posted on January 25, 2001 06:50:48 AM new
Concerned by what it deems a high number of customer complaints against PayPal, the Better Business Bureau has given the auction payment service an "unsatisfactory" rating, prompting a meeting between the two companies on Wednesday to discuss customer service issues.
According to a BBB customer service representative, the BBB receives an average of 30-40 complaints a month from PayPal customers. PayPal spokesman Vince Sollitto said that number needs to be put in proper perspective.
"We've been in service for 14 months and our customer base has grown from 0 to nearly 6 million and our transactions have grown from 0 to 150,000 a day," he said. "They are concerned they continue to receive inquiries about us. They said they get 30-40 cases a month which is little over one a day.
"Our customers do over 4 million transactions each month, so there are 40 complaints out of 4 million transactions. We believe that is a pretty good track record, but we will continue to meet with them and work with them.
"I think if we continue to meet with them and remind them of the steps that we take to respond quickly and diligently to every complaint and explain to them the volume of our business, we are hopeful that even as we continue to decrease the number of inquiries that they will also view them in the proper context."
A survey of SuperSellers conducted by Krause Publications in late December showed PayPal was their runaway choice to use among online payment services. At that time, 84 percent of the SuperSellers surveyed said they were using PayPal and reported no significant problems with the service.
But not every SuperSeller has been pleased with the way the service is run. Among the problems cited by SuperSellers are valid credit cards not being cleared by PayPal, registration difficulties and questions about why certain accounts are frozen.
As a result of its growth in the past 14 months, PayPal has increased the number of customer representatives at its service center in Omaha, Neb. to 500. The company has also assigned an executive to act as a liaison between PayPal and the BBB.
"We're making a variety of changes across the board," Sollitto said. "We've done things like improving the text on our Web site explaining our procedures and making sure people understand each step they're taking to having focus groups brought in so we can watch them use the service and see if they are concerned or confused by the way things are laid out. We take this issue very seriously and we are hopeful the Better Business Bureau will appreciate those efforts."
