posted on May 2, 2001 12:58:50 PM
In reply to DRB's request, I have serval suggestions:
1. Security: Paypal should become a chartered (and regulated) bank offering the security provided by reputable financial institutions.
2. Customer Service Center: Paypal should open a full-service customer service department, complete with a toll-free phone number. Any complaints should be assigned an agent responsible for both ongoing feedback and a timely resolution. This would only be costly if Paypal maintains a high level of complaints
3. Interest: Payments frozen by Paypal for disputes and chargebacks found to be unjustified should receive any interest or income derived from these funds.
Also:
Recognize that even non brick-and-mortar financial institutions should be considered by Paypal.
We are a payment service offering some unique features, but we are not a bank.
Customer service center-there are nearly 400 representatives answering calls and emails. Business/Premier accounts do have an 800# to call and regular accounts can email or call a toll number for issues. All complaints do have specific people working on them, but I have also made an argument for case-ownership. Most inquiries are handled within 24-48 hours.
Item 3-interesting thought. Not sure if it is feasible, but I will mention it.
posted on May 2, 2001 01:28:55 PM
DRP, perhaps Paypal should post the contact phone numbers on their website.
I found the number on an "Anti-Paypal" website.
Is it true that Paypal has a field on thier computer screens to identify "unhappy" callers to representatives that answer their calls in the future? Or is this an urban-Paypal legend?
Users should be able to get the phone numbers when they are logged in on the site and if they click on the help button. To limit the inquiries to customers specifically(and give the correct contact phone number) the information coincides with the kind of account the user has.
The other item----very much sounds like an Urban Legend. Never seen it in well over 40,000 (or more) emails answered.
Thanks. I have passed the suggestion in my end-of-day.
I am still waiting on my t-shirt order, but your mailing label is all set (once they come in). I have been told that the shirts will be in about a week (or so) from now.
posted on May 2, 2001 06:48:11 PM
The ability for buyers to make payment without having to sign up for PayPal. This would lead to a MAJOR increase in profits for PayPal because casual buyers could use the service without signing away the firstborn. PayPal wouldn't lose money because SELLERS pay the fees anyway.
Billpoint lets buyers pay without signing up and many of my customers choose Billpoint over PayPal for this reason alone. Fast, easy, and no hassle with signing up with a new service.
posted on May 4, 2001 11:54:01 AM
I just copy the name and address from the "payment received" email that PayPal sends. It's all right there together as it should be. It would be nice to have it that way in the transaction log though.
posted on May 5, 2001 01:53:04 AM
Tom, when are you going to decide which side of the Paypal fence you are on?
[ edited by hcross on May 24, 2001 10:19 PM ]
posted on May 5, 2001 05:55:50 PM
(1) Honesty & integrity, rather than spin.
(2) A real verification system, one which prevents overseas fraudsters from opening multiple accounts with stolen credit card info (a la George the Romanian), to protect users rather than the existing self-serving grab for bank account info in the guise of verification.
(3) Initiation of communication by Paypal (by phone, failing that by e-mail) when any action is taken against a user's account.
(4) Either genuine Buyer & Seller Protection Programs, without all the loopholes designed to prevent successful claims, or an honest admission that there is no protection.
(5) Disclosure of audited financial statements so that users can evaluate Paypal's liquidity & their level of risk.
(6) A favorable rating from the BBB
(7) Communication with Visa & MasterCard in advance of implementing new programs, so Paypal doesn't have to make constant policy reversals (e.g. crediting funds to int'l users credit card accounts) [Paypal's pattern of abuse of the banking & credit card processing systems for improper purposes is a fascinating topic, which I've never seen explored. I wonder if Holden from bankrate.com or someone from the WSJ would be interested in this.]
(8) Fraud investigators accessible by phone, and providing honest and forthright information to users about the status of their account. This is probably the number one customer service problem which escalates problems to the boards or to the BBB -- being told that customer service can't help, and you can't talk to anyone who can.
(9) More than two employees in the customer service department (perhaps some of the 500 in the customer service avoidance department could be transferred over), so that the problems don't have to hit these boards to get action. Prompt resolution of problems and complaints. (Better yet -- reduce the need for customer service -- in the olden days when Paypal kept its word, it had very few customer service staff because it didn't create so many problems for users.)
(10) No non-disclosure clauses in settlement of customer complaints (as offered to club1man) -- Paypal should not be trying to conceal its problems by buying its customers silence. Instead, it should be trying to achieve customer satisfaction.
(12) The courage to host a threaded discussion board on Paypal's own site, just as Billpoint does on the eBay site. [Can you imagine if all Paypal users knew there was somewhere to go to discuss Paypal, rather than just the tiny percentage who use AW or you-know-who? Paypal can, which explains why they don't have one.]
Thanks for the feedback. You are more than welcome to send me an email if you would like a t-shirt.
Hi bookbooksbooks,
Thanks for your comments.
As I had mentioned before, I would prefer not getting involved in every case that gets on the boards because I don't have the bandwidth to tackle them all.
I think the difficult part in doing this is that many users have their own expectations as far as what my responses should be--- versus what my response can be or is going to be. I am trying to work on some of the messaging I put out to make it as clear, simple, and concise as humanly possible.
While it may be hard to believe, I would have a lot more to lose by being dishonest to users in a public forum, so I can assure you that the answers I give are correct. If I make a mistake, I can only come back and correct it. I just want to make sure the correct information is getting into the hands of our users and that any problems are reported (and acted upon) quickly.
I don't think that anyone is accusing you of being "dishonest." But there are many here that do not think that you are answering the questions that are being asked. And some of the answers that you give are so tangential to the issues at hand that we cannot figure out why you are giving the answers that you give. The verification question is but one example. You claim to have said all you can say on the issue and point to the "verification FAQ" that you posted. Well, even with the FAQ, the questions that are being asked (the "WHY" questions) with regard to NetBank, Compubank, et al., are still unanswered. Why is it so hard to answer these questions in a straght-forward manner?
I think, at times, that the problem can be related to what my perception of the issue is versus the perception of the person reading it, which can be a problematic barrier when answering a question.
I did post about verification is part of our identification process and how there are certain standards to be met for our identification purposes. If a user gets that message, they will need to try another bank to verify. I'm sorry it is not as in-depth as you would like me to go, but it is the only answer I can give.
posted on May 7, 2001 09:19:33 PMI'm sorry it is not as in-depth as you would like me to go, but it is the only answer I can give.
Damon,
I know, and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I wouldn't it be in Paypal's best interest that you pass on to the PTB that the "only answer you can give" doesn't really address the issue? I mean, simply report to upper management that this issue is unresolved and has a lot of people scratching their heads wondering why. Most people will assume the worst (that's the reason that Paypal is always being accused of "just wanting access to bank accounts" about the sitation.
posted on May 9, 2001 05:43:41 AM
Things That i'd like to see that can be implimented andmight have to be implimented at some point.
I'd like a month by month breakdown of fees I have paid to use your service.
On my end those are business expenses at the time I do my taxes. And for general accounting purposes.
So insead of trying to add the fees I paid to use paypal on a note pad with a calculator a nice monthly sumary should do the trick.
The shopping cart was promised with announcement made in october/november 2000 and was (at the time) due to be released at the beginning of this year. We are now moving into the middle of this year and it has yet to be developed.
The shopping cart is not all that dificult to develop and would bring in loads of revenue within days of its implimentation.
I personally use CCNOW which is exactly what I want from and was promised by paypal. CCNOW rapes its customers with a flat rate commission of 9% (8% nov/dec) to process transactions. Feel free to check out my site to see how it works and how it should be set up on your end.
The web accept frankly is lame. A button to buy a single item at a time only hurts you in the end. Not only does it prevent multiple items from being sold on our sites it creates too many single transactions being processed by paypal and reduces cost effectiveness. You would never go to the supermarket and pay for each item seperately so why would you do it on a website?
I heard a mention of t-shirts??? How would I be able to get one of those?
http://www.lovepotions.net
Thanks for your comments. Feel free to send me an email with a size and street address for a t-shirt.
The shopping cart is just around the corner...I promise. We've had quite a few product releases over the past several months and we would like to make sure that the shopping cart is fully developed (and QA'd) before it is released. There are several services offering PayPal-compatible shopping carts at the moment.
You can get a summary of your fees if you utilize the downloadable logs...these can go into Quickbooks,Excel,etc.
about the sitation.
