Why PayPal's System Sucks and Needs to be Changed (bank overdraft fees)

[KIRAtw]

I have recieved $99 (3 for $33) in overdraft fees from my bank because PayPal's payment system sucks, and they refuse to take the blame for it.

I attempted to make 2 purchases using my to-be paypal balance, instead of giving me the usual splash page to confirm payment method (PayPal balance or Bank) Paypal decided to pull from my bank directly (WITHOUT PERMISSION). From what I've been told by a PayPal call representative if there are insufficient funds in the PayPal balance the money will be pulled directly from the bank. The only problem is that I have ALWAYS been asked in the past to confirm the money being pulled directly from the bank and for whatever reason I was not asked for these 2 purchases. Assuming it was pulling from my PayPal balance I believed there was no issue with the payments.

As I come to find out PayPal did infact pull from my bank account, completely bypassing my available money. And as I've been told from the PayPal call representative there is NO WAY to change the payment method.

So... PayPal just decided by itself that it was going to pull from my bank... and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it?

Funny story, I don't have enough money in my bank account for those 2 purchases (resulting in 2 $33 overdraft fees) That's okay, I definitely like getting a letter saying I'm over $50 negative in the bank. I talked to Paypal about the issue and all they gave me was a letter to my bank explaining how their system sucks and why the bank should refund me $66. Well the manager took pity on me and refunded the $66 fee, but specifically said "I can't do any more, because it's not the bank's fault". I completely understand and agree, yes... it's PayPal's fault. I figure everything is finally okay... but you know it can't end on a happy note.

I come to find out that those 2 original charges that cost me $66 actually bounced off and never went through (costing me $66 for absolutely no money being exchanged). PayPal's system retries the unpaid charges every few days, so yet again they pull from my bank (because you can't change payment method, but hey, look at all that money sitting in my paypal account!), which yet again resulted in an overdraft fee. Luckily this time I had slightly more in my bank account, so it only cost me 1 $33 fee. And the 2 charges didn't bounce off (to my knowledge)... but what if they did? If I never had enough funds in my bank would PayPal continue to pull the charges from my bank only to have them bounce off (resulting in more fees) and never satisfy the original charges? It's just a never ending cycle of "let's f*** someone over"?

I talked to PayPal about the system issue and all they had to say was "well, that's just how the system works... sorry. Here's another letter to your bank explaining how much we suck". What does my bank say? "It's not our fault their system sucks". So who's at fault here? Me for trusting PayPal? Why the heck should I have to pay for PayPal's system's lack of common sense? I guess all I can hope is that PayPal owns up to it, changes their system, and gives me the money they cost me (yeah.... right).

What can PayPal possibly do to prevent something like this from happening again?

Maybe provide some way for people to change the prefered payment method while a purchase is still pending, or set up an automatic prefered system where I can make purchases and it will automatically go through my PayPal balance EVERY TIME unless there is no money available and only then pull from my bank. It should check these preferences EVERY TIME PayPal retries a purchase that had previously bounced.

Or you know... actually be faster with purchases...

"Our system sucks, here's a letter to your bank" isn't a valid excuse PayPal.