Let me tell you a little story and you tell me if I’m off base. See, I’m thinking of breaking up with Paypal. I’ve had Paypal since the early 2000’s. It’s always been a great way to send someone money by email. Then, I got screwed. I relied on Paypal to do what I asked them to do, and instead they drained my funds.
I had about $500 in my Paypal account, and was keeping it there, for a specific purpose. I have my Paypal account set to use my checking account as my default payment method. I have that set for all payees that I have authorized. Unfortunately, Paypal decided to override this, against my wishes.
Today I saw that I only had a balance of $34. What the $#%#$^$%^!?!?!?!?! I was so careful! What happened? I sign onto my account, and sure enough all these transactions went against my balance and not my damn checking account!
Well, I better contact support, right? So I go to Help – Contact Support, on their site. It keeps re-routing me to search their knowledgebase. This isn’t a how-do-I-do something type of issue. This is a I-need-to-talk-to-someone-about-my-specific-account type of issue. I get frustrated and tweet at them.
.@PayPal WTF, I keep choosing contact customer service, on your website and keep getting rerouted to the damn knowledge-base. I want to ask a damn question about my damn balance now!— 1HumanRace❤️🌍❤️ (@misscrf) March 20, 2018
Crickets. I see they have another twitter handle, just for support. I reply to my original tweet, asking them if they can hear me.
@AskPayPal is anyone there? Or am I just to assume that when I need help, I can be sure to be frustrated by automated responses and no help. Really wanting to just close my damn account, since I can’t rely on it to work the way I intending it to.— 1HumanRace❤️🌍❤️ (@misscrf) March 20, 2018
Again, crickets.
I go to their site, this time NOT signed in (typical IT type troubleshooting at how to get through to a human). I see you can email or call. I email. It will take 24 hours. No thanks. I’d like to understand this now. I call. I keep getting asked what my issues is, and I’m done with automated shuffling of my patronage, to the right tube of let’s get rid of you and your concerns. I keep saying “operator” and “I give up” until is just puts me into a queue.
I finally get to talk to someone, and we go over what happened. The rep (who was nice and trying to help) informed me that while I can have a default method for my payment, from Paypal, I may have a different default, with approved vendors (payees). He asks me to sign on to my account, so he can show me where.
This is where Paypal customer service could use the adage that attorneys know. Never ask a question. you don’t know the answer to. ie. don’t lead someone down a path, if you don’t know where it leads.
First, I say, ‘OK I signed on to the app’. He tells me, no you need to sign on to the web browser (desktop). I comment that limiting functionality in the app is so stupid and short-sighted. He directs me to the appropriate section, of going to my profile — payments manage pre-approved payments.
It looks like this:
Notice the small print under the chosen payment method. It says “We’ll use your balance first”. Who in the actual #$%$# decided to make that happen? If you edit the payment method there is no way to turn that off, which is what the rep found when we got there. I pointed that out, and he was like, “Oh, I see that. I guess you can’t change that.” So you’re saying my issue is legit, there is nothing Paypal can do to rectify the issue, and oh well?
I set a default payment in Paypal. I set it again with each of the automatic payments to vendors, but for some reason Paypal decided to override my wishes, drain my account, and I’m left holding the bag of dog @$#%.
Yeah, I’m a little pissed.
Paypal,
I’m thinking we may just have to break up. I’ll try Venmo or something. You were great, for a long time, but now you just screwed me. I have to put together this money again, and I was counting on the money I had in each account, being there.
If I do decide to close my account, and never look back, just know; it’s not me. It’s you.
Sincerely,
A customer since 2000
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