posted on September 5, 2001 08:19:31 PM
I just wanted to add some positive feedback about Paypal's customer service.
On August 31, my account got restricted due to, according to Paypal, possible unauthorized use. I emailed them for two days, explaining that there was no unauthorized use, but that the account is being used by both me and my girlfriend there in the States (I'm located in the Philippines, and since our country isn't covered by Paypal Int'l, I had no other choice). After two days of no response, I searched the net looking for some kind of information as to what happened, when I chanced upon this forum.
I went through 10 pages of forum threads, regarding class action suit against paypal, and the horror stories that goes with them. I felt weak at the knees all of a sudden, coz I fear that I might not be able to access my account again.
Then I saw Damon's email address. Even though that thread was over a year ago, I took the chance and hope that he's still around, and emailed him to ask if he's willing to lend me a hand with regards to my appeal for paypal to lift the restriction, due to the misunderstanding regarding the unauthorized use. He responded promptly, and followed up my case daily, keeping me posted all the while, as my girlfriend faxed all the necessary documents they requested.
All in all, it took just 6 days, and today, I got an email from Paypal Services, saying that my account's restriction was lifted!
Granted, I went through a lot of stress, and it stalled my activities on the net for some time, but in the end, everything worked out.
I just want to say THANK YOU, Damon, for lending me a helping hand when I needed it most. Keep up the good works. I'm sure there are still a lot of people out there who needs your guidance and help, and I know that you won't let them down.
posted on September 9, 2001 07:25:30 PM
Hi i also love paypal and would never use anyone else.They have been great.I had 2 people start a charge back saying the items were never mailed. Paypal emailed me about this and i sent them an email with a scan of the delivery confirmation and insurance receipt and receipt that you get from the post office showing it was mailed and the chargebacks were never put thru. They were great and on the ball. Keep up the good work
posted on September 24, 2001 03:59:33 AM
I have been using PayPal for all most all of my transactions as a seller and I am very pleased with them. I enjoy the debit card so I do not have to waite for my money (TOP NOTCH IDEA) I have been with them for a year or more and have not a one complaint. I do not mind the fee (I have a business account) I feel they provide me a very needed service to be able to accept credit cards for transactions and I try to lead all my buyers to pay me through them befor any other way. I have seen the negative posts about PayPal and find them unlikely (not saying they are false) (I do not want to rattel any cages) I have had no trouble and I truly enjoy the service they provide to me and many others. My hat is off to you PayPal for providing me with such great service. I would love a T-Shirt and would ware it with pride because without PayPal I could not do business as smoothly as I do. I thank you. If you would like to offer me a shirt I would gladly take it [email protected]. Well that is more than my 2c, so in closing I will leave on a positive and upbeat note. Yes I use PayPal and will continue using them for as long as I am in business. Thank you to the PayPal staff for providing me with such great service.
Jennifer
posted on September 26, 2001 12:47:30 PM
I have had a paypal account for over a year. I've used it on ebay to both buy and sell. I was initially bothered by the fact that they stated that they would never charge a fee when they launched the service and have gone back on that. However, there are a lot of failed Internet business plans and we all know that companies that can't make a profit don't last very long.
I recently signed up for their debit card and find it to be an excellent complement to the Paypal service. I can see myself using the service a lot more frequently. I wish that money that I transferred from my checking into the debit account would show up faster. It seems to take a full 4 days even though the money comes out of my checking account within 24 hours.
Overall I think Paypal is a great service and a good value. I am not too concerned about fraud becase I am very careful about who and what I purchase online. I have little sympathy for some of the people who have posted on these boards. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. A fool and his money (credit card) are soon parted.
posted on September 26, 2001 02:05:26 PM
yahoo direct is a free service (so far) and the folks there said that the banking wire transer is slower because the network is older and less efficient,if you have a bank atm card connected to your bank checking account,you could sign up with that card,it could speed up the transfer of fund from your bank account to paypal?
i know it workd for yahoo direct.
posted on October 2, 2001 12:47:24 PM
I've never posted here before, but I feel I need to now. For all of you who say that disgruntled PayPal users outnumber the satisifed ones, the only reason it looks that way sometimes are that the happy ones usually don't say anything. I've been using PayPal since March 2000 and I've had one fradualent payment from it. I caught that one myself. The buyer lived in Deleware but wanted it shipped to Bankok. With the buyers history of purchasing several large dollar items in the previous week, and paying using two different PayPal accounts, it was pretty obvious. Didn't get burned on it. If PayPal is so expensive then why doesn't everyone have a merchant account? Seems to me it's a lot more expensive to get one of those. What about BillPoint? They charge me twice. Once to receive payment, and then they hit me up for .5% just to put the money in my bank. On a $500 transaction, that's another $2.50. Sure, you can just say that's a cost of doing business, but I like to keep my expenses as low as possible, and PayPal keeps them lower than BillPoint still.
I just downloaded my history from PayPal and played with it some in Excel. Since March 2000, I have received 269 payments totaling $21,122.50. This has cost me $371.12 in fees (1.76%). I have sent 183 payments totaling $3324.42, costing me exactly nothing. I have used my PayPal debit card 124 times for a total of $4454.67. I have received $82.41 in cash back/referrals/new account bonuses from PayPal offsetting what they have charged me and making that a low 1.37% that I have been charged for receiving payments there for 19 months. Show me any other service where I can do that volume with so little cost.
By contrast, I have been registered with BillPoint since July 2000. In that time I have had 30 sales transactions with them for a total value of $2799.30. The fees I have paid for this are $63.98, or 2.29%.
A group of happy people do not go out to protest. It's always the ones who want something changed. Do the loggers in the Pacific Northwest go out and protest that they are'nt cutting enough forest (we've had 4 mills shut down within 100 miles of Boise in the past 2 years, with a loss of several hundred jobs)? No they don't. But the environmentalists are protesting all the time. Some were arrested recently for climbing the wall of Boise Cascade headquarters to hang up banners on the BC building. It's always the disconted few that make all the noise.
posted on October 20, 2001 11:49:35 AM
Paypal has its pros and cons. It sucks at fruad refunds, and fruad items. But for transfer money quick on tne net for legit deals it is the best thing. Billpoint you cant send money for no reason. Paypal is also widly use that is a pro. Also paypal fruad protection that is a con a big one.
posted on October 21, 2001 05:41:36 AM
I do not question there are many more satisfied Paypal users than unhappy ones. But there are many more people who had no problem sending the sellers cashier's checks for auction payments than those who got screwed. The point is Paypal is no different than sending a cashier check as far as the buyer is concerned.
I have been a happy Paypal user for a couple of years until recently when I got taken for $980 by a crooked seller. I notified Paypal within a week of my payment that something wrong because the seller all of the sudden become unreachable after the payment was sent. The seller should not have sufficient time to clear his account. But to my horror, Paypal took almost two months to determine that it is indeed a fraud but they cannot recover the money because the seller's balance is $0. My contention is that Paypal still have the bank and credit card number where they can attempt to recover the money but as far as I am concern, they have done absolutely nothing.
I am resigned to the fact that I will never recover the money but what makes me mad is that I requested Paypal send me the money trail of this transaction and the bank account information the fund was withdrawn to after Paypal's decision and have heard nothing from their customer service people. I have made repeated requests in the last 3 weeks and still nothing from Paypal. As far as I can tell, they don't really investigate the seller nor do they made reasonable attempt to recover the money. You can decide for yourself if this is acceptable service for any company.
To add insults to injury, the seller who Paypal have concluded defraud me of my payment remains a verified member in good standing so some other unsuspecting member can repeat the process.
So to all of you who remained happy with Paypal services, I hope you will never experience what many others and I had to endured with Paypal and that you will not loose any money using the service. As for me, I will look for other payment services or method to pay for auctions. At least with sending a check to an address, I have the address and can file a mail fraud against the seller which is more than the recourse I have with Paypal.
posted on October 22, 2001 01:18:05 PM
Just got off the most interesting phone call with PayPal. They refuse to give me a detail money trail of my payment to the seller without a subpoena. I requested a written letter with the PayPal investigation finding against my seller and the response from the customer service rep was that I use the email they sent me. Of course, the police will not accept that and I told the customer service rep, her response was too bad but that is all PayPal can do.
I requested to speak to a supervisor, she said I cannot speak to a supervisor and that I will need to request a callback. I officially requested the callback and asked when I can expect the call, she said there is no guaranteed time frame. In fact, she said that I am not guaranteed the callback!!! Basically, I should not expect anyone to call.
I told her this is unacceptable and she said to email the complaint response department. I said that is of no help since it takes weeks if not months for them to reply to the email, she said it is too bad but it's not their fault with the volume of complaints they receive.
I finally got the message. Stupid, why are you wasting your time talking to a company's customer service department when you don't give a damn if you are happy with them!!!
I guess PayPal has just taken the phrase "customer service" to a brand new level of meaning.
A subpoena is required for information on another account.... This it to protect all users of the service. Would you like someone calling us accusing you of fraud (when you have not done so) and being told sensitive information without going through a legal process?
Why won't the police accept a letter advising that we have not been able to recover on your behalf.
posted on October 22, 2001 01:39:58 PM
I said police will not accept a printed email communication that they cannot authenticate. I requested the letter of finding from the PayPal Customer Service Rep and she refused to send me one. Now, how hard is it for PayPal to send me a letter with its finding on its letterhead?
[ edited by lordcj on Oct 22, 2001 01:40 PM ]
posted on October 22, 2001 08:02:09 PM
Guess I'm one of those exeptions too but Paypal has been very very good to me, no problems what so ever. I tried the other services but PayPal is the best.
posted on October 24, 2001 02:42:36 PM
I have used Paypal for a while now and have had no trouble with them, so far they will be the only online service I will use, and I love the card, it's nice to be able to have such easy access to my money and have an account for all business transactions. I wish everyone would use Paypal, I am trying to get my family to sign up so we can just send each other money when we need to. I was going to transfer some money to my sister that she needed right away and they wanted $30.00 for the bank transfer if she had an account threw Paypal I could have got the money to her instantly, and she could have used her card right away. Love paypal.
posted on October 24, 2001 03:43:49 PM
Hi mountaintop47 and puffalump44,
Thank you for your kind words.
Hi lordcj,
I did advise that the notification was going to be sent on company letterhead (per your request). Please let me know if you do not receive it within two weeks.
posted on October 25, 2001 09:08:21 AM
I have only been with PayPal for a short time, but I love the service!!! I would not work with any other company!!!
posted on October 26, 2001 11:39:58 AM
FYI, I still have not receive my callback that I had requested on 10/22/2001. However, I must say that as unhappy as I am with PayPal, Damon has been a great help. It is sad that the rest of PayPal customer service can not be as responsive to customer issues as Damon has been on this board.
Damon,
Thanks for all your help and I will look for the letter in the next two weeks.
posted on October 26, 2001 01:35:19 PM
I figure since paypal covers there behinds so well with there terms of service...the only protection you have as a buyer, is to pay by credit card. If you do not receive the service or product, make a chargeback.
I have learned the hardway and it costed me about $2,700. I payed with funds in my paypal account that paypal does not cover worth jack.
Yes, paypal is a great service to use, but they have alot of flaws that just makes the service lose it's value a bit.
I just recommend whatever, or whoever you pay, make sure your protected, and pay by a credit card. If you have funds in your paypal account, withdrawl it, and than use your credit card...BE SAFE!!
I am sure this post may be revoked because paypal does not want you to know how to protect yourself as a consumer!
posted on October 27, 2001 11:38:31 AM
A story for you...
One day, I insisted on placing my son's carseat in my mom's car when we were riding with her on a short errand. Mom thought this was unnecessary because her three children never had carseats and they grew up just fine. I agreed with her that that was wonderful, however, we were never in an accident.
Throughout my son's younger years, he rode in a carseat without fail. It's good thing, since we were hit twice in two different instances. The one time, our car was totaled. We were unharmed because we took caution to be careful in our everyday lives.
Moral of the story:
As Thomas Jefferson was fond of saying, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
OR
PP is swell, just don't let your guard down. Once something goes wrong, 'Customer Service' becomes an oxymoron.
Just in case you ever need it:
PAYPAL 800 836 1859
[ edited by invisigoth on Oct 27, 2001 11:40 AM ]
posted on October 30, 2001 03:38:44 AM
Thank heaven for this thread! I just signed up my company today to take payments through PayPal, and emailed all our subscribers. The first response I got was to direct me to the threads about lawsuits, fraud, frozen funds, etc. Needless to say, I panicked.
Then I looked a bit further, and found this thread. So it seems that all is not lost. I signed up to a business account, as I am more than happy to pay the current charges - if you'd looked at the cost of merchant accounts you'd know why!
I shall be watching activity on my account carefully, and I will also be watching the messages on this excellent forum. But I think that PayPal may prove to be a winner for us. And, no, no t-shirt, thanks - I haven't got the figure for it!
[ edited by baldrix on Oct 30, 2001 03:39 AM ]
posted on October 30, 2001 03:14:14 PM
question-
do most ebay sellers of electronic goods such as pc,scanner,server and cameras licensed retailers of electronic goods?
i know a few years ago these sellers make very good money,i wonder what does it take to buy from sony,kodak,compaq etc for resale,how does one qualify?
i was under the impresson most of them are licensed retailers with stores and doing extra on ebay,if so,then they must have merchant account accepting cc in their shops.
if so,would it be better for us to use our cc directly so we dont have togo thru paypal.
if they dont deliver,we can do chargeback/
posted on October 30, 2001 04:01:14 PM
Dear Wowwow,
I have a merchant account myself, and the one thing you have to do is keep all and every records with your clients as possible. I recently sold a computer of $1250 and the guy made a chargeback.
Since I had no way to prove that I shipped the goods off, I had to repay the $1250. However I am going after this guy to get my money back legal wise.
Just make sure you keep all tracking records and all emails you both talked about back and forth to prove forth something...
Otherwise a merchant account is the best way to go forward in business, not PayPal...
posted on October 30, 2001 04:20:11 PM
dear enterpriseglobal,
how did you ship that 1250 pc??
most are shipped via ups or federal express and require signature of buyer upon delivery.
dont tell me you shipped via the post office with no insurance and no return signature receipt?????
1250 is a lot of money to risk??
are you a licensed retailer of name brand goods??
posted on October 30, 2001 05:02:53 PM
I shipped through UPS, and yes they did leave the package at the front door. Apparantly either the guy received the package, or someone indeed did steal the package...which in fact it would partially be UPS fault...
I believe the guy has the package because he does not answer anymore emails and nor his phone has been disconnected. When we spoke on the phone, he was very nervous...of how he answered the questions I asked him. So I have the feeling he has the package and now his money back, but not for long!
Steve
PS, I hope that guy see's this thread, as leagal action is currently being pursued in the city and state he lives in.
posted on October 30, 2001 06:48:00 PM
it sounds like ups is now responsible for your loss.
if they cannot produce a signature,they should reimburse you for your loss.
how can a lawsuit help you recover ??if there is no proof he has the item
posted on November 21, 2001 12:25:11 AM
To lkturner,
I am also in Canada and feel that Paypal only protect US users. Please check my case I posted on Nov 20.
Thanks,
maple125
