Is Paypal safe?

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

Hey, I wasn't implying anybody or anything.
General discussions about issues people are having is one thing, but going through a 1:1 discussion with a PayPal rep is another. I just thought that any personal detail about situations could be worked out; outside of these public forums.

We have had problems with PayPal as well, but worked out details directly with them.
We did express our concerns here publically, but then took it offline with Damon once he responded to the post. Damon was actually able to help and we got fast resolution after months of trouble. I believe that Damon is here because he was asked to take a look at some problems that people are having. At least he is trying to understand and help and I don't see how publically badgering someone helps. I have always found that working with someone to solve a problem is more effective. That's all I am trying to say.
I felt that the original intent of the thread began to side track into one of those *sick the dogs* threads and I was just trying to get it back on track. No harm intended.