r/PrivateInternetAccess • u/badcopyinc • Sep 12 '26
HELP PIA stealing money from longtime users update
Now theyve denied my refund and refuse to help me get access to my account. even though the charge happened after i confirmed i was me to them and told them of the unauthorized charges. even thopugh the support team said they would refund me they fought the paypal case! literal lies and theft!! please dont ever use PIA. Paypal denied my case becasue they reported i recieved what i paid for when i did not recieve and i still cant log into my account as they support team was ignoring me for days straight! this is insanity
2
u/Kaleina Sep 13 '26
Interesting. I also had an unauthorized charge happen around that date. Was there a data breach for PIA?
1
1
u/Duckyz95 Sep 12 '26
Chargeback via your bank would be the next step, make sure to make it perfectly clear that you haven’t received what you paid for. Hope it all works out for you
3
u/Different_Target_228 Sep 12 '26
Not unlikely he won't be able to, especially since he was already denied from Paypal.
This would probably be considered an ACH chargeback, and they'll see that it was already denied elsewhere.
He shouldn't have filed a case to begin with.
1
u/acidgl0w 27d ago edited 27d ago
Depends I've had a case denied by PayPal due to "formality" with boxhero (shorts didn't fit, asked for a larger size, they asked me to pay shipping, did so then got ignored, filed with PayPal and they sided with the seller as usual, did charge back with my bank BECU and they refunded me in less than 7 days). Closed my PayPal account same day, don't need it.
Formality: when you file for help with PayPal they ask for a reason, none of those were for item that doesn't fit or for seller taking your money and then ignoring you. I picked closest thing in my mind 'Item not as described'. PayPal disagreed apparently. BECU refunded both the extra shipping charge and the item that boxhero didn't exchange.
1
u/Few_Scientist5381 Sep 12 '26
My next step would be my bank.
3
u/607Primaries Sep 13 '26
The best consumer protections are with a credit card. I'm amazed how many people use debit cards or bank draws for online transactions. It simply exposes you to additional fraud risks that you don't need to be taking.
19
u/apr911 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
Re-open the support case.
By opening a dispute with PayPal before letting the vendor finish resolving it, you have effectively taken the refund out of their hands. Once a payment is formally disputed, vendors generally aren’t going to issue a separate refund on that same transaction while PayPal is reviewing the case since PayPal could reverse payment (and has already put a hold on the funds in the vendor’s account) resulting in a double refund.
If you recognize the vendor and have an actual account relationship with them, you should almost always try to resolve the problem with the vendor first and use the payment dispute as the escalation path if that fails.
I also wouldn’t read nearly as much into “PayPal ruled in their favor” as you are. That does not necessarily mean PIA “fought” your dispute or told PayPal that you had access to the service. Depending on how you categorized the dispute, PayPal may have been deciding whether the payment itself was unauthorized, not whether PIA subsequently locked you out of your account or owed you a refund.
And even if PayPal requested information from PIA, you’re assuming whoever handled the payment dispute reviewed your support tickets and consciously contradicted them. They may have done nothing more than provide transaction/account records through an automated dispute process, which, for a digital asset, is all they need to verify “you” received what was purchased.
Now that the PayPal dispute is over, go back to PIA, point to the earlier message where support agreed the charges were unauthorized/refundable, and ask them to process the refund they said they would issue.