Alright, I gotta get this out there for my own sanity. I have been a PayPal member since 2012. Three years ago I started my own counseling practice and I opened a merchant account which I tried like hell to make a separate account from my personal one but they still merged them. Fine. I run a simple operation. I don't ship goods or have tracking numbers or PODs... the moment I am through with client they pay my fee and if they aren't happy then they don't pay. So I don't have returns or disputes about delivery. For the past three years now all I do is accept payments via credit card either through my PayPal swipe device at my office or through an invoice I run through Paypal. I have never had a bad payment,or any problems whatsoever. Fast forward to the beginning of this week and suddenly I have a hold of $1100. I am assuming it is a client payment but it isn't overtly obvious because it isn't in the transaction record. $1100 isn't going to break the bank but it isn't pocket change either. There may be a completely reasonable explanation, but without communication how would one know? I certainly don't know that this is true, but companies that handle billions of dollars in transactions can make a fortune off the interest on holding back money even for one day - if it is a billion dollars. So this is what bugs me about these "mysterious" money holds and for good measure I am throwing in a few other sore spots that make life miserable during the (relatively infrequent, I will admit) occurrences where I need to get help from Paypal. No Explanation There should be a timely message sent to a users email or through PayPal messages to notify a customer when Paypal is going to hold money. If there is a problem, it may not be my money yet, and it may not be my client's money anymore, but it damn sure isn't PayPal's money. Poor Customer Service Response Time - So, corona virus hits and people have to work from home. How does that reduce the staff to the extent it affects response time? Certainly of all companies, Paypal has the technological capability of having customer service reps be just effective virtual as in an office. Whatcha wanna bet that most of their customer service folks were working virtually before Covid. How long is Paypal going to milk the virus as a reason you can't ever reach a live person. I stayed on hold to discuss this issue this morning for a couple of Sundays and finally gave in to the voice recording that says, "we will call you back in 14.2 minutes." I waited and waited and waited, and never got a call back. Incompetent or poorly trained CSRs. Just read through some of the posts and intentional or not, Paypal seems as if it has mastered the art of passing the buck and pushing calls off to someone else. Poor logic models in the automated service - If one is fortunate enough to actually get to the point that you can ask the question to the bot, you feel like talking to a bot for a plant nursery. Just say "my account has a pending hold" and you might as well have asked for the answer to a calculus bonus question. No clue. No timing restrictions set on auto system - here is a tell- tell sign as to where customer's time and frustration level ranks in PayPal's hierarchy of priorities. How difficult do you think it would be to have the phone system simply tell you after 6 pm Pacific that the offices are closed and to call back tomorrow? Or have the icon that allows you to select "call for help" deactivated at that time. Nope. I get a special code stating I have been proven worthy of speaking with someone. So auto-bot comes on and takes you through the ringer before you get to punch in your code and then finally she asks for it and she says"I am sending you to an agent" and that phone rings a while and finally they say offices are closed and have been for 3 hours. Are you kidding me? Why didn't you tell me that 15 minutes ago. CLASS-ACTION LAW SUIT - That's what happens next... someone even more frustrated than me will take the time to sue about this unlawful or unconstitutional perhaps practice of seizing peoples money until they absolutely have absolved themselves of any risk. There is very little doubt that how Paypal handles (mishandles) money of their customers is skirting the law. 21 days? If you took a check to the bank that was drawn from a bank across the country maximum 5 to 7 days to get your money. How does Paypal justify a 21 day wait?
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