How safe is Paypal?

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Globalti

Legendary Member
Anybody got any horror stories? We've been using it for 3 years now and apart from the long delay when you transfer accumulated funds back to your bank account (what does Paypal do with your money for those 3 or 4 days?) it has worked impeccably.

It seems well respected yet my brother in the USA is refusing to open a Paypal account because he says "worse things happen here in the US that in Europe".
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
other than dodgy buyers that can bounce the money back out of the paypal account...hence leaving time for it to clear.....but i've never had trouble with it.....
 

Mortiroloboy

New Member
In the 127+ transactions I have made using Pay Pal, <touches something constructed of wood> I have to say it has always worked for me, even getting money refunded after things have gone wrong with a purchase.
 

davidwalton

New Member
I would NEVER use PayPal. The moment PayPal was purchased by EBay, it became a tool to get people to use EBay, rather than for it to be used as a real Internet payment system.

Horror. I used to have access to a companies PayPal account so I could do refunds, etc, without the boss needing to get involved. There was an issue with a payment received and a transfer of funds, so they decided to freeze the account, plus my personal account. They would not speak to me about it, or explain why my personal account was involved.

It ended up that I had to send them my personal details, bank details, copy of passport, etc. sent, but they refused to acknowledge anything, and would not reopen my account for no given reason.

Basically, PayPal will and can freeze your account when they want, for as long as they want, and do not have to provide any reasoning or assistance to reopen an account.

To get your money out of a frozen account can take at least 6 months.

NEVER EVER use PayPal, especially as there are other ways of getting money to another.

PayPal may comply, in part, with some State regs in the USA, but not with UK regs, so don't expect reason if there is any trouble. Do expect to be ignored and to not be given any answers at all.
 
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Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
So how do you suggest I send £140 to my brother in the USA? He wants me to courier it in CASH!
 

davidwalton

New Member
If it is a one-off, use http://www.westernunion.com. As long as he has a branch close to him, as soon as you give him the reference number he can collect the cash, given correct ID.

In theory, he could have the cash in his hands within minutes of you sending it.
 

domtyler

Über Member
I had a long running battle with PayPal when someone bought something from me just before I went on holiday then complained that it was not as described and got a full refund from PayPal and kept the item. In the end I had to track the little fu**er down to his work place and bombard him and his colleagues with phone calls, I then had to launch a private small claims court action against him before he would finally refund my money to me. All the way through this PayPal had suspended my account and were sending me demands for more money which I refused to pay. They accepted that they were in the wrong and eventually things got back to normal.
 

alecstilleyedye

nothing in moderation
Moderator
i had a problem with pixmania.com (don't ever buy from them chaps); i ordered a camera from them (paid via paypal) and the thing never turned up (parcelforce lost it). i spent many a phone call telling them first that i wanted a replacement item, and subsequently (when it was obvious that the camera ordered in november for xmas would not be coming in time) a refund. all i got met with was "we can't issue a refund until we've investigated". one phone call to parcelforce was enough for me to established that the stoke depot had lost it.

anyway, filed a dispute with paypal and got offer of refund the next working day.

i prefer paypal when wiggling too.
 
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Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
These are all stories of Paypal pulling down the shutters in cases of dispute. Has anybody actually lost money from their Paypal account through theft?
 

Mortiroloboy

New Member
alecstilleyedye said:
i had a problem with pixmania.com (don't ever buy from them chaps); i ordered a camera from them (paid via paypal) and the thing never turned up (parcelforce lost it). i spent many a phone call telling them first that i wanted a replacement item, and subsequently (when it was obvious that the camera ordered in november for xmas would not be coming in time) a refund. all i got met with was "we can't issue a refund until we've investigated". one phone call to parcelforce was enough for me to established that the stoke depot had lost it.

anyway, filed a dispute with paypal and got offer of refund the next working day.

i prefer paypal when wiggling too.

So do I

Rigid Raider said:
These are all stories of Paypal pulling down the shutters in cases of dispute. Has anybody actually lost money from their Paypal account through theft?

Not personally, no.
 

goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
alecstilleyedye said:
i had a problem with pixmania.com (don't ever buy from them chaps); i ordered a camera from them (paid via paypal) and the thing never turned up (parcelforce lost it). i spent many a phone call telling them first that i wanted a replacement item, and subsequently (when it was obvious that the camera ordered in november for xmas would not be coming in time) a refund. all i got met with was "we can't issue a refund until we've investigated". one phone call to parcelforce was enough for me to established that the stoke depot had lost it.

anyway, filed a dispute with paypal and got offer of refund the next working day.

i prefer paypal when wiggling too.

Never had any problems with Pixmania or Paypal, touch-wood.
 

alecstilleyedye

nothing in moderation
Moderator
goo_mason said:
Never had any problems with Pixmania or Paypal, touch-wood.
a few people i know have had good experiences with pixmania, but their customer service when things go wrong absolutely stinks. instead of fulfilling their obligation to the customer, they make you wait while they chase their subcontractors, especially as the fact that the item was lost was but a phone call to check out. not even when i told them that the item was for a xmas present (bearing in mind i'd ordered in november) were they prepared to toe anything other than the company policy line.

if you ever use them, make sure you pay extra for ups, which probably would have saved me all the bother. part of me still feels they should cough up the extra money i had to spend offline to make sure we had the camera for xmas. :sad:
 

andygates

New Member
I've used Western Union and Paypal. Western Union is horrendously expensive, especially for small sums like £140 (IIRC a £60 purchase turned into £90 once the charges were all said and done). I've never had a problem with Paypal and use them quite a lot.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I think that PayPal is okay for making payments to other people. I've heard many horror stories about businesses having their accounts frozen, so I do not intend to use it to receive payments when I get my online business up and running.

Take a look at PayPalSucks.com ;)!!! Especially what a former PayPal manager has top say here.
 
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