July 8, 2002

8:02 AM

eBayPal.Say, if PayPal doesn't deliver its stock, will they get negative feedback? (See also The Reg coverage.)
posted by darukaru (16 comments total)

Well, as a non-stockholder, I suppose the only difference this will create is further ease-of-use. Instead of having to go to another website to pay for an auction, you get to do it straight from the auction page (which can technically be done right now. It's just fewer people use this method).
posted by JaxJaggywires at 8:35 AM on July 8, 2002

Hopefully this will solve PayPal's horribly bad customer service.
posted by revbrian at 8:43 AM on July 8, 2002

I've not had bad customer service with PayPal. You just have to have the right phone number.

Personally, I'm not happy about this. Especially since eBay has attempted, at every turn, to frustrate PayPal users.

The last company I thought PayPal would sell to would be eBay.
posted by tpoh.org at 8:49 AM on July 8, 2002

tpoh.org - have any links about the attempted frustration? I'd like to read up on it.

I've been happy with both eBay and Paypal.
posted by ODiV at 9:01 AM on July 8, 2002

speaking of ebay, has anyone else been a victim of this?

***Billing Issue***

Some members who use Direct Pay to pay their eBay accounts have reported double charges on their bank accounts in this month's billing cycle. We will be working with our banking service provider first thing Monday morning to correct the affected accounts.

Those members whose bank accounts have been affected will be receiving emails from us with more information. If you do not receive an email from us, your account was not affected.

We understand that this issue is a serious inconvenience to those users affected, and sincerely apologize.

Regards,
eBay

I was double billed friday and I've yet to be reimbursed.
posted by mcsweetie at 9:07 AM on July 8, 2002

ive never had problems with PayPal. this sale saddens me. what a great company they are (were), even if they were an unlicensed uninsured bank.

i was able to pay for my crap fast, and people who bought my crap were able to pay me fast. what more could anyone ask for?
posted by tsarfan at 9:10 AM on July 8, 2002

There have been lots of complaints about Paypal, as documented by NoPayPal and others. (And, to be thorough, eBaySucks.)
posted by waxpancake at 9:14 AM on July 8, 2002

For some reason my PayPal account is now restricted -
Your account has been restricted because our system has detected unauthorized activity linked to your PayPal account

They now want me to FAX:

Valid photo ID
Phone or utility bill
Recent statement for the Credit Union...
Recent statement for the MasterCard Credit Card ....

I'm not happy.
posted by scotty at 9:52 AM on July 8, 2002

I have heard some nightmare stories regarding PayPal, mostly regarding scotty's current situation combined with what seems to be an incredible lack of (easily available) customer support.

Personally, I have had no problems whatsoever, and I use my PayPal money market account and debit card on a daily basis. It's a great way for me to keep track of what I spend cause I have to recharge it, so to speak, when it gets low.
posted by o2b at 10:28 AM on July 8, 2002

I moved overseas and wanted to keep my paypal account so I could continue to purchase US items (and just ship them to a friends house). PayPal said no because even though I was still using the same US Visa card, the mailing address for it was overseas and their system couldn't handle the "confusion". Strike one. They then told me that my account was canceled but continued to send me statements every month. Strike two. I still use the account and it works fine. Strike three! So yes, they are incompetent, but what the hell, at least it works.
posted by gfrobe at 10:38 AM on July 8, 2002

Scotty, the same thing happened to me. It took them FOREVER to get my account re-instated, meanwhile I owed people money and it wasn't pretty. I have never forgiven PayPal for that and I am now close to signing up with an alternative service. However today's news may make me pause...
posted by cell divide at 10:54 AM on July 8, 2002

I wonder if there is any correllation between ebay's billing goof on friday and their purchase of paypal on monday?
posted by mcsweetie at 10:54 AM on July 8, 2002

As a user of eBay's payment system, formerly known as Billpoint, I am very disappointed by this announcement. I left Paypal specifically because of the reported problems, the fear of an unlicensed, unregulated company having access to my bank account, and what I consider unreasonable demands for personal information they make.

I just hope eBay revises some of Paypal's policies to match their own. For some odd reason, I trust eBay a lot more than I trust Paypal.
posted by MegoSteve at 11:35 AM on July 8, 2002

I had a run in with paypal 2 years ago. Paid for an auction. Seller vaporized with $$. Identified 5 other people who also got stung. Paypal refused to do anything. Would not provide one bit of information regarding the seller. Each of us got hit for $250
I am glad they got bought out. Hopefully eBay can straighten the service out.
posted by a3matrix at 11:53 AM on July 8, 2002

an unlicensed, unregulated company having access to my bank account

Yeah -- the most puzzling thing about this is that PayPal's greatest weakness is exactly that aspect of its operations. You'd think they'd have wanted to merge with a bank, to rectify that.

I wonder if they found that banks simply weren't interested (for any amount of money that PayPal would agree to, at least). (It's possible that the banks weren't interested because they are looking into offering their customers PayPal-type services themselves....)

I mean, what's the benefit of this deal for PayPal? Did they just need the security of a larger, more stable parent company?
posted by mattpfeff at 11:54 AM on July 8, 2002

Yeah -- the most puzzling thing about this is that PayPal's greatest weakness is exactly that aspect of its operations. You'd think they'd have wanted to merge with a bank, to rectify that.

I'm no paypal expert, but from my very limited understanding, paypal WAS bought out by a "bank" type business called X.COM.

X.COM was FDIC insured (the only info I can find on this is here towards the bottom under X-Tip) "Banking services are provided by First Western National Bank, member FDIC"

Apparently that didn't work out too well for them, and the online banking services were forgotten to expand paypal services...

Anyone have any more info?
posted by lynda at 1:02 PM on July 8, 2002