I freakin' hate Paypal! Be careful using them!!

[ChrisnSteph]

This is sort of long, but I have to vent because I'm so ticked off! I've heard that Paypal is a nightmare to deal with, and now I've seen for myself! Anyone who uses Paypal needs to be careful!!! I sent some money to my mother this morning via Paypal. I didn't realize she had two Paypal accounts under different email addresses, so I sent it to the one I thought was active. Well, apparently she hasn't used that account in years, so when she tried to access it she couldn't remember the password. That prompted Paypal to send her a couple of personal questions she had to answer correctly to retrieve her password. The questions had to do with the name of her pet and last four digits of her SS#. After a few tries, Paypal locked her account and the only way she can get access to it is by faxing in copies of her DL, bank statements, and so on. Keep in mind, my mother is older, and her memory isn't what it used to be. She only had two pets at the time and she knows her SS#, but each time she tried to submit her answers Paypal told her the answers were incorrect. So I get the number to Paypal and call them. I explain what happened, and if they could just reverse the transaction so that I can send it to my mothers correct Paypal account. He tells me that can't do that because the transaction is completed. I ask how it can be completed when she can't even access her account to claim the money? He repeats that he can't reverse the transaction. Fine - so I get my mother on the phone. He emails her something that gives her 4 more tries to answer the previous questions correctly. She types in the only answers she knows could be possible, and it still won't let her in! So basically he tells her that the only way for her to gain access to her account is to send in all the required info. The problem is that when she created this account, she was temporarily living with me, so she used my addresss. Well, I moved from that address three years ago, and she has nothing that ties her to it because she only lived there for a couple of months. The rep told her that unless she can prove her identity, including sending something like a bill or other document that proves she lived at the address on the account, then her account will remain locked. When asked about what happens to the money, he replied that "It will sit there forever.". What?! By this time my poor mother is in tears, and I'm ready to blow a fuse. I doubt that even if she sends in all the required info that they will let her access her account. I had a Paypal account locked years ago due to a similar password problem, and though I had sent in all the info they requested, they never unlocked my account and I ended up just giving up. I only lost a few dollars that time, but they are holding onto $130 of my mothers money, and basically are not leaving her with any way to access it. I feel like it's thievery and fraudulent. Anyway, if you use Paypal, be careful - they can sieze your money and you have to jump though hoops of fire to get it back, if they'll even get it back to you.

 

[ElizK]

Though I can certainly understand your frustration, I can kind of understand it from Paypal's standpoint, too. If they just took people at their word, with no written proof, there would be all kinds of theft and dishonesty.

Did you pay with a credit card that you can dispute the charges? Maybe they could help. Good luck!

 

[mum4jenn]

I am a bit frustrated with them too right now. I have been buying lots of things on Ebay in the past couple of weeks and I had been paying for each purchase one at a time but I noticed an option where you could pay for all of your transactions at once so I treid it that way to speed things up. Well..it turns out the money was sent twice to both people and only one has refunded my money. The second person is new to Ebay and would not call Paypal or listen to me to see how to handle it. I think since it was Paypals fault they should have the power to go back in there and get my money. The other people "say" they are sending me a check but I don't feel good about it. I called Paypal and they said I should handle it with the seller. Today I got an email asking for feedback on my call to Paypal and let me tell you..I GAVE them my opinion!!!!

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Though I can certainly understand your frustration, I can kind of understand it from Paypal's standpoint, too. If they just took people at their word, with no written proof, there would be all kinds of theft and dishonesty.

Did you pay with a credit card that you can dispute the charges? Maybe they could help. Good luck!

I understand that there needs to be security measures, but they should at least be within reason. If I call my bank, I need to provide them with a certain amount of info in order to access my account. Paypal doesn't do this. My mother can verify all her bank account info, her SS#'s, her name. She has another Paypal account she can access with the same info. But since for some reason Paypal doesn't recognize the name of her pet, they freeze her account and we don't know if she'll ever be able to gain access to it again. If Paypal doesn't allow other ways to verify that the account is hers, then IMO they're just stealing her money. It's just weasely.

 

[Disney_1derland]

As the sender of the money isn't there a way to just 'reverse' your transaction? I could swear there was. Like, you call them and tell them you accidentally sent money to a wrong email address. they will reverse it and you will get the money back then you can resend it to the correct address. I've had someone do this to me before.

 

[jipsy]

hmmm I had a similar thing happen to me. I emailed them and asked them to just cancel my transaction and they did that, no problem.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

As the sender of the money isn't there a way to just 'reverse' your transaction? I could swear there was. Like, you call them and tell them you accidentally sent money to a wrong email address. they will reverse it and you will get the money back then you can resend it to the correct address. I've had someone do this to me before.

I tried, the rep I got refused to reverse the transaction. I will try again in the morning, maybe I'll get someone different that will actually help me.

 

[jipsy]

I don't think you have to call; I think you can do it online.

 

[shortbun]

I hate them too. I had an account, tried to pay for some things for my son's birthday. For some reason, they didn't process my payment to an Ebay sales person. My response was that the payment HAD been processed and the Ebay person kept contacting me to say they had not received payment. I was turned in to Ebay for non payment and all Paypal could do was apologize when I finally got a human being. I will never use them again, cancelled my account and am still pretty irritated about it because I really wanted the item.
Good luck.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Sounds freakin' wrong to me.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

sorry,

No it is wrong. Try again tomorrow morning. And if you get no relief I would start mentioning just how wrong it is going to look when you start broadcasting near and far the story of Paypal trying to steal $130 from a little old lady. They are perfectly justified in asking for legal identification from your Mother. Old Letters with that particular address on it are NOT legal identification.

My guess is, you got a really crummy person on the phone who didn't want to take the trouble to fix the problem. Hopefully you will get somebody better tomorrow.

 

[disneymom3]

There is no reason at all that they could not and should not reverse the transaction. What if you made a typo and this was completely the wrong person and not just another account of your mother's. This is ridiculous and I would keep going up the ladder until I found someone to reverse the transaction.

Good luck.

 

[clh2]

Can I ask the REALLY stupid question here...Your mother can't get into her paypal account. Why not try calling the bank where the paypal money should have been deposited? I am suggesting that while she may not be able to access her paypal account info, that it still may be in her account.

 

[jfulcer]

Can I ask the REALLY stupid question here...Your mother can't get into her paypal account. Why not try calling the bank where the paypal money should have been deposited? I am suggesting that while she may not be able to access her paypal account info, that it still may be in her account.

When you get money via paypal, it's really in 'their' account until you transfer it out somewhere. So she can't just go to the bank and ask for her money.

I'm sorry that they are giving you such a hard time but I'm not sure that blaming paypal is really the way to go - with the amount of fraud on the Internet, I can't blame them for protecting their butt every which way they can. I hate to say it, but even you saying "you're gonna complain to 60,000 of your Disney friends" won't get them to change their rules.

What would you think if someone came into YOUR bank insisting they were you and had no identification and no proof the account was yours, and wanted to take out $500. Then they said "Oh, and I'm gonna complain to all of my Internet friends about how unfriendly you guys are!!!" Ya think they are going to give in and say "Oh, in that case, here's the money!". I hate to say this, but Paypal is doing this to protect your mom's money. Sounds like decent online security to me.

 

[jfulcer]

Oh, and you can't cancel a payment that went to a valid paypal email address:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...c=1232&unique_id=2737&source_page=_home&flow=

If you sent it to an address that was not setup, or one that was not confirmed, you could get it back.

 

[jfulcer]

Sounds freakin' wrong to me.

Dan, you just freakin' crack me up!

 

[Imzadi]

PayPal had a class action lawsuit against them a few years ago for just this practice. They froze & stole thousands of dollars in frozen account this way. They never admitted any guilt & settled out of court.

I'm surprised they still are allowed to have such practices without being monitored, but maybe they are able to get away with it BY settling the suit as they did.

You might just want to mention the class action suit against them & see if they can "suddenly" reverse the charges. And if you paid by credit card, call your bank immediately. Any nationwide bank will most likely be apprised of PayPal's practices.

 

[tarmand]

Dan, you just freakin' crack me up!

Not me. For someone who's regarded as such a great guy he sure seems to be a bit judgmental sometimes. If you don't like the term "freakin", then start a petition to have it banned from the Dis - otherwise just ignore it and move on.

 

[jfulcer]

Not me. For someone who's regarded as such a great guy he sure seems to be a bit judgmental sometimes. If you don't like the term "freakin", then start a petition to have it banned from the Dis - otherwise just ignore it and move on.

Huh??? Dan was freakin agreeing with the OP, using the same language the OP used. I'm not sure where you get that he's being freakin judgemental.

And yes, I think that Dan very much expresses his opinion quite openly. He's not freakin apologetic about it, and is normally quite helpful. As one with 53,000 posts that are freakin recorded now, I would tend to think he's allowed to have those opinions, even if they don't freakin agree with you.

 

[va32h]

As one with 53,000 posts that are freakin recorded now, I would tend to think he's allowed to have those opinions,

Now I'm the one saying huh? What does the number of posts anyone has have to do with anything? What opinions are you allowed to have with only a thousand or so freakin' posts?