Recently I sent a payment to the email address of my accountant. My accountant includes among his clients many different companies and organizations. PayPal took the email address to which I directed my payment, and ADDED to that email address the name of one of my accountant's clients. So my payment did not go to my accountant, but was redirected by PayPal to one of my accountant's customers. To report my problem, I had to select from PayPal's short list of categories the one that most fit my case. None of the categories were appropriate, but I had to select one, no matter how appropriate, in order to proceed with resolution of my complaint. So I clicked on Unauthorized Purchase. To be clear: I had authorized a purchase of services from my accountant, but I HAD NOT made a purchase from the party to whom PayPal sent my payment. My accountant did not receive my money, and some organization I am not affiliated with, now has my payment to my accountant. PayPal called my problem "Unauthorized Activity". The unauthorized activity was not by third parties to my transaction; the unauthorized activity was PayPal not sending my payment to my accountant, but to someone else. PayPal then informed me there was no unauthorized purchase and referred me to their Resolution Center. I felt I was in a Kafkaesque labyrinth with no exits. PayPal's Resolution Center seems to be diabolically designed to frustrate, discourage, and annoy. I have hated using PayPal for years for this reason, and when I set up payment systems with others, I try whenever possible to find better solutions than PayPal offers, such as straighforward use of credit card companies, whose procedures are much more transparent, and their service operators are far more accessible.
