Paypal Agrees to Consumer Protections

davidwr writes "Paypal settled a suit with Maryland and 27 states. Among other things, they'll conspicuously advertise a contact phone number and staff it 14 hours a day and be much more forthcoming about when they will debit your bank account. For those of you who think Paypal Sucks, well, starting soon it sucks just a little less."

Comments

finally

[petermgreen]

The US is clamping down on thier branch of paypal, those who provide bank like services should be treated like banks.

Re:finally

[TykeClone]

But that's still not the case. If they were "being treated as a bank" the regulators would have said "thou shalt follow Reg E and all of it's consumer protections" instead of reaching an agreement.

Nope, they'll still suck (0800 358 7929)

[duguk]

Nope, they'll still suck if they continue to:

- locking out accounts for 'attempted signing in from another country' - yeah, without even getting a correct password
- only use a password to secure accounts
- only provide a national rate number in the UK, although you can get them on 0800 358 7929 for free
- expect you to send absolutely everything by fax yet they won't talk to you except by email
- not allow you to speak to anyone in the dispute or resolution centre, leaving you arguing with sales staff who don't have a clue
- make it impossible to close your account if it is locked, even after providing all the information you can and no money left in there

I'm disgusting with Paypal and going through the process of deleting my account. It's not easy, but I'll keep trying. Paypal will always suck in the UK it seems... :(

Dug

Re:Nope, they'll still suck (0800 358 7929)

[Achromatic1978]

My favourite - sending you an email, dated "day 1". Saying that for whatever reason, they'll action a direct debit on your account in "5 working days, so please ensure sufficient funds". The very next day, you get a call from your bank manager. "A direct debit from PayPal has been dishonoured and you've been charged a fee". Wow, that 5 working days went fast. And of course PayPal bills you for the dishonour fee. And when you ask why, when you eventually get an answer, "Well, we could bill it at any time. We send that email as a courtesy. We chose to do so before then, as is our right."

Bleh. Asshats.

Re:Nope, they'll still suck (0800 358 7929)

[shawngarringer]

Except they still keep the bank account info. I deleted an account from my PayPal account, then for some reason (stupid me) tried to use it on a different account I set up later. So I registered the account and then wham I couldn't use that debt-card because it was tied to the old account.

I went into the old account and apparently someone had complained that the printer I sold on ebay and advertised as "broken, parts only, as-is" didn't work upon recipt. So they charged me back the $20. So now, 4 years later, I have a PayPal account with a -120 balance, an "open collections" account on my credit history, and will never ever EVER use PayPal again.

The worst part is, even after I deleted that checking account, they tried to withdraw the 20 dollars for the charge-back from it. They tried four times! I was broke at the time, didn't even have 20 dollars in the account, so I got charged 25 dollar "insufficent funds" from them also. They can rot for all I care I will not pay that. I would have paid the $20 originally because it was my mistake for using eBay... but I will not pay the additonal fees. I filed a complaint against PayPal at my bank, and they told me that "they hear that a lot about them" and that they've blocked PayPal from ever touching my account...

Re:Nope, they'll still suck (0800 358 7929)

[asuffield]

I'm disgusting with Paypal and going through the process of deleting my account. It's not easy, but I'll keep trying. Paypal will always suck in the UK it seems...

They will continue to suck, but you don't have to let them get away with it over here. Unlike in the US, the UK holds Paypal responsible for nonsense like this. Screw their "customer support" lines, go directly to the Financial Ombudsman - Paypal is permitted 8 weeks from the time you initially state your complaint, and then the Ombudsman can take over. This is a tax-funded service that is free to you as a consumer; Paypal is obliged to cooperate with them as a condition of doing business in the UK at all. Any decision made by the Ombudsman is binding on Paypal in the same manner as a court judgement would be.

Having taken care of that, feel free to report the whole affair to the Financial Services Authority. Where the Ombudsman takes care of your case, the FSA shakes the company by the neck until they stop creating more cases. This one in particular:

not allow you to speak to anyone in the dispute or resolution centre, leaving you arguing with sales staff who don't have a clue

is an offence that already carries a hefty fine if proven. A company regulated by the FSA is not allowed to create barriers like this; they are required to have a clear and efficient complaints procedure and follow it precisely.

Lastly, the Office of Fair Trading can also weigh in when any company doing business in the UK fails to handle complaints in a reasonable manner or generally tramples on their customers for profit, in the unlikely event that the FSA is not interested.

Personally, I'm underwhelmed

[NickFortune]

For those of you who think Paypal Sucks, well, starting soon it sucks just a little less.

In fact it sucks less by precisely the minimum decrement of suckage allowed under law, and only then when compelled by the court. Way to go, paypal.

This doesn't make them any more honest, it just stops one of their unfair practices. I'm sure they can think of others.

Consumer Suspicions

[infestedsenses]

I'm more interested in when they will be sued for blocking accounts based on "terrorist" last names.

Human rights, anyone?

PayPal not sucking?

[Life700MB]

Does it mean that PayPal will stop blocking accounts (and the money in them) for peregrine reasons like, in my case, your name sounding similar to Al Qaeda's terrorists? And I'm not even in the same continent nor religion as them!

--
Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, php, mysql, ssh, $7.95

Re:PayPal not sucking?

[Aladrin]

This is modded Funny, but he's absolutely serious. Paypal can and will block your account and SEIZE all of the money in it for any reason whatsoever. Not liking your name is a new one for me, but I've seen plenty of hardship on the web. Newzbin.com, a usenet indexing site, regularly lost thousands of dollars at a time to this practice. They would petition and be re-instated, but lose all their money. It was their main payment method, and most of their customers preferred it, so they kept dealing with it... Until it happened like 3 times in 3 months. They finally called it quits and use other payment methods now.

Paypal DOES suck. And they SHOULD be regulated like a bank. I suspect their business model might have issues if they do, though.

Happy Days!

[giafly]

"We hope this agreement with an industry leader will set standard best practices for Internet businesses across the country to follow," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ... PayPal must also establish a conspicuous "Contact Us" link on its Web pages and provide a toll-free customer support number that operates at least 14 hours daily, according to the attorney general's office. - Star-Telegram Austin

Standard best practices??? 14x7 and a toll-free number that probably only works within the continental USA? Welcome to 1950.

I hate when websites advertise paypalsucks.com

[adzoox]

It is run and sponsored by the competition. The webmaster tries to deny that saying he's just advertising alternatives, but the alternatives advertised on paypalsucks.com are FAR WORSE and just fronts for laundering and identity theft.

StormPay
iKobo
YowCow

Re:i've had no trouble with paypal

[ShannaraFan]

Up until 2 weeks ago, I would have said the same thing. I've used Paypal for about 4 years, bought/sold hundreds of items on eBay, paying exclusively through Paypal. I even had the debit card, which I used to take advantage of their cash-back for Visa purchases.

In July, I sold an item on eBay, got paid for it, life went on. Second week of September, I get an email from Paypal saying that they had reason to believe this item was paid for with fraudulent funds, and asked me to provide tracking info, etc., for the item sold. I did, gave them everything they asked for.

Two weeks later, I get another email from them, stating:
"We have conducted a review of a payment that you received. In this case, returning the funds to the sender was determined to be the appropriate action, and we have completed a reversal of the payment. Good selling practices, like trackable shipping, prompt shipment, and communication between buyer and seller help prevent disputes."

Huh? I provided them with a tracking number, delivery was confirmed, item was shipped the same day payment was received. I contacted the buyer (this person has purchased multiple items from me, I have no reason to not trust them), asked them if they knew anything more than I did. They have not received any refund from Paypal, and in fact didn't even know there was a problem.

So, who was my money "returned" to? Repeated emails to Paypal have been ignored, so I've closed my account, I'll never use Paypal again.