So much for buying gifts online...

I think back to whoever posted abount an issue with paypal several months back. I know the pain..While its not me personally, its my friend, Who graciously allowed me to use her credit card to pay for my items.

I gave her just under 80 dollars to order 3 things off ebay. She purchased something on Dec. 25th and so did I. Then the 27th, I got her to order my other 2 items.
I checked her ebay account (she allows me access) and everything was ok and items were shipped.

Fast forward to today (technically yesterday, the 31st) she messages me and tells me she is $122 dollars in the hole in her bank account. Yep, paypal took the money from her bank account instead of the credit card, which she is 100% sure she used, obviously knowing she didn't have the funds in her account. One item was covered, the other 3 came back NSF, with a $42 price per NSF.

She called paypal right away and they INSISTED she used her bank account but offered to TRY to give her half of the debt back.

I am totally "online shopping illiterate" and well, just kinda clueless in general...but if the funds were not available, how did the sellers get their money? Or did they just not get notified yet that the money is not really there? I am assuming the money will eventually come off the credit card...but I feel rotten that she may only get 60 dollars back to cover her debt and I really don't have the rest of the money to pay off the other half, which I feel like I should.

Can you really win against paypal...or will she be fighting a losing battle. I am soooo frustrated even though its not my account that got screwed.

Uh...I doubt if she is 100% sure she used her credit card.  When placing an order YOU chose the method of payment.  Sounds like your friend made a mistake and does not want to own up to it.

She is sure she used it. She orders stuff all the time. She did over a couple days, I can't see her making that same mistake 3 times, knowing she doesn't have the funds. She is very,very careful about that. The fact that paypal offered to pay half the overdraft sort of tells me they screwed up and don't want to admit it. I can't see them giving money back if they are dead set on the fact she used her bank account. Paypal is sneaky and she isn't the first person this has happened to.

If she has overdraft protection on her account the purchase will be paid for and she will get hit with fees.

Many banks don't explain Reg E.  I opted out of all the overdraft protection on all my accounts.

I  may have been the person who posted about this in September.

1.  Is she 100% sure she actually clicked on the part where you choose to pay with a bank account or credit card? It's very easy to think you did, but I think I thought that, too, and mistakenly clicked on the bank option (I only keep $5 in that account; it was started to get payroll IRA deductions started).

2.  After much phone calling, I was able to get Paypal to send me an email that stated that my bank should reverse the fees. They suggested that themselves, and promptly sent me the email, so I could print it out and take to the bank. Be aware that Paypal will automatically try 3 times to collect; you'll need to make sure that the bank knows that (I think the bank actually told about the 3 times thing), and have that print out ready each time.

3.  After doing #2, eveything was cleared up.

The initial problems with Paypal were that the guy I talked to said I needed to have my account verified; i.e., have a bank account linked to it. That had been done months before. He didn't know what he was talking about. I finally was able to talk to someone else who did. Be prepared for that, and be persistent. Keep emailing and calling (calling is better; but email is in writing; do both to protect yourself).

MargeCat said:

I  may have been the person who posted about this in September.

1.  Is she 100% sure she actually clicked on the part where you choose to pay with a bank account or credit card? It's very easy to think you did, but I think I thought that, too, and mistakenly clicked on the bank option (I only keep $5 in that account; it was started to get payroll IRA deductions started).

2.  After much phone calling, I was able to get Paypal to send me an email that stated that my bank should reverse the fees. They suggested that themselves, and promptly sent me the email, so I could print it out and take to the bank. Be aware that Paypal will automatically try 3 times to collect; you'll need to make sure that the bank knows that (I think the bank actually told about the 3 times thing), and have that print out ready each time.

3.  After doing #2, eveything was cleared up.

The initial problems with Paypal were that the guy I talked to said I needed to have my account verified; i.e., have a bank account linked to it. That had been done months before. He didn't know what he was talking about. I finally was able to talk to someone else who did. Be prepared for that, and be persistent. Keep emailing and calling (calling is better; but email is in writing; do both to protect yourself).

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Yes, she is 100% sure she selected the credit card...But even if she did select her bank account, I can't see her doing 3 times over different days. She is so careful at making sure its the credit card and always double checks. (I've watched her and nagged her to make sure myself lol).

So can she get them to take it from the credit card, or are they going to keep trying to get it from her bank account? She is remaining fairly calm over the whole situation but I feel bad since it was my items. I will tell her what you've said and hopefully paypal will do that for her. 

The worst part is, she has money going into her account this week and the bank is going to take it to cover the debt if she can't clear this up. I am going to remove my paypal account, I think. I've seen too many horror stories about them and can't risk them screwing me over. I am sort of surprised paypal is so popular considering the amount of issues people have with them.

I bought one of my dogs through PayPal - the breeder lived in Illinois and I'm in Canada so it was the easiest way. He was being shipped to me a few weeks later, so it would have been very tight for me to send her a cheque and then wait for it to clear and hope that it did before the flight. PayPal was supposed to take the money off of my credit card, I wanted it that way because I didn't know this lady very well at the time and for all I knew she could have been trying to just get money and then never send me the dog - I wanted the extra protection of having it on the card and not my bank account so I could dispute it better if that happened. Anyways, they took it out of my bank account instead, which thankfully had the money in it anyways. I just left it as it was because we got the flight pushed up and I would have known in time to dispute it with PayPal if things did go south. 

My dad has also had them take things out of his bank account instead of off his credit card. 

I got rid of that PayPal account and opened a new one. I'm not verified anymore, but that hasn't been a problem so far and I barely use it now anyways. 

This is why I don't have my bank account connected to Pay Pal.  I don't want anyone having direct access to my bank account.  I have a credit card that is used just for them and have not had any problems. 

Unfortunately, Paypal/eBay has a lifetime dollar limit on how much you can spend. Once you hit that (currently $10,000 USD), you must link your bank account to your Paypal account. This is what happened to me. I don't like it, either.  Their excuse: "To monitor [potential] money laundering." Seriously. Personally, I think they just want an excuse to find a way to make one pay with actual money; I suppose they've had a lot of problems with people and bad credit cards. Also, they have to pay credit card fees, I suppose.
 

CheshireCat said:

This is why I don't have my bank account connected to Pay Pal.  I don't want anyone having direct access to my bank account.  I have a credit card that is used just for them and have not had any problems. 

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I'm sure Paypal can make that error.

She should be able to have it charged to her c.c., but she may have to fight with them a bit. Again, if she incurs bank fees, get Paypal to email a letter to her, telling the bank to remove the fees. This is what I did.

Despite some recent problems with Paypal, I still like using it.  I had a spate of bad eBay transactions last year, and Paypal fought for me, and the issues were resolved, with little difficulty, in my favor.  I also buy LOTS of stuff on eBay; much of it for the cats, as it's much cheaper (I have 9 mouths to feed and rear ends to litter, LOL). I can also get a wide variety of items, especially for gifts, that I simply can't find within a 100 mile radius of here. To me, at any rate, it's worth the occasional hassle. I find that evenbuying in stores is often a pain nowadays--this happens much more frequently than with Paypal/eBay, in my experience.

LuvMyParker said:

Yes, she is 100% sure she selected the credit card...But even if she did select her bank account, I can't see her doing 3 times over different days. She is so careful at making sure its the credit card and always double checks. (I've watched her and nagged her to make sure myself lol).

So can she get them to take it from the credit card, or are they going to keep trying to get it from her bank account? She is remaining fairly calm over the whole situation but I feel bad since it was my items. I will tell her what you've said and hopefully paypal will do that for her. 

The worst part is, she has money going into her account this week and the bank is going to take it to cover the debt if she can't clear this up. I am going to remove my paypal account, I think. I've seen too many horror stories about them and can't risk them screwing me over. I am sort of surprised paypal is so popular considering the amount of issues people have with them.

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She called Paypal today and they are going to send a letter for her to take to the bank to hopefully clear the nsf charges. Unfortunately they did try again to take the money from her account and the charges are currently pending, so they said they can't take the payment from her cc until its done pending.

I went into my Paypal today and removed my back account. I am scared now. lol. If things don't get cleared up and the bank gets snooty about it, I am going to pay some of it back to her. Hopefully it will all work out though. I was reading a bunch of stories today about people getting ripped off by paypal. Its kind of scary considering how many people use it and 99% of ebay sellers now only deal with them. Something more secure and reliable needs to come up.

MargeCat said:

Unfortunately, Paypal/eBay has a lifetime dollar limit on how much you can spend. Once you hit that (currently $10,000 USD), you must link your bank account to your Paypal account. This is what happened to me. I don't like it, either.  Their excuse: "To monitor [potential] money laundering." Seriously. Personally, I think they just want an excuse to find a way to make one pay with actual money; I suppose they've had a lot of problems with people and bad credit cards. Also, they have to pay credit card fees, I suppose.
 

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Wow I did not know that!  I shop a lot but so far have not reached the limit.  Maybe Paypal is not so convenient after all.

It took 10 years of a LOT of eBaying, in my case!  Despite the rare problems, I still like PayPal overall. It sure beats the "check is in the mail" days on eBay, both as a seller and a buyer.
 

CheshireCat said:

Wow I did not know that!  I shop a lot but so far have not reached the limit.  Maybe Paypal is not so convenient after all.

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