Paypal troubles

Stephen Newell

Well-known Member
Long story short I have two bank accounts tied to Paypal. One bank I was in the process of closing and there were no funds in it. Recently I made a couple of purchases on ebay and selected the other bank with money and Paypal changed the selection to the other bank without my knowledge or approval. Even after I found it and was in communication with the bank and Paypal both, I couldn't stop them from presenting the payment twice before Paypal switched to the other bank. Now that bank is after me for $120.00 in NSF fees and Paypal customer service refuses to help me. In addition Paypal refuses to allow me to delete the bank with no funds.
 
Cant help you but dang am I glad to read this! I maintain a bank account just for Paypal usage and keep only enough money in it to prevent being charged for the account and it's a place for them to deposit sales profits. All purchases are made trough a CC. Last week TWICE, they took money from the account even though I clicked the CC option. They said didn't happen,,,,
 
Also forgot to add that when I opened my account it was a requirement to have a bank account. Now it is not as I have both Ebay and PP accounts for the Company that are linked only to a CC. If it weren't for the pita factor and losing my feedback rating I would close my old personal accounts and start new ones.
 
So far PayPal has been very good to work with for me. Several years ago my BIL had some online problems (not PayPal). He setup an isolated bank account and a separate credit card exclusively for online purchases. He only transfers money into the isolated account as he makes new purchases.
 
I have yet to have a problem with paypal that was not quickly resolved. No more problems for me with paypal than any credit card companys. The difference is that I keep funds in the paypal account to pay for purchases rather than have them take money from credit cards or bank accounts. I like buying this way as no seller that I buy from sees my credit card numbers. I was in Office Depot last evening and see they take paypal now. For us using paypal makes our records easy to keep track of. A few key strokes and we can print a sales and purchase record.
 
If I had had only one account listed with Paypal there wouldn't have been a problem. Somehow since the old bank was listed as first it changed the payment to that bank instead of the new bank I selected. Still their customer service isn't willing to help me.
 
With cash, check, money order, bank check, and CC's all being good enough to get something paid for, who needs PayPal? Funny Ebay, and many, many other companies sold stuff for a long time without the services of a third party (owned by Ebay so I understand) and had very few problems. With PayPal all it does is add another link in the chain that can easily break and leave you with a situation like your in right now. If the seller isn't willing to accept any other form of guaranteed payment, the way I see it, they must not want to sell it as bad as they say they do.

If I were you, I'd do like I did years ago when they screwed me, and tell them to shove their payment service up their hind end, and then go ---- themselves.

I've bought plenty of things online since getting rid of them and have never had any more problems. Nor have I got some outside party with access to my bank account. BTDT with another service a few years back. In that case I had to close the account after more than 20 years to get that situation resolved. The guy at the bank had told me I could not deny the company access after it had been granted. I told the guy I dang sure could deny access, and to get me every dime in the account and close it.

I never got my money back from them, but problem solved, and lesson learned. No one has access/authority to take funds from my bank account now but me.
 
mine goes thru cc. i just dispute the charge with cc company and they take care of it. saying that; i've never had trouble with paypal.
 
Agreed. It took a while to link mine to a credit card but I would never allow a third party direct access to my bank account.
 
I quit using ebay for a while (a year?) when they required that Pay Pal have access to my bank account. Just something I wasn't willing to do.
 
>With cash, check, money order, bank check, and CC's all being good enough to get something paid for, who needs PayPal?

True - if you are a business who handles credit cards. But for the rest of us trying to sell stuff on-line PayPal is a near necessity as everyone wants to pay with a CC. I sell a lot of odds and ends on sites other than Ebay and no one wants to bother with Cashier's Checks and Money Orders anymore. If you can't accept a CC then you lose 75% of your prospective buyers.

I simply have PayPal linked to a dedicated bank account which contains just enough funds to keep it open.

So far so good.
 
I find that going to states attorneys office or consumer protection to make a call to the customer service gets a fairly rapid response- simply start conversation with your name, short note about prior complaint and then tell them you're calling from the states legal hassle dept and the call is being recorded in case of future action- and the customer service persons full name is?? Supervisor usually comes to phone then - I TELL them desired outcome of call, introduce the consumer protection agent or assistant states attorney and note they are listening and recording- whatever supervisor says may be actionable. That either gets tech support or their legal dept- sometimes needs a second call. Verizon gripes about their little 'billing' incident being on record for 3 years, AT&T still doesn't call to sell whatever. Paypal tried to do a theft or Identity theft procedure, that might be a felony depending on amount- or somebody at PayPal did and the state will want full details in writing in 3 days-if complaint isn't resolved today- here is FAX number and not giving state 'requested' information may result in a criminal obstruction charge. Local bank will pass on info to states law people gladly- Paypal may be reluctant but a small claims subpeona sent to their guy on the phone means expensive trip or default judgement that local bank will take to bill Paypal triple damages by court order- Paypal doesn't like it- go federal court and see what they say. Federal judges not known to like frivolous suits filed by large companies that have lost in local court- especially defaults after service. State legal eagles need to have some new workers get a bit of practice- consumer complaint is good practice with minimal bad fallout like messing a criminal case. Helps to live withing 10 miles of the state agency office and pass by one at last 3 times a week. Don't consider threatening PayPal with this drill , actually go to the offices to make the calls on the outside line phone- couple hundred dollar dispute and the scripts used by customer service phone answerers rarely has 'Legal dispute line is", instead it has call supervisor' (and hide in bathroom). Supervisors duties usually don't have 'legal services' that can result in jail time or loss of civil action. And legal dept that gets a customer service call-OH ,it is from a states Attorney fraud office' gets a junior lawyer that figures quick that states attorney or customer service guy will try to haul him personally into court just to see him squirm. And the thought of recording getting on Utube gives a lot of marketing people upset stomachs. Might not get bill resolved quick, but you can give them some actual hassles and if others make similar complaints the legal people with political ambitions will 'ask' for documentation and cause company trying to obstruct some real grief. Have fun. RN
 
I don't have Paypal but I can pay with my credit card thru Paypal each time I purchase something from most businesses and off ebay.Don't know exactly how it works as its not hooked up to my CC but I get a receipt from Paypal.
 
I don't know if it still applies but PayPal used to allow only five credit card transactions a year before requiring a bank account. Once you provided a bank account number the payment source defaulted to that account rather than the credit card you had on file with them. You had to select a different payment type to change to your credit card for that transaction. They didn't make it easy to change and it was easy to miss a step and they would charge the bank account even when you thought you had done everything necessary to make the payment with the credit card instead of the bank account.
 
You probly already have found out that not having a zero balance in a bank account does not automatically close the account. It takes you actually contacting the bank and closing it. If left empty long enough the bank "might" close it and send you a letter stating so. As I re read the comments it seems that little tid bit was missed in the conversation.
 
Lesson learned. Delete bogus accounts out of paypal before you make payments. Personally I've used paypal for 15 years and have never had them pull money out of an account that wasn't specified when I completed the transaction. It sounds like you weren't paying attention when you completed your transactions.
 
Well there you go, You had the old bank listed as the primary so it defaulted to your primary bank you specified. Therefore, it's your mistake and have to pay the NSF fees. Sorry, but some lessons hurt. You might as well pay up, move on and learn from the mistake.
 
Actually I was paying very close attention when I was paying for the items because I knew full well there was no money in one bank. Paypal made the switch after I clicked pay. As far as deleting the account it took me six weeks and after all this was over to get someone from Paypal to delete the account. I kept getting messages saying I could not delete the account because of pending transactions even though there were no pending transactions.
 
The problem stems from that bank moving out of my town 50 miles away and I haven't had time to actually go close it. Since paypay doesn't appear willing to ever help me it looks like I'm going to have to abandon that account. I'm certainly not going to pay $120 bucks for a paypal screw up.
 
Yesterday I managed to get someone at customer service to delete that bank. I will give them a chance to deal with this other problem and see where it goes first. If this person won't help me I will probably try your suggestion.
 
How can it be my fault when I directed the purchases to be charged to the other bank? The only reason it was listed as the primary bank is they wouldn't allow me to delete that bank. I had to get customer service to delete it. All of this was over before I could find someone at paypal willing to help.
 
A few years ago, I learned that credit cards are protected, your debit cards can be used to drain your account and the bank may or may not stand behind identify theft with a debit card. At that time I removed my checking account from pay-pal. I only a buyer not a seller on ebay, so I feel protected only using credit cards.

So what's the story behind pay-pal? Are they just having problems on ebay? What about Amazon?
 
Like I said I would never allow anyone access to my bank account. Debit cards that came with my cking account are locked in the safe.
 

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