PayPal - systems gone awry

Strong language warning

Hello PayPal,

I hope that the reports of abysmal/non-existent PayPal service are false, because this situation is entirely PayPal's fault, and I've heard lots of stories of PayPal screwing customers when the situation was not the customer's fault.

My wife made a purchase online using her credit card.

She does NOT and has NEVER had a PayPal account.

She did NOT log in to PayPal to make the purchase - she simply typed in her credit card number.

It so happens that she is an additional card holder for my credit card account.

It so happens that I have two PayPal accounts, and my credit card is linked to one of those accounts.

You, PayPal, decided behind the scenes to link my wife's online purchase to my PayPal account, but you have done so in a way that has broken everything.

I will go into full detail below, but the present ludicrous situation is that YOU PayPal are demanding that my wife log in to her non-existent PayPal account to restore her account access. She cannot log in to her account, because she does not have one (and has never had one). And in the meantime, my own PayPal account is disrupted, and logging in to my own PayPal account has not resolved the issue.

If you have gotten this far, thank you for taking the time to consider that it might be possible to improve the PayPal systems. (If not, then I sincerely hope you are supplanted by someone who actually acknowledges their mistakes and improves their game.)

Here is what happened :

* Early July, my wife made the purchase as previously described (from "Hallelujah Acres"), using a computer I do not use, that was not logged in to PayPal. She entered the credit card number directly.

* At around the same time, I used PayPal (on a different computer, and logging in to my PayPal account) to donate a small sum of money (around US$10) to someone else.

* Weeks later (international delivery, so it took a while), we received the goods my wife purchased (some health food).

* My wife, reviewing our credit card statement, saw a large PayPal transaction. The credit card statement read "PAYPAL *BFOBUILDING <number removed from this public copy of this email>". The number matched my PayPal account number. I knew that the only recent activity on my account was the US$10 donation. I logged in to my PayPal account, and the small donation was the only transaction visible. The bank statement said PayPal took the money, and related it to my PayPal account number, but PayPal denied knowledge of the transaction, claiming nothing had happened. I knew nothing had happened on my PayPal account, because I had not used PayPal for a very long time, except for that small donation. Accordingly, it was evident that fraud or computer error had occurred. For the first and only time in my (lengthy) credit card history, I raised a chargeback with my bank.

* On the 4th of September, my wife got a phone call out-of-the-blue from a woman in America. This woman politely asked why we had issued a chargeback. My wife was confused. My brain made a few quick connections and I suspected I knew what had happened. I took the phone from my wife and spoke with the woman. Lo-and-behold, she was from Hallelujah Acres, and the PayPal transaction we had rejected was for the health food we purchased. But how were we to know? PayPal was indicted on the bank statement, yet my PayPal account claimed ignorance. Anyhow, as soon as I realised that the transaction was valid - even though misreported by PayPal - I promised to contact my bank and undo the chargeback - which I promptly did. (I contacted my bank, asked what to do, and sent in a detailed fax re-authorising the transaction as they advised me to do.)

Whilst it was irresponsible of PayPal to put us and the vendor through this hassle (by representing to my bank that the payment came from my PayPal account, yet showing no evidence of it in my PayPal account), that is only half the story. My wife subsequently received an email from PayPal declaring that she must re-activate her account due to the recent chargeback. She never had an account.

But it goes on. I had reason to wish to use PayPal again just recently, but discovered that my own PayPal account is not working properly. Realising it was probably related to this whole stupid debacle, and having heard only bad things about PayPal's moronic support policies (or "no support" policies), I didn't even bother contacting you.

Now my wife receives a second email insisting that she must re-activate her non-existent account, and threatening account closure if she takes no action.

Based on how poorly your automated systems have performed in the past, it seems likely you will accidentally (or is that deliberately?) close my own good account too, and without warning, and without cause.

I have used PayPal in the past. The only trouble I have ever caused PayPal is by acting in good faith on information PayPal itself provided - i.e. by you not showing in my account history the transaction in question, but you simultaneously reporting to my credit card provider that the transaction in question actually did come from that selfsame account, you were clearly telling me that the transaction was in error or a fraud, and I acted in good faith on that information you provided. And now you insist on continuing to confuse and bamboozle my innocent wife by telling her to take action with her non-existent PayPal account, and you continue to frustrate myself and any vendors I might purchase from in the future by disabling my own account to some extent yet not providing me any way of re-enabling my own account.

I have joined the long list of people who have found PayPal to be a farce, a joke.

If you resolve this issue, without further ridiculous hassle or effort on the part of myself or my wife, I will be impressed. And I will blog about it to counter the voices of those who say that PayPal never cares.

But there are too many sad stories out there for me to believe that you will.

Which way will it be?

Here's hoping,



Jonathan Field

UPDATE Thu 15-Jan-2009 : PayPal replied.