Yesterday I got a message saying that one of my pre-approved payments - a subscription for a website service - had failed.
On examination, the problem appeared to be that the subscription had been tied specifically to a card that expired and was replaced. I looked at the subscription detail and found that there was no way to change the funding source - the radio button options were greyed out.
I put in a help request for my problem. An email came back with a load of extracts from the help section - all material I had been through before and found to be useless. I replied to the email, re-stating my problem.
Over a period of several hours, I got THREE FURTHER EMAILS. All of them blamed me. One of them said it was because the payment had failed once. I checked and found other, active subscriptions with no failed payments that were exactly the same. So, no, that was not the solution.
I also found other recurring payments that had a different format. On those, I WAS able to make changes to the funding source. It appears to be down to what method the merchant used when setting up the subscription from their end.
By late last night, when I was going to bed, I still had no resolution to a simple problem that should never have occurred. ALL recurring payments should follow the same rules as for the main account. If I say my bank account is the primary funding source and name a card as an alternative, then that is what should happen. If you disconnect a card from a subscription by removing it from the account, there should be a way to link the subscription to an alternative source or let it default to the main account funding options.
What I found most frustrating is that the people who were replying were clearly not reading my emails properly. If they had, they would not have suggested a solution that was inappropriate and/or did not work.
On this forum, I have found dozens of references to the same problem. It is a BUG and Paypal have failed to fix it - apparently since 2010 at least, from what I see here.
The other suggestion made was that I cancel the subscription at the merchant end and re-start it. Or cancel it at the Paypal end and re-start it from the merchant site. In my case this is not acceptable. When I took out the subscription, I got a special discount. If I cancel and re-start I will lose that discount. How much it is, is not Paypal's business. You should NOT be losing me money.
I have two other subscriptions which may or may not be tied to the removed card. If they fail and get cancelled, I lose the rights to two domain names I own through GDI and I can never get them back. This will ruin my online businesses and could cost me thousands of pounds.
I am not happy with the standard of service I have received from Paypal staff who seem unable to read anything properly and respond to the problem presented. Whether English is not their first language I do not know. They only seem to be able to trot out the same old 'solutions' which I have already said several times do not work.
This isn't help, it is absolutely ABYSMAL service. If your helpdesk people don't understand English, then employ some that do. Don't outsource your phone help to some third-world country, put it in the USA, or England or somewhere in Europe and employ native English speakers.
Above all TRAIN them in the idea that what the customer says is right. If we say that there is no option on a screen to change something, then they must accept it and have the ability to get into the system and see what you are saying for themselves. Or else we must be able to take a screenshot and send it to them with the email. They claim they cannot see any attachments that we send.
From what I see here, the Paypal staff that run this forum have exactly the same problems. They don't read posts properly, they trot out the same old stuff that we can read for ourselves and they don't accept that in this particular case THERE IS A BUG, IT IS PAYPAL'S FAULT AND IT HAS TO BE FIXED.
If my specific problem is NOT fixed and I lose money as a result, I will hold Paypal responsible under law for any loss I incur. You can quote your contract all you like. Under British law, if a contract is unfair, it is void and unenforceable.
I want to hear from Paypal that they have:
a) Gone into my account with my full authorization - given in my email exchange with them - and set the source of funding for the failed transaction to be my bank account, which is the primary funding source for the whole account.
b) Authorized their development staff to fix the problem with subscriptions that is preventing users making their own changes.
c) Reprimanded the staff concerned for giving poor customer service and apologize to me in writing.
d) Instigated changes that will improve the general level of customer service way above what users currently experience, including if necessary insisting that staff take English lessons or moving UK phone support back to the UK mainland and employing staff whose first language is English.
e) Made changes to the helpdesk system making it possible for helpdesk staff to see attachments to emails that we write from our own email accounts.
Finally, a warning to Paypal staff. Do NOT even attempt to answer this post unless you have read every word and understand exactly what I am saying.
