Paypal’s bogus answer as to why my CC was charged instead of my bank account:

[Melohawk]

#1-Upon calling the phone numbers given on the Paypal thread (thank you people for supplying those!), the robot answering machine wanted a pin # that I couldn't give because the broken link on Paypal's site, where I could have gotten that #, was  returning an "internal server error" every time you clicked on it. I got past the robot by screaming into the phone and demanding a live person.  I guess the force of my anger and my volume managed to get me by the first round because it let me go to the menu which gave all the options and also allowed for "more options". I chose "more options". When THAT robot started talking I simply yelled "agent, agent, agent" over and over until it shut up and allowed me to speak with a live person.

#2- The live person ALSO wanted a  pin # and I told her about the error on their web page. She took some info and then allowed me to state my problem: my last two payments were charged to my credit card instead of being taken out of my bank account, which is my primary source of funds.  Before she could tell me the pat answer which is that it must be a lack of funds in my bank account, I told her that I always check, online, with my bank before I make a transaction  so as to INSURE that there are enough funds in the account to cover it. She couldn't figure it out and had me wait while she talked to a supervisor.

#3- Her supervisor had no answer so she patched me through to another rep and he took more information and wanted to know the whole story (again). He couldn't understand why this happened either and went to HIS supervisor.

#4- The story he came back with is as follows: Because another purchase in the past, for the same amount, didn't go through on your account, the computer automatically switched it over to your credit card when this similar amount showed up on your current payment.   HUH?!!!!!!

Immediately I told him that this was bogus. There has never been a default or insufficient funds problem with my Paypal account (or my bank accounts for that matter).  He squirmed a little  and tried to say that maybe it was someone else . . . .I shot that down because NO ONE has ever used this account but me.  I had him repeat the whole idiotic statement again and then I said "This doesn't make any sense. There are numbers for the auctions, numbers for the accounts, numbers that must match up correctly or there isn't any way to keep track of transactions. This idea that some "amount similarity" triggered an action by the computer to change from my primary source to a secondary backup is bogus." 

I then told him that I understood that he was not at fault and that I wasn't blaming him. However, I said, "This answer is telling me is that your superiors simply don't know WHAT happened and are giving you an answer that you are supposed to pass along to me to satisfy the call". I told him I didn't believe it because that is not the way records are kept. He reiterated that that is the answer they were giving him: the amount of the auction was the same as a prior amount that, sometime in the past, didn't go through and the computer is reacting accordingly.  I told him I don't understand how that could even presume to happen because there has never been a default on my account.

Accordingly I told him that there are a lot of people out here that are having the same or similar problems with their  sourcing of funds, some having charges to their bank accounts when the charges should have been to their credit cards and some, like me, are having the reverse problem.  I asked him to pass on to his superiors that a lot of us aren't happy with the way things are being handled and I thanked him for his time, but that I didn't believe the story he was handed, not in the least.

A long time ago (in a land far away....lol)  I warned Paypal that  if they messed with my account again I would blast them all over Ebay, their own Paypal threads and on the internet in general. The reason? They made a practice of  telling everyone to send them any phishing attempt or scam emails and let them know what was happening. Like I fool, I reported every attempt at phishing and scamming that came through and dutifully sent the emails on to Paypal.  That resulted in my account getting flagged by the computer as "having problems".  I was in the middle of a transaction when I found out I couldn't use my account.

I spent a whole weekend from Friday night on through Monday morning sending email after email, calling on the phone, etc. trying to straighten out the whole mess. I got ONE live person who simply said they couldn't do anything about it because the ID process that Paypal uses to identify you , only works one way. If you can't satisfy every one of the stages of its process, you can't get back into your account. My main problem was that I was at my home computer and the phone number that the computer was going to call (as stage 3of the ID process and the final one), to verify who I was  and to ask me questions, was 100miles away at my work site. There was no way I could get there in the 10 mins  warning I was given before the call. Consequently, I wasn't there and couldn't answer the phone, so my ID MUST be a phoney!!!!!!

I was livid!!  I spent the rest of the weekend calling (couldn't get through to another live person) and sending emails every hour on the hour to VPs , customer service reps, anyone whose addy was listed as having some sort of higher up position with Paypal (you notice that you can't find those addys around anymore).  I warned them that this sort of treatment would be plastered all over the Internet with the e-mails  to prove it if I didn't get access back to my account and it had to be done before I defaulted on the auction payment and caused me and the seller a problem.

By Monday morning I was getting e-mails from every one of the higher ups that I had sent to, customer service, etc with apologies and the most welcome e-mail stating that my account had been reinstated and that I could continue to use it.

For years there have been no problems and now THIS poor excuse for a bollucksed transaction.  I've learned that their computer is never wrong. Even when I told the rep that it sounded like there was a computer glitch, he was on top of that saying "No, no not a glitch. The computer recognized a prior transaction for the same amount which hadn't gone through and sent the charge to your credit card."  Since there was no need to do this (and there was never a problem in the past) I would assume that this was then A COMPUTER G L I T C H !!!!  Duh. . . what does it take to rattle your cages?   I'm not the only one having this sort of problem out here. People are getting fed up. 

Problems are simply things you work through if you can at least have someone who knows what's going on to talk to and work WITH. However, a machine and a patsy who simply is trying to do his job and getting stuck in the middle between a computer GLITCH  and a supervisor who is just handing out pat answers like candy, is NOT making for a very amiable situation.

This 21 day HOLD on funds is not making Paypal any friends either.  Unless Paypal has undergone the transformation that it takes to become a bank, including the FDIC protection of client's funds (not mutual investment funds), and is giving interest to all those clients whose funds it is holding, it is acting illegally in holding said funds.

Why would Paypal make such a move?  We , the "clients" involved, have learned the hard way that there are times  when leaving funds in the Paypal account may mean you  lose them.  They will be taken for "costs" that you weren't aware of, disputes that may not be settled but are still paid with said funds or they can just vanish through GLITCHES. 

Paypal has begun to see that no one leaves their money in their online accounts anymore. Everyone is withdrawing it and making sure that they get it into their bank accounts as soon as it comes through on their online statement. Paypal tried to encourage everyone  to leave their money in their online account and to buy "shares" in Paypal stock.  Most of use are wise to that sort of manipulation and we don't do it. All  our funds are still being pulled out from the online accounts and going into our bank accounts, etc. so that no one can use the money but  US.

Paypal has now decided to institute  a 21 day hold on all funds so that we can't access OUR money until Paypal wishes to release it. Going on the premise that it is trying to safeguard the community from fraud, Paypal persists in acting like a bank but not returning  any INTEREST on the "depositors" money which they are holding. This is illegal and will end up costing them in the courts when a suit is brought against them for fraudulently acting like a bank.

We all said that when Ebay took over Paypal, it would be ruined with too many rules and too many problems.  Ebay has ruined itself that way and Paypal is following suit as a result of Ebay's bungling.

Online transactions do not have to be this hard people. I realize that a lot of us want security for our credit cards and our bank accounts. I realize that we need services that will guarantee such security. Giving out your account numbers or CC #'s  online can be dangerous without some sort of security back up that prevents every vendor from seeing your account numbers.  However, it should be  a simple "pass-through" situation.

You authorize that a seller's account be paid from your account for your transaction. It is digitally processed, the numbers are transferred, and that is that. The records will show exactly what happened, documented by account ID's, transaction numbers, bank account and CC #'s . Because all the numbers will have to line up to even discuss a problem with the clients involved, there will be no problem of "the computer recognizing the same amount from a past transaction as not going through " and arbitrarily deciding to use another source of funds, EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO PROBLEM WITH THE PAST SOURCE OF FUNDS AND THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH THE CURRENT SOURCE OF FUNDS!!! . I hope someone has noticed how many times I have repeated the fact that there was NEVER any problem with my accounts in the past, there was never any default of funding and there is no problem now. I hope someone noticed because NONE OF THE PAYPAL REPS DID.

A real SERVICE will notify the buyer that there is a problem with the funding source and allow the BUYER to authorize another source to fund his purchase. Then the buyer will get with a LIVE PERSON and hash out what the problem is. The problem will be resolved quickly and without loss to the seller at the other end of the transaction. The computer is only tallying the results and no longer a part of the problem. Hiring LIVE people could even provide another job source, a real job source without any bail-out money. . . .how's that "hope and change" working out for ya?

But this all just opinionated rhetoric and total flogging of a dead horse because none of Paypal's people will ever read it, none of them will ever listen to WHAT we are saying and try to solve anything other than the easiest of problems that anyone could solve by going to the FAQ page. They can't even fix the glitch on their pages that is preventing us from clicking through to their call page. . . .  but then, their computers don't HAVE glitches now do they . .

[Youngster]

I concur that a computer will have glitches, and I have one right now only NOT with paypal but Radio Shack.

[matterfsdf]

PWNED PAYPAL!

[mama_martino]

The reverse is happening to me. They charged my bank account and not my LINE OF CREDIT with Paypal! I have been with them for years and have not had a problem before. I was even charged an overdraw fee because it took me over by $200. I have had Paypal for years and have NEVER had an issue. My husband told me he used the paypal to buy something online on Monday morning. I went to go and check it to see what my balance was with the line of credit. It hadn't changed from the previous week. I looked at the details and it said BANK TRANSFER. I called them on Wednesday night when I found out and they said that it was a customer error and we were to blame. They said my husband chode the wrong account. HE HAS BEEN BUYING FROM THAT PLACE FOR YEARS!!! I THINK HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING BY NOW! They said they would send me an email, I would print it out and give to my bank to waive the overdraft fees. NO EMAIL WAS SENT YET!! The charge went through on Thursday and my husband gets paid Fridays, OF COURSE!! I went and called my bank to tell them the situation and they said in the past few months, they have had more customers call in about this or something similar to this than anything other problem. So I know I am calling them right now and seeing what they about it............................................................ Okay Rep #1, told the story to and she is transferring to another...................... Rep #2 Said she would send me an email to submit to my bank and let's see if that really happens.

[Melohawk]

My solution, if this happens again, is to close my account with Paypal, wait a month - if I don't need to buy anything for that long- and open another account. I've been told too often that it was my fault or that whatever problem I'm having is due to something in the past (which is not true because there was NOTHING in the past to account for the current problem!). More and more Paypal members are having the SAME TYPES of PROBLEMS. En masse we need to terminate our accounts and wait awhile to re-up. Not only will it scare the pants off of the Paypal people but we will, hopefully, have all the problems cleared. 

I wonder though, with all this inability to clear credit cards off of accounts for "pending transactions" that have never occured, if we will even be able to do that?!!  We will be dead in our graves and still have Paypal accounts with "transactions pending". . . .    This service is a joke.

[Mahendhiren]

In the begining Paypal was good now dealing with Paypal is like **bleep**,

I have been going thru **bleep** the past few months with Paypal

A custome r support persona also gave me wrong answer

which further **bleep**ed up my problems

I hope the customer support know what they are dealing with

not to just copy paste some prewritten text as reply

Paypal time you got real, stop messing around with peoples lives and peoples money

[Ren]

My problem is that I want to pay by CC, but at first only "Direct bank transfer" showed up as funding option.  Now only "E-check"  can be chosen.  I see my credit card but it is not clickable as an option.  I emailed paypal several times, asking why this limit, and what can I do to lift it, do I have to have certain # of transaction or something.  The email back seems machine-generated, just saying that sometimes there are limits for security concerns.  Duh?  Do you think closing my paypal account and reopening would help?

What is funding by echeck anyway?  Do ebay sellers accept this method of payment by paypal without complaint/problems?  Do they have to wait for a check in their mail or something?  some sellers do not accept checks from what I know....

[Melohawk]

I'm beginning to think that Paypal wants to go all credit card and eliminate the echeck. (Most payment services seem to be going that route)  Some sellers don't like echecks because they have to wait a bit for things to clear (although I have never had a thing come back and tell me that my "instant payment" with the echeck was any kind of a problem) and most sellers have sent me my items very quickly regardless of the method of payment.

My problem is that if I keep having small charges on my credit card the company will shut it down and call me saying that there is an inordinate amount of charges going through my account, more than normal (1 charge a month for internet access is all that it really gets used for). When I had that trouble in the past, trying to pay for Christmas purchases on eBay through Paypal, it left me stranded trying to pay for a lot of auctions with money orders so that I wouldn't get bad feedback. I called the credit card company and asked them what I was supposed to do if I wanted to use my card. I've never had bad credit, never had unpaid bills, never had a problem so this was very surprising. My credit card company told me that if I was going to do a lot of charges that I would have to call them first and aprise them of my activity!!! 

THAT was when I switched to echeck on Paypal so I could go about my business and I even set up a separate bank account to do so without going into my business or personal accounts.  NOW if Paypal is going to start using my card again, it will restrict me to very little purchasing power because I refuse to call my credit card company and let them know that I'm going to use the blasted card!! That is simply ridiculous!  I will never understand why, once you get a system in place that allows you to do what you need to do and you do it well, completing ALL payments and a spotless record, the system has to be s****ed up by the very people who want the money that the system you set up gives them!!  ARRRRGGGHHHH . . .

[smallHOST]

sigh... don't like it? go elsewhere... if you use it appropriately, Paypal is awesome. It's too bad that people who don't understand how to use it properly are giving it a bad name.

[Melohawk]

Following me smallHOST?  Are you going to put all your "bored" comments up at all my posts?  Fine. My troubles with Paypal go a long way back and stem from following their rules to the letter.  I genuinely liked the service at first. I used it faithfully and did all the little things they asked of me and it cost me the use of the service, in the middle of a lot of transactions.  Their computer flagged my account as "having problems" all because I dutifully sent them all the phishing emails that they said they wanted forwarded whenever  they showed up in our email accounts. It took a solid weekend of phone calls, and emails each hour on the hour, in order to get my account re-established and to confirm WHO I was because their computer decided I wasn't the account holder.  I did NOTHING against the rules or protocol to cause the problem.

The current problem centers around them arbitrarily changing my payment from an echeck to a credit card charge without my permission. The auction made no specifications that an echeck wouldn't be accepted; it simply said "Paypal preferred".  All I get from Paypal is one bogus story after another as to why this "mistake", "security problem", or whatever term they decide to call it, happened.  I am challenging them to get to the meat of things and give me a straight answer or I will keep digging.

Now, unless you have read the accounts of other people HAVING THE SAME problem or the exact opposite problem in the last month (which bespeaks of a program glitch), I will thank you to keep your condescending opinion to yourself. IF, however, you have heard of an actual solution to this problem -other than your chant of "follow the rules" which we all have done- and know of something we can actually DO, your input would be gratefully appreciated.