I am so dissapointed with Paypal. I don't even know how to express this anymore. On 2nd August 2010, I won a bid for an item costing €49.15 EUR. I celebrated and I paid like I am suppose to. I got my receipt and it said From amount4,966.84 AED To amount€49.15 EUR Exchange rate: 1 AED = 0.00989562 EUR Now, the normal exchange rate for Euro to UAE Dirham(AED) is 1EUR = 4.9AED (on a bad day). You see, the AED is pegged to USD at around 3.76. So in summary, a €49.15 EUR should have only been at max 250AED. I called my bank and to my horror, it was charged 4,966.84 AED. In case youre following this, €49.15 EUR * 5 = 250AED. How is it I am billed 4746AED more than what it is? To put it into perspective. AED4746 is around €949.2 EUR or USD1413 overcharged. Now comes the nightmare a) on 2nd August 2010 - I wrote to Paypal to inform them of this "mistake". I got a response a day or so later saying, their exchange rate was competitive in the market place. Basically, that standard answer they give to everyone. I wrote back to say they had charged me 20 times what I was meant to pay. Still no answer from them. b) on 2nd August 2010, I called Paypal in US and spoke to a guy called Hector. He later sent me an email to acknowledge the mistake. He promised me this will be sorted in 2 working days, nothing happened. c) On the 4th of August 2010, I called Paypal again. Now, they say no case has been raised and they will raise a new one and it will be sorted in 5 working days. Until today, I do not see a case opened in my resolution centre. I spoke to the call agent and her supervisor. d) on 8th of August 2010, with no proper resolution from Paypal, I finally made a dispute claim on my credit card. I informed the seller I was going to do this. The bummer is I have to pay 100AED in order to raise this dispute. Let's see what happens. While Paypal is the safer, easier way to pay, it does not mean it is the most accurate or trouble free way to pay.
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