Power Kite Forum

Paypal-bad experience

cheezycheese - 11-11-2009 at 02:09 PM

anybody have any bad experieces with paypal...? i just had the worst.:thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:
i tried to send cash on Tues. morn, $91 to be exact. the first time i hit the send button i get some funky error mssg. so i hit back and tried again. no mssg this time so i ASSUME the money is gone. :no: i get a e-mail from the second party stating-no money received. so i investigate and see that my history has shows transaction for the day - okay fine. so i make a second ASSUMPTION that no transaction really means no transaction-WRONG!! i try to send the money again, and now I get a mssg saying that my card has been denied...WTF ???? So i call the bank, and viola there is $182 missing from my account. i then get a bank rep on the phone and he tells me that he sees the transaction pending, but the problem is on the paypal side. At this point he informs me that paypal would have to send a fax requesting a re-release of the funds or it will take up to 7days to be returned to my account. Great, this is where the real fun begins. PAYPAL CUSTOMER SERVICE is the absolute WORST.
I spent upwards of 4hours speaking to one manager after another, each time having to explain my story over from the begining. The customer service repeatedly told me my card was denied and could not grasp the concept that my money is being held in limbo. They said they cannot fax. So i call the bank on a three-way so the paypal people can talk to the bank people. Midway through the call the paypal rep says she will send the fax...:ticking::ticking::ticking: I had to stop myself...oooh boy:ticking::ticking: I almost screamed at her "mam you just insisted that you could not fax, and here you now say you can" aaaaahhhhh!!! the bank rep got a good laugh at that one. So the bank rep hangs up and i'm ready to give her the fax #, ooohhh nooo i first gotta speak to yet another rep who is now again telling me NO FAX. at this point i start getting a little hostile and demanded to speak to the person with the highest authority and BANG, like i had been transported to OZ. i was now speaking to a Red Blooded English Speaking and Comprehending USA RESIDING American (I forgot to mention the first several tiers of cust. serv. are outsourced:no:) She then is able to understand the situation a little bettter (aahhh-starting to decompress a little :megan: ) and informs me that she actually can't send a fax with the Info the bank is requesting (card#etc...) because paypal's whole premise is info security and sending vital info like CC # over the fax is a direct violation of that. Gee that took all of a few minutes.:wow: I have no problem with any other country or creed, but for as much as these people understand English, they don't understand the certain little nuances that make our language what it is. It was like talking to a bunch of robots.... anyways i dont know where i'm going with this, i just needed to vent:mad::mad::mad: i have never in my life been so compeled to write about anything....
thanks for reading

snobdr - 11-11-2009 at 02:56 PM

Pay pal is BS. Its a secure whay of sending money, YEA RIGHT. Say you buy a kite for $1000. Send through paypal because its a secure way of sending money. Week later here your box is, you open the box and its empty. Think youll be able to get your money back? NOPE. Say your selling a kite for the same $1000. Buyer pays you and you send the kite. Week later the dirtbag buyer calls his creditcard and says he didnt aurthorize the transaction. What does paypal do, TAKES THE MONEY BACK FROM YOU.
Complete BS! I try not to deal with them if i dont have to. And yes their customer service is crap. Been down that road.

Todd - 11-11-2009 at 03:18 PM

Personally I have never had a problem with PayPal but have found out recently that Western Union worked like a champ! Buyer was from Spain and he paid the charges for it, I just picked up the cash. Check the limits before you send or receive.


Sorry you had troubles Cheesy

power - 11-11-2009 at 03:46 PM

That's funny. I've had to call them multiple times to work out various issues and the only problems I had was understanding their accents. Haven't had to deal with security of money yet, so I can't speak about that.

macboy - 11-11-2009 at 05:48 PM

Don't even get me started.....I'll see if I can dig up the old thread.

shaggs2riches - 11-11-2009 at 06:19 PM

Yeah I HATE PAYPAL!!!:flaming:
A year ago I had someone hack my paypal account. They managed to transfer 1500.00 before my account got flagged. Paypal held out with protecting 1000 but, the other 500 I had to fight with Visa to get back. Made for one hell of a month is all I can say. Still fighting with them to get my account closed. When it got flagged paypal froze it now I have to do a bunch of stuff to get it unfroze cept when I send for the e-mail notification I don't get the e-mail. I gave up twice trying to talk to them after being on the phone for over 30 minutes each time.

Kamikuza - 11-11-2009 at 06:31 PM

No problems here - except it's too easy to spend money :lol:
... how else are we supposed to conduct business online, across countries?

Here in Japan, you can send up to US$5,000 in cash, fully insured, across the country from the regular post office. There's a couple of ways to easily transfer money via ATM too - once you go through all the hassle of setting it up. Internationally though ...

ripsessionkites - 11-11-2009 at 08:19 PM

ive had ups and downs, but its quick and easier than waiting for cheques / money orders in the mail.

Kamikuza - 11-11-2009 at 09:46 PM

Money orders as so Nigerian

redtailin - 11-11-2009 at 10:10 PM

I had no idea paypal was so bad. If not paypal, what do you guys suggest to send money domestically (USA)? Internationally? Western Union??

macboy - 11-11-2009 at 11:53 PM

That's the problem - they have a corner on the market I guess. For me it was a credit card that went into expiry. Because it expired, the system flagged it as a dead card and when it was time to put the new one in with the new date the number was flagged as dead. Their solution to me? Just call my credit card company and have them issue me a new credit card number.

........and then I can call all of the other companies that draw payments off my credit card to change the number they have.

Yeah right. I was stunned that there was no override for them and the fact that they built such a closed loop in their system both alarmed me (and strangely comforted me). The end result for me was having to subject anyone waiting for dough from me to wait about eight business days for the transaction to clear. A few of you in PKF were patient enough to still do business with me. I've since opened up a new PayPal account with a new credit card and will NOT allow it to expire on me.

Seems trivial now but it was a huge blow when it happened and the customer service experience was............well, I certainly felt served.

ripsessionkites - 12-11-2009 at 12:12 AM

there is another paypal type system that im registered with, cant remember the name but ill post it up. its domestic only.

rocfighter - 12-11-2009 at 05:30 AM

I have never used Pay-Pal, but I have had a very simular experiance with Sears repair service. Like you said "like talking to robots" Ross Perot was correct. "Can you hear the big sucking sound?" All the jobs are outsourced now.

cheezycheese - 12-11-2009 at 05:43 AM

definitely like robots, it's almost like they have one set response for every scenario. There can be no variables...:crazy:

redtailin - 12-11-2009 at 09:14 AM

speaking of sears repair, I work tools/fitness/land and garden at a small sears store....i feel bad whenever I have to refer people to it. Its really no good, but we have nothing in the store that can help them unfortunately. Then people make me call it from the store from them, thinking I have some sort of inside line. Not the case, I have to wait on hold and talk with the same people you cant understand.

rocfighter - 13-11-2009 at 04:55 AM

My experiance with sears was, I have a high end washing machine (because I am a heavy equiptment mechanic) and I get very dirty. So it stopped working. I called sears repair and had to wait 12 days for them to come. I took the appointment day off from work and waited all day. At the end of the day they called and said "there will be no service crews in your area today. Call to rescedual. AAHHHH! After alot of ranting about how I just lost $250.00 by not going to work (and they didn't care) I called to rescedual. So a young girl answers the phone in some far off country where english is an option.
So after a bit of an explanation of my situation(which she did not care to hear or most likely understand) All she can say is All I can do is rescedual. OK when? She says in a perky tone "is 15 days" AAAAHHHHH!!! 45 minutes later I now know that when calling sear repair you can not talk to any suppervissors or service people. Just this one little girl who only seems to know 4-5 sentances in english. What a good service they offer. I finaly gave up and hung up on her with no appointment.
I called a local repair guy who came out the next day and said the part that was bad was very expensive and he recomended I buy a new machine. I looked up the part on line at repairclinic.com and ordered it for 1/3 the price he offered it.
But the best part is still to come. A week after I fixed the thing myself. Sears called to ask how my repair appointment went! That poor guy I bet he needed counsiling after that call!
Sears they stand behind what they sell. So far behind you can't find them.

cheezycheese - 13-11-2009 at 06:29 AM

well whaddya know, Paypal just e-mailed me a questionare about the quality of their service and how i was handled...
boy am I gonna have fun with this one...:evil::evil::evil::evil::flaming:
BTW- my money is still in limbo... :(

rocfighter - 13-11-2009 at 08:13 AM

There all here just to serve you in th worst way possible!

flyjump - 13-11-2009 at 11:28 AM

Last year in the fall I had a bad experience with paypal. I didn't have enough cash in my bank account to buy the kite that i wanted, so I changed my profile from my debit card to my credit card. Little did I know that they would still take money out of my checking account! When I checked my account after a couple days have passed, I realized that it was over drawn by about 300$ I actually only went 75 or so over my limit, but because of the fees my total was about 300 in the hole. Being a science teacher at a public school, I don't really make much money to begin with, I never use cash, so there was no way for me to buy food or gas until payday again. There was no getting through to paypal for a few days, but i went to my back for four days in a row after work to talk to the manager to see what they could do. They told me since i was polite and not freaking out, that they'd give me some money back. The deposited 150 back, so I could at least have food until i got paid again. The moral of the story, be thorough when you change credit/debit card info on paypal.