OT: Paypal Hell

[jim davies]

Over the years I have read numerous stories about Paypal hell. Well now its my turn.

It all started when I made a purchase, of course. In trying tp pay, there were problems of some kind at Paypal. Kept timing out
usually at the last screen. finally it went through but it looked like Paypal defaulted to grabbing the funds out of my bank account. I only use a CC for bookkeeping reasons, and have a Paypal only bank account with a minimal balance only because they demand it.

Anyway, jumping ahead,Paypal claims they paid the vendor twice and are demanding a refund from me! Vendor says not so. Trying to deal with Paypal is like pulling your own teeth. Every response I do get either answers a question I have not asked or mindlessly repeats the mantra. Needless to say, they have blocked access to the service until I give them $300, even though they acknowledge the mistakes are theirs.

Anybody ever had one of these resolved properly?

[Tinkerer]

Jim... 1st off you sure the site that you paid from was " PAYPAL" and not a LAPYAP a mirror site. If sure it was paypal... you should be able to go to your transaction history and confirm a double payment as each transition has a unique number. Also paypal does not transfer/pay with anything other then your money. So the loss would be yours not theirs. The times I had to deal with them I called and spook to a real person. Hope you get it worked out.

[emj]

Over the years I have read numerous stories about Paypal hell. Well now its my turn.

It all started when I made a purchase, of course. In trying tp pay, there were problems of some kind at Paypal. Kept timing out
usually at the last screen. finally it went through but it looked like Paypal defaulted to grabbing the funds out of my bank account. I only use a CC for bookkeeping reasons, and have a Paypal only bank account with a minimal balance only because they demand it.

Anyway, jumping ahead,Paypal claims they paid the vendor twice and are demanding a refund from me! Vendor says not so. Trying to deal with Paypal is like pulling your own teeth. Every response I do get either answers a question I have not asked or mindlessly repeats the mantra. Needless to say, they have blocked access to the service until I give them $300, even though they acknowledge the mistakes are theirs.

Anybody ever had one of these resolved properly?

As Tinkerer has already pointed out, you can check your transaction history up to a year. Sometimes that transaction history is hard to follow, especially if you get a refund using Paypal. It almost sounds like a "scam" or "spoof" deal going on.

[IOWOLF]

somewhere I had an 800 # just for this type of problem. A big paypal hub is in Omaha and I know a few locals who work there, a few years back I got the #.

[Bmyers]

this site has all the contact info for ebay and paypal

http://chrissyscollectibles.com/EbayResources/EBAY%20AND%20PAYPAL%20HELP.htm

[jacampb2]

I had some trouble with them in the distant past, when they were firt starting up, but the last few years, since they got purchased by eBay, I think they have been doing fairly well. They now post a 800# in the paypal contact info on their site, if you call you get a real person and can get the problem resolved. In the past, it was electronic communication only, and piss poor customer service. Be very careful about following any link, or even a bookmark to paypal. I always type the URL, it helps to ensure you are really going to paypal.

About a year ago, I made significant ATM witdrawls from my paypal account to put the money in my business bank account, and paypal debited my account twice. Two transaction ID's at the same time, I didn't have enough funds in the account to have even been able to withdraw that much. Upon contacting them, thinking I was enroute for a battle, they told me they had a glitch with the debit/atm transactions, were aware of the problem, and it would be credited back to my account w/ in 24 hours. They took care of it, 24 hours later we were good again.

Later,
Jason

[Dawai]

Look up the post I did last week.. if the 800 number is not there, I got it here in a notebook. I closed my paypal and my wifes account.

Had enough crap. Pay with check or money order or won't buy..

[BigBoy1]

Payfoe

Had enough crap. Pay with check or money order or won't buy..

My exact sentiments. I had PAYPAL problems and will NOT deal with them for anything. They double billed and refused to acknowledge it. Lucky for me my credit card company was very nice and was able to get it resolved. I pay with a MO or forget the item.

Bill

[jeastwood]

Paypal bank account access policy

I had a real problem with Paypal when they switched from letting me use my credit card to demanding access to my bank account. I stopped using them when they made this policy switch; I just am not interested in letting such an entity into my bank account. I had a couple of go arounds with them, asking them how I could continue to be a customer without having to give them bank account access. Apparently one can obtain a Paypal credit card and use that, but I don't want to have yet another cc; just more opportunities for charges and hassles.

I've let every eBay buyer I deal with know about why I won't use Paypal.

What do you guys think; is this demand for bank account access OK with you?

Regards,

Jeff E.

[Evan]

is this demand for bank account access OK with you?

Not for me it isn't. I wouldn't touch PayPal with a bank account full of old Russian Rubles.

[jim davies]

Thanks all for the info. As far as a bank account, this seems to be Paypal's new policy and I followed advice from here a few years ago: I started an account just for Paypal and kept minimum amounts in it. The final reason for starting the account was that is the only way Paypal will payout to you, and someone refunded money to me that way. That and thinking I might become an Ebay seller instead of just a buyer...

Anyway, Paypal gives us all a taste of what it must have been like to live under communism. They are a total dictatorship, typical of no-competition environments. I think the Federal Trade Commision should investigate Ebay+Paypal. Time for some trust busting.

[kap pullen]

I've done over 150 transactions with paypal in the past year with no problem!

Maybe I'm just lucky.

I went round and round with E-bay selling parts for live steam engines.

They claim "LIVE STEAM" is a trade mark of Hornby in England and can't be used in titles!

I tried to explain it's a hobby, not a trade mark but the mindless
corespondant wouldn't give in on that one.

I told her do an internet search on "Live Steam" and see what comes up.
My Google search dosen't have Hornby on the first page.

I've listed other Live Steam items before, and since without that problem.

I also asked them to supply a credit referance for the $$$ in Fees I've paid them. Don't bother on that account either.

As far as Paypal is concerned, I keep that account down to where they can't hurt me with an "uscray upmay".

Reguards

Kap

[sandman2234]

I got a refund from Bargainland because those idiots couldn't find the stuff I had purchased (4 times now). The amount appeared to be wrong so I did some checking and they had shorted me part of the shipping. I called them, they refused to pay any more, so I called Paypal. They reimbused my account right then, and never even argued. I was amazed at actually getting someone from Paypal on the phone, much less getting instant results from them.
David from jax

[pgmrdan]

I killed both my paypal and my ebay accounts last week.

ebay had put on some software maintenance that made it look like my account may have been tampered with so they changed the password. At first I thought it might be a scam but it wasn't.

I decided to make life simpler and just cancel both accounts.

I may start up another ebay account and only buy stuff that I can pay for with a money order or personal check.

Having paypal tied into a credit card and a bank account scares me after all of the horror stories I've read.

[pcarpenter]

When did Paypal *require* (as opposed to strongly encourage) you to let them have access to your bank account? They keep trying to get me "verified" (give them access to my bank account) and I decline each time.

I use it off and on all the time for ebay purchase and pay through a credit card. I like the leverage that Visa must have with them. I think there is an upper limit on the amount per unit of time you can buy that way. The only really big dollar item I bought on Ebay was my milling machine at around $3k and I took a cashier's check when I picked it up.

Is this really a very recent policy change or did you just give in to their persuasion to get "verified"? My most recent transaction via Paypal was within the last 4 weeks and that one went against my credit card. I have other automated bill payments against my bank account, but frankly with the amount of paypal fraud, I just don't want to risk it with them.

Paul