Jun 03, 2008 17:14
For those of you that remember Gretchen (G-Dog) from YCP - she posted this on her MS today. Her PayPal account was hacked and she lost $2,500. I wanted to share this with you so that you don't get f'd like she did. Please, pass it along if you think it could help someone else.
June 3, 2008
Paypal Complaint/Customer Service
To Whom It Does Concern:
On Thursday, May 22nd I was notified of seven (7) unauthorized Paypal transactions. I discovered that my Paypal account was hacked and $2473.69 was stolen from my checking account. The "security" of Paypal's system did not protect my financial information and as a result, my checking account ended up with a balance of negative $1074.16.
I called Paypal on May 22nd and waited on hold for 65 minutes before receiving assistance. This was totally unacceptable and you should seriously reconsider your method of call-handling. The Customer Service representative I spoke with was helpful in walking me through filing the seven (7) claims for the unauthorized transactions. She advised me that is would take 10 days for Paypal to research the claims and determine if they were fraudulent. Until the claims were resolved my only option was to contact my bank for financial assistance. I was advised that copies of the claims would be the evidence the bank would need to issue a provisional credit.
I contacted my bank and discovered they could only issue a provisional credit if I had a "Merchant Error Letter" to back up my request. I called Paypal back and remained on hold for 47 minutes before speaking with a representative. Again, this was totally unacceptable. After explaining my story, again, I was told that they could not help me and they would have to transfer me to the Banking Department to get a "Merchant Error Letter."
After an additional 22 minutes of hold time I explained my story for the 3rd time to a Paypal employee. After the Banking Center Representative told me that Paypal did not provide "Merchant Error Letters" I explained why the copies of the claims would not work. He put me on hold multiple times and finally came back on the line to let me know I was getting an email with instructions on how to get the form I needed. I do not understand why this wasn't addressed the first time I asked.
After reviewing the email, I explained to the Representative that I had already printed out copies of my claims but, as I told him at the beginning of the call, my bank would not accept them as evidence. I asked to speak with a manager and was put on hold. When the Representative came back on the line he told me that he would have to send me back to the Customer Service department. I asked again to speak with a manager and the Representative expressed his feelings about my situation with a loud sigh and put me on hold. Regardless of whether or not your Banking Center Representative was frustrated, this behavior was indicative to me of Paypal's inadequacy in customer service. After being on hold for 2 minutes I heard a series of clicks and was blindly dropped back in the queue for Customer Service. I remained on hold for 15 minutes before I spoke with a representative that was very compassionate but not helpful.
During my extensive time on hold, I was repeatedly reminded about the benefits of using Paypal. I was told about the high "security" that Paypal has in place. I was advised that Paypal is a "safety deposit box for my financial information" - apparently the keys were left on the counter that day. The messages I endured while on hold were infuriating and misleading. I would recommend that they be removed from the system. Your propaganda is clearly untrue and your interest in protecting my financial needs have been made perfectly clear after the disappointing and pathetic runaround that I received in response to this desperate situation.
Paypal does not provide any provisional credit for the victim of fraud while they take 10 days to review the claims. I was left with no money to pay my rent or bills. I am left wondering why it takes 10 days to call the scam artists who stole almost $2500 from me and determine that the transactions were fraudulent.
I got the first of several emails advising me that the claim cases were closed and the funds were being routed back to me. These notices stated that it would take 4-5 days for the money to show up in my Paypal account and an additional 2-3 for the funds to transfer back to my checking account. For an online company that deals with millions of transactions on a daily basis, a turn-around time of up to eight days is completely and totally unforgivable. You have the technology in place, you have the funds and if you had the desire, you could have made this happen within minutes. Even at this time a provisional credit was not an option.
I have yet to learn what happened to my Paypal account, how it was accessed or who was involved. I have received multiple emails (one through Paypal) from the scammers. I sent the harassing emails and email addresses to Paypal for review and have yet to receive any feedback from Paypal. I would hope the seven (7) email addresses involved with this fraudulent activity have been blocked from using Paypal.
I will be closing my account with Paypal and recounting my story to anyone who cares to listen. It is amazing what kind of audience gathers when you say "Someone hacked my Paypal account and stole $2500 from me."
While you clearly have the market on online financial transactions at this time, your customer service and assistance in crisis situations is one of the most atrocious I've ever encountered. I am disappointed, frustrated and seriously disgusted with how you managed these circumstances. If you had handled my complaint with grace, a sense of urgency, understanding and compassion, you could have earned a lifelong customer that spoke glowingly of your company despite the unfortunate series of events. Instead, you have made it clear that my interests are not your interests and for that, I will ensure that as many people know about my experience as possible.
Thank you for your time,
Gretchen L
paypal scam