Replies

I ignore the check-out feature altogether. I love paypal!

I have a friend who is a big time antique toy seller who uses paypal. Due to some kind of a "computer error" They billed his credit card for a little over $2,000.00 one month when his actual bill should have been a little over $20.00. He sent email after email over a few days, but got no response and somehow found a phone number to call them, but could never get through. After about 5 days they responded via email saying they would investigate the matter. My friend kept emailing about it, and after about 10 days they emailed that it was a mistake and they would clear it up with the credit card company. My friends credit card bill came the next month and the charge was still there. He repeatedly emailed again and they said they had cleared it up, and he then sent them a copy of his credit card bill. He kept emailing and they kept telling him the matter had been resolved. Month three comes around, and the charge is still on his credit card bill. He keeps emailing and they keep saying that it has been resolved. The 4th month it is finally off his credit card bill but Paypal then refuses to pick up the 3 months interest and he says he may get an attorney and sue.
They coldly respond that if that is his choice, that their attorneys will respond to any such suit.
For the relatively small amount of interest it really isn't worth starting a lawsuit so he gives up, as he hears other horror stories about paypal from other sellers on the discussion boards.

He and a LOT of his ebay seller friends no longer use paypal.

You do know paypal was a free service at one time....how long do you think it will be before they edge their "commission" up to close to 5%....2 years?, 3 years?...IMHO they are now like cable TV companies, and now that they have so many people using their service, they will just keep edging their fees up every 6 to 12 months.

There are some scams that criminals have used buying high ticket items on ebay from fraudulent adresses with new credit cards they acquired with fraudulent ID, and then they get a chargeback to their account for the ebay item purchased, just short of 90 days after the auction ends. They tell the credit card company the merchandise was not satisfactory. At 90 days ebay removes the data on the auction from their database, so they won't help. The scam artists by that time have closed their bank account and moved from their rental housing, so the seller is left to get an attorney to try and recoup their money, but the buyer has his money back and your item is still in their possession. They move somplace else and start the process over....getting a new fake ID, starting a new bank account, getting a credit card, quickly buying a mess of small dollar items on ebay so as to rapidly build up a quick good feedback rating that will fool sellers when they start buying the expensive items.

You can sometimes read about this happening to a seller on the Online payment discussion board on ebay. None of those sellers ever use paypal again.

I don't doubt the PayPal story you related, but let's be fair. These kind of billing screw ups can and do happen with any company that bills credit cards and it is almost always difficult to get straightened out.

The money in my PayPal account earns interest and I get a "cash back" rebate when I use my PayPal debit card. Yes, I am charged a fee when I get a payment, but nowhere can you take any type of credit card or electronic payment and not be charged. Will the fees go up? Probably so. Over time most things do go up in cost.

The type of fraud you mentioned is not exclusive to PayPal, either. These crooks will run their scams where ever they can.

Find me a company that never has any problems and never raises prices and I will switch.