Venmo Goods and Services does absolutely NOT protect you from fraudulent/illegal goods especially if you pick them up yourself. Crooks know this.

I have spent multiple phone calls/emails actually attempting to make a claim and have gained no tractions, no answers. Just a string of failed customer service. Worse there is no way to make this right.

On Jan 2nd I made a mistake of purchasing a Dyson Supersonic “new” from a seller on FB marketplace. To minimize risk I went in person to pick it up.

A few minutes before I was there my sketch sense went on. So I told the seller we would be using Venmo goods and services. He said yes but that he “had never used Venmo before” and needed to make an account.

I really should’ve stopped there but I thought I would be protected. I saw the product and it looked legit enough so I thought maybe I was worried for nothing.

Well after using it a bit I realized a few things were off. Buttons weren’t printed right or in quite the right place, the serial number wasn’t registrable, it clearly wasn’t electrically compliant (created the worst light surge ive ever seen) and Dyson wanted me to ship it back to them to “check” if it was authentic. What I had was a hyper realistic knockoff and I looked into this later and they are actually fairly common for this product. If you look at FB Marketplace/Offer Up for Dyson Supersonics and lower the price to a ridiculous number say 100$ (not what I bought mine at unfortunately) I guarantee you'll see a couple obvious ones in your area.

This problem is so common that Dyson knows about it. This is why they have their system where they can "check" if it's authentic. I found out from others that when you take them up and ship it in they destroy it.

So I opened a case on January 3rd I opened a case. Explained that the product was fraudulent. And included pictures.

They then said the seller had 15 days to respond to this message.

Lo and behold 16 days later I received an email. They instructed me to return the item, to pay all costs associated with returning it, and they gave me an address that did not make sense to return it to. I met this seller in person at a transit station not near here. He said this station was the “closest to where he lived”.

So of course I appealed. I said my evidence that the product was fraudulent hadn’t been considered and that there is no fair reason I should have to pay the return cost to return it to an address nor should the seller have this product back. So I responded with more explanation. Which by the way responding to these things is WHOLEY difficult. There is no portal. Sure your claim gets a page but they or some automated system just marks your messages as “resolved” and moves on. The response often came separate. I often had to call in and escalate to respond to this case.

Then 10 days after that I received an email saying “we still haven’t received a response from you. To receive a refund you need to initiate the return shipment” and said NOTHING to respond to my evidence. I believe I called in as that was the seeming only option to respond and they said they would look into it.

So then I called in. Tried much harder to get someone to actually read this information. They opened a case. I put information in it. They gave me a confirmation, said it was added to my claim, and a day later marked this as “resolved” without any response.

3 days later I received an email saying it was denied.

So of course I escalated. It took awhile on the phone but at some point I got to their appeals flow where they assured me I would be assigned a person and that it could be re-opened. He said to submit “new” evidence so I put in more pictures and more words. I also told him at this point I would be ok to just ship in the item anyways.

One thing that boiled my blood was them saying “we usually expect these cases to be resolved within 30 days of when they were filed” which is insane considering most communications came with at least a 3 day delay if not a 16 day delay.

So I submitted extra info. They said I should hear back in 15 days later. 16 days later when I had heard nothing I called in. They said my assigned person would be the only one able to respond and to email in the thread would be the best way to reach them.

So I did. 7 days later no response. I have spent entirely too much work actually getting protected by “buyer protection” at this point. Am I still going to poke and prod at this till I get my money back. Yeah. Am I going to be looking into small claims court, police reports, bank reports, ohhhh yeah.

Here’s the problem. Most of you gave Venmo your bank account information… including me. So the typical route of opening a case with your bank won’t work. In fact the way Venmo has set up their ToS you HAVE to go through them. I am not convinced I have any ability to sue here and I have heard stories of people getting banned from Venmo for opening such disputes.

The fact that they have the power to just end your ability to use Venmo for trying to circumnavigate their broken system here is wild. The fact that I am having to weigh whether having Venmo access is worth loosing hundreds of dollars is just insane.