I HATE Pay Pal

FAOL Community Sound Off
1

Oh boy,
I won’t go into the whole story but I absolutely hate pay pal. I recently sold an item on Ebay (been an occasional Ebay seller and buyer for about 12 years or more). I don’t buy and sell a lot but a couple times a year, something will pop up that I can’t live without or I’ll have something around the house that is collecting dust and I’ll sell it.

100% positive feedback.

I’ve been using Pay Pal for at least 8 years, maybe longer, I don’t really know.

The most recent thing though really got under my skin.

They made some error with my account (sure, I bet it is part of their scam). The item I recently sold the buyer, in good faith, payed to pay pal.

Because of the Eba / Pay Pal error, I’m showing up as a new user. That means they will hold the money sent to me for up to 21 days or until the buyer leaves positive feedback.

Now, I"m supposed to ship my item off, pay for shipping out of my pocket, and HOPE that Pay Pal will some day allow me to access the money sitting in my account.

I’ve been through 3 phone reps and at least 5 emails with them and no go. They “Understand” my frustration, but will do nothing to help me out.

If any of you guys use Pay Pal, watch out for this scam. Take the $200 they’re doing this with me, multiply that by tens of thousands of transactions a day, add the few pennies of interest up and all of a sudden, Pay Pal has a windfall profit and all they had to to was rip off sellers by holding the money for 21 days.

It’s one heck of a scam and they are getting away with it.

I"ll NEVER use Pay Pal again unless the buyer or seller absolutely insists and even then, it will be with great reservation and after exhausting all other options.

This is a profit enhancing scam from Pay Pal and nothing more. Unfortunately, government regulation agencies have so much on their hands with people like Madoff stealing millions a couple hundred dollars from a consumer won’t even warrant someone reading my complaint.

OK< off soap box now.

Jeff

2

Try to use your PayPal at least once a month, this keeps you account in currant standing. Another option is to leave a few dollars in the account, this will also keep your account active. If your account is inactive for over a certain period on time it can become inactive(all banks are like this), some banks will actually close inactive account entirely.

3

Actually dropped mine long time ago after they shafted me. Anything I want on ebay I send an email and ask if they’ll accept a USPS money order. Although Ebay doesn’t allow it anymore (big group trying to get it changed back), you’d be surprised at the sellers who will accept one. Might not have the Ebay buyer protection (what a farce) but not to many people will screw you on a MO from the Post Office.

Fatman

4

ray,
Yep, my account is active and I use it quite frequently. This situation was Ebay had an old email address in their system somehow and it wasn’t noticed until after the buyer had already submitted payment.

This started a chain reaction of negative (for me) events. I didn’t want to inconvenience the buyer because Ebay still had an old email address somewhere in their system.

Bottom line, even after 3 (average 30 minutes each) phone calls to Pay Pal and 5 email exhcanges with them, I’m still shafted. It really comes across as intentional from Pay Pal as a way to boost their profit margin. They hold money for 21 days (gee, just long enough for interest credit, wonder how that works?) multiplied by tens of thousands of transactions per week and you have a neat little sum of windfall profit on the books.

If Ebay forces Pay Pal in the future, I’ll just stop using them. There are plenty of alternatives (i.e. Craigs List) where things can be bought and sold (also FAOL for fly fishing gear) without having to resort to enabling Ebay / Pay Pal to continue to shaft me and countless other users.

For this transaction, I have absolutely no alternative than to play their little game. They have my money on hold, they will not release it and I’m stuck. Oh well, at least it’s only a couple hundred dollars and not a huge sum. Thankfully, I didn’t need the money to pay any bills this month.

Jeff

5

Many, many times I have been tempted to join Pay-Pal then I see a thread like this and worry.
I have stopped using ebay almost entirely. I have sold many things there, but never used pay pal.
Anyway ebay is becoming a big store with far too many “buy it now” items.
I have been told that the only way to use pay pal is open a separate checking account and use that for paypal only.
It is a shame that there customer service is so very bad.

6

Ebay has about worn out its welcome with me for selling. I feel sorry for the folks I buy from because I only “Bottom Feed” for deals. And ebay is making them easier to find… They offer free listing now if the bid starts under .99, but charge extra if a reserve is placed. Between ebay and paypal a seller is paying at least 12% as of this month…

And they do not protect sellers at all. I sold a serialized AK silver medallion to a second place bidder (had several) and the buyer of the second chance offer was upset the serial number was different from the one he bid on. He demanded $25 on a $75 medallion of he would give me negative feedback. He offered to send it back and I offered to pay all shipping costs. That made him angry and he left neg feedback and called me a whole lot of “special” names, but insisted on keeping the medallion. Ebay would do nothing about the extortion… Wasted a lot of time and effort to find myself in a position where I cannot sell at the highest prices because of one very ridiculous individual obviously looking for issues…
art

7

“Anything I want on ebay I send an email and ask if they’ll accept a USPS money order. Although Ebay doesn’t allow it anymore (big group trying to get it changed back), you’d be surprised at the sellers who will accept one. Might not have the Ebay buyer protection (what a farce) but not to many people will screw you on a MO from the Post Office.”

Fatman

Like, Fatman, I have used E-Bay for 15+ years and have a 100% Postive Feedback. I have always used a Post Office Money Order and have never had any problems. Now that
E-Bay requires PayPal only, I always contact the seller and ask if they would accept a Post Office Money Order from me and for them to view my Feedback. If they say they will, then I will make my purchase. If they refuse a USPS MO, then they are out of luck with me. I will never trust any internet program which requires me to post any personal information on me. I guess I am “old school” and just do not trust this new electronic way of living. I may be retired but I can still drive to the bank and do my banking business in person and I can either pay for purchases with cash, check or money order. Since E-Bay has required PayPal only, I have not made more than a couple purchases a year with them. It is like all other things in that it (PayPal) was a great thing when it started but now that it has a large following, someone has figured out a way to make even more money off the subscribers.

Such is life and thank God I can choose to join or stay out of it and I choose to stay out of it. Life is risky enough without signing up for something to give total strangers a chance to make my life even more stressful. I am an adult and I will handle my business in person where I have control of the situation and don’t have to hope and pray a total stranger will handle my transactions fully and not let my personal information slip into someone elses hands where it may be used illegally.

Just my opinions and the way I am…Take it or leave it…

8

I’ve bought and sold 1000’s of items on Ebay, most of which are transacted through Paypal. I don’t particularly like it either, but what can you do? Miss out on a lot of buying and selling opportunities?

I’ve got a 100% feedback rating, and have been doing business on Ebay for many years, yet I’m not sure they treat me much differently than the guy down the street, or the guy from Nigeria, for that matter.

I sold an item for over $5,000 on Ebay last summer to an established busines owner paid via Paypal, and they put a hold on the money for over a week - which was longer than their own funds availability policy. I wasn’t happy either at the time, but I understand what they are trying to do.

I think most of these policies are designed to provide protection to all the parties invloved in the transaction - the buyer, the seller, and (of course) Paypal, and they’re not a lot different from those imposed by your local bank. – I got a rather substantial check (6 figures) from my brother a week ago last Thursday, and imediately deposited it in my bank account. The funds from that deposit were not made available to me until last Friday (8 days later), in accordance with my bank’s policy because: 1. the amount was over $5,000, and 2. it was an out of state check. I bet my check cleared the banking system in several days, and they earned interest on the money for a couple days before making the funds available to me, however I had been informed of their policy when I opened my account at the bank - the same as Paypal informed all of us of their policies, if we choose to read them - UGH! - and they are in compliance with the relevant banking regulations in that regards.

9

I also have a 100% positive feedback rating and have never had any of the issues described here with PayPal. Over the last few years, I have had many transactions over the $5000 mark and take PayPal exclusively. I make sure my information is current with PayPal and Ebay and make sure to verify new email addresses, delete old ones and keep hard copies of those changes. I verify new bank accounts and credit cards as well. I pay attention when they say that failure to do this or that could delay receipt of your money.

Yes, the fees are high. However, they are less expensive than $30/mo plus transaction fees for a credit card processing gateway until such time as I get a bit more volume going. I could use Google Checkout, but PayPal has been around longer and is more broadly accepted.

10

The thing is I’ve played by their rules. I updated and verified everything. Somehow, in the seller form, they still had an old email listed. Becuase all of my email address, bank account, and credit card information on file is correct, I never even noticed they listed an old email address. The kicker is that email address auto filled in the “enter your email address for pay pal” box. I’ve never had a pay pal account using that particular email address.

Even after spending 90 minutes on the phone with them and 5 separate email exchanges, they refused to give me a break.

I sure do feel sorry for the folks who work for Ebay and Pay Pal. If they treat their paying customers this way, I can only imagine how they treat their employees.

Because they’re holding my moey ransom until one of 3 criteria are reached 1) 21 days have passed, 2) the buyer leaves positive feedback (only about 50% bother to leave any feedback) or 3) I call them back 3 days after I receive confirmation from USPS that it was delivered.

I was just rather shocked at their lack of concern for their customers. I guess I’ve been dealing with fly shops who actually value their customers and I forgot just how little most businesses value the people who pay their salary.

Jeff