Many people are familiar with PayPal and how it is structured. You pay money to someone, and PayPal skims money off that payment, or vice versa. It seems great for online use in small amounts with services they are affiliated with, such as eBay. It seems a little scammy, but it makes life easier sometimes, until there is a problem.
Back in November, I used my debit card issued through PayPal as an automatic payment for another rip-off company, WildBlue, which was my internet provider. If I did not have enough money in PayPal, it rolled to my bank.
In late March, before my billing cycle came due, I cancelled my WildBlue internet. Needless to say, on April 12 they billed my PayPal debit card. I did not have enough funds in PayPal, so it rolled to my bank. The problem was that they did not charge me the monthly fee but triple the monthly fee. No, I had no cancellation fees, because I had completed my contract.
I immediately disputed it through PayPal and my bank. My bank said I had enough evidence that I cancelled and bounced the payment back to PayPal, making my balance negative in PayPal. I filled out affidavits and sent information and proof after proof, and nothing happened. My account showed negative. I submitted emails and called for the next several months, and PayPal was "working on it."
Several months passed, and I got a letter from collections saying it was going on my credit. So I called. They claimed my dispute was closed, siding with WildBlue, and that I owed the money. Due to hard times, I had filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and I ended up including them and gave their collections my bankruptcy information.
Thinking that was over and done with, I saw that my account still showed negative. My lawyer said that once we had the creditor meetings, we would be okay and it would resolve itself. Here we are now in June. The creditor meeting took place, and my account is still negative. I paid my first two bankruptcy payments and everything.
Still no resolution in PayPal. On July 4, I happened to have some spare time, and I logged in to PayPal. They had sent an eCheck on July 4 to my bank for the amount claimed in the bankruptcy! This is a complete violation of the automatic stay of the federal bankruptcy law and various other infractions.
Since my bank had a stop payment from April, PayPal had tried to hit the account all these months unsuccessfully. This time they added $1.20, which they claimed was fees, and resubmitted the charge. Thus, the original stop payment did not catch it. I notified my bank, and I have another investigation pending. In the meantime, someone blocked all charges from PayPal.
During the time my PayPal account was negative, it refused to allow me to remove my bank information. I have since removed it since it is showing good as of today. I am sure I will win my dispute with my bank and the payment will bounce back, but needless to say, they violated the law.
My lawyer called them to avoid court and get the money back, and they hung up on him. I called three times, and after two escalations they sent me back through the dispute process, and Tim in Escalations promised a refund in 24 hours. The next day I got an email saying they were not refunding the money and that I did not cancel the billing. I did cancel, and I had a confirmation number.
So I called back and escalated again, and they claimed they did not take the money, the computer did, so they violated no laws and are not giving the money back. My lawyer is referring me to another lawyer who specifically deals with bankruptcy violations.
I just wanted this on record so others know what to expect and what to avoid in dealing with this company.
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