Paypal lost/stole my money

Mexicocaro

I’m at my wits end.  PayPal have lost a $10k refund made by Air France whilst transferring the money back to the original debit card the tickets were paid from.
I bought some flight tickets that could not be used due to Covid.  They were bought using PayPal as the intermediary.  Air Frace agreed to a full refund which was credited straight away to my  PayPal account.  The PayPal account state that they completed the transfer but the money was never credited to my bank account.  PayPal gave me two different reference numbers to trace the money but the bank said that those references were not useful.  They have no record of the money entering their system.  The bank is blaming PayPal and PayPal is blaming the bank.  I’m going around in circles and I have to escalate this further but have no idea where to go now or what to do.  It’s $10k, its not pocket money, I can not lose this money!  Someone please help me!

eskbanker

Just to clarify, does your reference to dollar payments signify that you're outside the UK (where Air France bookings would generally be priced in sterling or euros)?

Which bank?

Have you raised formal complaints with both PayPal and bank yet?

DullGreyGuy

How long as it been since the refund from PayPal to your bank was actioned?

Mexicocaro

Over 30 days now.  The ref to $ is because i live outside the UK although I’m British.  I’m looking for the general process to take which in banking and legal terms should be generally the same.  Obviously we don’t have the same mediators here as we do in the UK but we have similar, I’m throwing the net wide because I’m desperate.  When you say a formal complaint is that something aside from calling them and filing the issue?  I have called, and as I mentioned in the post earlier the bank (BBVA) have no record of the transfer or ref number and PayPal have said they sent it (provoking two separate numbers) but we’re going around in circles and I don’t know what do do from here as PayPal wont give any guidance on how to escalate it further.  I believe after a lot of internet trawling that the mistake is with PayPal as there are a lot of people with similar problems but I don’t find the solution, usually the sums of money are a lot smaller.  I had no reason to know that this company had such a poor record of service, we just click and go because the option is there…what a mistake! 

Mexicocaro

*providing

Voyager2002

It would really help if you told us (i) the country where you live; (ii) the currency of the transaction from Paypal to your bank; (iii) the bank in question and the country where your bank account is held.

Mexicocaro

Mexico, transaction was in dollars, BBVA

Mexicocaro

Sorry Pesos

Mexicocaro

For the purpose of the question I transferred to $IUSD because that’s what we do here.  Sorry for the confusion.

Voyager2002

Mexicocaro said:

Mexico, transaction was in dollars, BBVA

OK, so financial regulation in the UK is not going to protect you (so what people on this UK-focused board know is not going to help you). You need to find out what body regulates financial affairs in Mexico.

Oh: it might be worth establishing whether your Paypal account is based in the UK. If you opened it before leaving Britain there is just a possibility that the FOS might be available to you.

eDicky

Mexicocaro said:

Mexico, transaction was in dollars, BBVA

So that's BBVA Mexico, USD or MXN account? Your PayPal account is denominated in USD? Air France ticket was priced in USD? Reason not to pay directly with BBVA card?