posted on May 17, 2000 03:14:59 PM new
Am I stupid to still be a PayPal fan? Yes, they had some problems the last few days, but damn, I think the idea behind the company is really terrific. I so hate having to send money orders, and I'd so hate to have to pay the BillPoint fees (which would be higher if PayPal wasn't around).
posted on May 17, 2000 03:22:32 PM new
I'm a very recent convert, but I love PayPal. I didn't even get particularly exercised over the recent outage, because their rep was here every day keeping the lines of communication open, and because I was always able to get on, eventually, with patience, even during the worst of it.
I was amazed at the people who immediately cried FRAUD (or FOUL), as if eBay itself had never been down, and their own banks had never made a mistake.
I'm willing to give them a chance...actually, several chances. So far, they've done a darned good job for me.
posted on May 17, 2000 03:29:16 PM new
"their rep was here every day keeping the lines of communication open"
Interesting interpretation. Jennifer didn't know anything about what was going on and wasn't afraid to say so. Is that called `keeping the lines of communication open'?
"as if...their own banks had never made a mistake"
None of my banks have ever been closed three days running in the middle of the business week, with no advance notice of the closure and with only letting a few people in the back door every now and again.
Using a bank as your example might not have been your best choice.
posted on May 17, 2000 03:33:21 PM new
"as if eBay itself had never been down"
BIG difference between eBay going down and PayPal going down. If PayPal goes down for a day I'm inconvenienced, if eBay goes down for 1 minute during the close of my listing then I've lost money, last minute bidders that never got to put that snipe in. I've never lost a dime with PayPal. I don't even have a clue what I may have lost during eBay's 'issues' at peak periods.
posted on May 17, 2000 03:51:59 PM new
You talk like Paypal is up and running again. I still can't log on after three days and can't communicate with them either. If there was another outfit like Paypal around, I would be using them right now!
Were you posting here when there was the huge scandal about the on-line credit card group that turned out to be run by a couple of college kids? They eventually took some people for a bit of money?
It was quite a while before people were willing to trust on-line arrangements again.
You aren't stupid to be a PayPal fan. But that doesn't mean everyone else is nor does it mean PayPal is perfect.
As I said in the other thread before it was locked, I had a big problem w/them. Turned out it was mainly my own fault. BUT, it still left a sour taste that my money apparently was hanging out in LaLa land, not being able to be transferred & PayPal did nothing to notify me there was a problem.
Now w/a brick & mortar bank, if my wire transfer couldn't be completed, you bet I would have had a call from them. But PayPal just sat there. That doesn't aspire a lot of confidence in them with me.
Because it was mainly my mistake, I decided to give it another chance. So far, so good, but I'll admit, I transfer the $$$ out almost as fast as they come in.
"Fraud" didn't spring to my lips during my problems, but I did have some uneasy feelings after what happened w/the earlier service.
Thank you for your posts. The frustration many of you are expressing is completely understandable given the situation with our site the past three days. The site IS running much faster today - you should be able to access your accounts and complete transactions much more quickly than yesterday. This was an unacceptable service slowdown that we continue to work around the clock to remedy. We are doing everything possible to ensure this problem does not occur in the future.
Thank you to everyone for hanging in there with us!
posted on May 19, 2000 03:56:00 AM new
I've had a couple of high bidders e-mail in the last three days to say, "I used PayPal." Ok, great ... BUT no confirmation e-mails, and no money to my account. Is there some system problem or delay? I have no reason to doubt that both bidders TRIED to use PP. But wouldn't they get an error message if the payment attempt was unsuccessful? (During the same time period, another bidder successfully sent me money.) What gives? I like PP and want to use it, but not if service is going to be intermittent and unreliable.
posted on May 19, 2000 07:46:00 AM newOk, great ... BUT no confirmation e-mails, and no money to my account. Is there some system problem or delay?
This can happen if they spell your email address wrong (it's happened to me). They think they've paid you, but you don't get confirmation of the transaction. You might want to suggest to them that they double-check the spelling of the address they sent money to.
...service is going to be intermittent and unreliable.
It's not so much that as it is somewhat unforgiving of user errors when entering the payment information. I hope they can figure out a way to help prevent this type of problem in the future.
posted on May 19, 2000 09:01:55 AM new
junius, You're just wondering if you're getting paid. I know I am, I'm getting the confirmation e-mails but no money in my account. What I am wondering is how long is it going to be before this mess is fixed?
I had the same problem twice this week. I sent the buyers this note.
"Please look on your PayPal's account history list and see if the payment is listed as 'unclaimed' if it is the email address is wrong. Cancel that transaction and send the payment to [email protected] last name is PUBLIC. I look foward to your email on the results"
If you get the confirmation email but not the money in the account there are two possible problems I'm familiar with.
If your email is [email protected] and the buyer send payment to [email protected] you'll get the confirmation email, but PayPal requires an exact match on the email address, that's one possibility.
The other is they are sending it to an email address you don't have registered with your account, I've heard of this also.
Forged headers are possible, but unlikely since they are too easy to trace back to the criminal, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
Best approach at first is email the buyer, tell them to check the history and see if the payment is listed as 'unclaimed' if it is they can cancel it and start over.
Send them your email address in caps... they seem to make fewer spelling errors after they've made that mistake once.
posted on May 19, 2000 10:00:04 AM new
PayPal is still not operating at 100%, however I think they really botched their handling of the whole deal. If you have a problem, you should post a "Site Down/Unavailable" page and give people a pessimistic up time estimate.
posted on May 19, 2000 02:11:42 PM new
Hi everyone,
I've cut and pasted this response I posted in a different thread, for the benefit of everyone having difficulty receiving payments:
1. Buyers who don't cut and paste your exact email address when they make a payment often make typos and inadvertently send the payment to an unregistered email address. If, for example, they type [email protected] rather than .net, your ISP might be able to deliver the mail to you, but the PayPal system will not recognize it as a registered email address. The payment will be labeled "unclaimed" in the buyer's history log, and they can quickly and easily cancel all unclaimed transactions and re-send them to the correct address.
2. Sometimes, even when buyers cut and paste the email address, extra punctuation marks are inadvertently included and the PayPal system will not recognize the email address. For example, if your auction listing says "Please send payments to [email protected]." and the buyer accidentally leaves the "." at the end of the address, the PayPal system will not recognize it.
3. If a buyer sends a payment to you using an email address you own but haven't registered with PayPal, the payment will remain "unclaimed" in the buyer's history log until you register that additional email address with PayPal.
I hope this clears things up for many new PayPal users!
If you're still having trouble, feel free to send me the email you registered with PayPal, the amount of the payment, and they buyer's email address so that I can determine the problem. My email address is [email protected].
posted on May 22, 2000 12:05:25 AM new
I am glad all of you are happy with paypal I was until they cut me off with out a word of explanation and won't answer emails. Wonder how happy you will be with them when they do it to you.
And Jennifer,
What about it why don't they answer emails? They say email appeals and I did over and over and over. Why no answer?
Can't fix a problem without communication.
Can't run a business if you don't communicate with your customers. Next thing is they will have to charge so they can hire people to answer emails!!!
posted on May 24, 2000 10:56:26 PM new
I am very happy with PayPal. I wish I had signed up earlier! No, not because of the $10, but because of the buyers who may have passed me up because I wasn't offering PayPal as a payment option. I do suspect that my sales may have increased (some) since I joined.
No, I don't keep money in there. I will admit when PayPal was down a few days ago, I wasn't too alarmed because I didn't have any money tied up. However, the downtime did interfere with a few of my customers' payment, but we survived. From my perspective anyways and didn't sound like they were too upset, but still...
Also, I have a sense of ownership for and with my customers so when PayPal was down I was concerned about my customers as well.
posted on May 25, 2000 12:21:28 AM new
We have had 413 Paypal transactions and only 1 problem and it was my fault as I had sent an EOA letter from my sons computer
and the customer tried to pay me using his email account which was not a valid Paypal account
Was I concerned when they were down sure I was, as we advertise in all of our ads that we accept Paypal I was not worried about me I was worried about the bidder and how it might effect them now and in the future
do I get concerned when Ebay goes down yes
but I understand, it does not make me happy but then again I am pretty certain that Ebay aint to thrilled either
was I concerned when my web site came under a DOS attack yes again but my customers did'nt bail out in droves
We also purchase items for our personal use on Ebay and other sites, if you do not accept Paypal then we will pass your auction by and purchase it from the other 50 sellers selling the same thing who will accept Paypal
I refuse to go to the bank and get a money order when I got perfectly good funds sitting in my Paypal account and also on that note I will not use Billpoint ( we do accept it as payment ) for the same reasons I have funds in my Paypal account and why would I even think of adding additional charges to my credit card when there is funds readily available to spend
for these reasons, and sellers wanting to take it, if you do not accept Paypal then I will buy elsewhere it is not what is best for yoou as the seller, it is what is best for the me as the bidder
This is not directed at anyone is is just my
thoughts - for those of you who do accept Paypal thank you for allowing me to spend my funds the way that I want to spend them
