A week ago I finished my compressed saga with PayPal. I learned many things from that experience (that I think to share) and also now I have many dilemmas (I will survive them, soon I will forget everything).
The story starts in a lovely hot afternoon at work when a friend of mine asked me if I could receive some money in my PayPal account for her mother. Considering that a few months ago I called the bank to activate my e-payment card so I can use it with my PayPal account I thought it would be such a great opportunity to see how their services work. I lost any sense of curiosity about PayPal meanwhile.
I get the money in the account, all nice and happy. I set my credit card to the PayPal account. No funcky messages, no warnings, no blinking exclamation marks. Why? Because "The Horror" is always kept hidden. You don't see it first.
After a few days I am told I should try to withdraw those money. Ooooh! you have to withdraw them???! (trust me, I made tones of google searches, I read most of their FAQs, I had to be told by someone and then figure out from the support how the whole system works. or doesn't.) So, the idea is this. You have the PayPal account and your bank account. Even you have a credit card in your PayPal account that they verify with your bank, after you get money in your PP account they don't send it to your bank account, they just keep them there. And one of the most hilarious things after all this is that PP actually has a withdraw limit. So...yeah...fool people around to send you money in your PP account and you will be able to actually benefit of those money when we tell you to (even you think you are free to get them from you superb PP account when you want to) Bleah!.
As I said before, I go into the adventure of withdrawing the money from my PP account. Now, some info. I click happy on Withdraw option, choose Withdraw funds to your card and I can see the eyes of the Horror: warning telling me I can withdraw only to a card with Visa or MasterCard logo. I have a MasterCard card. I smile happily. I...poor naive. The only options I have is to insert info for a Visa card. On that page I can see I have 1 active card. When I try to select "Choose another card", the Horror shows me his tail. I can't choose any card. Damn...now starts the amazing information exchange with the PP support. I talked with Angelina, Thomas, Paulina and Michelle. You don't have to tell me these are not their real names (duuuuh!). They are the unknown soldiers, I know very well. First, Angelina tells me a stupid thing, such as "I verified your account and you have a Visa card.". I am like...whoaaat??!! But still, I continue. Thomas tells me something really interesting...he told me he understood my frustration...and it was just my 2nd of 3rd email!!!He was a cute! He tells me he verified my account too (wow! how many people are able to verify my account??!!) and indeed I have a MasterCard card and...sorry, but they only accept Visa cards. Ok, I start to talk around, to ask people what is going on, what I can do?, Google and the conclusion was that actually no, you can use MasterCard on PP, you can't use Visa Electron, for example. Meanwhile I receive some stupid emails from my bank. One imbecile lady confounded me and after she spams me she tells me to go to the bank to solve the issue so I don't receive emails that do not concern me!!! retard. I called the bank to tell them about this issue and also to ask them if there are any problems with my e-payment card and PP. They tell me there is no problem, only that it seems it was not verified, because the 4 digits code does not appear. Ooooh....oh...other retards on the plane. My e-payment card expired 4 months ago. So when they gave me a new one of course the idiots forgot to copy all data! why do I wonder? I live in the country where people cut each others with swords! I share this new info with the boys and girls from PP support. As my card appeared to be verified in PP I ask them if they can reset my code and repeat the verification. I forgive Paulina because she completely ignored my suggestion, but she told me something new: that I could try to send the money back or to someone else with a PP account (I have tried that before, but there were issues too....the Horror...the Horror!). My heart trembles in excitement! I start to google again, I found out alot of new info about PP that they don't tell you or make it visible. I even found a book about How to use your PP account! only 7 dollars!!!!! For example Profile, in PP account is an option itself (it has sub-options). There you can see if your card is usable on PP, add currencies to your PP account, change amounts in your PP account from a currency to another and alot of kinky stuff. I tried to send the money back. Guess what? That's how I met Michelle...the hero that made my day. My last email to PP which had the chance or the misfortune to be read by Michelle contained phrases like these:
"[...]I google it and I find out how to. You won't have to explain me the steps, I know them: History, Issue Refund....right? Well...why on this page(issue refund) I get this message:
Your money can't be transferred from your bank account to cover this refund at this time. Please add money to your PayPal account, or add another payment method.
I think I deserve some explanations, more than "we are sorry but you can't do this". Please contact your technical support and ask them if there are inconsistencies in your databases, because the messages are contradictory. And by the way, if the money can't be transferred from my bank account, how to add money to my paypal account??!! If I can't do this but those money are in PayPal system, please ask someone in charge to do the transfer because this is taking far too long time (not me, don't tell me to go in my account and click on some links because it seems that I can't do anything in my account and those money are stuck in the void). If my PayPal account is a black hole for money, let me know that too!
thank you very much[...]"
Do you think I snapped???!Michelle sensed she should be sorry for my frustrations too. And gave me the solution.
Now, for the completion of the transfer PP took 4% of the amount. To change the currency forth and back took another 5% and to send them back took another 4% from the remaining sum. In the end, during all this mabmo-jumbo there were lost 12.5% of the initial amount. If there were my own money, I would have closed my PP account after the 2nd email.
My only conclusion was this: This is the horror parody of the comedy called "life" (gosh, nothing can destroy my pathos:D)
