Paypal Warning! (Long)

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rjwolfe3

rjwolfe3

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Joined
Feb 12, 2008
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Mansfield, Ohio, USA.
Be careful if you use more then one bank account to pay Paypal transactions. I have a primary checking account and a secondary checking account thru two different banks. Paypal is supposed to take money from my primary account unless otherwise directed. However as I just discovered they can and will take money from whatever account they feel like taking it from. I had more then enough money in my primary account and they skipped that and took directly from my secondary account which at the time did not have the money. Because of this, my bank paid the amount and then charged me $27.00. When I spoke to Paypal on Friday, they admitted their mistake and said they would fix it and fax a statement of their mistake to my bank so that the fee would be refunded. Naively I believed them. They neither fixed it nor faxed the statement either. Now I'm on the phone with them and they say it was not a mistake and that they won't change it since they got their money from the bank. Just a warning for those that use Paypal - they will do what they want and will lie to you as well. Lesson learned - I just wish their was an alternative to using Paypal. Thanks for letting me vent.[V]:([V]:(
 
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Did you have both accounts registered with PayPal ? I've used them since their inception, but I only have only one account registered with them that I keep a small balance in just for PayPal buying, If I need more money, I transfer from my main bank account, which is not registered with PayPal, (and I hope the H#ll they never find out about) this was a tip from eBay about 6 or 7 years ago, Not eBay directly but from several user forums.
Starting to look into this Propay thing, [B)][B)][B)]
 
Do you have some kind of automatic withdrawal set up with Pay Pal? I have never heard of this. If it is possible, I'll check their rules for clarification. The only time money goes from one of my bank accounts to PP is when I direct it. Then, I must select which account it is to be transferred from. PP does not "take" the money, I initiate the transfer.
 
Frank,

The key is that if you read the fine print - if you fund the tranfer from a bank account, they will 'back' it up with anything else you have given them. (Other acccounts, credit card, etc).. So if they can't pull the money from where you tell them to, they will attempt other places... It sounds like in Robs case they failed to pull from the primary place even though the account had $.. Who knows why it failed.
 
This is why we setup an account at a totally seperate bank from our main accounts.

We have one account for paypal transactions and they can't touch our other accounts as they reside at a seperate bank, no possibility for this type of foolishness.
 
Paypal is not a financial institution. They are not governed by the banking laws that govern banks and credit card companies which are financial institutions. They do get to use all the banking transfer tools. From everything I have read, and heard(some firsthand, some through usegroups) it is best to have a separate bank account, at another bank to use only with Paypal.
 
I guess I wasn't clear in my original post, please allow me to clarify a few things. I am talking about two seperate bank accounts with two totally different banks. One is Chase and is set up as my primary account where all money is to be taken out unless I change it. The other is a Credit Union that is there just as a back up if a problem comes up with my primary account (which has happened in the past). Paypal is not to touch that account unless I authorize them to. The transaction that Paypal messed up is an automatic transaction to pay for my website. It comes out every month from my primary account at the beginning of the month. Except this last time they skipped my primary account and took money directly out of my secondary account. I asked them and they did not try my primary first and I have plenty of money in it if they did. (It was only for $10.00) This was the mistake that they originally owned up to last Friday and today say they didn't make. Because I wasn't planning on money coming out of my secondary account I only had $8.00 in it. Because $8.00 minus $10.00 turns into a negative the bank hit me with $27.00 in fees. Paypal orignally said on Friday that they would fax an explanation of their mistake to my bank to get the overdraft fees back but decided not too after I got off the phone with them. Long story short - 2 accounts, 2 different banks, and I do know what I am doing when I set my Paypal account!!!!
(end of 2nd rant):D
 
Originally posted by Rifleman1776

Do you have some kind of automatic withdrawal set up with Pay Pal? I have never heard of this. If it is possible, I'll check their rules for clarification. The only time money goes from one of my bank accounts to PP is when I direct it. Then, I must select which account it is to be transferred from. PP does not "take" the money, I initiate the transfer.
Click to expand...

As I recall, when I hooked up with PayPal, I was required to link my PP account to a credit card or a bank account and I did not have any option that required a preauthorization from me before PP was able to withdraw funds. That being said, there are at least three different types of PP accounts (Personal. Premier and Business)and maybe more and it is not inconceivable that the rules are different for each type.
 
Rob: I can certainly sympathize with you. I have been hit with those over-draft fees twice(not eBay transactions) and they are certainly painful and quite unreasonably high as far as am concerned. However, I've read both of your posts several times and must admit to being a little confused.

First, let me say there are certainly other alternatives to PP. They may not be as economical or as convenient or as readily accepted; but they are available. I know a number of folks who opted out of PP because of difficulties with PP and they are doing just fine.

Secondly, it seems a little hard to understand having a back-up account with little or no money in it. Sort of like driving a car with a spare tire that is not inflated??

OK, here is where I really get lost. I'm not an expert on all of the eBay rules and regulations so I will have to accept what you have told us. You have told us that you have a secondary bank account and that eBay is not authorized to take money out of that account unless specifically directed to do so. On the surface of that statement, eBay was clearly wrong and should have taken corrective action. OTOH, eBay's final position was that they were faultless and were not going to make any corrective actions. So now it is he said, she said.

You certainly didn't manufacture the information about access to the secondary account so it seems to me the thing to do is review the eBay terms of service and find the language that supports your position and then go back to eBay for round two. You also need to quit dealing with the first flunky that answered the phone; but immediately demand to talk to a supervisor or someone who has a little more authority.

I doubt someone actually maliciously lied to you. Much more likely you just got hold of some flunky making $7 an hour who just didn't know the rules.

Keep hounding these guys and if you have your "ducks in a row" it is likely they will cave. One thing you need to be sure to do to protect yourself is send an email complaint to document you phone complaint as phone calls are easy to loose track of.

And finally, as I understand it eBay's money source of choice is cash in your actual PP account. I would always make a point of having a small cash balance($25??) in your PP account and that may preclude this type of thing cropping up again. And you might want to consider removing that secondary bank account from your eBay account.
 
Randy,
Good points. Hopefully I can clear up any confusion.

I talked to my website host and he can accept credit cards directly so I think I will go that route if its easier for him. I've never had a problem with paypal on normal transactions just subscriptions that are automatic.

The 2nd account was low because I am working on closing it out. I had to wait for that huge stimulus refund (they kept $600 - stupid government) and once I had that money I was closing that account. (Which is sad really, I've had that account for about 15 years and I've watched their customer service get worse and worse and their fees go higher and higher) Also I have to go check my spare tires now. You've got me wondering if any of them are flat, lol.:D

As far as the Paypal is concerned I went as far as the supervisor in their banking dept and was told bottom line to "just deal with it." It amazes me the crappy customer service at these big corporations anymore. The 2nd person I talked too was the one that actually said that the first person I talked to me lied to me. Her exact words not mine. Of course they probably don't record these conversations so it's his word against mine. And my bank won't fix it, even for a good customer. (Another reason why I switched banks - at least at the new bank I expect to get screwed since they are a really big bank and not a hometown bank[}:)])

But I thought about keeping money in my Paypal account but I can just see something be paid out without my consent and having this battle all over again. What really worries me is that I set up my website to accept pretty much just Paypal and I don't want to lose customers who don't want to deal with Paypal. I may be looking into Propay as I heard nothing but good things about it.

Thanks again for your advice. I think I just needed to vent but I've gotten some good info too.

(edit) Another thing, after getting off the phone for the last time with Paypal, I removed my 2nd accout. I also noticed that they canceled my automatic subscription, so I will have to do something else with my website host.
 
Well Rob, if it is any consolation, I read this thread and learned a lot about using Paypal I didn't know, so thank you for "venting". I only use Paypal to pay for things I have bought and I only use one account, but it is my main checking account! Looks like I had better set up another account; at another bank would be even safer.
 
I have a website subscription that I have set to autodraft annually from my PayPal account. Last month, I got an email that the payment failed. As it turns out, I had changed the account that is tied to paypal last year, but the subscription was still trying to hit against the old account. A quick update on the subscription page and all is right with the world.

If you change your primary bank in paypal, make sure that you go into each autopayment and make sure that you have them set to deduct from the correct account.
 
You're paying monthly for your web site hosting?

You need to see about transferring your hosting services to 'GoDaddy'. For about $10 more than you spend in a year, paying monthly, you can have your site hosted at 'GoDaddy.Com' for 3 years. You cann't beat that price!!! You can pay monthly (2 month mininum) that is half of what you're paying now.....or pay for hosting for 12, 24 or 36 months.

Check it out.......you'll be glad you did!
 
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