Paypal sucks
December 24th, 2007 | by Brook Durant |
As I was looking through my feed reader this morning one of them caught my eye. It was from Turk Hit Box who is having problems with paypal. Personally I have a love-hate relationship with Paypal.
Over the course of time I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with Paypal’s staff on multiple occasions regarding several issues. Each time I was treated as a valued customer with the problems addressed quickly and effectively. And if you believe that I’m the King of England too.
- Where’d my money go?
- A few years ago I bought a product called Fraps used for recording online video game play using Paypal. I received the product (instant download), my paypal account was charged the cost and I immediately setup a transfer of funds from my bank account to my paypal account to cover the money that had come out.
Long story short paypal claimed I never had the money in the paypal account in the first place to make a transaction (but still it went through) and that I had never transfered money from my bank. They finally after over a year of back and forth gave in about the money having been in the paypal account. It took them another 8 months to finally acknowedge that they had in fact received a transfer from my bank account. Then only after the bank president sent them proof over the course of 18 months. The best part is that during that entire time my account was frozen and they were making interest off of my money!
- Stop taking my money damn it!
- This is the latest incident I’ve been dealing with. Like an idiot I signed up for Paypal’s Payment Pro/Virtual terminal. The plan was to just try it out. Every month they charge me $30.00 and I can’t get them to stop. They take $30.00 out of my paypal account and if I haven’t left it in the paypal account they go directly into my checking account tied into the paypal account. Which almost always hits me for a $30.00 bank overdraft fee because that account I only keep $5.00 in and do my banking from another account.
The first time around shame on me for not having been more aware, but after 6 months of requesting them to remove Payment Pro from my account I’ve finally had to go to the bank to file an affidavit so the bank will refuse to consider their claims for money and cause me all kinds of overdraft fees.
By no means am I the only person who has ever had issues with Paypal. If you want to see a whole host of problems go take a look at Paypalsucks.com and you’ll be reading for days. I especially encourage you to take a look at the Paypalsucks forums.
A few things to keep in mind if you’re dealing with paypal:
- Document everything you do so you can find the information easily later
- Keep copies of every transaction you make, both buy and sell via paypal
- Throughly read their Legal Agreements
- Make sure to pull your money out of the paypal account and put it into a real bank account as quickly as possible after every transaction
- Realize now and not later that paypal is NOT a bank. You have no consumer protection.
- Checkout other alternatives just in case. There are a lot out there, but I’ve heard (as in read) good things about Google Checkout (never used them personally)
- Be patient. Paypal takes their sweet time in resolving issues. And why wouldn’t they, the longer your money sits in their bank accounts the more money they make.
All that to say my Paypal account is still open. It has to be they owe me over $180.00 in bank overdraft fees not to mention the $180.00 for unauthorized withdraw they owe me for not shutting down payment pro. My bank has advised me not to shut down the account before the issue is resolved or it might cause just as much hassle. In the meanwhile they (the bank) are taking care of the fees, but who knows how long that will last. If you’re considering dealing with paypal be aware of the risks. When everything is going smoothly it is great, but when you run into issues they can get real ugly real fast.
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Tags: banking, caution, money, online bill pay, paypal
By jfc on Dec 24, 2007
Uh, you do realize that PayPalSucks is a clever affiliate marketing site for competing payment processing services, don’t you?
You are correct. It is important to understand that PayPal is not a bank, they’re a payment processor and are governed under a different set of laws and regulations. They essentially offer a sub-prime, low volume, payment processing service to merchants and occasional sellers.
If you buy through PayPal, use a credit card, not your bank account. This allows you to put the dispute in the credit card issuers court and not in yours should there be a problem.
jfc’s last blog post..Akismet: Heading Toward Failure?
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 24, 2007
JFC - Yes I realize this. It wasn’t always a “disguised” affiliate site for Merchant Inc however. And regardless fact is that for the most part the information provided on the site is worthy of consideration.
This is a buyer beware article because so many people believe they have full banking protection when dealing with paypal and like you said, they don’t.
By les on Dec 24, 2007
You also have to be careful using PayPal when selling through eBay. If the buyer claims not to have received goods paypay refunds and claims the money back from you.
I have been conned twice now by buyers claiming not receipt and getting money back - I now insist that buyers who use paypal pay the extra to have receipted delivery so I know they have received and they know I know - suddenly no more non-receipt claims.
Paypal sucks but is the only international money merchant that transfers to Australia with no hassles. Your right - you have to grab your $$ out and into your own account ASAP - never let it sit there.
the radical blogger
les’s last blog post..Google’s recent PPP actions questioned
By Gizmo on Dec 24, 2007
In some cases you have no choice but to use Paypal. Some companies use them exclusively to pay you.
By Lucy Dee on Dec 25, 2007
Thank you for this very informative post. I’ve only have used Paypal a few times (less than 20), as both a seller and buyer.
I am about to set up a membership service on my latest blog and I was going to use PayPal exclusively. Thank god for your post!
Have you noticed a difference with using it as a US user or Australian user? I’ve noticed someone commented on International funds.
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 25, 2007
Les - To be perfectly honest with you I’ve NEVER had an issue with Paypal when it comes to receiving funds. My issues have only arisen when it comes to making payments. But of course given the peculiarities of Paypal I’m surprised that it works both ways.
Gizmo - This is true
Lucy - Don’t misunderstand. I’m NOT telling you or anyone else not to use Paypal. I’m simply advising caution in doing so because they aren’t a traditional bank and you don’t have the same protections in place as you would with a bank.
As far as international vs US users I’m not aware of any differences. Of course I don’t know a single thing about Australian finance laws so I wouldn’t know a difference if it spit in my face.
By SerenityScotland on Dec 25, 2007
Regarding Paypal, i never leave any money in my paypal account, i use it to purchase online through certain sites but the cash comes straight off my card via paypal.. using it in the UK for ME has been fine but its good to make people aware of potential problems.. thanks for the info
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 26, 2007
Serenity - No problem. I hope it continues to be fine for you. I’ve never had a problem getting payments, but I’ve had several with making them and with money getting tied up while people were “investigating” issues.
By Frank on Jan 3, 2008
FYI, Paypalsucks.com was created by Marshall Golub whois affiliated with Charge.com who is a reseller for Cardservices International. Cardservices International are the biggest crooks on the internet and nickle and dime merchants to death. So as far as the *WORST*, I mean absolute, beyond a shadow of a doubt, *WORST* merchant account provider on the internet, it’s hands down Cardservices International. I can’t begin to explain how horrible their customer service is. They bill you $10 just to send you a paper statement but they neglect to tell you that they *DO NOT* have an online interface to check your billing. To make matters worse, they *DO NOT* provide any real contact information, the only way I got their mailing address was by blocking them from charging my bank account and getting put on their collections list, then an employee who called me told me the company is a huge scam and she was quitting because she was sick of all the complaints from poor people she was calling. She then gave me a list of phone numbers and their snail mail address.
Stay away from PaypalSucks.com, merchantinc.com and anything related to CardServices International or you will regret it.
Frank’s last blog post..Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank (UK) - Overview
By A Blog about Nothing on Jan 3, 2008
Frank - Thanks for taking the time to comment. I disagree with you to a certain extent.
What does that have to do with the fact that paypal is complete crap as well? I don’t recall making an advertising pitch for any of those places other than to say that you can find more stories of why pay pal is garbage. Or are you going to tell us that all of the forum posts on there (and other places) about paypal problems are written by hired hands?
I have to say your claim that “an employee who called me told me the company is a huge scam and she was quitting because she was sick of all the complaints from poor people she was calling” sounds a little suspicious. Wouldn’t you agree.
Supposing it is true what kind of a person except a vindictive little bitch calls a client of their company up just to bad mouth the company?
As far as their customer service goes I’m sure we can all agree that if you weren’t smart enough to check what you’d get for CS before signing up you have no reason to complain about services that aren’t there. Right?
By Toto on Jan 10, 2008
Re: the merchant endorsements on charge.com — do a search for “Michael Berkowitz, Bravo Rewards, Cherry Hill, New Jersey,” “David Nixon, Chancellor Vaporizers, West Palm Beach, Florida,” or “John Long, Professional One Limousine, Valparaiso, Indiana.”
None of these “businesses” are in the phone book or have a website. In Google, the only hits are the charge.com endorsements or a shill under the guise of a “merchant guide” for same.
Paypalsucks, charge.com, and all their related sites are a pyramid scheme. How do you know anything on the paypalsucks Forum isn’t scripted?
“Vindictive little bitch” or that rare, honest whistle blower who got scammed into working there in the first place.
By A Blog about Nothing on Jan 11, 2008
Toto - I’m pretty sure that there’s at least something that is scripted on paypal sucks. Just like I’m pretty sure that somewhere in my town there is a thief. That doesn’t make every resident of the town a thief and someone “scripting” what they post on paypal sucks doesn’t make every entry a script.
By Ken on Jun 1, 2008
Do Not Use Paypal! I just conned by a buyer who used my stuff for one months and tell me that she wants the money back for no reason, and Paypal automatically took money out my account. Also, Paypal put hold on payments on anyone who has 5% neg. rating which means if you have 22 positive rating, some moron post one neg. rating on you, you are screwed! Paypal will hold your money, also they will put hold on paymenta on anyone who has less than 100 positive feedback and selling items more than $100. Which means Paypal wants to weed out small sellers!!! USE MONEYBOOOKERS and ProPay!!!! You will be a lot happier! If we sellers all fight together, then we will win, otherwise Paypal will always be the “only” payment method for the buyers. I will start to offer discount to anyone who uses Moneybookers or credit cards with my merchant account.