After a year of trying on her own with no success and collections calling her, she turned to Nina Pineda and 7 On Your Side for help.
It all started when social worker Teresa Santos was at a restaurant and her phone went off, confirming an Airbnb reservation for the upcoming week.
"I said, 'I didn't book this.' The money's not coming out of my account," she said, making it clear she would not pay for the rental.
It appeared to Santos someone had hacked her account, and she immediately contacted Airbnb after getting billed for the beautiful Centerport Bay whole house rental. Total amount: $2,407.88.
"At first, they said, 'Well, let's look into it. We're going to investigate it.' They said, 'Did you speak to the hosts?' And I started communicating with the hosts. And she was actually quite understanding," Santos said.
After texting back and forth, the owners of the house approved the full refund, but Teresa only received $110. Airbnb said the remainder couldn't be processed because of an open dispute with PayPal, which happens to be the account Santos has linked to her Airbnb account.
"PayPal is saying they paid Airbnb, so I owe them that money. And I go no. Yeah, Airbnb said they canceled the reservation, so who did you pay?" Santos said she asked Airbnb.
"It was just in this circular nightmare. I was going in circles," she said. "Airbnb was insisting that they canceled it."
PayPal said it determined there was "...no unauthorized use," and "Based on our review, the transaction is consistent with your PayPal history."
Santos' account was flagged and frozen in the red for months.
"They're still saying I owe this. But, you know, life is busy. I'm a mom, I have work, I'm tired. I couldn't keep staying on top of them," Santos said. "And then when all of a sudden, they sent me to collections, that's when I said, 'Oh, they're still doing this.'"
A negative ding on her credit was not something she was going to risk. She worked hard to afford her dream, a coveted apartment in Stuytown.
"When I was a teenager, I went to the High School of Fashion Industries, and I used to tell my friends at lunch time, I'm like, 'I'm going to live in this neighborhood one day.' And they'd all laugh at me. They're like, you know, you never will," she said. "So, when I got the apartment, when I was able to move in here in August, I wanted to create this artist loft themed apartment because that was what I envisioned."
Now in collections, Santos called 7 On Your Side.
"I can't fix this, but I bet you 7 On Your Side can," she said.
We reached out to both Airbnb and PayPal to get them on the same page. After trying for more than a year on her own, within 24 hours, Santos got the notification she had been waiting for.
Her PayPal was refunded the full amount, after they agreed it was an unauthorized transaction.
"All of a sudden, it's been a year. They sent me an email and a message on the app, telling me, hey, everything's been resolved. And I couldn't believe it. Thank you."
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