Google, please compete with Paypal.
Once upon a time, a big search engine company called Google announced they were building some sort of payments system. On the news, shares in Ebay, owners of Paypal, went down in value. It later turned out that Google were not planning on competing with Paypal after all.
For me, that's a pity. I was hoping that Paypal could be given a swift kick up the arse to improve their customer service.
Ages ago, I tried out using Paypal for a few Ebay auctions. Paypal wanted to check that I was the genuine holder of the credit card. To do this, I had to read off a four digit number from my credit card statement.
Seemed simple enough. When my statement came though, there were a lot of numbers on the Paypal transaction including a group of four digits. I typed them in, but this was rejected. I typed them in again, this time being very careful. That was rejected too.
A month or two later, I had another payment on my card. There was another group of four digits. I tried it again, being very careful to type it correctly. That was it, I was informed that my credit card number would be barred from the Paypal systems.
At that point, the problem dawned on me. I was looking at a USA style phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx) which includes a group of four digits.
Being an Englander, I wasn't used to this style of phone numbers. I contacted the Paypal customer service and explained the error, asking them to unblock my (only) credit card number. No response.
So please Google, compete with Paypal. You will be doing them a favour. They need that kick up the arse.
For me, that's a pity. I was hoping that Paypal could be given a swift kick up the arse to improve their customer service.
Ages ago, I tried out using Paypal for a few Ebay auctions. Paypal wanted to check that I was the genuine holder of the credit card. To do this, I had to read off a four digit number from my credit card statement.
Seemed simple enough. When my statement came though, there were a lot of numbers on the Paypal transaction including a group of four digits. I typed them in, but this was rejected. I typed them in again, this time being very careful. That was rejected too.
A month or two later, I had another payment on my card. There was another group of four digits. I tried it again, being very careful to type it correctly. That was it, I was informed that my credit card number would be barred from the Paypal systems.
At that point, the problem dawned on me. I was looking at a USA style phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx) which includes a group of four digits.
Being an Englander, I wasn't used to this style of phone numbers. I contacted the Paypal customer service and explained the error, asking them to unblock my (only) credit card number. No response.
So please Google, compete with Paypal. You will be doing them a favour. They need that kick up the arse.
2 Comments:
I have to say "touch wood" that I've not had a paypal problem. I have a debit card rather than a credit card, and, although I'm not "verified" I've used it constantly without problem... Maybe that's the secret ? Although, you can set up a direct debit Bill rather than using a credit card, which might be a solution...
Anyhoo, that's all. Except that, it was nice when they were "X.com" - they gave you $10 dollars for signing up with them and were a proper bank [back in '99 IIRC]
By
M., At
12:16 PM, June 24, 2005
ah... let me take back my previous comment. I'd not noticed that you had to be verified or they'd stop you sending money out [I thought it was a monthly limit but, no, it's a total limit. Bugger. Oh well, let's see if I can screw up verification. :-) ]
[I put my previous comment down to naivety and my easily being confused by the questions in their help system.]
By
M., At
11:28 AM, June 29, 2005