The following story was reader submitted from Jonathan Schmidt, 31, Bucks County.
On Friday, July 17th, I attempted to purchase a DoorDash through Venmo to send to a friend who just had a baby so he could have meals for his family as they adjust to their new child’s schedule.
Using $100.00 from my Venmo Wallet, I attempted to purchase the $100.00 DoorDash giftcard. I immediately received an email from PayPal, the transaction was denied.
It read, “From time to time, PayPal must review a payment more closely to ensure it complies with the established User Agreement and our global regulatory obligations. We identified a risk that prevents us from completing this payment. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
I immediately contacted Venmo support through the chat feature. They assured me the transaction would be cancelled within 5-7 business days. After 5-7 business days, my transaction still read “pending” on my Venmo account and the $100.00 was never refunded to my Venmo wallet. I contacted support and they told me they were escalating the case and to check back in 7 days. In the meantime, I contacted both PayPal and DoorDash who assured me Venmo would be in charge of refunding me the money and would have the sole responsibility of facilitating this issue. After 7 days, I called Venmo customer support and was told there was no solution as of yet.
I was assured the case had been escalated to the engineering team because the issue had to do with a glitch in the system which does not allow Venmo to “cancel” the “pending” transaction. I was assured I was not the only customer dealing with this.
It has now been more than 40 days of consistently calling Venmo support, asking to speak to supervisors, and asking for updates only to be met with the same answer that “the engineering team is working on it.”
In particular, I spoke to one supervisor, named, “Daniel K.” Daniel K promised me an email every day with an update on my case. That was on August 18th and I have not received one singular email from supervisor, Daniel K.
In summation, it has been over a month of Venmo withholding $100.00 from me. I have asked multiple times for someone to explain what the engineering team is doing to remedy this issue and not once have I received any information. All I have been told is “they are working on it.”
Below is my email from supervisor, Daniel K –
“Hi Jonathan,
Daniel here from Venmo Support team.
I’m writing to confirm that your case has been escalated to our Technical Team for further review regarding the release of your two gift card purchases. We understand how important it is to have this resolved, and we sincerely appreciate your patience while our specialists investigate the issue.
Please refer to this Case Number: SPX_08772857 for any future communication regarding this matter. All relevant details, along with the actions taken on your case, have been documented under this case and will continue to be updated as progress is made.
We are actively monitoring the case and will keep you informed every 24 hours of any significant developments. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Best,
Daniel K | Supervisor
Venmo Support”
Furthermore, I have contacted Venmo by telephone on the following days to ask for further information only to be met with next to help:
- Thursday 8/20
- Twice Tuesday 8/18
- Friday 8/14
- Thursday 8/13
- Tuesday 8/11
- Wednesday 8/5 four times
The last time I called on Thursday, 8/20, the customer support worker actually asked me to stop calling. I assured her I would stop calling once I was refunded the $100.00.
Like I tell Venmo every time I call them, I simply want me $100.00 refunded. Nothing more and nothing less.
I have also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
Be wary of using Venmo cash regularly or keeping large sums of money in your Venmo account. The balance in your Venmo account is not “insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. If your bank were to go under, the government insures up to $250,000. But Venmo has no such guarantees.” According to CNBC “That means that in the unlikely event that the service goes down, Venmo isn’t responsible for you getting back whatever funds you had sitting in your account.”
The safest way to make online transactions is through a regular bank, using traditional means, this much I have learned.
Leave a Reply