Danger...Danger...Will Robinson...

Paypal "Security" Full Of Shit...


I guess when I look in the mirror I'm just a smug, stupid, naive, web consumer this morning.

You see, over the past few years I've grown more and more confident in my ability to shop and spend money on the Internet to get things I can't find within walking distance five miles of my house in Knoxtown.

Last Christmas I did all my Christmas shopping on the Internet...EARLY...and got free shipping and saved money and never left my computer keyboard in the process.

So any way...yesterday morning when I arrived at my new "office away from home" and fired up my computer on the company network the first thing I got was an E-mail from Paypal saying they had approved a purchase for THREE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY TWO CENTS.

Funny thing, but it was shipping to:

duyen nguyen
2625 Stevens Ave South. # 305
Minneapolis, MN 55408
United States

Anyone but me notice that my name isn't "duyen nguyen"?

Anyone but me notice that I didn't go to college with or otherwise know anyone named "duyen nguyen in "Minneapolis, MN"?

Now here's what ended up pissing me off and opened my eyes to how full of shit useless all of Paypal's "security guarantees" and reasoning for charging people money to do business through their website are.

The first thing I did was call Paypal and tell them that I had been notified of a "pending transaction" which I did not make and demanded that they stop the FRAUDULENT transaction from going through.

You know what they did/said?

They said that they could do NOTHING, and that I'd have to call the merchant in order to stop the transaction.

Even though I gave them their "transaction number" which they sent me in THEIR E-Mail they could do nothing but watch it FRAUDULENTLY go through against my checking account, then jack around for their obligatory 14 DAYS investigating the situation and then and only then would they refund my money if the FRAUDULENT transaction I was talking about went through.

Next I called my bank credit union in Knoxtown and was told that there was nothing they could do about the situation except charge me FIFTY DOLLARS for a "stop payment" and attempt to intercept the transaction, but if the amount was one penny less or more than THREE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY TWO CENTS or the "ACH transaction code" was different then I would be out the FIFTY Dollars and either be overdrawn or still lose the money until their after-the-fact "FRAUD" investigation at Paypal and their institution was competed in the next TEN to FOURTEEN days.

Finally, I called the vendor (who's name will remain un-named until they finish their work today) and told them about the situation and in spite of having a hard time communicating with them because I didn't have a "customer number" or an "order number" (because I didn't actually place the order) I still have hope of them stopping the transaction because as of the close of business yesterday the equipment was still in their hands.

In the mean time I'm still faced with not only not being able to close my Paypal account, but also being unable to remove my debit card from their payment authorization records because I still have a payment "pending."

I was able to delete the other two credit cards from their clutches, but I'll probably have to spend another two hours today arguing with people in India who can barely speak English.

Not only should this situation be a lesson to me, but I hope that by telling you about the inane process I've been through in the past twenty two hours you will evaluate and reconsider your own relationship with Internet vendors and Companies like PAYPAL that promise the world and then deliver virtually nothing in return for their charges and fees.

In short, I say that PAYPAL SUCKS.

Paypal currently has my official designation of "BLACK HOLE OF THE INTERNET", and their "customer non-service department" SUCKS TOO.

That will be all...for now...