GE Money and Smart Connect - Don't ever get hooked up with that mess!

[pbounds]

I just got off the phone with Paypal(Love me), and GE. smart connect (hate me).

In a nutshell I have always been a happy Paypal customer,  When I setup my original Paypal account I had it linked to my secondary WellsFargo DBA account that I only keep $100 in.  Mind you, before smart connect my transactions had always been smooth, you go online to Amazon, or some other Internet entity, you click on the pay with Paypal icon, enter your username/password info complete the transaction, you get your stuff and the money is deducted from your linked bank account.  That is the way it has always been and has always worked perfectly.

Enter Smart Connect about a year ago, and I get this offer from Paypal, 'Hey would you like a SMart Connect credit account?'  Now, had I known then what I know now with my experience with SmartConnect, I would have told them an adamant 'NO!' and be done with it.

Being in the IT business from time to time I do make hardware purchases using Paypal, a disk drive here, a motherboard there, a power supply, or some piece of software purchased online used in my business to repair/fix a customer.  This is where the fun starts!

I started seeing charges show up on my SC monthly account.  I call Paypal, and specifically tell them 'No, I want the charge to come out of my WellsFargo linked account as it always has, if I want to hit the SmartConnect account I will specify,  As a matter of fact, each time this happened I call up Paypal, give them the extended liturgy of what had transpired in the previous months with Smart Connect(an oxymoron, I have come to believe), happened, they would check my settings, and confirm yes your preference is to withdraw from your linked account, not SmartConnect.  I politely tell them, well, that's not happening, and go about my merry way, making the payment to smart connect from my WellsFargo account and printing out the payment confirmation.

Flash up to February, where SC told me I had a 47$ balance due, I made the payment called PayPal and gave them my usual story of what had transpired in the past months and experience with SC, and I go about my merry way.  Now, I can truthfully tell you that being in the customer service IT business I have really never once raised my voice with any of the Customer Service Representatives, knowing that I myself have been on the other end of the line and had to listen to rants, from customers and vendors who were mad for some reason or another; I was always speaking in subdued tones, and and even tempered voice.

March comes along and now I see I have a 20 some dollar credit balance in my SC account, I call up Paypal and ask why, and they said well SC ad a mistake back in Feb., and the one charge really went against your bank account even thought they registered the charge to SC.  I joked and laughed about how in the past year PP hasn't seemed to get it right with this SC accounting business, but I went online and transferred the 25$ credit back over to my WellsFargo account.

Here it is now May, same thing happens all over again, I get an email from Paypal, that I have a balance due on my SC account from a posting/charge that happened back in April.  So, I get on the phone with PP, and give this lovely Customer Service Representative the whole story of my dissatisfaction with SC, but how I also still love and value my relationship over the years with PP.  She says well she can't do nothing about the problem apologizes for my frustration and sends me over to GE. SC to rectify the situation.  I get a 'Keith' on the phone who I can clearly tell is an outsourced individual from far away and NOT from the Midwestern US. As we would be led to believe.  I explain my displeasure with the whole SC debacle, how it has never worked right, how I've been told my settings are incorrect, how the merchant specified he want to be paid on the SC account instead of the bank account link.  It is then that I tell him, listen I have been in IT for over 30 years, wrote tons of code for Web design, internet security, accounting programs, etc, I don't really want to hear how he pontificates how this has transpired I just want to make the 27$ payment and close the account. I am done with SC, enough said, and I rue the day I ever asked to have this measly little 600$ credit limit setup on my account.

In closing I am telling you all this, because if you don't want to go through the same thing I have had for the past year, or you HAVE gone through this same monthly episodic adventure, I plead with you to close that account NOW, it will NEVER get any better, and I cannot fault the front line folks at Paypal, the CSR's who have to hear this from myself and countless others who have gone through this same agonizing and frustrating experience on a month to month basis.  Mind you, I have excellent credit and about a half dozen credit cards at my disposal, so the necessity of me getting this 600$ credit limit through GE. Capital and smart connect was never an issue.  I feel for those who actually have to depend on and use it, and caution them that it is a bad stretch of road to head down, and by all means, find another way to fund your expenditures...

Paul

P.S..  I hope this board is monitored and someone reads this up in the PP organization.

Have a Nice Day!

[311Ryan]

Amen.  They should just rename "Smart Connect" to "Deceptive Practices".  I'm glad you wrote down your whole story because you saved me from having to type my tale of woe.  

Although in my case I feel like they made it more difficult just to close the smart connect account that I never wanted in the first place.  I had to repeat myself that I'd like to close my account several times... their employee was basically politely telling me no.  Unbelievable!

The only thing I can give them credit for is finally waiving the bs fees they slapped on my account.  I called them out on the fees, but they didn't seem to care until I started using terms like "grossly misled" and "deceptive practices".

If you're reading this and they're trying to unjustly charge you a $20 penalty, give it a shot.  I get the feeling the higher ups know these fees are being assessed haphazardly and have told their call center managers to waive the fee if the caller users certain terminology that makes it sound like they know what they are talking about.

Good luck, and be prepared to spend a lot of time on the phone... and that's after you navigate the automated call operator.

[JuanGrande]

Somewhat unrelated, but I hate GE Money.  Got an offer for a CC, applied online and got approved.  They mailed me the card, no problem.  Followed instructions to activate online, not happening, nothing shows up under my Paypal account.  So I call GE Money Bank, activiate by phone through the typically annoying India call center.  They make me take another security test which I pass, I use the card that night to test it, no problem

Four days later the card gets declined, a bit embarrassing, but I am a big boy. I call and get the India call center, after 10 minutes on hold (during which time I apply online through my local bank for a credit card) they challenge me to another security test.  No problem, they are kinda fun.  I fail this test, their information from my credit report is wrong and I know it.

They tell me I have to wait 30 days to take the security test again. I demand to get transferred back to America.  The rep here acts like a governement employee and insists there is nothing she can do, in spite of the fact that the records show the card was activiated and had charges on it.  I have been with Paypal since the humble beginnings.  They have made a lot of money from me from my Ebay seller days.

I suspect I will get approved by my local bank.  I will not pay the 7 bucks I charged on the Ebay card.  I can not wait for them to make a collection call to me.

GE Money Bank is a lousy company.  I have no beef with Paypal