Paypal is an online payment service, owned by eBay, that has gained popularity among online businesses. I used their service for about a year to facilitate my buying and selling on eBay.
In June I purchased an item on eBay for just under $1000.00 using my credit card through Paypal. While I was in Chicago on business, I learned to my horror that Paypal had paid the vendor AGAIN, debiting the money from my credit card without my knowledge or authorization.
I called Paypal long distance to Nebraska (you can't get a real person on the 800 number), and tried to find out what was going on. After being put on hold for over 20 minutes, a rather snide customer service representative informed me that while she could see that a double payment had been made, they would not rectify the situation. I was told to "get the money back from the vendor myself."
After getting no response from the vendor; he was a reputable sort; probably thought I was trying to scam HIM— I put the transaction in dispute with my credit card company. About a week later, I received a scolding email from Paypal getting on my case for not using their dispute resolution process before calling my bank. (I found out later that by agreeing to their User Agreement, I waived my right to dispute charges through my bank.) I figured that they had tossed the ball to my court when they refused to help get my money back.
At the moment, the transaction is still in dispute. Paypal will not let me close my account because of that. I have closed the bank account I had linked to them and put a block on my credit card so no transactions of any kind can occur.
I have heard of far worse things that Paypal has done to its users, and I am grateful that the problem involved my credit card so that I had some legal recourse. I am hoping for a speedy and positive resolution!
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