So I've had a strange problem thanks to Paypal, which has thus far cost me $108. It began when I made two small purchases on Ebay, which I could easily cover with the amount of money in my Paypal account. Everything looked normal to me, seeming the exact same as it always did. Having done this dozens of times before, I didn't think anything of it.
Then two weeks later, I got two e-mails from Paypal telling me my bank account had insufficient funds to cover the transaction, and I needed to make sure it had sufficient money in it within three days when they reran the charges.
I was baffled. I had no idea why Paypal would be charging anything to my bank account. Paypal was supposed to charge my Paypal account like it always has. I tried logging into their site to switch the payment option, but I couldn't, and because I was busy and out of town, I didn't pursue the matter.
When I got home this week, I found out my bank had charged me $108 in NSF (insufficient fund) fees because the account didn't have enough money to cover the transactions. Each time Paypal tried got me hit with a $27 fee, so with two purchases run two times each, I was hit with $108 in fees.
I couldn't figure out why this had happened. I called Paypal to find out, and I was told it was because I had used their Pay After Delivery program, and that program requires you pay from a bank account. I told the person I had never enrolled in such a program. He said I had been enrolled in automatically. I told him I had never seen or heard of it before. He said I must not have shopped anywhere that allowed the use of it since I got enrolled. I said I never agreed to have Paypal transfer money out my bank account. He said tough **bleep**.
Well, no. He was more courteous than that. So were the other three people I spoke with at Paypal. They were all very nice and friendly. They were even sympathetic. But they all told me the same basic thing, "Tough luck." They say there was a text box on the screen when I made my purchases which said my bank account would be used (I've seen it; it's incredily easy to miss); therefore Paypal was allowed to take money out of my bank account.
But it wasn't. One nondescript textbox on a confirmation page doesn't override the displayed settings a user's account has had for five or more years. You don't get to enroll a person into a program without their knowledge or consent then trick them into changing their payment plan by making one small notice of the change on a single page and pretending that means they've given informed consent.
Now normally, it wouldn't really matter because I would have spent the same amount of money. Only, there are differences. First, taking money out of my bank account means I have different rights and protections than if the money was taken out of my Paypal account. Second, and far more importantly, I was charged $108 in fees.
That's $108 Paypal has cost me by performing unauthorized transactions with my bank account. And Paypal refuses to reimburse me. They've effectively defrauded me, and according to them, I just have to take it. Even better? After my calls, Paypal unenrolled me from the program. So when I tested what would happen if I tried to buy something from Ebay again, guess what happened? It defaulted to using my bank account.
That's right. If I had been naive enough to think the two hours I spent on the phone talking to people today actually mattered, and that Paypal actively rmeoving me from this program would mean they would stop trying to take money out of my bank account, I have been a fool. And I might well have gotten myself charged another $54 or $108. All it would have taken is for me to not have been actively looking to make sure Paypal was still trying to take money from my bank account without my authorization.
So yeah, I'm not happy. In the morning, I'm going to call Paypal (again) to inform them of the situation since the User Agreement we have to try to resolve any disputes with Paypal first. If that doesn't go anywhere, I apparently have to file a fraud packet with the bank to report the charges as fraudulent, and since I know who made them, I might have to file a police report as well.
If you count the time I've already spent on the phone with Paypal and my bank, that means I'm looking at spending at least six hours on this, because of $108 in fees accrued for about $20 in purchases. That's ridiculous. But it's what Paypal is forcing me to do with this ridiculous practice of taking money from people's bank accounts without any sort of warning or request for permission.
