Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/12/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I paid Venmo $3,537.58 on August 30th to pay off my credit card. They took the money out of my account. I no longer have it. They applied it to my card and refuse to open up my line of credit. They did not lower my line of credit but are holding my money for 14 days which is ridiculous. They took cash from my account I cant use anymore and I cant use my credit card. They gave a reason of my payment being large so they put a hold on it. My balance was large thats why the payment is large. They are make interest off my money and holding up my funds. There should be a law against this. I have never had a banking institution do this. If they do this to all customers they are making interest off the money and not giving the customers access to their own money which is wrong. There is no reason my funds need to be held for 14 days.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/28/2024

  Dear ******** ********,
  
  I am writing on behalf of PayPal, Inc. in response to your complaint. 
  
  I understand your complaint is regarding **************, and therefore, I am unable to provide an adequate response to your complaint. 
   
  Synchrony Bank customer service can be contacted by phone at ************ or by mail at:
   
  *******************;
  P.O. Box 71726
  
  Although I am unable to address your specific concerns in this contact, I offer our sincere apologies for the difficulty that you may have experienced. Please feel free to contact PayPal's Office of Global Customer Complaints & Advocacy at **************************************** if you have any questions or concerns or if we can be of further assistance regarding your PayPal account.
  
  Very sincerely yours,
  
  Global Customer Complaints & Advocacy
  **********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/12/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Venmo promotes an app that allows you to send and receive money. As an event company, weve used Venmo for doing just that! In December, 2023, Venmo started declining all transactions linked to external payment with our account, unless its through a QR code in person. When questioned, they claim they did not decline it, to ask my bank. My bank never received the request. When I tell Venmo this, they say to use a different payment or give it a while. Ive tried this. For 10 months, Ive returned to Venmo to attempt sending payments in ******** ***** and in September. Every time it is supposed to pull from my external account, it declines. The bank does not receive the request. Ive contacted them each time about this ongoing issue. They simply tell me to switch cards, use a different bank account or wait a while. They tell me if I put too many requests at once it declines as fraud. Ive put one at a time after waiting MONTHS, and am declined on the first attempt. Ive put in a different bank account, different debit card, different credit card, they all get declined. I try from my personal and business account and get declined. Venmo see the decline, but repeats the same rhetoric and refuses to escalate to an IT to fix it stating there is no issue. I have clients who have declined working with me because they cant get paid in the method they accept. This is affecting my business and frankly, my sanity.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/30/2024

  Dear Melanie Grant, 
  
  Thanks for getting back in touch with us. We appreciate another opportunity to look into this as we want our customers to know their issues are taken seriously.
  
  We reviewed your experience once more and sent you another response via email that we hope will address your concerns. As always, you can reach us by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website, and we will be happy to speak with you about your issues.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/30/2024

   
  
  Complaint: 22274713
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  As stated in the original complaint, I have been unable to use my Venmo service since December 2023 for any payments with a linked payment account, when a QR code is not available. The response from Venmo is that they cannot determine the cause or reason for denying my transactions because their system has an auto denial, and that they cannot permanently remove denials from my account. I am not requesting a permanent removal of all denials. I am requesting that this issue be escalated to someone that can review the configuration to have this issue fixed. The auto-denial system is apparently discriminating against me/my company, either due to intentional or accidental programming. This is affecting us company wide with individuals who use Venmo regularly, and who do not experience security issues. Additionally, no request has been received by our bank, which indicates the system is hitting this unknown error on Venmo’s side affecting us specifically.
  It is hurting my business as we are unable to use a service that is widely known, and in some cases used exclusively with our business clients. Suggesting I use a different platform is confirming VENMO is not able to provide the service they promise to provide, which is my complaint to the BBB.
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  Melanie Grant

  Business Response

  Date: 10/02/2024

  Dear Melanie Grant, 
  
  Thanks for getting back in touch with us. We appreciate another opportunity to look into this as we want our customers to know their issues are taken seriously.
  
  We reviewed your experience once more and sent you another response via email that we hope will address your concerns. As always, you can reach us by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website, and we will be happy to speak with you about your issues.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/11/2024

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On September 10, 2024 two transactions were run on my Venmo debit card in a city that is three and a half hours north of me while I was at work in my home city. The charges were made in **********, ** and I live in *********, ** which is 171 miles away from where I live and work. I followed the steps Venmo provided me to file a claim against the unauthorized charges. Dispute ID ****************** for $23.25 that didn't include the $2.50 transaction fee charged by the *** and dispute ID ******************. These claims were denied with no explanation as to why they were found to be valid charges. When I called back all they said they could do is ask the claim to be opened back up for re-review. When I requested to speak directly with someone in the claims department I was told that is not possible that they do not have phone lines to communicate with customers. As well, I was informed that the customer care department and the claims department are not able to communicate with each other in any way beside email. The concept that this is a large scale company that handles a lot of money movement for people and now are expanding rapidly into helping businesses and non-profits with no version of insurance on funds held in their accounts. This offers no reassurance to the customers and businesses that their funds are safe. My claim is over a small amount of money and it seems that they claim to be a member of **** which means the small amount of money I've included in my claim should be insured or backed up by **********. The major complaint here is that they are running their business in a way that does not protect or respect their consumers and ends up benefiting them in the end only when issues arise. Especially since they only claim to be able to communicate via email and do not follow up with any further questions regarding claims or provide a real explanation to their determination of claims.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/30/2024

  Dear ***** ******, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been using venmo for a little longer then 2 years, iv had 10s of thousands of dollars deposited thru my venmo. This past week my account was listed as suspended due to it being flagged by venmo because of a failed payment, my venmo has $6,000 in it right now and they are refusing to unlock or unfreeze my funds, they won't let me speak to anyone except a AI bot.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear ********* ******, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On September 4, 2024 my son sent money from his PayPal to my Venmo account. I do not have a physical card so I prepare to send the money to my bank debit card. Every time I tried to send it the transaction was declined so I called customer support and was informed that my account was frozen. I was given no reason why the account should be frozen but was told there should be an email requesting a copy of my photo ID. I responded to the link in the email and sent my photo ID immediately. After speaking to the customer service representative again I was informed that it could be 3 to 5 business days before my money can be touched. This money was my gas money for the week to get to and from work. On Sunday September the 8th I finally received an email which asked for a copy of two bank account statements, one for my debit card and one for my credit card. I immediately downloaded these off of my bank website and sent them in to venmo I did not hear back from venmo until today which is September the 10th and was informed that my information was not sufficient to prove my identity and that my venmo account with my gas money in it is still frozen and unobtainable. I called and spoke to a so-called supervisor with venmo who informed me she could do nothing to help me because she was in a different department but she did advise me to resend in all the information I had already sent and that it could be another three to five business days. Meanwhile I have no gas to get to and from work and can easily lose my job over somebody else's incompetence. How does a photo ID from the state of Tennessee and two bank statements issued in my name to my address with the exact same information that is linked to my venmo account not proving who I am? I want the money that is on the account either sent to the debit card that is linked to the account or sent back to my son who sent it from his Paypal and then I want this account closed.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear Any *********, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 9/2/2024, a friend accidentally sent money to my old Venmo account, as she didn't realize it was an account that I no longer used. That account has my old last name, as well as my old ph# and old e-mail address that I don't have access to. Years ago, there was a debt due to be paid to venmo on that account. However, 2 years ago I filed bankruptcy and that debt was to be discharged. However, venmo took her money as they said it was to be paid toward the debt that was owed on that account. I told them the debt was discharged through ***************** wouldn't return the money back to her, causing her to dispute the charge with her bank, which hasn't been resolved yet. In order to speak with me, they wanted me to send them proof of my name change, as my name is now ****** ******* - not ****** *****. I sent that to them. No response. And I called them and they hung up on me 3 times. No resolution.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 8/13/2024 I received a suspicious email stating that my Venmo account had a restraining order placed on it and suspended my Venmo/PayPal accounts due to satisfying a debt with a ***** ***** P.C. and a case they had opened for a ****** ******* ********. Venmo asked me to contact this company to resolve the issue. I contacted this law firm on 8/16 and after review, they found out that they had sent Venmo/PayPal incorrect information and had suspended the wrong account. On 8/20, the law firm sent a release to PayPal/Venmo to unsuspend my account. I contacted ********************** on 8/21 via chat to let them know that this release was being sent and that they need to correct my account. The chat *** said they were unable to help me as it went through a different department and I would need to ***ly via the emails I had received, which I did. I have sent numerous email ***lies, 8/16, 8/26, 8/27, 8/29 and 9/5. Any ***lies I have gotten tell me I need to contact the law firm again. The last response I have gotten was 2 weeks ago on 8/27 telling me the same thing, to contact the law firm. The law firm already sent the release and since my PayPal account has been unfrozen but nothing with Venmo. I try to contact them through chat and they just redirect me to the email. I cant get a response and need my Venmo account back up and running. I have funds in there that are frozen and I cant use. I dont know what else to do to get this resolved. I have done my part and contacted the law firm to get the information corrected and am getting no help.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear ****** ******, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the PayPal website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  PayPal
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 9/9/24 I had $525 deposited into Venmo account from my employer. I tried to withdraw the money and could not. I received an email stating that my account has been frozen. I was asked to take a picture of my i.d. which I did two times and sent a pdf of my paystub. The response was that they will holding my money for 180 days. How can they do that. I needed that money to pay my rent. The message number is #********.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear **** ********, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/10/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Venmo locked my card for no reason and when i contacted bancorp the card issuer and venmo they both said they dont know why it's happening and they couldn't help, then hangs up. Very unprofessional, I've been stranded because they wont let me remove my funds even though they say there's no red flags on my account. After further research online I've found im not the only person who funds they're holding for no apparent reason.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear ****** *****, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/09/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I asked Venmo to close my 92-year old dad's account because there were problems with this account that repeated contacta with venmo customer service were unable to resolve. He had a $200 balance that was to have been sent to him via check between 2 - 4 weeks. It has been over a month since i was told to expect the check. I have followed up 3 times and get nothing but a runaround. it is fraud on their part. they refuse to give him back his $200 as they said they would.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2024

  Dear ***** ******, 
  
  We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you letting us know. When issues like these happen, we work hard to support our customers and be there when they need us most.
  
  We're here to help, so we reviewed your concerns and responded to you directly via email. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach back out by replying to our message or by visiting our Contact page on the Venmo website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Venmo
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/26/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** ******