PayPal/eBay Warning

Not that it is any suprise, but I do wish that people would take the ongoing history of PayPal into consideration and not use them, ever, for anything. This is a company that has stolen more than US$ 30,000.00 from me personally, having locked an account more than two years ago for as-yet-unspecified "suspicious activity." Horror story after horror story can be found at http://www.paypalsucks.com and http://www.nopaypal.com

I just received this from an associate of mine who is learning the hard way about this company's tactics:

"I wish to inform all *** members and friends that they should stay away from
Paypal and eBay Inc.

These two companies are aiding and abetting hackers to steal money from their
customers account.

...

Paypal has repeatedly withdrawn funds from my bank and credit cards to make
unauthorised payments for products I did not order for. The amount is running
into several thousands of dollars, the recent was yesterday, Friday. The sum of
$1,750.00 was taken from my account and made payable to people that Paypal is
not ready to pursue for further investigations.

...

I’m pressing charges against Paypal and will be talking to a lawyer on Monday.
Please spread the news to all Paypal customers and ebay lovers to beware. They
may be the next victim.

Regards,

J***"

If you want a fiat alternative to Paypal I recommend MoneyBookers. Why anyone does business with PP is completely beyond me.


Phaedrus

WOW!! Thanks for the warning!

This is old news. Everyone will have a complaint with a company. Paypal in general is solid. The rare problems (i've had them and yes it was a PITFA) are resolved 99.9% of the time if you are honest customer. Now .1% do slip through the cracks.

Phae: Isn't that a bit high appraisal? My fiances engagement ring is 1.52ct solitaire IF F and it only ran me 12,300.

Just a thought.

areeff

Check out the links given above. I am aware of PayPal's long history of complaints because I am personally one of their victims, to the tone of $ 33,000.00 . I am not a "dishonest customer" -- far from it. But PP applied some voodoo to my account to determine that it was "suspicious" and to date has not let on as to what exactly that suspicious behaviour was.

In mid-2001 I was told that my account was permanently closed (this was already almost two months into the ordeal) and that as an "anti-fraud measure" they would be holding on to my money for six months, at which point I could have it back. More than two years and even more money shot down the tube in legal expenses and I have yet to see a dime of it.

The person who wrote the e-mail that I received is a relatively famous and very highly-regarded person in his field, someone who would by nature of his job have to have very squeaky-clean financial records. His account is being used to make fraudulent transactions, and they do nothing. My account is used to make non-fraudulent transactions, and it's two years in the dark.

I do not think (as my friend apparently does) that PayPal is engaging in deliberate and outright fraud, but I do think that they are suffering from one of the worst cases of mismanagement and incompetent staffing in the history of the financial sector, or at least since Silverado S&L.

On the diamond --

1) I don't appraise em. But I do deal in a lot of stones, and $ 7,800.00 falls right into what I've seen on similar pieces.

2) The actual amount of money I would take for that ring is well under appraisal. That is hardly unusual, as I cannot imagine anyone in the world who would be stupid enough to pay the appraised value of a gem or piece of jewelry -- but if you meet anyone like that, there' 15% in it for you.

3) If you have an internally flawless 1.52 carat F solitaire of any shape, you got a pretty good deal on it at $ 12,300.00 (especially if that includes a decent setting) and I would imagine its appraised value is quite a bit more than that. 12.3k is well under what most of the larger retailers like BlueNile are charging.


Phaedrus

Just seems strange.. My paypal account would probably be recorded as the most suspicious ever but i only had 1 problem once.

Have I lost it at this late hour, or are Paypal and WU both run and owned by Firstdatacorp?

Phaedrus, this sounds more like identity theft than anything. I'd be shocked if PP was behind it.

I'd cancel anything & everything and get them reissued. Your CC banks should eat\fight those, but you have a problem on your hands.

I sure as hell hope that you have a firewall & virus scanner on your computer.

First Data owns Western Union; PayPal is owned by eBay.

As I said above, I do not personally think that PayPal is actively fostering the described fraud and I am not worried about outright theft -- it's incompetence and mismanagement that is causing them to falter. Visit either of the anti-PP sites linked above and you'd be amazed at some of the stories.


Phaedrus

Well I'll be damned.

PayPal Settles Customer Suit

PayPal has reached a preliminary settlement with some customers who accused the eBay unit of illegally freezing their funds.

by Paul Festa
CNET News

The company on Friday said it will pay a total of $9.25 million to settle the federal class-action suit, $3.4 million of which will pay lawyers' fees and costs.

PayPal admitted no wrongdoing in settling the claims, which were filed in 2002 as part of two federal class-action suits that also alleged other customer service deficiencies.

Those two cases were merged, and a third case, pending in California state court, will be dismissed if the settlement agreement is approved.

"In this agreement, PayPal does not acknowledge that any of the allegations in the case are true," PayPal said in an e-mail to customers. The unit "entered into the settlement agreement to avoid further costs of litigation and to devote resources to more productive areas of our business."

An attorney for PayPal customers called the settlement a win not only in securing a financial reward, but in changing the way PayPal does business.

"I think we got it right," said Daniel Girard, a partner with Girard Gibbs & De Bartolomeo in San Francisco. "The settlement provides for cash recovery and also for a series of changes to the operating procedures at PayPal."

Between June and September 2003, while the litigation was still pending, PayPal released $5.1 million in frozen customer funds, Girard said. As part of the settlement, PayPal agreed to change the way it handled dispute resolution.

PayPal acknowledged that the settlement included an injunction mandating certain changes to the company's procedures, but maintained that the modifications had come about independent of the litigation.

"PayPal has always been looking for ways to improve customer service," said company spokeswoman Amanda Pires. The litigation "didn't really change the way PayPal has been operating. We have improved our customer service as part of our normal course of business."

PayPal claims 45 million member accounts around the world.

The settlement was the product of mediation, begun early last fall, before a court-appointed special master. Within a week, the parties plan to file the preliminary settlement with the U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., for approval.

The case involves PayPal customers who used the service between Oct. 1, 1999 and Jan. 31, 2004. European Union residents are excluded.

PayPal said it will publish the allocation plan in July or August. Customers will be informed of settlement terms within two months of the court's preliminary approval.

Go to your bank. Open a NEW checking account. Do NOT put overdraft protection on it. Link this account to your Paypal account (and any other online $ xfer service you use - like Neteller)

Keep a ZERO balance in this bank account. If you have a zero balance and no overdraft protection on this bank account, your exposure to potential fraud/unauthorized withdrawals is nil.

Did you get your money Phaedrus?

Not yet, but I'm apparently part of the settlement class, according to stuff my attorney got last year. Naturally, after more than three years it's not like I am going to start sucking PayPal's collective cock if I get every dime of it back tomorrow.

In some parts of the world (Rwanda, New York, etc.) there are people that would cheerfully wipe out an entire zip code for thirty grand, and they wouldn't wait years to do it.


Phaedrus

paypal got hack and they got my credit card ##
from paypal. got 1500.00 before i even had a clue it had happened. needless to say it took over 5 months to get resolved

Paypal is in general solid? Yeah right, they are far from solid. To the guy that had no idea why his account was labled "suspicious" that is probably a systmen genreated flag that happened on your account. It is done very arbitrarily and indiscrimintely. The restriction is never usually placed on your account by a human, its something their system does.

They froze my money and I was about ready to go up to Mountain View CA and kill them. I had to keep climbing the ladder and keep calling until I got ahold of someone their who wasnt a piece of sh!t. A couple of years ago I probably would have been in the same predicament. They have lightened up a little as of late.

But they are a piece of crap company in my opinion. But they used to be a hell of alot worse. To the guy who said theyve frozed his $30,00 for a couple of years, I find that hard to believe. If you get an attorney and sue them its something that could be resolved pretty quickly.