posted on September 22, 2001 03:29:30 PM
Yes, I agree. Until the amount in which I am owed is posted back to my account, I will not relax.
I realize that all people, even people that are related to the regular every day dealing of a bank, or paypal for that matter, do make mistakes. However, this is not the normal way that a credit card or debit card works. If I use my checking account debit card for the amount of $25, and I only have $30 in my checking account, $50 is not innitially taken from my checking and then credited back $25. If it was done this way, you would have no way of using the last $5 that was in your checking, because that amount would be reserved for that second $25 charge. That is not the way it works. The way it works is - they either take it out of your account when it is pending, or they do it when it is completed. But not at both times and then credit one back. That's a horrible way to do business, and could cause quite a bit of confusion and anger amongst your customers. It would cause your customers to not want you to handle your money.
Like I said, this may happen every once in a while as a mistake, but it is not a regular way of businesses.
posted on September 22, 2001 04:28:06 PM
Yup it's happening to me..... they have exactly til the end of the day today, then I am chopping my PAYPAL debit card & going back to sweeping all availle funds to my checking account DAILY. And of course advertising other Payment Services.
It's the weekend, I almost went out oftown. I should have over $70 in my PAYPAL account for GAS, but I don't. TO ME $70 is alot of money, I'm a college student, not some big store or even someone making over 30K a year
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
posted on September 22, 2001 04:38:47 PM
Here I was so upset when I got home & started reading that everyone is having the same problems...on both this board & the PayPal boards, I let my Mushroom'N'Swiss Sandwich go bad. PayPal will you reimburse me for that??
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
posted on September 22, 2001 06:04:54 PM
Although I understand how frustrating this is, I must also say that Coonr is correct. Sometimes it is also the merchant that causes the problem. I had one transaction where the merchant ran it through to get the approval, then when they went back to actually take the money their correct merchant name didn't show properly and it looked like it was a different merchant so the transaction got denied. (I didn't have much more $ in there than what that particular transaction was). Anyway, it got cleared up in a couple of days but was indeed frustrating until which time it cleared up and the merchant was able to get their money and send me my merchandise.
posted on September 22, 2001 06:09:43 PM
i'm waiting to hear back from damon. i imagine he's got the weekend off, so will be patient. it would be a real mess if paypal had dipped into my checking account if i were in the red, but that isn't the case. i really think this is, at least in my case, a glitch in the new way they're doing things. and i really hope they reconsider and go back to the way they did it before.
posted on September 22, 2001 06:40:00 PM
After looking through my past transactions, the one time I had been doubly charged was in fact a glitch with the name of the business. However, today's glitches aren't the same as what has happened before. It is a Paypal problem that needs to be fixed immediately. I have used my debit card about 6 times within the past 5 days. Every transaction, no matter where they originated from, has been charged twice! A month ago, this was not happening. A month ago, paypal was only charging the amount when it was first on your account screen as pending. It was not doing a second charge and credit system. And since it has done it to every transaction I have used the debit card for, I truly believe that this is something that Paypal needs to be changing immediately.
And the college student that was speaking before - that's why Paypal shouldn't be doing business this way. Because of this happening, she/he is now unable to do what she/he had planned to do for the weekend. Myself, I have a credit card payment due, which now I will be charged a $30 late fee on my account because Paypal has SCREWED me out of being on-time with my credit card payment. I also had planned to take my husband out for a nice evening tonight seeing as though today is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary, and the first time in a while we were going to be able to go out anywhere without our 2 year old daughter. Now those plans are screwed as well.
I think all of us that are upset about this have a perfect right to be upset about all of this. If you do great book-keeping so you know that when you need the money in the account to be there - it is, and then you wake up the day that you were planning to use the funds and they are gone, you would be pretty upset. Especially knowing that the business that is responsible for such occurances are "on vacation." What is that all about anyway?
posted on September 22, 2001 06:49:36 PM
A pending charge does reduce your avaliable balance. A completed charge does reduce your avaliable balance. A completed charge may or may not automatically delete the pending charge. BUT IT WILL EXPIRE. No one is taking your money. And as I said in my previous post, I have experienced this on a number of accounts, including but not limited to PayPal, and on ocassion for much more than $60.00.
Everyone can get upset with me if they like, but the fact is this is common practice with Visa/Mastercard and not something peculiar to PayPal.
posted on September 22, 2001 06:58:39 PM
Oh come on, some of you really should try and learn a little about banking before you spout off. Anytime a debit or credit card is used, the money is just authourized on your account until the MERCHANT puts it through, I have internet banking, sometimes that hold is still on there when the charge comes through, then I am double billed for about a day before the hold drops off.
Paypal hysteria yet again. Before long the Paypal bashers, who by the way do use them, will be here with more gloom and doom prophecies.
Adding, does puttine Damon's name in quotes equal some kind of secret code I should know about?
[ edited by hcross on Sep 22, 2001 07:00 PM ]
posted on September 22, 2001 07:01:23 PM
In Paypal, a pending charge does reflect in a reduced balance, it always has as long I have been with them and as long as I have had my debit card and I was one of the first to get one.
I only have one payment in question and I am an extremely accurate bookkeeper, so when I say that my balance is short by the amount of the pending transaction, I can assure you that on that point I am correct.
As soon as you make a transaction with Paypal, the funds in question are put on hold for the amount that the merchant authorizes the payment for, which may or may be the actual amount, but it definately reduces your account balance by the amount of the authorization, atleast in Paypal it does and it always has.
But up until a few days ago, when the charge showed as completed, you no longer showed the charge as pending, and the balance never reflected being double charged as it does now.
edited for bad spelling.
[ edited by dannkim on Sep 22, 2001 07:05 PM ]
yes we all realize paypal has changed the way they do things to the way your online banks have been doing them. that's a secondary issue. but the fact remains that some of us, doesn't sound like it's the case with you, have been double charged. not all of mine have, only two, but they have in fact been deducted twice. others have experienced the same. it's a problem.
posted on September 22, 2001 07:07:30 PM
Same problem here. Double charged and showing negative balance. I'm going to check w/bank to make sure I don't have funds taken without authorization.
posted on September 22, 2001 07:07:54 PM
I'm not worried, but then mine only involves $16.00 and (due to a very good week) I have far more than that available.
As much as I wish these 'bumps' never happen, alas, they do.
Everyday in one form or another.
I'm not cutting up my PP card yet, and I'm not firing off angry emails either.
Here's why....
...a quick count of our last 45 auctions, 7 were paid with money orders and 38 were paid via PayPal!
Yes, 38 of the last 45, 17 of those were BIN auctions.
I am a bit shocked at the amount also!
Thanks to all the people that have dumped PP, I am serving your customers just fine.
posted on September 22, 2001 07:10:10 PM
I had the same problem yesterday morning and called PayPal Customer Service, the girl who answered tried to convince me that the duplicate billings were the way that it worked. She then offered to tansfer me to the Debit Card Department that was experiencing a 7-8 minute wait. I tried to explain that I knew better and asked for a supervisor. She said her supervisor was not in and asked if I wanted to hold or have them call me back. I said I was not leaving until I had an answer. She put me on hold for the Debit Card Department. I was told to expect a 3-5 minute wait. A very pleasant person asnwered and listened to my story and saw the duplication in my account. She said that she would take care of it and that they were having a SYSTEM PROBLEM. I checked back later and everything was normal.
[ edited by ragmop on Sep 22, 2001 07:11 PM ]
posted on September 22, 2001 07:26:39 PM
I had this happen with two of my transactions yesterday as well (around $35 total). I immediately wrote to PayPal and it was fixed the next time I logged on to PayPal.
posted on September 22, 2001 07:45:12 PM
I still do not believe Paypal is doing a great job at their business. I love being able to accept paypal, though I cannot afford a premier account. But just the same, paypal has been a great service.
But I have to still say that yes, they do put that amount of money on hold, and yes, they do put an expiration on the hold of funds and therefore make it a completed transaction. However, they doing the order of things completely backwards. If they want to put a hold on funds, that's fine and dandy. But when that amount gets taken off of my account twice and I am not simultaneously credited back the amount to which is owed my account, then I start to wonder about my money.
I have sent paypal 3 emails, all this morning shortly before starting this discussion, and have heard nothing. I did recieve a credit back for one of the transactions about 6 hours ago. Which that, ladies and gentlemen, only helped me out about $5.91. I am still short another $72 and some odd cents. What is taking so long???
I think in the light of all the other issues in this world that are happening right now, you would understand why we are so upset about the amount of money, however small or large, that decided to come up suspiciously, yet not permanently, from our accounts. Especially those of us who had something of our own we had to do with that money.
posted on September 22, 2001 08:12:08 PM
I don't know any banks, besides mine but it is 100% internet, that are open on weekends to fix problems should they occur. Paypal has had the announcement up on their website for several days now that cs would not be working this weekend. What is with, "I want it and I want it done right now"? I do understand, I have money on hold also, but surely you have realized by now that this probably will not be fixed until Monday? Some people will see a conspiracy in anything. My bank has had their whole network down for the weekend, no atm, no debit card.
posted on September 22, 2001 09:01:32 PM
hcross wants to know...What is with, "I want it and I want it done right now"?
Let me explain okay?
Not all of us eBay folks run large business's with deep pockets and reserve cash. I'm a single mother with 2 children and I have approximately $4 in my bank account...my checking account. I have no savings account. So when i was at the store this morning trying to buy something I NEEDED, something that WOMEN need every single month and I could not what exactly am I supposed to say? "Hey PayPal, man you f'd up, you took $60 from me!. But no problem, no rush, I'll starve the kids for the weekend and I'll just hibernate in my house because I can't go out in public".
It's not just me. It's not just mangonani420 or kittykittykitty. It's an error on PayPal's part and as small an amount of money we are 'missing' seems to you, it's not to me or to many other's I'm sure.
So yes I want it taken care of right now, no I won't relax until it is and yes I hope they have a really good explanation.
Here's to hoping that Walmart doesn't cash that bad check I wrote them (when I went back after this all happened this morning) until at least Tuesday when hopefully this mess is figured out.
posted on September 22, 2001 09:23:19 PM
If you are in that bad of shape, then perhaps you should not be relying on anything to do with a credit or debit card. Things like that happen all the time, companies are not waiting to serve you 24 hours a day when there is a problem. I am in bad shape this month also, auctions sucked and I am barely hanging on myself.
They only have about $20 of mine on a doublecharge, but I tried 3 times to get just $5 off of my Paypal card to buy something I really had to have and could not do it either, the atm receipt said network unavailable.
posted on September 22, 2001 09:31:53 PM
You are bound and determined to make those of us, who have had our money sucked from our accounts through no fault of our own, look like the bad guys.
I'm not saying PayPal is the bad guy. I'm a big PayPal supporter. I just want my money back!
You asked a question. I gave an answer. Now I am blocking my ability to read your posts because all it's doing is ticking me off.
posted on September 22, 2001 09:52:26 PM
TheWholeNineYards is absolutely right!
And just a question to Coonr and hcross - Do you guys work for paypal or something? It just seems really strange that you would act as if this is normal and defend Paypal, when it certainly is not at all normal.
posted on September 22, 2001 10:45:00 PM
As for those sticking up for PayPal on this. Well this is the exact reason I was hesitant to go PayPal Preferred in the first place. I figured sub-par customer service. I bank w/ Wells Fargo, as stingy as they are, I can call there 24/7 & get a customer service rep on the phone.
To avoid this in the future I am simply going to ACH my totals to my checking account daily. The 1.5% is simply not worth it to me.
posted on September 22, 2001 10:47:01 PM
By the way, I am very PRO-PAYPAL. I recommend it to everyone I have a transaction with or who is getting started selling/buying on Ebay.
No other service has come close to matching them, for ease, convenience, etc.
However like others have said, some of us needed the $$ for the weekend & it's not be taken from us lightly.
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
posted on September 23, 2001 01:13:26 AM
No, I don't work for Paypal, they have ticked me off plenty in the past and I have posted here about it. oooooh, you have me on ignore, could my life possibly get any worse than that?
posted on September 23, 2001 01:30:27 AM
Bottom Line paypal double charged many of us. I am upside down by $1200 and I understand stuff happens. But as far as paypal debit card they can count me as a non user of that feature ever again. Paypal is a great payment exchange service but this glitch with there debit card leaves me a little unsure of there skills to run a debit card business. I suspect paypal will make this right as long as it doesnt take to much to replace all that has been taken. The man power to undue this error has got to be extreme if all users were affected and many accounts are taking payments after this blip thus burying the issue further within the paypal history. Someone dial the Bat Cave at Paypal and let them know they have incoming missiles and to wake up. Where is Damon when you need a rep?
