Paypal…My Morning Experience
First, let me say 2 things.
#1 is I take VERY SERIOUSLY, the handling of money over the internet. In my opinion, there is never a time where the customer is not right. The customers money should always be the most important thing for a business like Paypal and should always be protected. If an error has been made by Paypal or even the party themsleves, Paypal should make it right. Period. I do not expect a company to lose money or services based on a customers fraud or neglegience. But, the majority of glitches and errors shoud be accounted for and made right.
#2 the sum I delt with this morning was small $99. Not a large amount compared to others that have been in dispute for thousands. Still. Even if it was only $1, it was money that should have been taken care of and protected.
So, here’s the deal. I hardly ever use Paypal. in fact, if I don’t have to, I never sign in, I just pay for materials and finish the transaction as an anonymous party. Today, I recieved and email from a trusted source. This email gave me a link to Paypal to pay a bill. I clicked on the link and it took me to Paypal. I have always paid with a credit card (this transaction was for our church). It asked if I wanted to pay by card and I clicked yes to continue. This time, however, it asked for me to re-input my information. I checked it out and it looked legit (and was). I re-input my credit card information, confirmed the shipping and billing addresses and clicked the Pay button. There were no other options on this page for payment other than the credit card info I was giving them. The next page confirmed my payment. I then went back to the history page to print out my receipt and I saw this…
I apologize if it is small. What it says is that the $99 was being transferred from my personal bank account and once that was done, an e-check would be sent to the party I was paying.
WHAT?!?! After paying with the credit card, it instead made the transaction with my bank account.
Here’s where it gets good. I immediately called Paypal to report the issue. In total, I was on the phone/hold with them for over an hour. And, I had to call back at one point, becasue they disconnected me while transferring me. After telling them the issue, I was eventually transferred to 2 different people. the final person told me, “I don’t know why you’ve been on the phone so long. We can’t help you”. I was told that there was no way for them to adjust this transaction. I was also told it was my fault. I was told that I selected the check box that said “transfer from bank account” and also selected the drop down menu and the correct bank account number. SERIOUSLY?!?! At this point, I was extremely frustrated. not only had Paypal made a mistake, but they were blaming me for it.
But, it gets better. The bank account it was going to transfer funds from was an old account I had used years ago when I sold Jeep parts. That account didn’t even exist anymore. When I told the Paypal manager this, he got very frustrated and began talking of charges and fraud. He told me that I was trying to steal money from paypal to pay my bill. I COULDN’T BELIEVE THIS!!! He then told me that if that bank account did not prove to be real, that he would open a fraud claim against me and never allow my name or accounts to be used with paypal transactions. At this point, I just sat with my jaw open. Then he tells me, the only way to make it right is to give him appropriate bank account information, that we can then verify and use for this transaction. Obviously, I did this as I did not want my church or church accounts to be in jeopardy.
I was given NO SOLUTION. Told it was MY FAULT Told that this transaction is in effect and can NOT BE ADJUSTED OR CANCELED. Then, the transaction WAS ADJUSTED so that the money would be taken out of the correct bank account. Does this seem wrong to you???
At this point, I will never use Paypal again. the minute my transaction is complete, I will be deleting my account…
Amen! Had the same problem a few months ago that was actually just resolved last week. At first, I was wrong and I made the mistake and I needed to contact the airline to get my money back. After 3 months, 12 people and 2 certified letters from a lawyer, they gave me the money back. I’m just glad my sister works for a lawyer and wrote the letters for free.
.
I transferred the $$ to my bank account and deleted paypal also. Kinda sucks for Ebay too, cuz I buy lots of stuff on there, but not so much anymore cuz most sellers use Paypal only.
Oh well, off to Amazon I go
Toby´s last blog post…Ya Better Watch Yo Back!
stinko.
Crystal Renaud´s last blog post…My Message to KLOVE
Great… I have all of my sold canvases set up to be paid through Paypal.
Keeping my fingers crossed…
gitz´s last blog post…Lions and Lambs
While I’ve never had a problem with PayPal (and in fact they once helped resolve an issue with an eBay seller), I would recommend you contact Scott Thompson, PayPal’s president. This behaviour is outrageous.
James´s last blog post…Extreme Shepherding
Wow, man. That’s insane.
Mark Thomas´s last blog post…I Took A Break
that is NOT good! I avoid paypal often as well.
Jenni´s last blog post…Worship Confessional – 03.29.09
I used to use paypal often while I was a frequent seller on ebay, but after fees increased and ebay policies changed I said goodbye to both. Never had a problem like you did, but I guess I was lucky. Lets face it customer service is not what it once was…..
bryan´s last blog post…Monday Madness – Something New
I don’t avoid PayPal, though I have had my share of frustrations. Life with PayPal gets easier if you understand the following truths:
a. PayPal is NOT a bank and is not governed by the same rules as First Bank of Your Town.
b. PayPal, by legal right of the contract that you digitally signed (you read it, right???), has full authority to freeze your funds at any moment in time.
c. There is no Account Review Committee. Not one person there speaks on your behalf.
d. What might be deemed “potential fraud” changes like the weather.
These next two apply specifically to eBay sales, which may not interest you:
e. At the point that we were doing $75,000 in monthly sales on eBay, we were told that we would be given a personal PayPal account manager at $100,000 in sales. That might have been helpful but we bailed after coming to the realization that most companies that we sold products for wouldn’t honor the warranty for auction sales.
f. If you do well, you’ll suffer greatly for it. If I did $10,000 in sales in one day, my PayPal debit card, which I used for purchasing and mailing the products, was limited to $2,500 in purchases. I had to call once a week for about 3 months to finally bug them enough to raise the daily spending limit. They raised it to $5,000, so I had to be creative with how I purchased the product using two different accounts.
My advice to anyone interested in using PayPal is to set up an account that only gets used for PayPal transactions. Deposit the money you need to transfer then transfer it. Debit cards work well, but add a credit card at extreme risk of something painful happening.
Jay Sellers´s last blog post…Replace That Nasty Diesel With An Electric Motor?
I was talking to someone else about this yesterday. Paypal doesn’t conform or account to anyone. That’s scary. After dealing with them and having an issue like this, I will never work with them again.
I’m still shocked that a company like Paypal would not see the benefit of treating the customer well.
Also, I would much rather give them credit card info that can be disputed verse bank account info.
I’ve never had a prob with them either, and we use PayPal in the usual places like collecting funds for sales of excess CDs (hello MusicStack), but I’m not a big fan of it.
For international stuff (and we Aussies do a lot of importing via eBay, etc), it’s become kinda necessary if you don’t want a credit/debit card.
This experience might make me rethink though. Ugh.
David´s last blog post…Worship : 29 March 2009
Like I told Jay, I’d rather use a credit card than a debit or bank account. Credit card info can be disputed very easily with the bank. Debit and bank account info…not so much. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
I don’t know what’s happening.
kristiapplesauce´s last blog post…Oh Sheep!
Let me say this. I hear about horror stories with all sorts of online resources. I also hear about good things. When it comes down to it, I believe that many of you can use Paypal and not have issues. I am just choosing to not use them again, because of this huge breach of privacy issue and the way they treated me.
And, as Jay pointed out, they really aren’t accountable to anyone. So please be cautious!
Wow dude, that sucks. I’ve had small problems with PayPal before but nothing of that magnitude. I can’t believe they were so rude with you. Unfortunately, it was probably some phone rep who was halfway around the world who had no vested interest in keeping PayPal’s customers happy.
Brad Ruggles´s last blog post…I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars
Brad, it was exactly that…
Wow. I would drop any company from my list for that kind of treatment.
Ric Booth´s last blog post…Unbelieving the Lie