele making me look unprofessional using their platform and I advise any other business owner to do their research on PayPal before choosing them as a payment processor for invoices.

I received a reminder in my calendar under today's date that there was fraudulent activity, perhaps on PayPal, and it was logged at $399.95, a PayPal purchase attempt at an Apple Store location in Massachusetts, Maine. If this purchase was made by you, ignore this message.

The transaction will clear and show up in your account within 24 hours. If this purchase was not made by you, call PayPal support. I called the number, and there is no such number, so now I'm afraid that because I've responded, I've hit the panic button, that now they have access to more information.

They've got my phone number and more information, and they can get into my account and they can take money from me. What do I need to do???

I have 2 charges on my Venmo debit card for PayPal spontaneous $14.99 each. I demand a refund of these charges because they are unauthorized and untraceable.

I've reached out to [GEOGRAPHIC_DATA], but I was told to contact PayPal since that's where the charge came from. I have no idea what these charges even mean or what they are for. As you can see, I never use this account and have no other accounts with PayPal. There's absolutely no reason PayPal should be taking recurring fees from my Venmo debit card balance.

I'm a single mother, and that $30 really was a pain in the *** to have to lose. PayPal is a multimillion-dollar company, and I don't see why there should be any problems refunding my Venmo account for the two unauthorized payments of $14.99.

Thanks.

-[PERSON_NAME]