Pay Pal nightmare

[Termite48]

Pay Pal has been around for a while and many people us it to pay their online purchases. It is a fool proof way to transact business, right? You be the judge in this scenario! recently I knew that I had to make some online payments to various persons for things purchased. These were not ebay purchases but some were insect related. I knew that my primary backup source was my regular checking account, and that this account was all but depleted because my income sources were now making payments into another account which was recently set up. So I went to the Pay Pal site and attempted to switch the depleted and older account to that of second source rather than being the primary source. I fed into the site the new account number of the new debit card which was now to be the primary source. Pay Pal came back with the statement that since there was a pending transaction, there was no way to immediately honor my request. I thought to go ahead with the payments because they were needing to be made, and I had more than an adequate source of funds between the two accounts. A couple of hours later, I checked the Pay Pal site and it said that my payments were completed. Then a couple of day later I started getting emails and letters from my old bank which stated that they had to refuse payment on the several payments that were attempted through Pay Pal. In all they ran each of five transactions twice through my old bank where the funds were depleted and the bank decided to charge each failed transaction $34ea. x 2 or $68 and there were five transactions so a total of $340. Now it has been a month and all my attempts to have the bank have rendered a $68 refund by phone to Citibank headquarters and $34 as a courtesy from the main branch where I used to go. That leaves $238 fees paid to Citibank as a lesson on how not to transact business on line and with Pay Pal. Is this lesson worth the fees paid? I doubt it. Did the bank really earn the $238 in fees? You be the judge. Is Pay Pal guilty in the practices here? Again, you be the judge, and I will pay the price. Please folks what yourself in the use of Pay Pal. Not only do they get some hefty fees, but their practices are suspect.

 

[tina1]

We had pretty much the same problem years ago. One lesson that i have learnt is to delete everything you dont want to use. I will only have one account on there, and one card. They tried it with my savings account. I had money in my normal account, but not that much in my savings. They tried the savings account first 2 times even though this has never been my primary and never will.

Good luck with the payments. Hate those bank charges.

Tina x

 

[Termite48]

Now I have the proper primary back up source and the bank says they can only do a one fee courtesy reversal. So with the two fee over the phone reversal, my total loss is $278. What a country!

 

[patrickfraser]

OUCH! :surrender:

 

[mantiscraze]

Yeah, any automated system has its flaws and follows a set of predefined, rigid rules, and once violated, they are unforgiving. The fees are high to deter violations and to cover long-term operational costs, since people are usually careful and mistakes are relatively rare, so when it does happen, they make sure to charge a lot. But, Paypal is the best method out there, so far, so we will continue to use it, just make sure that you don't make a human error or you'll have to pay for it.

 

[mantiscraze]

Have you contacted Paypal? Seems like you just called the banks and they are charging you. But perhaps contact Paypal and see why they made 2 requests each despite the fact that the 1st time should return insufficient fund already? Maybe Paypal should compensate