While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more

To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more

Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 59 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently complained about unhelpful support representatives, long waiting times, and completely unresolved payment disputes that caused significant frustration. Many people also experienced severe difficulties trying to obtain refunds and getting locked out of their personal accounts without receiving clear explanations. Though some customers appreciated the platform historically and valued its initial buyer protection features, current service failures remain a widespread concern. Users often found themselves dealing with frustrating automated responses and unexpected restrictions that severely prevented them from managing their own money properly. Reviewers strongly advised others to exercise caution when handling transactions or storing funds through the system.

What people talk about most

Payment

Reviewers mention negative feedback about payment, reporting immense frustration as consumers experienced... See more

Customer service

Clients share negative opinions on customer service, frequently reporting frustration with unhelpful... See more

Refund

Consumers find refund experiences highly frustrating, reporting that they struggle to get their money back... See more

Product

Users describe ambiguous interactions with product purchases, as consumers frequently reported receiving... See more

Service

Customers had negative experiences with service, pointing out that poor service and high costs left them... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

It is sad. I have used PayPal since I first heard of it. I've appreciated being a valued client and benefitted from their customer care, a real advocate for the consumer. No longer true. I was den... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Until this month, I would have rated PayPal a five for trustworthy and efficient services. I've used this service for years when I traveled and was reimbursed for the expenses. Never any weird charg... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I lodged a complaint against a vendor for delivering an item "materially different" that I ordered. I had the original invoice (paid) showing I ordered a velvet floor length dress. I received a poo... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Never use PayPal for any merchant service let alone any transaction over $20. They will let you use their services for several months but when you use it to make large transactions, they will keep you... See more


Company details

  1. Payment Service
  2. also in
  3. Card Processing Service
  4. Money Transfer Service

Information provided by various external sources

PayPal is the faster, safer way to send money, make an online payment, receive money or set up a merchant account.


Contact info

  • Embarcadero Road 1840, 94303, Palo Alto, United States

  • paypal.us

1.1

Bad

TrustScore 1 out of 5

341 reviews

5-star
4-star
3-star
2-star
1-star

No history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative

How this company uses Trustpilot

See how their reviews and ratings are sourced, scored, and moderated.

1.1

All reviews

(341)

60 reviews in the last 12 months

Write a review
Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I thank my stars for PayPal!!!

I thank my stars for PayPal! I recently purchased a washer and dryer online from Sears, with the help of a customer service rep. I was told that the installation was included in the price, but the installation wasn't set up for me. So when the delivery team arrived at house, they just wanted to drop off the washer and dryer without installing or hauling away. I refused the delivery and called Sears back to cancel the order. After 6 phone calls, I never was able to cancel the order and obtain a refund. So thankful that I used Pay-Pal for the transaction. I reported the transaction to Paypal over the phone, and they were able to refund my entire purchase (over $2,100) within 10 days. It was foolish of me to make such a large purchase from Sears, but Paypal really came to my rescue and I am so grateful to them.

4 April 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

MINUS STARS

MINUS STARS -- Sold a product online 2/26/22. Customer paid. PayPal requested I enter a tracking number which would trigger my money being released in 24 hours after delivery. (THEIR RULES). Product was delivered on March 2. As of this writing, many chats with no-nothing / promise you anything agents, emails to the CEO, ridiculous funding rules, me being a royal pain in the A**, and executive escalation agents involved that are begrudgingly forced to help you, on March 30, 2022 I finally close my account after receiving a check of the amount owed to me less their cut, which again is ridiculous. Look real close on the internet and other Trust Pilot and Google reviews for PayPal before getting an account and if you have one dump it and my advice --- look for other ways to get and send money and there are plenty.

30 March 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

They will steal your money

They will steal your money! I transferred my money into a new bank account. They told me 2 days after it was in my account that my bank was not linked successfully and removed my money. Now they don't have any record of the reversal and nobody knows what to do. Even though I have proof they took the $500 out of my account they can't do anything because they don't see it on in their system. You get bounced around from person to person that can't / wont do anything because they don't have access or can't see my reversal. Then sending the "escalation" they do it based on the deposit not the reversal so it will not go anywhere. I have heard of them doing this before and friends have never received their money. Guess you have to have it happen to you to believe it

18 March 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The customer service is horrible

The customer service is horrible! After two purchases, one I never received and the second I can't get any tracking info. Contacted PayPal customer service again and was greeted by rudeness and foul language. After this time, regardless of the outcome. I will avoid PayPal like a deadly disease.

11 March 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

BE CAREFUL

BE CAREFUL, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR FUNDS ON PAYPAL.
THEY CAN TAKE IT ANYTIME THEY WANT, IT'S NOT YOURS, THEY ARE NOT A BANK, IT'S ON THEIR TERMS OF SERVICE
Absolutely disgracefull!!!!

7 March 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Tried PayPal many years ago and about…

Tried PayPal many years ago and about had a heart attack trying to deal with them so after so many years I thought I'd try again. WRONG! A guy paid for my product 2/26 -PayPal says I can have my money 3/19 unless I want to enter the Tracking number which case the money would be available 24 hours after delivery. Product delivered 3/2 in the AM --AS of this writing, this is 53 hours after delivery and money is still on hold and one agent told me it was 25 hours after delivery, another told me it was 48 hours after delivery but still no money released. If you could give minus stars, I'd give 5 minus stars. I didn't check the box to let PayPal know of this review because 7 years ago I did leave a scalding review and they just ignore it. - stay away from this company unless you don't mind being screwed over!

4 March 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

There are a lot of TOO BIG companies…

There are a lot of TOO BIG companies that have ZERO customer service and isolate their customers from any meaningful or useful communication with them....none more so than Paypal. You can sit on hold for 70 to 90 mins to talk to a person who will just ended up telling you something is taken care of when it isn't, or go in circles proving they have no idea what really goes on their own company, or you can write in their chat box which NEVER works and then you write message that will only be responded to after are you logged off for inactivity...and that reply will show they never read what you wrote...maybe a quick glance for a few words after which they reply with something that shows they didn't read what you wrote... and so you reply asking them to read what you wrote to then get another reply equally ridiculous ....and so on and so on...they can't read 2 sentences and reply intelligently. They constantly change their terms and say if you have questions to contact them...but when you do they literally can't even find what you are talking about...and you'll spend 20 mins reading them the email they sent you that the agent can't find or speak to... the entire company is one big NIGHTMARE should you ever have a question or concern. I braved the hour plus hold time to tell them to stop sending me offers for business loans the mail... I get about 24 a year...the agent assured me I wouldn't get them anymore... I moved...and they started back up again... wrote them... and their reply was telling me how to change notifications on my cell phone app... seriously.

24 February 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

PayPal is untrustable

I have holding payment of more than $23000 since December 2018, and I have done all the necessary to send them documents to release the fund but until now, they just ignore any call or message. Now they do not let me login to my account either. I have a child with Autism and need this money for his treatment but unfortunately I am hopeless from getting the money back. Any advise from anyone who can help is appreciated.

19 February 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Totally fraudulent service

Totally fraudulent service. Nonsensical fees, no recourse. Totally useless support. Nobody pays any personal attention to you, nobody cares about you. Just vague copied answers or "solutions" that don't work.
Using Crypto for larger money transfers is much safer and cheaper than Paypal.
To cancel my account they want to examine my private documents first. Please what? In order to CANCEL an account I definitely don't want to use, I have to send my private information to a company that is worse than a thief or scammer? Absolutely outrageous. I don't understand how this kind of garbage can still function and exist in 2022.

18 February 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Paypal DOES NOT PROTECT BUYERS FROM…

Paypal DOES NOT PROTECT BUYERS FROM ONLINE SCAM ARTISTS. Like other complaints, we were victims of a fake tracking number scam. I have already made a negative review on the seller, now I am going after PayPal for siding with the online scam. We ordered a solar panel from thesalesock.com and the seller supposedly sent it to our address, but long story short, it was sent somewhere else and USPS verified it was a scam. I sent evidence of this fraud and filed a dispute of charges to PayPal based on not receiving the item. Paypal automatically sides with the seller if a tracking number is provided. According to my research, PayPal has been ignoring this issue for years now allowing scammers to exploit this proof of tracking number loophole, they've done nothing to fix this issue. We are cancelling our Paypal account and hoping our credit card issuer will get our money back for us. I would advise people to stop using these crooks, stop supporting this company. I hope PayPal meets its end soon. PayPal is a disgraceful company letting thieves thrive.

12 February 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

PayPal Holding Payments

My husband and I run a vacation rental home business. In November we received a payment from our customer of over $18,000.00 which was the total rent owed us for the rental of our vacation home for the month of December, 2021. We then received a message from PayPal saying that our merchant account had been flagged and limits imposed due to the increased amount of payment compared to previous months. Access to payments was being “held” by PayPal until we supplied them with more information about our business and the nature of our sales.
We then submitted all 4 forms of documentation requested and received another notice from PayPal in November saying that they had reviewed the information we submitted, our account was restored and any limits placed on it had been lifted. When I signed into our account, however, I saw that all but $2000.00 of our funds were still on hold. We were informed by PayPal that only $2000.00 of the $18,000.00 we were due would be available to us for 21 days. We then went online and requested an increase of the money from sales immediately available to us each month and PayPal increased that amount from $2000.00 to $4,129.91.
The next month the same thing happened again! In December our vacation rental tenant payed us more than $6000.00 and all but $4,129.91 were held by PayPal. We again requested an increase of the money from sales immediately available to us and PayPal increased that amount from $4,129.91 to $7,139.50. later in December, we received another rental payment of more than $8000.00 and all but $7,139.50 were held from us. The template notice from PayPal said, “We've placed money on hold because we need to know more about you and your business, such as sales details and customer service history.” This was patently untrue, as we had already supplied all information requested by PayPal regarding our business the first time we were asked in November.
Each time our funds were withheld from us, we called PayPal customer support and complained and were given the same tired suggestions about telling our vacation rental tenants to sign into PayPal and confirm that they had sent their payments and that their transactions were complete (this would be a completely unprofessional thing for us to do and not a reasonable ask of our tenants). Also, we were advised that the duration of the hold could be decreased from 21 days to 7 days if we went into our PayPal account and marked our product as “shipped” (this makes no sense whatsoever considering that our “product” is intangible and cannot be shipped!)
Now In January we are dealing with partial lack of access to our funds for the 3rd month in a row! Late in January, a vacation rental tenant made a payment to us of more than $9000.00 and all but $7,139.50 were again held for no good reason. My subsequent request of PayPal for another increase in the amount of money immediately available to us was denied (even though it was more than 30 days since our last increase).
We provided all requested information and documentation regarding our business to PayPal three months ago and were told by PayPal that our account had been restored and that our merchant account was in good standing. Also, we have consistently received payments of more than $6,500.00 each month for 3 months in a row. We have been receiving rental payments through this same PayPal merchant account for 2 years already, several other payments were $6000.00 to $8000.00 rental payments and those were never held from us prior to November.
Our vacation rental home occupancy and income fluctuates with time of year and length of stay so differing monthly payment amounts are to be expected. Sometimes we rent through VRBO rather than our personal website, so PayPal is not our payment processor every month. Our Christmas booking is a higher rental payment because December is a holiday period at peak rate and the customer in November rented our vacation home for a 29-day period. There is nothing suspicious or fraudulent about any of the last 4 transactions made over the last 3 months (or any transaction that we have processed since opening our merchant account in 2019.)
I recently became aware of a class action lawsuit proposed earlier this month by two California residents and a Chicago businessman claiming that PayPal’s hold on money amounts to an unlawful seizure. We are also aware that PayPal transfers merchant’s funds to outside bank accounts in PayPal’s name and collects interest on our funds by doing so. PayPal’s new practice of delaying dispersal of funds for insufficient cause is obviously just a ruse to maximize this revenue stream. I look forward to the resolution of this matter through legal means or otherwise!

29 January 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

paypal is heaven for scammers

so let me tell you guys.

if you are a seller and you use paypal - any buyer will be able to get the money back once the item is already delivered. There is no seller protection. Once you are in a dispute that they are not able to handle they will take your money away from you saying "sorry seller protection not eligible".
Does not matter how honest of a seller you are. You will have losses thanks to paypal making it ok for scammers to take away your hard earned money.

if you are able to use anything other than paypal - please do.

14 January 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

PayPal really should be no stars

Really should be no stars! FedEx did not deliver a 15kg bag of dog food despite stating they did so on 09 December 2021. On December 21 I used the PayPal service which allegedly refunds you for non delivery of an item. It does not do so. They have stated “confirming item was delivered”.
I then see on social media that this happens with pay pal as they seem to accept evidence from FedEx that they were in the “vicinity.”
As a long standing customer with pay pal will not use them again. I appreciate this will not bother them at all. If PayPal is offering to protect customers for non delivery then they should use a proper evidence based enquiry process. However I am using the small claims court to claim the £29.80 from the supplier as feel a principle is involved.

6 January 2022
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

As you may know by my recent reviews on…

As you may know by my recent reviews on a business called Bros Wear, I am dealing with a fraudulent company who took$118.99 two months ago and never delivered my purchase. So today I contacted PayPal and gave them the info on this problem and I gave them the receipt number LXIJ-87Ge-4UB-YA3E that they gave to my bank. They refused to do anything stating that the receipt number LXIJ-87Ge-4UB-YA3E which they supplied was not usable and wanted a transaction number that they never supplied. I feel they are supporting,aiding and abetting this fraudulent company

28 December 2021
Unprompted review

Is this your company?

Claim your profile to access Trustpilot’s free business tools and connect with customers.

Get free account

The Trustpilot Experience

Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.

We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.

Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.

Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.

Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.

Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.

Take a closer look