Has Paypal stopped giving protection to buyers? Buyer Protection?

[mhdriver]

Has Paypal participated in scamming customers?  I rented a hotel room through Paypal/Hotels.com.   This was for my family to have a safe place on 10/26/24, when Hurricane Helen was to hit.  On the day of my rental, I checked in online, went to the Hotel and they told me they had overbooked and had no room for me.  The clerk said I'd get a refund.  So I had to go somewhere else for the hotel.   However, Hotels.com simply lied to me, telling me they couldn't reach the hotel and have refused to refund me.   I was sent a notice via email that my room had been canceled on 10/26/24, the day of the rental.  After a couple of weeks dealing with this, I filed a dispute..  I included the notice that they sent me when they canceled my room.   Paypal sided with Hotels.com.  I called Paypal and their rep told me this decision was reached without a human reviewing my case.  I sent him all the documentation and he filed an appeal.  Tonight Paypal again sided with Hotels.com.    The sad truth here is that Paypal is NO PROTECTION at all.   I'm closing my account.   Paypal is totally unnecessary in my life and will never see another penny of revenue from me.  BEWARE of HOTELS.COM and Paypal.

[kernowlass]

@mhdriver 

Paypals customers are both buyers AND sellers as they give both paypal buyer and seller protection.

So it could never be a 100% coverall for both parties.

In the event of an item received but not as described ie a service then its often one persons word against another's.

If you lose then you have the option to take private legal action if available in your country OR if you funded your paypal payment via a credit card then contact your card issuer and see if they will chargeback for you.

[SG100]

There has been a major shift in the last couple of weeks of how Paypal is dealing with its cases. Absolutely offering more protection to the sellers as an automated process.

I provided photographic evidence that I did not receive the item I paid for, along with communication from the seller refusing the refund. This is a direct violation of The Consumer Rights Act 2015, yet Paypal settled in the sellers favour?!

I've already reported the seller to Trading Standards, and now have to do the same with Paypal and waste my time trying to find another way of getting my money back.

I would agree that Paypal seems to have taken a pretty serious detour away from Buyer Protection.

[mhdriver]

I can only reward this thievery by closing my account. This behavior is beyond sleazy. They wasted my time when I could have filed a claim with my bank.

[kernowlass]

@mhdriver 

https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/how-do-i-close-my-paypal-account-HELP247

[kernowlass]

@SG100 

Sellers posts on here moan about buyers having all the protection and vice versa for buyers. 

One party is always going to lose out. Paypal have to make judgement calls. They don't accept video or photo evidence as that can be easily manipulated.

You have to read up on buyer protection and then risk assess your transactions.

 That does not detract from you taking your own legal action ie small claims court etc as long as the seller is not an international one. 

[SG100]

The point here is something has changed very recently, with much more protection being given to the sellers. I know 4 people personally (myself included) who in the past week have been refused a refund for something that WOULD have been refunded a few weeks ago.

Without photo/video evidence to request a refund under buyer protection, how is anyone supposed to prove the goods they have received are incorrect/non-existent? Sounds like a way for Paypal to not follow through on something they've offered.

There's no point in having a middleman like Paypal when buying something, if they're just going to tell you to take it up with your bank and not follow through with their 'buyers protection'.

You also make it sound as though Paypal just randomly and arbitrarily choose a side to settle with. If one side proves their case, then this is clearly the side that needs to be favoured. If the evidence provided isn't enough as, you suggest, then Paypal should request 'acceptable evidence'. Seems to me as though they're just supporting bigger company names now and not bothered about companies breaching The Consumer Rights Act.

[kernowlass]

@SG100 

Those 'companies' are paypals customers just the same as you are.

That is why paypal give 'some' seller and 'some' buyer protection, so it can never be a 100% coverall.

If you lose then just try a chargeback OR you can use the small claims court. 

[Reiknar]

These Companies such as Hotels.com, are not PayPal customers the same as we are. For one they operate a business account if they use PayPal for themselves at all. That as I've recently learned provides all sorts of differences to how PayPal handles things for you, but comes with the caveat that PayPal charges you a % fee on all transactions you make (if you're using a business account).

One of the great things about PayPal over the years, is that they've always been known for how helpful they are in recovering payments made for services or items that were never received.  It's like 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Everybody knows someone who has been helped by PayPal's buyer protections, if they haven't actually had to make use of it themselves. 

Your sarcastic and snarky replies to users, putting their words in "air quotes" to imply your skepticism or outright refusal to recognize that their complaint is legitimate and your insistent defense of these companies who PayPal is allowing to take advantage of users is so far beyond unhelpful, it's a shame you have that 'esteemed advisor' tag under your name. It'd be one thing if you were merely offering a differing opinion, backed by experience, evidence, and possibly a better understanding of how PayPal works. But that's not what you're offering here. Instead you're offering derision and dismissal for the problems these folks have encountered.

Your self serving signature indicates that you feel Advice is voluntary. (Big Bold Letters, so everyone knows you mean it!). While that's true, perhaps you should take some advice. Stop pretending to help people. I've not seen any evidence that you're the least bit interested in providing advice here. Go defend 'helpless' companies somewhere else, no one here, least of all those companies, needs that here.