I do the opposite. Paypal has no customer support and doesn't care about me or any other customer at all.

But I can call American Express, be instantly connected to an agent who at least pretends to care, doesn't sound like they're overworked, and will gladly put in the chargeback request for me. I can also do this online if I'm feeling less social that day.

Have you ever/recently been in a situation where you had to that? Did it go as smoothly as that?

So? Dispute it with the credit card, it's not a huge deal. By comparison Paypal is often linked to a bank account where you'd out the money until investigation completes. Even if you used credit cards exclusively on PayPal, PayPal's terms of service preclude you from using your credit card's chargeback. (I mean you could use it once I guess and then they ban you from using their processor)

It's a lot easier to get a refund on PayPal than a real bank. The one time that I did a charge-back on my credit card, my bank gave me the 3rd degree and made me feel like I was the criminal.

You're right about PayPal helping themselves to bank debits. I have a small eBay business and back when they dealt directly with PayPal, I would have a separate account to receive the funds and as soon as they hit I would transfer the money out. It's just part of the OPSEC that's required when dealing with our new megacorp overlords.

I agree. Bank accused me of fraud when I reported someone hijacking my card and buying ridiculous mixture of Christmas ornaments and female beauty products (I am a male atheist). Ultimately I lost after going through the full appeals and I was made to feel a criminal; like I was lucky they didn't refer me to law enforcement.

The email the bank sent me to prove 'I did it.' -- something very close to 'piratearrgghhhh34398903@yahoo.com' The fucking scammers taunted me by literally calling themselves pirates in the invoice. The one upside of paypal is the customer basically always wins to the point you're almost relying on the good faith of the customer not to take the money back.

If you're concerned about fraudulent transactions, you could use single-use virtual cards offered by banks like Revolut (or equivalent in the US).