Just an example of what has happened to me recently and what can go wrong with just a simple error to begin with. This is 100% true and a total fuk up. What could have gone wrong went wrong, so please learn from this experience
History:
* I have two accounts linked to PAYPAL
* One is my normal Bank Savings account that my salary goes into and I pay the home loan, bills, shopping etc from it.
* The other account is a Visa debit card account which is my normal PAYPAL funding source for car parts and EBay transactions.
- I deposited $2700 cash into the Visa Debit card account ready for some shopping
- Purchased 5 items on EBay totalling around $2000
- Paid via PAYPAL without realising the drop down box was going to take the funds from my Savings Account, instead of the Visa debit account where I had money ready to go.
- Found out 2 days later that my Savings account had 4 x dishonour fees at $17.50 each charged to it as one transaction went through and the others didn’t due to insufficient funds. I was charged with $70 in dishonour fees – My error, simple mistake, $70 charge is a bit steep but good lesson learned. My normal pay account was low because I was on holidays and spent a fair bit of my savings during time off work as you do.
- According to PAYPAL’s policy, they then try to recover the funds from the nominated back up source, in which case is my Visa Debit card account that I had the $2700 in. So all I had to do was wait 48 hours til they processed it.
- I called PAYPAL and was advised that it would be indeed the case and it should have been processed already.
- 2 Days later PAYPAL still hadn’t taken funds from my VISA debit card so I logged onto PAYPAL and in large red bold font, a negative balance of approx $1300 with a link next to it advising ‘resolve your negative balance’.
- Took the $2000 out of the Visa account in cash and deposited into the Savings Account in person at the bank so the money went in immediately.
- Went back to PAYPAL website and clicked the ‘Resolve Negative Balance’ link. Went through the process and paid $1300 out of my Savings Account. All done and squared up (or so I thought).
- I then purchased another item on Ebay worth $280AU through PAYPAL because I just got paid through work and there was plenty of money in the account for the purchase, Mrs paid the home loan, Telstra phone bill, some groceries, mobile phone and fueled a couple of the cars.
- Next day I logged into my savings account and noticed that not only did the $1300 get taken out to resolve the negative balance, but PAYPAL re-ran the 4 x dishonoured amounts again totalling up around $1300 as well. In total, my Savings account was now debited $2600. I was lucky I got paid the day before and had enough $$ or I would have been charged dishonour fees for insufficient funds again! However, after paying some more bills etc the same day, doctors visit, I was only left with a balance coincidentally of exactly $280 in my bank account!!! (Should be $1580)
- I logged onto PAYPAL that same morning and it was still approx $1300 in negative value in red bold font!!! Hmmm…. What’s going on?. Plus the payment I did the night before for $280 is still pending to be processed!! WTF??? I’ve only got $280 in my bank account left and $280 is about to come out – which is going to leave me with nothing!
- I called PAYPAL immediately and asked what the hell are they doing? I thought I was doing the right thing by resolving my $1300 negative balance and paying them back, however they re-processed the original dishonoured amounts and taken a total of $2600 out overnight, meaning I’m out of pocket $1300, and only have $280 in my account with a $280 transaction pending!!. I cant even cancel the transaction because it’s already in process!! What a fuk up on their part!
- Now this is where it gets really fukd up. Apparently the funds are in limbo at the moment. The bank has already taken it out of my account and PAYPAL have not received it yet!!! So now it looks like it will take 2-5 working days to go from my bank to PAYPAL, and then take another 2-5 working days to transfer the overpayment back to my savings account. Great! Im sure I wont miss $1300 for up to two fkn weeks in my account!! How about you?
- In the meantime I have 3 kids, one a baby requiring nappies and formula, one going back to school so I need to buy clothes, school bag, stationery and shit, and obviously more fuel and shopping. What a fuk up.
- I went off at PAYPAL for their stuff ups and said they shouldn’t have had ‘resolve your negative balance’ link if they were planning to re-run the dishonoured transaction amounts and take the money out again. They should have had something written that stated they would try again in a specific timeframe, but they didn’t. I should have also been advised that from the start when I called up. To prove a point, I just logged onto PAYPAL today and the ‘resolve your negative balance’ link is still sitting next to a large red bold negative Paypal account balance of near $1300!!
- Moral of the story is to get a Visa Debit Card linked to your PAYPAL account ONLY. With a Debit card you DO NOT get charged a dishonour fee if you have insufficient funds. It simply wont go through. If you do have the funds in it, payments go through immediately. And if you ever get caught up in the same situation as I have, don’t even bother calling PAYPAL because the people you speak to are about as helpful as an ejector seat on a fkn helicopter. It’s all processed by computer and they cant do anything about it. Dont let PAYPAL have access to your main bank account, so setup a secondary one to be on the safe side
PAYPAL has always been great for me the last 5 years or so Ive been using it making 100 plus transactions. I’ve never had a problem before. But when it does go pear shaped like above, boy, it can really get fukd up really quick. I’m only using my Visa Debit card as the ONLY account now to make purchases, that way there will be no problems in future, ever again! Pic of current PAYPAL photo belowshowing negative balance
Rob
Attached Images
Edited by EVO-00X, 21 January 2010 - 06:14 AM.
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