PayPal technical problem
 

I just posted this on the H.A.M.B. and got a lot of positive feedback, so I thought I should post it here as well.

"I am having a PayPal problem and found out that they DO NOT validate their own ID's on input. If someone makes a typo entering an ID and the ID doesn't exist, they do not notify the user, but accept the payment and put the money into their "Unclaimed Funds" account. The reason I got "bit" is that my ID had a couple of zeroes in it. A payee entered a lower-case letter "o" in one of those positions, and off went his payment to "Never-Never Land". After he notified me that he had paid and I had not seen his payment, I contacted PayPal. I suspected what was wrong and pointedly asked them if this is what happened. Their representative said that this could happen and that it was the source of the most frequent complaints about their system. They said they were checking into it, but that a solution was not imminent. They said that the only way to correct it would be to have the payee cancel the original transaction and re-submit it. I contacted my customer and this worked.

Since they do not seem to be too motivated to fix this, I decided to protect myself and set up a new PayPal ID with no confusing characters. I would suggest that anyone with a PayPal ID with ambiguous characters consider doing the same. Ambiguous characters include zeroes, the letter "O", lower case "L", upper case "I", the number "1" and perhaps a few others. My problem was made worse by the fact that my old Toshiba laptop presents zero and lower-case "O" as the same on the screen.

Once the payment ends up in "Unclaimed Funds", who knows what happens to it (but I can guess). I just thought people should be aware of this and decide if they need to protect themselves from PayPal's shortcomings."

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Thanks for the info!! I am trying to get my butt in gear and list some things on Ebay so this is good to know.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Another reason not to use Pay Pal, IMO.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

To me, it's just another tool I use in pursuing this hobby. And like many other tools, if you don't use it right, you can get hurt. This is not a condemnation of PayPal, but a "Safety Tip".

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

I had the same thing happen to me last year. I ordered a part from Krylon32 (Gary) and paid for it through PP. I didn't receive a shipping notice so I called Gary a few days later and He had not received the funds. Called PP and they could see the payment and that I had the correct acct for Gary. They couldn't explain what happened but they refunded my payment immediately.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

HeyDenny,
This same thing happened a few months ago to me.
This great guy here offered to send me some oil shields for my Flathead.
I received them and immediately sent the return payment for shipping charges.
He gave these to me,,,,I just had to reimburse shipping.
Anyway,,,.after about a week he sent me a message asking for payment.
I apologized and went to check what is was.
It turned out I had put one too many 1’s in his email,,,,, but,,,,the money was sent.
Anyway,,,,canceled the money,,resent,,,,no problem.
Like you said,,,it’s easy to miss this

Tommy

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

A lot of people do not know about this shortcoming. I think they should, so I posted this on the H.A,M.B first, since they have a lot bigger "Buy & Sell" section and their "Alliance Membership" program promotes commerce among the members. As I said in the beginning, I received a lot of positive feed back from folks who did not know about this and from some who had gotten bitten like I did. All of a sudden, the thread disappeared. The thread may have been a little O/T, but I thought one of the purposes of these boards is for us to help each other out with stuff like this.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Thanks for the heads up. I've never had it happen but, I now know what to look for and do about it.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Interesting! I would have thought, something like this would be fixed soon, but apparently not.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

all fairness to paypal. There is an infinite amount of emails. If it's typed in wrong, well... Like if you wanted to send money to Flathead34 and typed Flathed34.... it's not going to go through... Like leaving out 1 number on your credit card.


Interesting post though tubman. It makes sense.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Thank you for letting us know about this & how to correct it.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Tinker,

If they can validate my ID when I login, they should be able to validate your ID if I want to send you something. We are both members of PayPal. You are giving them a break they don't deserve. Try to login to "Flathead34" by typing "Flathed34" to transfer your money to your bank. You'll never get it.

Also, when I spoke to their representative clearing this up, they said that this is a common complaint, and admitted that he didn't understand why it hasn't been fixed yet.

Denny

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

I have had this happen a few times when a customer is trying to pay me. My PP address has a zero in it and they enter it as a capital O. So far PP has always straightened it out.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

I should add that PP actually had a person that I could talk to when I had a problem. Thats a big deal to me.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

"Krylon32" - Did they actually get back to the sender and straighten things out? They didn't for me; they just told me what I had to do. So far one guy isn't cooperating.

"38bill" - I also found a real person to talk to who was helpful. My problem is not so much with their customer service, but a serious shortcoming in their computer system, which could easily be fixed.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

That's horrible. One would think that PP would step up to the plate
and Fix THEIR PROBLEM.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

There's more old ford parts on Facebook and Instagram

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

I've always let the customer who sent the payment handle the correction.

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

This is a designed feature, not a technical problem. What happens is that the funds you send are tied to an email address. If that address isn't associated with an active PayPal account, an email is sent to that address prompting its owner to create a PayPal account in order to retrieve the funds.

https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/...nt/td-p/183430

Re: PayPal technical problem
 

Oh yeah, great. A feature that benefits non-customers (who, in most cases, don't even exist) to the detriment of existing good customers. It's merely self-promotion over customer service.

Try again.