Missing PayPal Refund - What to Do?

Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 20:11
Last edited 24/01/2024 - 20:12

Hey All,

I made a booking months ago with Airbnb and they took a $200 deposit from my PayPal account. Since then I've closed the ANZ Credit Card the money came from (I don't have any ANZ accounts now). When I cancelled my Airbnb booking last month, the refund supposedly went back into the closed ANZ account via PayPal.

At the same time Airbnb sent me a message saying that a payment was being disputed by my bank. And PayPal automatically created a dispute, but are showing that a $200 refund has gone through.

Airbnb were of zero help.

PayPal keeps insisting that it's gone through to my ANZ card and it's the bank's problem. They've given me a reference number to quote to the bank.

ANZ say they won't speak to me as the recipient. The person who transferred the money needs to lodge the dispute, and if they had theoretically received the money they would've sent it back to PayPal within a week. They say the reference number from PayPal means absolutely nothing.

Any thoughts on where to go now? I'm not sure who I should be hassling.

Thanks!

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Comments

    • Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 20:19

      Why wouldn't I bring ANZ into this after PayPal told me they sent the money to them and never received it back?

      • askbargain on 24/01/2024 - 20:49
        -5

        If the refund is showing on your PayPal account, why would you expect Airbnb to help?

        • Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 20:58

          I hadn't realised what was going on at that stage. The first thing I heard about any of this was an email from Airbnb advising that there was a disputed transaction on my account.

  • cuy on 24/01/2024 - 20:21
    +6

    Raise a formal complaint for both:
    * https://www.anz.com.au/support/contact-us/complaints/
    * https://www.paypal.com/au/smarthelp/complaints

    If you have already raised and they haven't resolved your problem, lodge a complaint with AFCA https://www.afca.org.au/make-a-complaint/banking

    Either PayPal or ANZ have pocketed the money that they aren't entitled to. They need to sort their crap out.

    • cuy on 24/01/2024 - 20:28
      +2

      ANZ say they won't speak to me as the recipient. The person who transferred the money needs to lodge the dispute, and if they had theoretically received the money they would've sent it back to PayPal within a week. They say the reference number from PayPal means absolutely nothing.

      Also usually refunds on a closed credit card usually end up somewhere within the bank - either on the closed account or some special holding. It sounds like you didn't explain yourself properly to ANZ

      From what you said this doesn't make sense. What does dispute / recipient / transferring money have to do with refunds. You should be more clear…… "I was refunded on a credit card that is now closed." <—- Put that somewhere on your complaint for ANZ

    • Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 20:29

      That's great advice, thanks. I'll look into that!

      I lodged a complaint with ANZ a couple years ago. From memory it took about two months for them to get back to me. Hopefully they've upped their game in post lockdown life.

      The guy I spoke to on the phone at ANZ definitely understood what I was saying. But he insisted there was nothing they could do. It was in their Aussie call centre as well.

      • cuy on 24/01/2024 - 20:32
        +2

        Usually banks handle complaints with urgency….. they get grilled by AFCA if they leave it for too long……

        Also put in the complaints form "I will be raising a case with AFCA if I do not hear back from someone within 1 week on XX/XX/2024". Give them 1 week to respond

        • Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 20:36

          Will do. Thank you!

      • AndyC1 on 24/01/2024 - 21:13

        Did you say "formal complaint"? This gets OZ support staff into another mode.

        • Pineapples on 24/01/2024 - 21:43

          I very specifically put in my complaint that I wasn't complaining about the person who spoke to me on the phone. He was a nice guy and seemed to want to help (which is more than you can ask for alot of the time)

          • AndyC1 on 25/01/2024 - 08:31
            +1

            @Pineapples: When dealing with support it is a support issue until you mention "formal complaint" when on the phone. An issue for most companies is nothing they care about compared to a complaint, which gets way way more priority and you should be transferred to a different department.

    • Pineapples on 27/01/2024 - 14:54

      I raised a formal complaint with both. Paypal just sent me a thing in their messaging system saying the exact same thing. ANZ called me, said they couldn't find any evidence of the transaction, but as a 'good will gesture' (i.e. not an admission of guilt) they will reimburse me the money. Cheaper than having an AFCA complaint for them I guess.

      • cuy on 27/01/2024 - 15:19
        +1

        Great outcome. Glad that it was sorted.

  • hasher22 on 24/01/2024 - 22:15
    +1

    Two possible scenarios:

    1 - AZN is holding the money to a closed account and is waiting there for you to claim. Banks don't fully close an account and your details should still be with them and possibly the call center reps can't see it for some reason and needs to be investigated further by their IT team or escalated. Since you don't have any ANZ accounts nor other cards, usually banks will transfer it to the new card or bank account. But this isn't the case.

    2 - AZN rejected the refund and it bounced back and AirBnB should see it bounce back thus offering a refund to another source or directly to your paypal account. I understand AirBnB will and can be useless for these types of scenarios, but I know they usually pass the buck back to paypal or the bank

    As you called AZN and they refused or they couldn't find the money and AirBnB couldn't find a bounced back transaction. I would lodge an AFCA to AZN, most likely they have your money.

    • Neoika on 25/01/2024 - 07:48

      ANZ, not AZN.

      • hasher22 on 25/01/2024 - 12:43

        Well obviously it was a typo. Thank you mr obvious

    • Pineapples on 25/01/2024 - 22:17

      Great, thank you for that

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