PayPal rant

Jim O'Dell

Member
Messages
2,783
Location
Between Aledo and Fort Worth, TX
I have used PayPal and E-Bay about 7 times over the course of about 5 years. Never had a problem until this past month. How many of you give PayPal your bacnk account numbers? I refuse to as a purchaser. If I was selling, then I'd set up a specific account just for that, and only keep X number of dollars in it so I couldn't get ripped off.
Anyway, I purchased a pump for my sprinkler system, went to pay for it, wouldn't take the PayPal payment. Wouldn't accept my credit card number to add it in. Hmmm. E-mail them and it takes 2 days to get a response. Answer, multiple accounts, close the accounts and open a new one, can't have multiple personal accounts. I do so, and it still won't accept. Have to authorize a 1.95 charge that will show up as a credit on PayPal after 24 hours, to verify account. Do that reluctantly, because I feel like part of it is my fault for not remembering the account was under an e-mail account I haven't used in 2 years. That goes through, I enter the confirmation number from the credit card account to verify, takes it, still won't let me pay the company for the pump! I'm getting livid now. Starts taking more that 2 days for answers on e-mail, and the last one has been 6 days now. Says I need to give them my bank account number for verification. Nope, sorry, no will do. I asked them why they didn't say this to begin with, and I would close my PayPal account out, vow to never use them again, and send a cashier's check for my purchase. That's the one I haven't heard from yet. Then after some digging around, I see I could have changed the e-mail address for the old account to begin with, and kept going. They didn't suggest that as the best avenue. Wonder why???
So be careful. I think PayPal has gotten too big for their own pants. I don't think this was a phishing scheme, because I was dealing with the E-bay site and had e-mailed the vendor.
Has anyone else seen this or something similar? I spouted off and told them I was going to spread the news of this on the forums I was on, so I'm living up to my word.
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And I'm serious about not using PayPal ever again. If a vendor won't do payment some other way, they won't get my business. Probably won't do much with E-bay again for that matter, since they are one in the same company. I might email the vendor to see if they have similar items off Ebay that can be purchased, like maybe through Google checkout.
Thanks for listening to me vent. I don't do this often. Jim.
 
Hi Jim,
You need to share this kind of stuff with us and get it off your chest. I don't deal with the pay pal as he is not my pal either. I would like to add a few others to this list of companies not my pal like my utility company:eek: and my cellphone provider:huh: , oh yeah and my mortgage provider:( . :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Just lookin for another to add to the list. We all know "stuff happen" and I am so glad you put your's out here. Hang on "Jim Bo"
we need folks like you.:D
Shaz
 
I have never used paypal or done any business over the internet. Just because of the horror stories like this. It seem people go merrily along for even years with no problem & then it like a volcanic crater opens up.

I have looked longingly at items for sale on the internet & because I won't use Paypal or E-Bay or Amazon or any other business over the internet I don't get those items & I don't have the worry that goes with the way these thing happen either. As it turns out I usually don't really need it anyway or there is an alternate way to get the item needed or wanted anyway.
 
Bart, the only thing this has been is a major pain in the tookus. I have the pump coming by sending a cashier's check, but that doesn't leave me any grounds in case of a problem. All the internet dealings I have had with companies have been top notch. Even the E-bay vendors I have used I have been very pleased with. It's just PayPal. Jim.
 
Well, I often do not have any choice. I've been using PayPal since they started, just about, and I have a Verified Japanese Business account. I've handled thousands and thousands of dollars worth of sales and purchases on it and never a problem, touch wood.

Sorry for your troubles Jim, that just plain sucks, but I have had similar VERY frustrating problems with a local bank, just down the street that my wife has dealt with, face to face for 25 years. Same kind of problem, same kind of BS, same flavor of poor service, stuck waiting around in a bank for 4 hours to talk to a manager yada yada yada crap. No, we no longer to business there.

My point is that internet or not, the problem is the person you are dealing with, or the people, local or internet, you can have the same problems.

Good to get it off your chest, hope you feel better! :thumb:
 
Stu

I just don't trust having anything like account# etc on my computer I know it all suppost to be safe. But when someone can crack what ever code barrier to Bank of America which is what happened to a friend of mine on line banking they cleaned out his account B of A replaced the money but the inconvience & how it shook them up was it really worth it?
 
I use Pay Pal extensively and like their services. I transfer funds back and forth from PP to my two bank accounts. The only minor problem I have had is that some stores will not, or cannot, accept the PP card. I wrote to PP and they responded that the cards should work. I know they SHOULD work and consider that an unsatisfactory response. PP is really just another name for a credit/debit card service from some huge bank. They are no different than a card from Capitol One or any other.
 
Bummer Jim. I had a similar issue with an item I sold. The payment had all sorts of strings attached - to accept it I had to upgrade my account, add a credit card etc. etc. I declined. Never did get a straight answer from PP. I still use it to pay for items, but only have a bank account with limited funds attached to it.

Again, sorry to hear about the aggravation.

Wes
 
I've lived without Paypal & Amazon & doing business over the internet far longer than they have been in existance & will continue to do so. I can spend money fast enough with out any of them.:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I don't need to hang anything out where someone else can find it to help me spend my money.
 
I had some trouble with Paypal recently. The account was frozen due to "suspicious activity". When I looked into it, I found that I hadn't done any housekeeping in a long time and had old street addresses and email addresses that didn't work anymore. Cleaned that up and its worked well since.

Only time I got dinged was face to face at Sears. Changed my address when I bought an appliance for my new place. They dropped a digit off the address and sent the bill and the new credit card to the wrong address. That guy didn't pay the bill, but he sure enjoyed the credit card. Sears pretty much treated me like a criminal and that was the last business I did with Sears (15 years ago).
 
Bart, I'm glad that you can do all of your purchasing etc without using Paypal, Ebay, or Amazon etc, good for you. :clap:

It is not an option for me, really it is not.

Recently, with Greg's help, I got a screaming deal on a bunch of Bessey clamps, this was from Amazon. These clamps are not even for sale in Japan.

Not long ago, I sold my old motorcycle to a guy in the US, shipped it to him as well, I got twice what I would have gotten here in Japan for it, the guy paid for the bike via Paypal. Sure PayPal take something like 4%, but that is CHEAP compared to what the banks here want to cash an international money order, and a cheque from out of country, well it had better be in the several hundered dollar range if you expect to see any money from it, will all the bank charges, and it takes 3 months to cash, yes, not 3 weeks, 3 months.

PayPal, E-bay, and Amazon are great services, for me, and I've not been burned by them, I hope I never have to deal with the frustration and crap that Jim had, but, like I said, we had a similar problem with a bank, in the hood here, it is about 600 meters from my house, and my wife dealt with them for nearly 30 years, but in the end, we told them to take a hike, and moved our accounts somewhere else.

I'm glad you can do without the whole internet buying and selling, I feel lucky I live in a time when it exists.

Cheers!
 
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