Has this ever happened to you? You find an item online that is perfect with accordance to price and quality, and in your ecstatic state you rush through the payment process for the item, only to find out that you have paid for the item not with your intended form of payment, but with a dreaded e-check. Only god knows why the creators of the site decided to set up payment options in a Russian-roulette format, in which 1/4 of the default payment options that are automatically selected for you are in the form of an e-check. This random selection process, along with the very fine text of the confirmation screen, along with the lack of a noticeable "final stage" transaction page which would pretty much solve 99% of the unintentional page by reminding the buyer that, "Hey, you're about to pay for something which will take 3-5 business days for the money to actually GET to the seller! Are you sure you want to use this form of payment?" or something along the lines of that to let the buyer CLEARLY know that the automatic payment selection process picked to pay with an e-check instead of a credit/debit card. I don't think that the creators of this site know the frustration of accidentally sending an e-check along with the penalties. Along with the ridiculous notion that a bit of electronic data weighs the same in value as a physical paper check, the same penalties apply for bouncing a supposed "electronic check". Let's say that after snapping out of stupor after finding out you submitted an e-check for the item you wanted to buy now, you frantically scour the web and Paypal's headache-inducing, user-run (because hiring Live-chat customer-service agents is "too expensive") Q&A community board for an answer that should be easily answerable, but seemingly impossible to find: "How do I cancel an e-check?". After hearing a lifetime supply of second (maybe third) hand information from various people that may or may not know what they are talking about, you come to a conclusion that e-checks are not refundable...maybe. ...What the flying **bleep**? Papa Eddie will lay it down for you straight. An e-check is a little bit of virtual information that has the same clearance and function as a real check, minus the actual check. With this said, the instant you submit an e-check, it is the same act as dropping off a check at a bank or atm. As previously stated, even with e-checks being (hey, hey big surprise) electronic, the time it takes for the check to clear and the penalties associated with bouncing an e-check are the exact same as bouncing a paper check. Gotta card? Instant electronic payment! Gotta e-check? Tough luck. Wait a couple days. After tearing your hair out for many reasons that include: Losing the chance to buy that item you wanted so badly online due to the clearing process (oh look, someone else bought it already). Finding out there is no real way to cancel the electronic check yourself, even though you sent it a mere 5 minutes ago. The seller refusing/being unable to refund the check You find one last thorn on your theoretical financial butt, which is that your bank account does not have enough money to cover the amount "written" on the e-check. What are you going to do? You figure out that you cannot transfer enough money fast enough in order to cover the check, nor are you able to take out a loan in order to fix a temporary financial net for your check. You intended to buy with credit which has no penalties for debt, but instead you spent the money you didn't have using your bank account, which carries with it all the penalties you want, and more. With no other option in sight, it seems like your only option is to bounce this check. That is an extra $35 for most banks, plus it isn't fudge on your ice-cream for your credit score either. Bouncing an e-check is not only frustrating beyond belief since most of the time it is due to paying with it accidentally on THIS site, but it is also attached with the real but absurd bouncing fees of a real check (because hitting the "delete" button is a lot of effort for bank tellers), and is also detrimental to your credit score. Who's to blame? Not PayPal. PayPal may not be doing anything to help prevent accidentally sending e-checks, nor may it give-a-**bleep**, but the most PayPal can be blamed for is callously throwing around and automatically selecting a potentially financially dangerous, faulty, obsolete, useless, and generally stupid form of payment. PayPal gains nothing from randomly selecting forms of payment besides more useless rants like yours truly right here, and many angry customers calling in their customer service lines, demanding to know why the site chose to send an e-check instead of using their credit/debit card already confirmed onto their account. How can accidentally sending e-checks be prevented? To any PayPal employee, moderator, supervisor, manager, or pretty much anyone with basic http coding know-how and enough clearance to make a little edit to the site, Eddie has a little customer feedback to drop down your virtual suggestion box (hopefully it gets checked more regularly than it does the e-check dropbox): Please, for the love of god, GIVE CONFIRMATION for a buyer's form of payment BEFORE the transaction is complete. It doesn't take much extensive effort of coding to give a little heads up for the buyer...you know... a little red text... Some bold lettering... see? I can do this stuff even with this little textbox you provided for me. All I'm asking for is a little "Hey, whatsup?" for every time the system decides to use an e-check as my form of payment. It will save the money, time, credit score, stress, and hair of millions of your beloved users (assuming you love us, right now it's a bit hard to tell). Yours hairlessly, Eddie.
... View more