Is Paypal safe?

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.

Sorry Angela,

But I am not here to sic the dogs on anyone. In order to make my posts regarding the lack of timeliness of the customer service responses of Paypal more relevant to the title of the thread, I offer that if one did have a serious problem like Bill Eichengrun did, would it make you feel even more content that it might take 5 days or more to reach someone in customer service? As far as Damon's presence on Audiogon providing a circumvention around the morass which appears to be the present state of Paypal's customer service, what about those Paypal customers who have problems and don't know about Audiogon? Damon should be working full-time to fix the Paypal customer service problem, not hanging out on Audiogon fishing for Paypal problems here. That seems obvious to me. I don't have that type of attack dog personality and none of my remarks are meant to attack you in any way. If I seem a little upset, it is because their lack of responsiveness, above all, has pushed my buttons.

Rayhall,
I agree. I believe that customer service, or rather, the LACK thereof, will be the downfall of PayPal.
We, personally, have not had any pleasant experiences dealing with the customer service reps; getting passed from one to another (HOPS) or never having any answers (you’ll have to call back – WHAT?!?) - all being incredibly indifferent.

I sincerely hope that Damon is taking this feedback here as seriously as it really is and hope that they hare appropriate measures in place to improve their service. Things like # HOPS a call takes until resolved, # days calls are open unresolved, % of calls that are resolved to the CUSTOMER’s SATISFACTION. With corrective action plans to get this fixed and keep it in control.
If not, then I believe that they will go the way of so many dot-coms – great idea, but no concept of how to run a business successfully.

If Providian has really entered the arena with PayPal, then they have an even longer road to travel, since Providian has a long history of customer fraud and deception.
I totally agree that these kinds of issues should be raised here.