Known Issue: Received payments not appearing in balance

[PayPal_Frank]

"PayPal experienced a brief technical issue yesterday during a planned system update which resulted in some consumers being unable to see a transaction in their account history after it had processed. And, some merchants may not have received immediate payment.  

The technical issue has been fixed and PayPal is working to have these transactions reflected accurately for both consumers and merchants. 

We apologize for any inconvenience."

Hi everyone,

I know this has been a frustrating issue and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.  I want to assure you this was immediately escalated and is being worked on at a high priority.  We don't have an exact ETA but our engineers are working to fix the transactions affected by this issue as soon as possible.

- Frank

FAQs

Q. Why I cannot see the money in my balance? I am sure that I received a payment because I received the email confirmation.  

A system change last night has resulted in an issue whereby instant bank funded transactions are not appearing on account balances. Once you received the email confirming your payment the transaction did complete but it will only appear in the account balance once this issue is resolved.

Q. Why does the system not allow me to withdraw the payment that I already received?

You will be able to withdraw the funds once the transaction appears on your account balance.

Q. I received a payment, but I cannot see the money in my balance. Should I send the parcel?

Until the payments shows as completed in your account activity log we would advise you not to send out the parcel. We expect this issue to be resolved soon therefore this shouldn't cause any major delay to your parcel send.

[dami86]

Has anyone contacted their bank/credit union about this issue? To see if anything can be done via the bank, like maybe cancel the transaction since it (allegedly) hasn't gone through? Maybe it can be cancelled and returned to the original sender. Just curious if that's been attempted yet...

[welltheresthat]

The transactions (at least mine) are completed and can't be cancelled and sent another way (I asked PP this), they are showing as completed, but not part of the availabe or pending balance, it's like they're there, but you can't have them.

[dami86]

Right, but I'm wondering if it would cause the bank or credit union to go after Paypal. Because if this was a bank doing this people would be much more heavy-fisted about all of this. I figured that with it being completed it couldn't be cancelled but I feel like if people had contacted their bank what would happen? It's an option...

[Frenchie66]

I spent over two hours with different supervisors and even a manager; they can't commit to a time for resolution. 

Meanwhile there is an expectation that their problem becomes the customer's responsibility to cover for them. Because here is the irony! Paypal does receive the money in their corporate business accounts, it just does not reflect in the customer account balance...Therefore the customer can't use that deposit. So the deposit is not lost in cybespace. It is actually received and accounted for.

What is the issue is the software and how the platform functions - based on available balance. So when and if you get a credit issued by paypal for your deposit, that credit is temporary even though the deposit is accounted for. They can't manually rectify the account to reflect the confirmed (completed) transactions. I got lucky to get a credit but it is temporary so hopefully they get things back to normal before the deadline...

If this situation was to last much longer than 24 hours, I can't imagine the PR nightmare if all customers affected negatively by this bug or by Paypal handling of their calls would complain to Better Business Bureau or to social media. Paypal management needs to step up when such problems occur, specially when it is a Paypal problem and not a customer issue. 

FYI Banking and money transfer companies like paypal are highly regulated but complaining to your bank won't help since it has nothing to do with the problem. Better Business Bureau regulates and answer complaints based on industry policies and you can file a complaint online; social media can make an impact on a business' image but I am not sure if Paypal would care. I suggest you call and ask for a supervisor to see if you can get help for your specific situation, it may get you over the hump for the next few days by which, hopefully, this miserable issue will no longer roam their system.

[Ktnegs]

What do u mean the credit is temporary? They issued you what is due to you but you have to pay them back or? Im about to call in and speak with a manager!!!

[Frenchie66]

I know, it should not be temporary, right?! It is your money! Well, no, that is not how Paypal operates.

But the credit is up to 8 days, no more! Trust me I tried to make it permanent, I failed! Since they don't know how long it will take for your funds to show in the balance.

I went through agent, supervisor, senior supervisor and Paypal manager. The answer is a credit is temporary if issued to adjust your balance right now so you can use your received funds (the ones that are showing completed but not showing in your balance). It is a favor they grant you even though it is their glitch. 

[t_m_t]

May I ask about how much they were willing to credit? Just wondering if it's worth calling AGAIN. Thanks,

[Frenchie66]

You have to call them and it is based on the completed transactions and probably other factors. I dont work for Paypal.

[CCA_Sherrie]

I've been getting calls all morning about account balance issues not being acurate. They were updating the system yesterday and while doing the updates, some accounts are being affected where they are not getting an unpdated account balance reflection. Paypal is actively fixing this issue! You can see the payments received in your account on September 7, 2016 but it is not reflecting in the account balance. The money is NOT able to be used, because it is not technically in the account. It is posted, and will credit as soon as the issue is resolved. This means that these payments cannot be used to make purchases, withdrawn, debited, or refunded!

Super sorry guys, but they are working on it!

[zalexander86]

Surely you have tech people there that it shouldn't take more than 24 hours to resolve the issue. And if not, your company needs to put a huge notice on their website to alert them if they are doing sales at the moment. It is bad for your business. You should alert someone higher up that they need to do this.