Paypal Follow-up ... What A Nightmare

20 January 2008

I sent this to Paypal today.

Dear Customer Service:

Ashley from Paypal Resolution Center has suggested I send an email to you about a difficulty we're presently having with Paypal Compliance. Please understand that frustration leads to anger and I hope that you will pass this email on to your Corporate body so that this matter can be resolved so that other businesses are not caught in this horrible loop of Ground Hog Day.

Paypal is a huge company, earning billions of dollars from customers such as our small Charitable Organization. As a customer we expect any issues with Paypal to be dealt with promptly just as Paypal expects us to respond to their requests.

This is our situation followed by suggestions to implement better business practices from Paypal.

Our Trust was requested to send documents as to our charitable status and tax exempt status .. 'Due diligence 7 days'.

We were also asked to have a person be the contact rather than the Trust which meant sending password ID and bank statement for the Paypal account of Common Knowledge (info@birthingbetter.com)

Because there are Paypal emails floating around that are spam, we requested clarification. Our account was turned off and 'limited' on January 17, 2008. This effectively cuts off all our financial transactions which are our lifeline to our customers and our income.

We faxed our documents to the below Fax numbers:

001-402-537-5750FAX January 18
001-402-9382337 – Sent Jan 19, 2008 3.50pm
00448707307198 – Sent Jan 19, 2008 3.53pm
0013033952802 – Sent January 19, 2008 3.48pm

We expected to hear that our faxes were received and notice that our account was re-activated. Or told when our account would be activated. Paypal must know that turning off a business account for online shopping will have terrible consequences for that business. Certainly there are some business that are not ethical using Paypal however, we've been treated as though we were unethical because of delays on your end.

Since we tried to act within the time limit of 7 days ... due diligence, while clarifying that the original email was 'real', we should expect a coherent, well disciplined and prompt response and action.

Since a different people each time from Compliance contacts us there doesn't seem to be any follow through.

This led me to call Resolution Center. I was informed that the name change fax ( 001-402-537-5750FAX ) is presently back logged for up to 30 days!

I've just received an email from complianceverification that it could take up to 5-7 business days to find our faxes on the other 3 numbers provided above.

This is just unacceptable business practice!

These are my suggestions:

1) When there is a Compliance issue that Paypal is asking for quick 'due diligence' they should be providing a case number, a specific person with fax, email and phone so this can be resolved quickly in a world of online business. This can be simply done by:

a) appointing individual customer service people a specific number of cases. This is common business practice and should be a 'given' when dealing with a major issue such as turning off an account!
b) hiring sufficient people so this can happen.
c) getting sufficient fax equipment and direct contact phone numbers for this to happen.

2) When a compliance issue occurs, there should be a page/s on Paypal website that gives all the specifics requirements and a tick-box that indicates actions have been received and implemented. There are many business programs that permit interaction of this manner. Along with Live Chat.

a) For example, my computer is tied to 'wintergreen@birthingbetter.com' because all of us at Common Knowledge Trust work from different computers .. not in an office. This is common practice in many businesses today. However, Paypal compliance won't talk with me because that wasn't the email to the account, ALTHOUGH I could supply all our account information!
b) Paypal should supply information as to how quickly Paypal will respond to any request for documentation and that response time should follow within standard business practice. If Paypal expects 'due diligence' then it should be offering the same! Having yet another unknown person reply within unclear information just adds to the frustration and which leads to anger particularly when an account is 'limited'. This is a MAJOR ISSUE and should be high priority for action and resolution.
c) Paypal should provide easy to access information as to whom to contact so there is one person following the case, rather than a series of people who don't have a clue. A major issue such as 'limiting' an account should be handled with immediate expediency and not put into a line with other less essential issues.
d) Paypal should provide information as to how to follow-up. We were given a case ID yet when we put that into Resolution page on website, it came up 'You do not have any cases that match the case ID you entered.'

3) Major Issues such as 'limiting' an account should be handled as the upmost High Priority with quick responses in the computer Age that we live in.

Paypal's request to us was simple and we could simply comply. Yet our business is being held back by Paypal's lack of action. This is unacceptable and costs our organization thousands of dollars. If our name change might take up to 30 days then this means we have no income coming in ... wages, expenses, rent, etc. This is totally unacceptable in this day and age about business.

Our account should have been turned on within 24-48 hours after receiving our documents and our documents should have been received and acknowledged within 2-4 hours of being sent. This is not difficult to do when a specific person is assigned a number of high priority cases.

We've now been told by Complianceverification that any documents sent to the remaining FAXES could take up to 5-7 working days. Our account has been frozen for 2 days now and could be frozen for up to 30 days and a minimum of another 5 working days (+ 2 weekend days) ... over something that could have been resolved by having a specific someone receiving our faxes, acknowledging their arrival and having the power to remove the 'limit' on our account. This is what today's businesses demand and should be provided by such an incredibly powerful company as Paypal.

What is happening to us is a nightmare of ineffective, obstructive and poor business practices.

Calling Paypal phone requires huge waiting time (I waited 2 hours the first call and 45 minutes the second time): HIRE more people! The Resolution Center can not help to make decisions (that's what they should be doing! That's their name!) ... someone should be able ... this person is called 'Management' or 'Head of Department'.

Major issues such as turning off a Paypal account should not be left to multiple call center people. This is totally unacceptable!

It's also impossible to contact Compliance directly even by Resolution Call Center people or to follow-up which is unacceptable. No one seems to know the case history ... totally unacceptable.

We are left hanging with an account that doesn't work. If we had another option of payment provider we would immediately close our account. Paypal is respected in it's field, but this is terrible business practice and yet Paypal expects our businesses to have good practice!