Is this Paypal experience customary? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#31

Post by pownr » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

sushiburps wrote: post #22

kalleboo wrote: post #9

No, most people would not be this agitated about a mistaken transaction being silently refunded. At best they'd probably assume the notification went to spam or something and went on with their day My bank doesn't notify me about any transactions, I have to check my bank book manually. Once a mistaken transaction showed up and disappeared a few hours later, with no trace left behind at all. I just assumed it was a mi…

Totally agree with you, not sure exactly what happened he's upset about. They reversed an erroneous deposit.

He is upset about the reversed deposit not being notified. I thought it was pretty clear from the post.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#32

Post by FDSGSG » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:54 AM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #12

A few years ago, I sent my youngest son to a well-known online retailer to buy some computer gear. What he got was a counterfeit, a fake that was broken. He started the refund process, but I was pretty miffed that my reputation with my kid got mixed up in these poor business practices. So I emailed management and asked that they apologize to the kid. It took almost forever to get them to figure out that I was not ask…

>It took almost forever to get them to figure out that I was not asking for a refund. I was asking for somebody to explain what happened, apologize, and take steps for it not to happen again.

This is not the payment processors job, this is the merchants job. Instead of PayPal you could just as well have contacted Visa/MC/Whoever or your issuing bank, they wouldn't have been able to do much for you either.

E: Yeah, I guess I misinterpreted the parent.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#33

Post by cpg » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:55 AM UTC

PayPal is horrible, both as a merchant and a customer. In every single way possible. From APIs to service, to explanations to everything. It's time for someone else to take their place and everyone stop using PayPal.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#34

Post by FDSGSG » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:55 AM UTC

Moru wrote: post #26

Once I ordered some expensive gear from UK and only option to pay was PayPal. I ordered and paid for the goods, order shipped and a few days later I get a mail from the selling company asking why I locked their account for fraud protection or some such. PayPal sent me the money back and I got the goods. Offcourse I didn't use PayPal again and sent them a normal bank transfer instead. Was also a better exchange rate t…

>few days later I get a mail from the selling company asking why I locked their account for fraud protection or some such

How come most of these stories seem to involve obviously incompetent merchants?

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#35

Post by kyberias » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:56 AM UTC

Very weird case. The person got angry even though it was not his money to begin with. Absolutely no harm was caused to him. The person demanded explanation why an erroneous amount of money visited his account. Yet it's none of his business. There was a moment in this incident where any reasonable person would have just moved on.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#36

Post by FDSGSG » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:57 AM UTC

edcrfv wrote: post #4

This is standard PayPal. They don’t give a crap about their merchants and it’s been widely documented in the past. See https://www.google.com/search?q=paypal+horror+stories

Can you name some payment processors which do care about their smaller merchants?

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#37

Post by SXX » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 10:58 AM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #23

tinus_hn wrote: post #21

It’s difficult to understand why people are even using this service anymore. PayPal is not your ‘pal’ and to use them safely you need insurance and leverage all the way. The only reason I can imagine is that it works most of the time. But the times where it fails are invariably a disaster.

PayPal survives because they keep end users happy, we (the people using PayPal to take payment or integrating it) aren't the end user. Proof a ruthless focus in the right place can overcome almost anything. They've been shit forever.

  > PayPal survives because they keep end users happy, we (the people using PayPal to take payment or integrating it) aren't the end user.

I have no clue where you get that idea. PayPal was freezing end-users accounts, had a bad support and very inconsistent refund limits since forever. Almost everyone I know who heavily used it had issues with it at some point in time.

Yeah as long as you just use PayPal once a year to make some payment through your debit card it's okay, but any advanced user who use it more often will eventually get in trouble.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#38

Post by FDSGSG » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 11:01 AM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #24

tinus_hn wrote: post #21

It’s difficult to understand why people are even using this service anymore. PayPal is not your ‘pal’ and to use them safely you need insurance and leverage all the way. The only reason I can imagine is that it works most of the time. But the times where it fails are invariably a disaster.

It's a two-sided market with one-sided dispute resolution, like eBay. Customers love it because it almost always finds in their favour. Sellers hate it because it almost always finds in favour of the customer. Neither side really wants to pay higher transaction fees in the hope of better justice from the dispute resolution. Ultimately if you get into a bit enough dispute with Paypal you have to consider using the rea…

> Sellers hate it

I think this is almost exclusively small, inexperienced merchants.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#39

Post by DanielBMarkham » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 11:03 AM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #16

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #12

A few years ago, I sent my youngest son to a well-known online retailer to buy some computer gear. What he got was a counterfeit, a fake that was broken. He started the refund process, but I was pretty miffed that my reputation with my kid got mixed up in these poor business practices. So I emailed management and asked that they apologize to the kid. It took almost forever to get them to figure out that I was not ask…

On call centers, I will keep pointing people at: http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2012/01/21/the-politics-of-... > Inappropriate automation and human/machine confusion bedevil call centres. If you could solve your problem by filling in a web form, you probably would have done. The fact you’re in the queue is evidence that your request is complicated, that something has gone wrong, or generally that human intervention…

Call centers, warehouses, and distribution centers; all places where people seem to be required yet their creativity and input isn't. For a large part, we treat them like they're just meat robots.

I remember the first time I saw the computer-controlled voice-directing picking. You wear the headset. The computer tells you what to do. I see this way of working eating up more and more workers.

One economist put it this way in a recent column I read: robots aren't taking your jobs. Robots are becoming your bosses.

Re: Is this Paypal experience customary?

#40

Post by jtbayly » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 11:04 AM UTC

kyberias wrote: post #35

Very weird case. The person got angry even though it was not his money to begin with. Absolutely no harm was caused to him. The person demanded explanation why an erroneous amount of money visited his account. Yet it's none of his business. There was a moment in this incident where any reasonable person would have just moved on.

Wrong. He got upset because he wasn’t notified of the refund.

Notification of deducted money is something that is quite reasonable to expect.

In this case he was trying to figure out what to do, it was handled by others, and a notification would have let him know that it was handled.