First let me state that I am a PayPal customer and have been for over 7 years. On April 20th, PayPal froze my capital money assets for no real reason. I was profiled for not giving out information concerning my account to a representative from PayPal over the phone. Why? When I get a phone call from a person with a foreign accent, I am a little reluctant to talk, especially after the events of 9/11.
In broken English, and hardly intelligible, the agent for PayPal asked about my selling account on eBay. He asked where I was getting my watches and things. I replied, "I can't understand what you are saying and would like to speak to someone that speaks English." He replied in the same broken, hard to understand English again, "Do you have proof of purchase? Where are you getting these watches?" I said, "I am not only selling watches, I sell many things. I don't understand what you are talking about. I want to speak to someone that speaks English." His reply, in an upset tone, was, "I understand English very well!" My reply was, "Good! But I don't understand you! I want to speak to your supervisor." His reply was, "You can speak to my supervisor after you answer my questions!" At this point I was frustrated, irritated and mad, and I asked him once again to let me speak to someone I can understand who speaks English and to his supervisor. At that time he interrupted me and said, "Fine then, I am freezing your account," and hung up. Nearly $2000.00 was immediately frozen! My credit card was locked out. I lost revenue from my auctions.
Then the almost Gestapo-like interrogation over the phone began, and in emails also. They asked for certain verifications. I gave them! Next it was more of this, more of that: proof of purchase, proof of shipping and delivery, my Social Security number, proof of where I live, proof of utility bills. And always after proving one item after another, some new undiscussed question was asked! It took me 10 days and 5-6 PayPal agents to get my money back! No apologies. Just a different person every time I called, and each and every person I talked to promised that they were going to go out of their way to help.
Finally, after talking to another unhelpful representative, the conversation went like this:
Me: "Susan, I've done everything you asked for. The faxes have come in. I spent over $30.00 on faxes."
Susan: "Well, Mr. Xxxxx, that's not PayPal's problem."
Me: "I know that, Susan, but all this came about because your company chooses to have someone call me with broken English and he didn't like me asking him to speak to a supervisor."
Susan: "Mr. Xxxx, you have been very difficult throughout this whole process, and you shouldn't have tried to open another account."
Me: "That was a mistake. All I wanted to do was have another email account to open another selling venue on eBay! So, are you profiling me because I didn't want to talk to someone I couldn't understand?"
Susan: "Well, he is an American citizen and we are an Equal Opportunity Employer."
Me: "Good, that's fine, but what is he doing, with an accent like his, asking security questions over the phone with an accent that I can't understand? What is PayPal thinking? Especially after 9/11. How do I know who he is? And why wouldn't he let me talk to a representative?"
I got nowhere until I asked to speak to her supervisor. No, in fact, I want to speak to a CEO or higher, because I am now being profiled for being cautious after the events of 9/11.
Susan: "Mr. Xxxxx, I can have my supervisor call you tomorrow."
Me: "OK, that's fine! But I want to speak to the CEO or higher up, because you are not helping me one bit!"
The next morning when I got up, my account was unlocked! Gee, what happened? I started reading blogs on the internet about PayPal. Did you know that they are on some island and are not governed by U.S. banking regulations? They can keep your money anytime they want to, and the United States can't do a thing! Out of this ten day excursion into the PayPal system, I could come up with a great script for a great movie! Of course I could add some fiction, but I wouldn't need to! Now I see why there are so many class action suits against PayPal.
Hey! Don't believe me. Go look on the web. Oh, PayPal was bought out by eBay. And they also bought out Inkfrog, which is an auction listing service. I thought there weren't supposed to be any monopolies? Does any production company want to buy my experience for a movie? Contact me through this blog.
Do I still use PayPal? Yes! Why? I have my reasons...
0 comments