Looking to gather feedback from PayPal users

[PayPal_Colin]

Greetings, all --

My name is Colin Rule, and I am PayPal's Director of Online Dispute Resolution.

I am currently working with the Customer Advocacy team to gather feedback on aspects of our Risk Management systems that are generating user frustration.

The areas I am most interested in include:

1. Payment holds / reviews

2. Payment declines

3. Limitations / restrictions

4. Buyer and seller protections

5. The Resolution Center (disputes/claims)

6. Chargebacks / bank declines

If you have experience with one of these processes and you'd like to provide some constructive feedback on how to make it better, please post a message in this thread or email me at crule{at}paypal.com. 

Please note: I do not work in customer support, so I will not be able to help with individual disputes, claims, or limitations.  I am more interested in feedback about how our overall systems can be improved so as to minimize frustration moving ahead.

Many thanks!  I hope to hear from many of you soon.

Colin

[cityhouse]

Very well  as far as ease of use  paypal is the way to go ,  Web sites do need to put your logo in the right place to know in advance they have paypal in there pocket  Much more likely to get used.

[BigKahuna97]

Colin,

One of the biggest complaints and areas PayPal could work on deals with account limitations.  My account has been limited at least 6 times in 2 years and the first time it was limited I received the parting of ways speech and was told to wait 180 days to receive my account balance.  Luckily for me I have worked for larger corporations and wasn't afraid to dial through the entire C level voicemail box which did get my account restored but there was not rhyme or reason even a C level could give as to why.

Fast forward......5 more account limitations that have had to be settled by higher ups while everyone I've spoken with states on the phone they can't see any reason as to why yet some security specialist in Omaha keeps clearly seeing a reason their bosses can not.....

To me the impact on PayPal from not having a set and CLEAR list of policy's is very evident as 70% of my clients prefer other payment methods and even ebay seems to be running low on U.S. sold items compared to the plethora it used to hold.  What I see is PayPal burning bridges with their clients on a daily basis and more and more PayPal blogs popping up to scare the rest away.

Colin, while PayPal employee's may believe their policy's are clear I can imagine that over half of your account members would disagree.  Finding answers via phone support is simply too hard to understand either as the accents, attitude, and ability for cs reps to play their own "manager" comes into play.  I find myself following the trend of pulling back from relying on PayPal and my other processors have done amazing with being clear and straight forward.  I'm not trying to sound sarcastic but maybe PayPal could learn a few lessons from their newer competition.  If I was treated the same way I am by your competitors I doubt I would ever have an issue with PayPal and it would feel nice to feel like PayPal wants out business instead of "PayPal no longer wants you as a customer so we need to close your account in a way which will least impact your business".

[PayPal_Colin]

Thanks, BigKahuna97.

Your feedback on the limitations process is timely and extremely helpful.  We haven't updated that process in several years, and I think it's showing its age.  We've got to do something about the "everything's fine until you go off the cliff" aspect of the process.  There needs to be more communications, transparency, road signs, etc. -- plus everyone at PayPal needs to be on the same page, so you don't talk to agents who are mystified as to why it keeps happening.

I do think we've done an immense amount to make our policies clearer over the past few years, but if you feel this way, then we need to a) go further, or b) do a better job communicating.  I'm very curious to learn from our competition -- maybe you can tell me who you think does this well, or give me best practices from your other payment channels.  I know we don't do a good job of it sometimes, but we really do want your business and strive for your satisfaction... we just need to be less clinical in our communications and not hesitate to state that clearly.

I'd love to have you do a phone call with my team, if you'd be willing.  crule{at}paypal.com

Colin

[PayPal_Colin]

Thanks, BigKahuna97.

Your feedback on the limitations process is timely and extremely helpful.  We haven't updated that process in several years, and I think it's showing its age.  We've got to do something about the "everything's fine until you go off the cliff" aspect of the process.  There needs to be more communications, transparency, road signs, etc. -- plus everyone at PayPal needs to be on the same page, so you don't talk to agents who are mystified as to why it keeps happening.

I do think we've done an immense amount to make our policies clearer over the past few years, but if you feel this way, then we need to a) go further, or b) do a better job communicating.  I'm very curious to learn from our competition -- maybe you can tell me who you think does this well, or give me best practices from your other payment channels.  I know we don't do a good job of it sometimes, but we really do want your business and strive for your satisfaction... we just need to be less clinical in our communications and not hesitate to state that clearly.

I'd love to have you do a phone call with my team, if you'd be willing.  crule{at}paypal.com

Colin

[altamira]

About five minutes after making a payment to a vacation rental seller, I discovered they were operating a scam.  I immediately told the seller that I did not want to make the reservation, and within five minutes of making the payment, I opened a dispute with PayPal and explained what had happened.

After two days, PayPal closed the case, without notifying me or telling me why.  Even after I had told them that the seller was running a scam and that I did not authorize the transaction, they took money from my bank account.

Paying people who are running an illegal activity just encourages this sort of behavior. You mentioned that intangibles can be tricky, but I don't believe there was anything tricky about my case. I obviously had not received the service, since it was a reservation for a vacation rental, and I notified PayPal within five minutes of making the charge.

Far as I can tell, there is now nothing at all I can do, since the case has been closed. If I had written a check, I could have stopped payment on the check. If I had used my credit card, I could have disputed the charge. But with PayPal, I apparently have no recourse. PayPal has acted to facilitate theft.

[robertswww]

Hello Collin,

Why not consider expanding your Seller Protection which currently applies if you ship to a Confirmed PayPal Shipping Address. However, many people who do not have a PayPal account, pay through PayPal at various e-commerce sites using a credit card. PayPal will run the card through the Address Verification Service (AVS) to make sure the Billing Address matches what is on file. If the merchandise ordered is shipping to the same address as the billing address on file, then I think that should also be covered under PayPal's Seller Protection.

Another area that needs improvement is with Intangible Goods.  Sellers of downloadable products are getting scammed by fraudulent customers who say they never received the e-goods.  So, they walk away with a refund and the e-goods they downloaded for free. Something more needs to be done to protect PayPal Sellers of intangible products. Since shipping Tracking Numbers are not available in these transactions, a new form of tracking needs to be implemented.

Maybe PayPal could devise some type of download key that is generated when they purchase e-goods.  Either the download key could be generated by PayPal and sent back to the shopping cart as the specific key required for this particular buyer to complete their purchase, and upon use it transmits its success back to PayPal. Or, when the Buyer completes the download, a Paypal API call is made to say that Buyer has received their e-goods and it is noted as completed in their Transaction Details.

Alternately, use one of the Certificate verification methods discussed at the following sites:
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/abs/proceedings/itcc/2004/2108/01/210810022abs.htm
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.104.1412

Robert

[PayPal_Colin]

Robert--

Thanks for the feedback.

On Seller Protection, there are lots of possible expansions that would make sense... the question is where PayPal should put its protections dollars, and which segments would benefit the most from the expanded safety net.  I think your suggestion is great, but it does entail PayPal taking on more risk -- there's no such thing as seller protection in the merchant account world (though now there is 3D Secure, so maybe more is coming.)  I'd guess because those Pro/VT are so low margin the odds that they'd get protection are low, but one never knows.

On Intangibles, wow, you read my mind.  This is a big topic around here these days.  I think you're going to see some news along these lines in the near future, so stay tuned.  I think PayPal is going to make some big changes in the whole micropayments/digital goods space that will address the very points you raise.

Colin

[talore008]

my only problem i have had with paypal was my dispute with an intangible purchase.  The company took the money refused to give me my items with out sending photo copies of my drivers liscense and my credit card.  I wanted a refund i have talked to their chat called paypal to tell them what was going on no help.  Now when i get a hold of them since paypal gave them the win on the dispute is hang up on me or does not respond to me on their chat support.  So i lost a 100 some dollars to some chinese company after looking through the net found out they are notorius for this and have had numerous claims against them.  I honestly don't see why paypal lets them keep their account through them.

[PayPal_Colin]

talore008--

Yes, intangible purchases can be tricky -- not only monitoring sellers for misbehavior, but also diagnosing when items are received and whether they are as described.  You should have won your PayPal claim if you claimed non-receipt, however.

Email me the seller's info at crule{at}paypal.com and I'll have someone look into it.  I know it's a done deal at this point, but you shouldn't send out your credit card and driver's license -- one major benefit of PayPal is that you can pay without sharing that info.  The seller shouldn't be asking for it.

Colin

[calsun]

what is the chineese company