BEWARE: PayPal can be a Nightmare!
Written: Jan 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good for small transfers that can wait a long time.
Cons: Slow in every department, very suspicious, unhelpful, stubborn, unreasonable and uncompromising.
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| andre22's Full Review: PayPal |
I'm a consultant and when my employer told me he would be paying me through a service called PayPal in order to facilitate and expedite payment I was all up for it. Little did I know I was getting into a mess beyond the worst I expected.
I quickly visited their website and setup my PayPal account with my savings bank account. They told me they would be depositing two random amounts each below $1 into my bank account. I needed to check with my bank in 2-3 days to find out the amounts of these two deposits and enter them in the verification page on their website in order to "confirm my bank account". The deposits took 5 days! (Bad #1). When I checked, there was only one deposit so I couldn't confirm! (Bad #2) I looked for a telephone number on their website and couldn't find one. (Bad #3) I get it from a friend. I called them up and they told me that certain banks combine these two small deposits into one. She told me she would send a note to the financial department to see if the single deposit I got was the total of the two they sent. It took them 3 days to figure this out! (Bad #4)
So after 8 days I finally have a working account (or so I thought). I log on and see I have an incoming amount of $5,400 from my employer. Whoopee! I immediately request a withdrawal into my savings account. Another 3-5 days. On the fourth day I log in to see if I have any new money and notice that the withdraw transaction had been reversed! They didn't even bother to send me an email to alert me. (Bad #5) It turned out they put a restriction on my account "due to likely unauthorized activity". I immediately think someone tried to get into my account and was glad they protected me. I soon afterwards find out my employer had the same thing happen to him. Strange. I figure out, after talking to other users, that PayPal freaks out every time a large transaction takes place and puts restrictions on these accounts.
So now I need to fax them a recent email of theirs, my driver's license, and a recent bank statement. I fax my driver's license reluctantly since it contains my date of birth and signature among other sensitive information. The bank statement, however, I didn't have because I don't get monthly statements for my savings account. So instead I fax a statement of my checking account, which is with the same bank. Four (4) days after faxing the information they tell me they will not accept the different account statement. I then fax them a copy of my official bank booklet and after 2 days they tell me that is not enough. (Bad #6)
By now I'm furious. It's been a couple of weeks talking and emailing a bunch of reps and I still don't have my money. I call them up and speak with this unhelpful guy and quickly ask to speak with his supervisor. I immediately tell her that I wish to close my PayPal account and reverse all transactions to send my employer back the money. She tells me she can't do that because I HAVE to confirm my bank account that I no longer wish to use. (Bad #7) I ask her to send me a PayPal check (1-2 weeks) instead of using direct bank deposit. She tells me she can't do that because I HAVE to confirm my bank account that I no longer wish to use. (Bad #8) I ask her to switch my bank accounts; instead of using my savings account she can use my checking account that I had already verified earlier by faxing an official bank monthly statement. She tells me she can't do that because I HAVE to confirm my bank account that I no longer wish to use. (Bad #9)
She tells me my ONLY option is to fax a bank statement to CONFIRM an account I no longer wish to use! I tell them for the fifth time I don’t have a bank statement and ask them to call my bank and speak with them directly. They told me they would "forward" my request to some other department. It's been 2 days and I still haven't heard from them.
* If you don't like sending lots of personal information to a company DON'T use PayPal!
* If you don't like waiting several days to get your money DON'T use PayPal!
* If you don't like dealing with unhelpful representatives who take forever to answer emails and process things DON'T use PayPal!
* If you have to transfer large amounts of money DON'T use PayPal!
* If you would like to use direct bank deposit and have little tolerance for potential "lockups" on you account and funds DON'T use PayPal!
Many people may be experiencing a smooth ride transferring small amounts of cash through PayPal but they are unreliable and can restrict you at any time causing many headaches!
Beware! They are slow, unhelpful, stubborn, unreasonable and uncompromising.
Andre
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
andre22
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Member: Andre
Location: Miami Beach, Florida
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 3 members
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