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PayPal Really Makes Me Mad!
I got an email from PayPal today:
We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party. We have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features in case your account has been accessed by an unauthorized third party. We understand that having limited access can be an inconvenience, but protecting your account is our primary concern.
Well, it wasn’t a third person, it was me. I used PayPal to collect registration fees for IIW (happening next week). All the money we have to pay vendors, etc. is in that account and I can’t get to it now. Of course, PayPal has already taken their cut, so what do they care?
To get the account back online I have to do four things:
- Submit a bank statement for the account I’m transfering to.
- Change my password
- Change my security questions
- Confirm my location
I was good on the first three. The last one required that I tied a credit card to the account and then they wanted to call me and have me enter a security code. They called the number I had listed long ago that isn’t one I have access to on the weekend. They gave me no notice that they were going to call the number—they just did it. Since I didn’t answer the phone they said this:
We mailed a letter with your Location Confirmation code to the following address. When you receive the letter, please follow the instructions on how to enter the code on the PayPal website. Please allow 7 to 9 days for your letter to arrive in the mail.
Huh???? Seven to nine days!?! Meanwhile I’ve got bills to pay and I’m not sure what I’m going to do.
I appreciate that PayPal is taking security seriously, but this is way overboard, as far as I can tell. They’ve made thousands of dollars from the money I collect there. The least they could do is provide a human for me to talk to and work this out. I’m willing to pay PayPal’s high fees for the convenience, but this is very inconvenient.. I think I’ll look somewhere else for the next IIW. I need to know that when the event rolls around I collected money for, I’ll be able to get it.
Update: This morning (Dec 3) I logged into my PayPal account hoping I could download new attendees and got a message that my account at been restored. I don’t know if it was my attempted intervention or whether some of the steps I completed (like sending a copy of my bank statement) was sufficient. In any event, it looks like IIW will be able to pay it’s bills on time. Yeah!
Posted by windley on November 30, 2007 5:44 PM
Comment from William at November 30, 2007 6:15 PM
Yikes. What if your money really was accessed illegally? Maybe I'm missing something here but it seems like this policy gives crooks an extra 7-9 days to make their getaway.
Comment from Steve Williams at November 30, 2007 7:45 PM
They did this to me awhile back. I was able to find a phone number through their web site, and when I called, they unlocked the account. The promised letter never did arrive in the mail.
Comment from jared call at November 30, 2007 11:59 PM
you can get paypal numbers on gethuman.com.
Comment from R Pollack at December 1, 2007 12:04 PM
My experience of PayPal and their parent company eBay is that they are both companies that put profit before customer service. They can get away with it for the time being because both are de facto monopolies [eBay has over 90% of the online auction market]. Two things might happen to change their approach to their customers. 1. the EU could take action against them on competition grounds. 2. Google or Amazon could emerge as serious competitors. The sooner either or both of these things happen the better.
Comment from vaporland at December 2, 2007 6:08 AM
well, make sure your contact info is up to date if you are going to use them to make a living...
if there WAS a fraud, you'd be upset that they let someone take your money without contacting you...
Comment from Rusty Hodge at December 4, 2007 1:37 AM
What sense does it make for them to tell you they think some third party accessed your account, and therefore you need to change your password? Why wouldn't the third party just change your password at that point?
With bad ideas like this, no wonder so many people fall for phishing attacks! It looked like a man in the middle attack to me!
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