I'm going to share my story here because I'm more than a little frustrated about a recent refund transaction.
<rant>
I purchased a PC Processor on Ebay (i7 8700k, woo!) with my PP Credit account in mid May which turned out to be either counterfeit or a bad copy or something. The seller immediately RMA'd the item and I was able to ship it back. Shipping turned out to be a nightmare but the seller finally accepted the item and processed the refund, a little over 3 weeks after I purchased the item. As most probably know, PP's funding policy is super slow and it took over a week for the refund to be deposited back into my account(it said it would be available on the 19th, but it was only *posting* at 11:59pm so it wasn't really available until the 20th, grrr). So, the 20th (yesterday) arrives, and I log into my account and see that the money was deposited into my regular PP balance, not the PP Credit account. I think, well, ok, maybe that's the way that it works as there was no other information displayed showing me otherwise. It has been over a month since my original purchase (I would really love to build my new PC) so I'm eager to re-order this part. I find an equivalent on Ebay and make the purchase. Super excited.
This morning I go to the grocery before work and my card is declined, only to discover that my card has been charged for the entire purchase amount of the CPU and my account is now overdrawn and been charged multiple times for multiple transactions. I log into my PP account and discover that indeed the money refunded has been returned to my Credit account and I was charged as if I had a $0 PP balance. Yesterday, recall, it appeared that that money was in my regular balance and there was absolutely NO indication that it was going anywhere. So, since I had no idea this was the case, I made multiple purchases on my debit card and have racked up several overdraft fees.
A PP rep this morning said 'All refunds go back to the account they were purchased from' and that 'It can take 24 hours for a PP balance refund to go back to the Credit account' and 'There is nothing I can do' . I get this. I hoped to use my PP Credit balance in the first place, but since I was given absolutely no information that this was going to be the case (24hours to deposit from one account to another within the same institution? Banks have been doing this instantly for YEARS) on my account page I went ahead with my purchase.
So now I'm stuck with over $100 in overdraft fees, a negative balance and a big **bleep** sandwich that I get to chew on from PP. Luckily I get paid this evening at midnight, but this is super frustrating.
My main request here from PP is to be more transparent about how the refund process works. If the money was not destined to be kept in my regular account, DON'T **bleep**ING PUT IT THERE. How was I supposed to know that it was going to be transferred out? There was no information, no documentation. A completely opaque process from beginning to end, which, I might add, takes an inordinately long time. I wish there was an alternative to PP for Ebay purchases, but unfortunately we're all stuck with this system if we want to use Ebay. Boo. Hiss.
</rant>
Have a great day, everyone. Thanks for listening.
