posted on December 25, 2000 09:28:48 PM new
I guess I am just so lucky to deal with Paypal. First I get restricted for more than a month in October because someone paid one of my customers with a fraudlent credit card. Then on the about the 14th of December a transfer request for $1000.00 comes in from the blue( I did not request it and I have not given my pass word to anyone even my wife. So I send an email to customer service about it. The reply I got is as follows: Dear Mr. Enright,
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
We have to assume that you initiated this $1000 ACH deposit because it was
requested on 12/14 at 7:51:43 PST and your account was logged in at 7:49:21
and logged out at 7:52:03. Either you initiated it, or someone you gave
access to your account did so. Either way, PayPal is not responsible for
any overdraft fees you are assessed because of the request. Once you have
requested an electronic transfer or check withdrawal, it cannot be
reversed. You must wait until the transaction has completed before sending
the funds to a different destination.
I called the number that was on this email and after talking to a nobody for about 3 minutes I asked to talk to a supervisor. I talked with someone who identfied himself as mike and gave me his employee number. He said he could not give me his last name. we discused my problem at length. Mike said he would pass the information on th accounting and they would call me. We also discussed that Because of this transaction which I have had cancelled by my bank I have had 4 NSF's for $20.00 each and a cancelation fee of $5.00 charged to my account. On at least three occations during this conversation we dicussed tha fact that the transaction was being cancelled by my bank. On the 18th Paypal deposited the $1000.00 from pending to my account. I just so happened I was paying for several auctions at that time and the $1000.00 was sent out. this is the $1000.00 that was not suppose to be there in the firs place. On the 20th the cancelation goes through and guess what now My account is in the hole by $1000.00 and My account is restricted. So I call customer service again. this time I talk to Jane. I ask for Mike but he is not available. So I explain the whole story to Jane and ask her what I can do now to fix this problem. She said she was not sure and it would take some time to find out and could she email with the instructions. NO email ever got here to me. I reread the email I got when my account was frozen and there were some instruction there. Basically it said to ask for a fund transfer (not this again). So I desided that that was probably the fastest way to fix the problem. The transfer has been sitting in pending since the 20th and how much longer it will sit there is anybodys guess meanwhile I had a customer over $120. to paay for an auction and I can not do anything with that until the restriction is lifted. In short I have lost $85.00 and over 120.00 that I do not have access to because this system does not work.
and its Christmas and I am here typing this long story to get it off my chest.
posted on December 26, 2000 09:11:16 PM new
I'm sure the details are there for the careful reader, but for the rest of us, can you clarify this summary?
1. a mysterious request transfers $1000 from your bank account to your PayPal account
2. you spend $1000 from your PayPal account
3. At your request, PayPal reverses the bank transfer, leaving your PayPal account $1000 in the hole
4. PayPal, noting the status of your account, restricts it from further outgo.
posted on December 27, 2000 12:33:19 PM new
I will try this again.
1. $1000. mysterious withdrawal request
2. Bank removes money from my account.
3. Balance in account drops to $200.00 + or -
4. 4 transaction hit bank each for more than $200.00 (4 NSF's at $20.00 each) Two of those by the way were from Paypal
5. I tell Paypal supervisor Mike that My bank will be reversing the transaction and he acknowledges this. At this time the paypal transaction is in Pending file.
6. by the time the reversal hits Paypal they have moved the funds to my account and the funds have been dispursed to pay for auctions I have bid on. These transactions should have come directly from my bank account as usual. (I do not pay with a credit card as a rule).
7. Transaction hits and my account goes to -$1000.00 and my account is restricted.
I call Paypal and explain again what has happened and the person I talk to says that they will send me a email with instructions.
I recheck the email notification I received for the restricted account and find that the best way to clear the account is to sent a funds transfer request which I do.
Funds transfer sits in pending from 20 Dec until 26 Dec when my account is finally clear.
the major problem is that Paypal refuses to acknowledge that they have a security problem (I wonder why?) This is only a series of problems that I and many people I deal with have had. I was hopping that Exchange Path would be better but so far they seem to be even worse. I have a payment hung up with them since the 21st and it is going nowhere fast.
posted on December 27, 2000 01:16:02 PM new
If you're looking for reliable payment service from a company with many years of experience in handling financial transactions, check out Western Union's Moneyzap. The only drawback is that the customer's funds remain pending for two days before you can withdraw it. But during this period, they contact the customer and verify the account. I know they do this because two payments to me were cancelled when the customers were unavailable. As soon as they saw the email stating that the transactions were cancelled, they contacted WU and the payments were reinstated. To me that's good security.
The fastest service is Achex which takes the money from your buyer's bank account and sends it to yours. Not many buyers like to pay directly from a bank account, however.
posted on December 27, 2000 02:51:07 PM new
I read you site and found I agreed with most of what you had to say. I will definitely look into the site you suggest as soon as I can get my first tranction out of Exchange Path. I thought Paypal was bad until it tried EP. I have been in discussion with some bank people I know and have dealt with in the past and we are looking at starting our own processing company and do it right but it is still at least a year away if ever. I think that whoever gets it right can make a whole lot of money if they offer a system that treats there customers right and provides a fast and economic answer to this problem. My frends and I may never get off the ground but someone will because there is a need.
