How stupid can one be?

[MP Guy]

Last night I purchased a lens from someone and sent payment via Paypal. Well, I left out a letter from his email and someone else got my 900.00 Now Im wauting to see if they return it. I have disputed it so the account gets locked just in case. Talk about a 900.00 mistake 🙁

 

[rover]

Dude, you have terrible luck with transactions for camera gear.

I had a payment cancelled to me and sent to my wrong email addresses. It was almost immediate and then sent to another of my email addresses (the correct one). I am guessing that you can cancel a payment for this reason.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

At one time Paypal wound not let you simply return a payment, they still took their fees from it, even if it was sent in error and the recipient wished to return it. Due to a "Network Hiccup", one of my customers sent me two payments. The network failed to give him his acknowedgement that it had been sent, so he resent it. Paypal stated the only way to return the money was to send him a payment, and you guessed it, they would extract their fee both-ways. I complained bitterly, but "ate" the cost both ways. More than what Paypal would do.

I can see people setting up Email accounts that "look-like" the bigger customers accounts, much the same way companies set up sites like "oogle.com". Sit back and watch the money roll in.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Oy, Jorge! Sorry to hear about that. Obviously, PayPal should take money out of an account you've claimed it should not have gone to, and send it to the correct recipient. If they can't do that, well, one can't be confident of their security and customer service.

 

[MP Guy]

it is a waiting game now. Filed a dispute which locked the funds. I should get it back within 30 days if the person does not argue it.

 

[Kin Lau]

I've done that once and since it was not a valid email address (that is no account has been created yet, so Paypal just "autocreates" the account), the money just sat there until I emailed the seller and forwarded the paypal confirmation, and they noted the error.

Since the account didn't "accept" the money yet, I could simply cancel the transaction, no fees and I was able to forward the money to the correct party.

 

[dmr]

... and people wonder why I don't use Paypal! 🙂

 

[MP Guy]

There has to be an alternative to paypal.

 

[FrankS]

Cash + registered mail.

 

[JoeFriday]

I use paypal frequently, but always use a credit card.. I've been ripped off several times on evilbay by fraudulent sellers, and paypal was never any help for me, other than saying "yeah, I guess that guy ripped you off.. we'll let you know if we track him down and can get any of your money back".. so I went directly to my credit card company who had the money back in my account within days in every case.. they don't even question it when you say 'ebay transaction'.. they just reverse the charge and if the seller doesn't contest it (which they won't) you get your money back

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I wonder how long Paypal and Ebay can survive like this. They actually "auto-create" an account!!! You think they would be smart enough to state the account does not exist! What is the point of it? I'll be using credit card for Paypal from now on, and my addiction to Ebay is gone. Now if I can just quit reading the classifieds here, I'll be set!

 

[dmr]

I use paypal frequently, but always use a credit card.. I've been ripped off several times on evilbay by fraudulent sellers, and paypal was never any help for me, other than saying "yeah, I guess that guy ripped you off.. we'll let you know if we track him down and can get any of your money back".. so I went directly to my credit card company who had the money back in my account within days in every case.. they don't even question it when you say 'ebay transaction'.. they just reverse the charge and if the seller doesn't contest it (which they won't) you get your money back

I've never been majorly burned on Ebay, but singed a couple times. 🙂 🙁

I have a feeling that a good percentage of the overhead in running Ebay and Paypal is the human cost of customer service, and that they intentionally keep that area as lean as they can. 99.999...% of the transactions are totally routine and automated, but some fraction will require -- or desire -- a live body to intervene.

It costs them less, in fact, to have the reputation of having $#!+ty customer service. (pardon my language) People know that writing or phoning them is like talking to a brick wall for whom any language is a second language, so they don't do so unless they absolutely have to.

Oh well, sorry to drag this thread on ...

 

[RML]

Sorry to hear about your tribulations, Jorge. You're becoming a bit of a magnet for financial trouble, aren't you? 🙂

There has to be an alternative to paypal.

There is. It's called a bank transfer. But that has its drawbacks as well.

BTW, I've been using PayPal for years and have never had any problems, and with me probably thousands of other users. But one never hears it when things go well, only when things don't go so well.

 

[RayPA]

Last night I purchased a lens from someone and sent payment via Paypal. Well, I left out a letter from his email and someone else got my 900.00 Now Im wauting to see if they return it. I have disputed it so the account gets locked just in case. Talk about a 900.00 mistake 🙁

Jorge,

You should check to see whether the mistaken e-mail is valid. I did the EXACT same thing, by adding a letter to an address. I then sent a test email to the wrong address, and it bounced back as invalid. I canceled the payment (not disputed it), and sent the payment again to the correct address, which worked. I now have a balance in my Paypal account 🙁 , but that's better than an outright loss. Good luck

🙂
🙂

 

[Terence T]

They actually "auto-create" an account!!! You think they would be smart enough to state the account does not exist! What is the point of it?

It's actually a pretty smart move on their part really... guess where the accrued interest from the funds deposited actually go? In the same vein, always withdraw your paypal balance into your bank account, even if it's a dollar... no point letting your money work for them.

Wish google would hurry up and come out with Google Pay.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Really sorry to hear about the mishap, Jorge. I do hope Paypal can solve this one for you.

In case you want to get a warm, fuzzy feeling, just check out Manolo's thread about you. That ought to make you feel really good. 😉

Best of luck!! 😀

 

[JoeFriday]

Wish google would hurry up and come out with Google Pay.

that thought really scares me.. it's like putting Microsoft in charge of the banking industry.. as it is, Google has entirely too much control

 

[MP Guy]

Well, Just got email from the person who accidentally got my 900.00 He was very nice and thought why? None the less, he refunded my money really quickly. I sent him 20.00 for being a nice guy 🙂 Hard to come by these days.

 

[GeneW]

I use Paypal frequently and love the convenience -- especially when buying outside Canada -- but I've learned to be very careful about filling in the data. My eyes are no longer young and sometimes I don't 'see' mistakes I'm typing. I've learned to cut and paste rather than type crucial info. Not foolproof, but it cuts down on data entry errors.

Gene

 

[Kin Lau]

I wonder how long Paypal and Ebay can survive like this. They actually "auto-create" an account!!! You think they would be smart enough to state the account does not exist! What is the point of it?

They're trying to rope the other guy in to be a paypal customer by auto-creating an account. Often, if you sent an email to a valid domain but invalid account, it just fails silently. No way to verify.