Complaint Review: PAYPAL

This is a story that must be told and spread as a warning to both international Net users (read as 'non-Americans') as well as domestic users (read as 'Americans') ....

I have spent the last several weeks being ripped off by the on-line payment service known as PayPal. This is supposedly a reputable company with great customer service, but my story is quite different. They promote themselves as now being 'international', yet this is also not the case as my story will show.

It began in late April when I first discovered EBay. I began buying comics and collectables, and it wasn't long before I decided to sell some of my collection to finance further purchases. At this point I tried to register with PayPal, but was told my card declined. After emailing PayPal I was told to check with my card issuer about why this took place. According to my card issuer/bank they were not declining my card but were actually authorising PayPal's initial $1US verification fee. These authorisations were not being honoured, however, because PayPal was not following through with the transactions so they eventually dropped off. This happened multiple times (more than 10) and my bank suggested that perhaps there was an error in communication between the two systems. They suggested a manual verification process.

At this point I re-contacted PayPal via email and informed them of the latest. I did this numerous times as each email proved utterly inane. They kept saying contact your card issuer, even though I was explaining that I had. Obviously there email reply staff are insufficiently trained and offer only cut-and-paste answers based on their limited judgement. At no time did any email address the questions or issues I raised. This led me to call on the phone.

During my phone conversation a female representative assured me that I could have money deposited into my PayPal account and then withdraw it into my Australian bank account without the use of my credit card. I thought this sounded good and I proceeded to inform my winning bidders to deposit the money there as I was told I could do. Then, when I went to withdraw funds as I was also told I was declined because my credit card had not yet been validated. Now I was stuck! My PayPal account climbed to a total of $333.33US, but it was unavailable to me (and still is).

I made numerous phone calls and spent way to much of my own money on calls to try and solve the problem. I did all the work and received little or no co-operation. Each time I rang I got someone new and I had to waste time telling the story again and again. I was promised emails and callbacks, which just did not happen, and I was assured that they would help me get my money.

Finally I was told that they would manually verify my card if I faxed them a lot of details (4 pages worth). Despite not having a fax I found a way to do this. I had to go out of my way and spend more of my money, but I did it. In fact, I did it twice, because they supposedly lost my first set of documents. These were sensitive documents too, such as credit card statements, drivers licence, gov't benefit forms, etc.

Finally I call again and am told that they cannot manually verify my card anyway. It's not what they do, since they're an on-line service. So, why the hell make me fax all that documentation?! Why have me running around fuelled by false promises?! Instead I was told that they would attempt to push my funds thorugh to bank account as I had originally been told that I could do myself. Some service! And yet the have the guts to charge me service fees on all the deposits made to my account! What service?! I've provided them all the service thus far with phone calls, faxes, emails, etc.

Needless to say, I'm a regular joe. I'm getting gov't support in Australia while I set up my own graphic design business and I don't trade on EBay as a business. I'm just a guy who likes comics and artwork. Now I find myself facing the potential to be blacklisted on EBay as both a bad buyer and seller. I have had to use my own funds to send out products bought from me, since I still haven't technically received peoples money and this has led to numerous strains. The biggest of all on my own marriage as a newlywed (under one year). I had also been counting on the money (as promised) to finance purchases I had made on Ebay. Not having come through, I now am on the verge of being labelled a non-paying bidder. I could be defamed and blacklisted on EBay with permanent negative feedback thanks to PayPal's extreme inefficiency. Whatever spare money I've had has gone on sending stuff out as an ethical seller, so I've had none left to be a responsible buyer.

In the end, I have asked PayPal to reimburse me for my many phone calls to them which have amounted to quite a lot of money in international rates. After what I've been through with them, I believe that it is only fair that they cover my phone costs - otherwise I will be even further out of pocket in this venture. I could chalk it up to experience, but after all their ineptitude and complete lack of service I will not take this lying down! I am prepared to fax through copies of my itemised phone bill when it comes through with all charges for PayPal calls I have made - but I am told that they don't do that kind of thing. Right now, I'd like to know what they actually can do?! Since almost all the calls made were inspired by emails requesting that I phone them, I believe that I am entitled to some reimbursement in this matter. The other calls that were not directly reuqested are follow-ups to previous calls where i was promised a call-back from their side. This, of course, never happened - probably because they realise that international calls are costly! If I had been able to get an answer out of their email staff then I would never have called in the first place, but the best they could advise me was to ring.

So, in the end, I want reimbursement for my phone calls (when the bill arrives) and a full refund of my PayPal service fees, since they have not actually rendered any service for me. They are a thorn in my flesh that I plan to remove and disinfect.

For all international customers, please stay away!!! Find another system like BidPay (even if it costs more) because the costs are less in the longrun. For you domestic customers, also stay away!!! There are better services like Billpoint available to you and even easier domestic options available. I will happily discuss a positive report if PayPal can do something about this, but if not then I will follow through by all means possible and will post a response again when the situation is solved. At this point (weeks later) I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY MONEY!!!

Stay tuned ....