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Verified account lost $1700 after card fraud claim, proof ignored

My husband is a local electrician. He works for a corporation as well. He occasionally does some work for friends and family. Our friend called and told us about her 75-year-old neighbor who was having a lot of electrical problems. He went over in the middle of the night (do you know what electricians charge for that? Big bucks).

He did a service call free, gave the lady a quote, and charged her cost on all parts. She agreed, and he did the work the next day. She told him she had to pay by credit card. He explained that he was out the money for parts and that we are not set up with any merchant service. I told him I guess we could accept it via PayPal. BIG MISTAKE. I did not have an account, so it was set up for one-time use. She paid by credit card. My sister-in-law, who is verified, e-mailed me the request, as I did not set mine up with a bank account (for this one-time deal I did not feel safe about it), and I paid her so that my husband could get the physical cash to pay the parts accounts.

He could not wait for PayPal to send cash, as these accounts were due. All seemed well, and I closed my PayPal account. Then 1 1/2 months later my sister-in-law called to say that PayPal had taken $1700.00 out of her bank account due to fraud. I have the signed document from the customer, the invoice and the bill, everything, and PayPal will not accept it. The lady's daughter then spent a bunch of money and called the credit card company and said fraud. If PayPal is investigating, should the funds just be made unavailable? They caused her account to overdraft her house payment!

She has done regular business with PayPal for years, verified, and has never had a problem. But because the lady's daughter calls fraud (she is not even on the account), PayPal takes it at face value and will not accept any of the proof otherwise.

Company: PayPal
Country: USA
State: Nationwide
Site: paypal.com

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