PayPal CEO writes personal response • Hacker News Board

Why does it take a story to make it to front page Hacker News to get attention, to get a "direct channel" to the executives when things go wrong? It ignores the all the horrible complaints and stories from everybody else. It's inequity in itself when the only way you will get attention from big companies is from making posts on Hacker News.

Why are they not paying attention to their other day-to-day customers? What kind of business do you intend on building?

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#35

Post by maratd » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 9:58 PM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #21

Here is what I would do... I would take him up on his offer (personal attention from the CEO? Sure!), but I would ask him whether he'd be willing to pick 3 or 4 other customers who had _NOT_ written an article which had gone viral and offer THEM the same deal. I want this to be true. I want PayPal to believe that this behavior is harmful to their business and to push (at ALL levels of the company) to change how they…

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me! I had 20K removed from my account without an explanation and even hired a lawyer, all of which went absolutely nowhere.

This is all a bunch of baloney. If PayPal was really serious about fixing all the pain and misery they caused, they would create a direct line of communication where those on the other end were empowered to resolve all problems ... instead of giving a curt "send us a letter".

Until PayPal starts working with their customers and stops treating them like criminals, I'll take my business elsewhere.

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#36

Post by adgar » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 10:03 PM UTC

wging wrote: post #20

sync wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says right there: "I'm driving a lot of changes at PayPal (I took over 5 months ago)"

But 5 months is a long time. Why only now? Surely there have been high-profile cases whose media frenzies can be capitalized on before now.

"I can run a 3 man startup and change things in a week! Why can't a public traded company worth billions with thousands of employees change things in a week?"

Check your ignorance and entitlement at the door, please.

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#37

Post by rhizome » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 10:05 PM UTC

njloof wrote: post #8

Step one for PayPal would be to always provide a reason when they take action, for all users. Every bad experience I have had with PayPal began with them doing something negative, and never explaining why they did it. I have had methods of payment locked out, I have had funds not released, I have been told I could not make an instant payment, and not once was I given a reason why.

PayPal is second only to the TSA in reflecting the futility of asking for such things.

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#38

Post by noonespecial » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 10:06 PM UTC

This isn't special... Yet. What happened here can happen even in the most dysfunctional customer service paradigms. A promblem randomly and luckily escalated from the people who can't do anything about the problem to the people who (generally speaking) won't do anything about the problem. As a lucky break, the person/department who generally won't do anything, decided in their mercy to do something this one time. IMHO, what was said in the email is just marketing duck-speak, no matter how sincere it sounds until proven otherwise.

The true fix, the actuall turnaround, is when the ability to actually fix problems like this is systemically extended deep into the space previously occupied by the employees who couldn't fix them before.

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#39

Post by rm999 » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 10:06 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #10

So bloggers with enough pull to get the CEO's attention will no longer have their funds stolen by PayPal. Now how about the rest of us?

I realize you are being cynical, but the e-mail says the CEO wants to make radical changes to fix issues for all customers. I'm a bit skeptical myself, but if we take him for his word this isn't just for a subset of users.

Re: PayPal CEO writes personal response

#40

Post by rhizome » Sat, Sep 08, 2012, 10:14 PM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #38

This isn't special... Yet. What happened here can happen even in the most dysfunctional customer service paradigms. A promblem randomly and luckily escalated from the people who can't do anything about the problem to the people who (generally speaking) won't do anything about the problem. As a lucky break, the person/department who generally won't do anything, decided in their mercy to do something this one time. IMH…

The thing is, this "fix" only came about outside of their entire customer service mechanism (AFAICT). How many more disenfranchised customers are going to get "a direct line" to @davidmarcus? My guess is "none."

This is a pure PR maneuver. The proof is in the pudding.