Morning. I have a great need to use Paypal locally today, and am far outside of EST. I haven't logged on in years and immediately was alerted of possible fraudulent activity. Ok, immediately sent to a verification screen, which included a text or call. I am deployed thus my phone is turned off, and paid $20 for a Skype # just to get one, which never came. Clicking on document upload I was sent to a broken link page several times. Tried to email but was prompted to login first, which lead back to the verification screen that was so much use in the first place. The call center is closed for another 5 hours and I won't be able to call for the forseeable future given the time difference and duty schedule. Finally after 45 mins of this I got a document to upload, and the helpful tip it would be up to two days until it could be reviewed. The website isn't obtuse just because of the need to ensure security, it sucks horribly in general as a tool of commerce. Just poor and unintuitive design!
I am an infantryman on my second deployment, recently told by my wife she would like a divorce - while I'm overseas, among other things. I say that to put into context the only time in the course of an eventful few years that I got hives due to stress was trying to rectify this Paypal account, out of sheer disbelief in the illogical and infuriating website. For someone who has limited ability to contact the outside world it is critical to be able to solve problems online. I really don't have any time to spare on resolving issues, but this was so annoying I spent another 15 minutes writing this out. I'm sure the company is full of good, dedicated people who try to solve seemingly intractable problems deaing with complex financial transactions globally, so don't take me as disparaging them. The interface to those transactions however needs a total overhaul and is thus duly disparaged.
