Contacting PayPal

[ooger]

So, if you've ever had the misfortune of having to deal with this monopoly, you'll sympathise with this one:

Recently I've had a load of stuff go through paypal and just stick at "pending" despite me being verified, trusted, vetted, mentally scanned, DNA profiled etc. So I gives them a ring to sort it out.

Actually, I've missed a bit. First I spent 15 minutes trying to find a contact number, then I gave them a ring.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Machine picks up, and offers choices 1-6, 1-10, 1-3 etc.

By the third menu, I'm just guessing the menu number, because none of them are actually gonna get me through to a person. They all start with "The best way to xxx x xxxxxxx" is to do it online at paypal.co.uk". Not helpful.

So I shouts

"HELP ME"


and guess what.


"transferring you now"

says Mr Machine.


....to Miss India 2008. Never mind, a step forward nonetheless me thinks

Followed by a not too polite "you'll need to do this online through the resolution centre, sir"

GRRRR. There goes another 45 minutes of my life.

[JamesMio]

They used to be not too bad - I ended up speaking to one of their call centres in Ireland a few years ago. Looks like they too have jumped on the 'lets ship out all our call centres abroad, where we'll emply people whose sole job is to speak English to people, that can't speak English, band wagon.

Genuis.

[amnesia]

The Paypal helplines are a pain in the a$$. Like all big company 'helplines' they insist on telling you a load of useless information...that costs you lots per minute.

It took me an age hanging on the phone (after jumping through the online hoops) to get money back that was owed to me due to a fraud.

The website isn't quite as useful or slick as they seem to think it is.

[on yer bike]

Check your credit/debit card number is correct, and the expiry date, (both are usually changed if/when a new card is sent out).

If this is the case they will say pending for 7-10 days due to the fact that they do an e-cheque payment rather than instant bank transfer which takes as long or longer than a standard cheque as they don't have a backup card if your bank refuses the payment.

If you are only using a bank account and not credit/debit card, then the same as above they use echeque rather than imidiate transfer as they don't have a backup card if your bank refuses the payment.

Or if the idiot you are paying has given you the wrong email address, this will say pending and will need to be canceled and said idiot may need to be contacted somehow (obviously not through the wrong email that was given in the first place)

[Paul the 6th]

go halves with me on a dedicated payment gateway maybe? I'm going to ditch them soon enough :)