

My Recent Experience with PayPal Customer Service. - chrowe
http://christianowens.com/post/15771850658/my-recent-experience-with-paypal-customer-service

======
caseyf
Try PayPal's Merchant Technical Support (<https://ppmts.custhelp.com/app/ask>
\- Mass Pay is under "API Products") The developer forums on x.com can
sometimes be helpful as well. They have a few staff members that work the
boards.

If you're a developer, you don't really want to use their front line Customer
Service.

It also helps to have an account manager but how you get one is a mystery.
They called us up one day and said, Hi! I'm your new account manager.

------
AndrewDucker
Either their staff are lying to their customers in an obvious manner (not a
good idea) or their internal documentation lies to their ignorant staff (not a
good idea).

Either way around this is pretty much a perfect example of awful customer
service.

~~~
eduardordm
Also, an example of the complete lack of manners. I don't know if I'm getting
more sensitive to that kind of treatment or people are actually getting more
aggressive, unsympathetic and losing their manners.

This is not about PayPal, this is about people that can't be nice to each
other, can't help nor will try to, that can't answer a phone call without
provoking an argue for no reason at all.

I see some of that kind of manners here at HN too. This makes me really sad.

~~~
yangez
I don't know about this. I've called Paypal many times and even though they
sometimes weren't very helpful, they were always friendly and very respectful.
Intentionally or unintentionally, the poster probably transcribed a phone call
in a way that made the representative seem more blunt. I doubt it was
transcribed word-for-word.

This is still ridiculous on Paypal's part, though. Good customer service isn't
all about friendliness and nice words like "thanks for calling". People would
appreciate it far more if Paypal omitted the pleasantries and just solved
their problems.

~~~
brackin
I've rang PayPal before and been treated like an idiot. I got a notification
to call and was told that the manager in charge of that issue won't be back
for a few days so call back them. A far cry from the 24/7 support a few
companies are starting to implement.

------
chrislomax
I get worried the more I read about PayPal recently. I have had no immediate
problems with PayPal before but I am worried it's more a matter of "When" I
get issues and not "If".

This whole conversation is very worrying in particular, can they really be
that stupid and un-interested?

~~~
51Cards
Agreed, for the last while we have been instructing clients away from Paypal.

~~~
chrislomax
The problem is that only companies dealing with them on a merchant level
really feel what PayPal is like. From a customer point of view it's a minority
who experience problems (from what I read).

So that leaves you in a dilemma, users like using PayPal because it's quick
and easy so from a company point of view, you have to offer it as a payment
option. It's a massive catch 22.

We saw conversions go literally up 50% when we introduced PayPal as an option
for payment on one site so it's really hard to make a stand against it.

~~~
milesskorpen
Given the number of stories and PayPal's 100M active users, even the merchant
complaints are (an extreme) minority of people who have issues. It comes down
to PayPal caring more about buyers and big merchants than little merchants.

(Disclaimer: I work for another part of eBay.)

------
methoddk
PayPal is run by imbeciles. I was once scammed on eBay by a buyer who received
my item, then returned a broken identical one, notifying PayPal that I scammed
him. Without even looking at my sales record or waiting for my response, they
took the money out of my account and closed the issue.

After a month and a half of fighting on the phone with people who can't
comprehend basic logic, getting an affidavit notarized, AND submitting photo
evidence of the switch: I was only awarded 80% of the original amount.

The buyer was allowed to continue using eBay and PayPal to scam people, and I
got negative feedback.

From this experience and the countless others posted to blogs every day, it's
astonishing people still use the service.

Boycott PayPal!

~~~
lelele
Actually, as soon as the seller as a decent amount of feedback, I switch to
wire transfers, if available. Why should I make an hardworking person pay to
get paid?

Truth is: PayPal is too big to care about the little guy.

------
lkrubner
I was struggling with the same issues in December and I got no response when I
posted questions to the official PayPal developer forums. I finally posted the
question "Has this forum been abandoned?" It took them 3 days to respond,
simply to say the forums had not been abandoned. My original set of questions
went a week without an answer. Look here:

[https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/forums/paypal-
developers...](https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/forums/paypal-
developers/has-forum-been-abandoned)

When they finally answered, this was their response:

\------------------

Sorry for the delay. The reason why you are getting this error is because your
PayPal account is not setup to use MassPay API. MassPay API is currently not
available on accounts by default. You will need to contact customer support at
the numbers below and request for your account to be reviewed and approved to
use MassPay API. Thanks. US/CA: 1-888-221-1161 UK: 08707 307 191 Australia:
1-800-073-263 Germany: 0180 500 66 27 Other: 1-402-935-2080

\-------------------

I called and got no useful help (my experience was like that of the OP).

------
josefresco
My recent experience with PayPal Custom Service: I got a large payment via
Square right away into my account from a client (first payment ever on a new
PP account). So... Couple days later customer rep called me, asked about the
transaction, if I would be receiving the same kinds regularly, confirmed a
couple details about me and then ended the call. Few days later got an email
saying my account has been unlocked and the money was now avail.

Seemed all perfectly reasonable.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

~~~
astrodust
You forgot the part where, when you were visiting Eastern Europe, you
accidentally logged back in to PayPal and they suspended your account and
seized all the funds.

~~~
powertower
You forgot the part where someone logs into your account from Eastern Europe,
drains it, then uses it to perform fraud transactions on eBay, and PayPal does
nothing, so you take it to the internet for some payback.

PayPal can be harsh, I get that, but I also understand that:

1\. They have 100 million _active_ accounts which leaves even a small number
of bad experiences turning into floods on the internet.

2\. Being able to prevent fraud is 95% of the game in this business.

3\. More than half of those bad experiences are downright un-true (leave out
parts of story) and involve some type of shady operations by the user.

~~~
cperciva
_More than half of those bad experiences are downright un-true (leave out
parts of story) and involve some type of shady operations by the user._

From what I've read, more than half of the Paypal "horror stories" involve
people being completely truthful that they're doing something shady, and not
understanding why Paypal is suspicious.

------
dlikhten
This is the Apple argument: But apple is so easy to use. And the counter side
always says "but what you give up trumps any ease of use" at which point the
person either gets it or keeps whining.

Stop using paypal, regardless of how good the features are.

------
lzy
Flat out denying the existence of a well-documented product feature? I'm
curious how this will all turn out.

~~~
cookiecaper
Not sure what you're expecting, it appears to have already "turned out" -- the
OP cannot use the Mass Payment service because no one in PayPal will allow him
to do so or even acknowledge it exists (unless you have an invite?). The CSRs
refuse to escalate the issue so the OP can't talk to anyone else. His options
appear to be to continue banging head against PayPal customer service in hopes
that he gets the engineer that implemented "Mass Payments" or he can decide to
use something else.

------
leeoniya
a quick google search turns up [https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-
bin/?cmd=_render-content&c...](https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-
content&content_ID=merchant/mass_pay)

there is a "sign up" button on the bottom. i don't know how it can be claimed
that is invite-only. maybe in the UK?

------
nalidixic
I know a lot of people tend to bitch about Paypal but I think it's important
to remember that there are a ton of cases where the service is fantastic. I
for one was on the phone with them last night to sort out an issue. The rep
was very knowledgeable and helpful. Just saying keep it in perspective!

------
idiot900
Honestly, is anyone surprised? PayPal is a very large service that does not
need to differentiate itself from its competitors with superior customer
service. Clueless CS reps are par for the course in situations like these.

~~~
thunfischbrot
Similar experience here. Previously I logged into my Paypal from overseas and
was subsequently blocked. No message as to what happened or why I could not
log in. I worked out that it was probably because of the sudden change of
location. Tried for weeks on and off to reactivate the account, but was forced
to coordinate for family members to send me additional personal documents
since Paypal required more documentation than one needs to travel around the
world. Calls to customer service were answered in condescending voice, and
worded in a way to make it sound like "my problem", and nothing helpful came
from the calls except the same information found on the website.

------
ROFISH
I had the same problem with MassPay too. I got a customer service rep
immediately who told me that you had to call in to enable it due to fraud and
incorrectly configured SaaS payment apps. It did take like 2-3 hours to enable
it because I guess it was slow that day or something. (The rep was audibly
frustrated at the unusual slowness and random errors that day.)

------
mintplant
It's obvious: PayPal is run by robots.

