Service Review – Paypal

I’ve used Paypal (an Ebay Company) for upwards of 4 years now, and I’ve never had a problem with them until last week. The worst part about it is that the same problem keeps occurring.

Here is what happened:

So I signed up for a Subscription through Paypal for an Internet service. This subscription costs me $20/month. Subscription services with Paypal are so user friendly. You even get to choose where you want the money debited from. I chose my credit card.

A couple weeks go by, and I check my Paypal account, and the subscription debited by bank account. So immediately I thought that I had accidentally selected the wrong account somehow. I hate when I do that. I go to my subscription page to correct this error… and “Who’d a Thunk it!” I correctly selected my Credit Card, and it still says “Credit Card” and the last four digits.

Well no biggie, I’ll just check their “Resolution Center.” I must have done something wrong. I check their help center, and find a couple articles about subscriptions. Upon reading them all, I find that none of them help me.

Still not a problem… I’ll send them an email. I shoot them this email:

Subject: This subscription is Debiting my bank account…
Body: It clearly states that I have chosen to pay for this subscription with my credit card, and yet the first payment came out of my bank account. Please fix.
Why is it debiting my bank account?

I felt that I explained my problem briefly and thoroughly. Apparently… I didn’t because the response that I got was straight out of the “Resolution Center” about how to change the subscription options so that it charges your credit card. Here is the response:

Dear Ashton Sanders,

Thank you for contacting PayPal. I apologize for the delay in responding to your email inquiry. We have recently encountered a large volume of emails. We do not intend on any customer waiting this long for a response.

Hello my name is Maria. I am sorry to hear about this situation, and I understand your frustration and concern regarding the funding source of your subscription. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you with your questions.

To change a subscription funding source you must find the transaction for the original subscription creation in your account history. If you are changing your funding source to a new credit card or bank account, please add the credit card or bank account first by going to your Profile. You can then follow the steps below to change the subscription funding source.

1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com
2. Click the ‘History’ subtab.
3. Choose the ‘Subscriptions’ field from the ‘Show’ drop-down menu.
4. Check the ‘From’ box and change date back 2 years.
5. Click ‘Search’.
6. To view the details of a specific ‘Subscription Creation’ , click ‘Details’ in the Details column.
7. Next to Subscription Funding Source, choose the future payment option by placing a bullet next to the preferred option for future payments.
8. Click ‘Update Information’ to save your changes.

When updating financial information, if the established credit card or bank account information is removed as the funding source for a Subscription payment, the Subscription and Recurring Payments will be canceled. Canceling a subscription cancels all future scheduled payments of that subscription.

– Once a subscription has been canceled it cannot be reactivated
– The seller’s website should be accessed to establish a new subscription with their service

I hope this email addresses your concern. In any event however, that you would need more assistant, please do not hesitate to contact us again and we will be more than willing to help you. Have a Nice Day.

Sincerely,
Maria
PayPal Community Support
PayPal, an eBay Company

Are you serious?!?!?! Maria, are you a computer?!?! Did you read the word subscription and send me this prefabricated message?!?!? My question was only two sentences long… please do me the favor of reading it before responding.

I sent them this response:

Thank you… But unfortunately, you haven’t read or addressed my problem.

I followed your instructions, and here is the problem that I run into:

THE PAYMENT SELECTION IS SET TO MY CREDIT CARD, YET THE SUBSCRIPTION
JUST DEBITED MY BANK ACCOUNT.

I appreciate your help in this matter,
Ashton Sanders

There! That was definitely simple enough! There is nothing I could do to make this email any simpler… I guess Paypal is staffed by monkeys, because this is the response that I got. If it makes any sense to you, please post a comment… cause I can’t figure it out for the life of me. (Note: I received this email at 3:45AM 4/1/07 and I haven’t bought anything from ebay.)

I would also like to draw your attention to the text I marked with red in this response (Yes, this is exactly how the email came to me…):

Dear Ashton Sanders,

Hello my name is John, I am sorry to hear about the situation regarding (Briefly repeat the members situation), and understand your frustration and concern over this issue. I will be happy to assist you with your questions.

The cash rebate PayPal email address opt-in begins February 8, 2007 – March 31, 2007.

To qualify for the $15.00 rebate, you must meet the following requirements:

– Have signed up for the Cash Rebate offer during open enrollment or through any other limited offer you may have received
– Single payment of $30.00 or more must have been made on eBay.com, eBay.ca or on merchants’ sites in the US or Canada
– eBay.com and eBay.ca purchases must have been made through the eBay checkout flow via the eBay website and not through the PayPal send money tab
– Purchases must have been made between 2/8/07 12:01 PST and 3/31/07 11:59 PST

The Cash Rebate will be deposited into the participants’ PayPal accounts by May 1, 2007. Limit one registration and one $15 rebate per person and/or PayPal account.

The following transactions are excluded from this Cash Rebate offer: Send Money transactions, payments to Personal accounts, eBay payments made to Personal accounts, donations, Text to Buy and payments for services.

I hope I was able to assist you with the information that I have provided.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

You may contact PayPal’s Customer Service at 1-888-221-1161.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Sincerely,
John
PayPal Community Support
PayPal, an eBay Company

Paypal Help is run by monkeys… Don’t email them unless you really don’t care about getting your problem addressed.

Paypal… you take 3% of almost every Ebay transaction, the least you can do is have a help center run by sentient beings who have graduated from the fifth grade…

This Flame brought to you by:
-Ashton Sanders