Is Paypal safe?

I am sorry Mr. Paypaldamon, but if it takes 5 days (current tally and still counting) for Paypal to respond to Customer Service questions, you might as well just close up shop today because you are not going to be in business long. I know I am not the only one to have such an experience since the person I was trying to send money to had the same. After 4 days, the response he received was not even relevant to the question. In my case, I tried to send him a payment for an Audiogon auction. After 5 days, in which the payment stayed in a status of "uncleared", I finally gave up and canceled the transaction. It took about 24 hours for the money to be remitted to my Paypal account. Why did it take 24 hours to for me to receive control of my money after canceling the transaction and why would a transaction not be completed for 5 days on an account which has been used to complete several transactions prior? Finally, how would I get a reasonably prompt response to these questions from Paypal (other than directing my questions to Damon on the Audiogon site) such that this response would be received and acted upon before either one party or the other to the transaction simply gives up and sends/demands a money order to complete the transaction?

No,

I have had a theft from my checking account through a fraud on my Paypal account which I notified Paypal of immediately and they ignored it for three days. Rather than stop the check they drew, I notified them of an unauthorized payment from my account, which I received no notification of, and only learned about as a result of logging onto my credit card account. The way a verified Paypal account works is that upon authorization of a payment, Paypal makes a temporary hold on the payor's credit card which is on account. They then draft a payment to themselves in the same amount and upon clearance of the check to them, they release the hold on the credit card.

I noticed a hold was on my credit card, then investigated the payment and found I had not made it. I contacted the recipient who acknowledged it was not due them. They had opened the account the prior day. The recipient professed to attempting to return the funds, but claimed that Paypal couldn't do that and I immeidately notified Paypal of the theft. To date, I have been jerked around for nearly three weeks without any human response. As a result of this post, I have corresponded with the Customer Service Manager of Paypal, Damon Billian.

Prior to this problem, I have touted Paypal as the best means for payment by a lazy man. No travel, no wires, no expenses, no time. Now also, no $910!!!

Bill Eichengrun

May I make a suggestion? If anyone has questions or needs help regarding PayPal, that they take it offline by email or phone with the rep from PayPal. You can just click on the name and begin an email discussion offline. Just a suggestion.

Angela,
With regard to my complaint, I purposely did not want to take it offline. Sorry, if my personal troubles bother you, but I thought some of you would want to know. The part which I found outrageous is that they don't answer the requests for customer service on their own site. Mine, entered last Sunday, still hasn't been answered. Yet, the Paypal Customer Service Manager, if that is who Damon is, feels that it is effective to make himself personally available on the Audiogon site to handle/answer customer service problems/requests on the Audiogon site. It is the height of ludicrousness in my opinion.

Hi Angela,

When I posted to this thread, I believe the question was, "Is Paypal safe"? Would you clarify for me what you believe I was writing about other than the question? My concern is for others to be aware of the pitfalls that can occur to an otherwise excellent process when customer service and concern are cut to the bone apparently in the search for profitability.

Thanks in advance,

Bill Eichengrun