To: Paypal Staff
Re: Suggestion to change a few things.
Firstly, I have been using Paypal for years without incident until recently when a hacker gained control of my account. He made 5 small purchases totalling almost $100 CAD, 1 purchase to Delta Airlines for over $1000 CAD, and gave authorization to Big Sky Group for over $3000 CA. Immediately I contacted Paypal about the hack in the resolution center and they managed to get the 5 small purchases refunded almost immediately.
I didn't see any action on the $1000 to delta Airlines so I sent another message through the resolution center. I got an email back that they detected no unauthorized activity, despite the fact that it was every bit as much a part of the hack as the other 5 smaller purchases, as all were done at the same time. Shortly after I got their declination email, Delta Airlines debited my account for over $1000.00.
Again I tried to complain in the resolution center, but it wouldn't allow me as they stated the case was closed. So I phoned Paypal and talked to a lady in Georgia who said not to worry, Paypal would get my money back and she started a new claim in the Resolution Center. So here i am thinking all is good, but no, they again declined it with the conclusion that the purchase to Delta was consistent with my transaction history. Well, excuse me, but my transaction history was restricted to paying Netflix a monthly fee, with other very small purchases.
Meanwhile, the hacker managed to board the plane and fly to his destination while Paypal failed to properly investigate this. Had they simply called Delta Airlines and reported this when I reported it, the hacker would not have gotten anywhere and would have been caught by Delta. I would have done it myself had I known how incapable the staff in Paypal would be, but I trusted them to do their work like professionals, yet the completely dropped the ball, and caused me to lose $1000.
So what went wrong here?
Listen Paypal, an automated email with slim details about why you are declining- yet offering no other suggestions- might work in your world, but it is completely irresponsible to your members when their money is involved. You offered no information in any email or resolution center on how we could deal with situation like this ourselves. For example, it took me days to figure out how to cancel the authorization to Big Sky Group for the $3000, and had I known this for Delta I would not be out $1000.
Therefore I suggest you look a little more closely at what is actually going on with our accounts, and instead of reaching for a quick and easy solution for yourselves, start finding solutions for the members instead. It's so easy to have a ready-made email to send to us that provides nothing but bad news, when offering a suggestion or a teaching moment such as "This is how you can contact Delta Airlines ..." would stop unimaginable grief and stress.
In short, Paypal need to make changes on how to become more responsible and helpful to people who have made claims of unauthorized access to their accounts. You need to up your game and take it far more seriously than you do because the impression I got from Paypal was, "Not our problem. Sorry about your luck."
Seriously.
