Shipping with USPS AND using Paypal to pay? Read here.

[Chrismo]

The other day I had shipped out a guitar through USPS online. I had used my Paypal debit card to pay for the purchase.

The next morning, I find two charges for the exact same total - one had completed and the other was pending. I thought this might have been a temporary hold, but as the week went on, the charge remained in pending status.

I called USPS first - they had authorized only one charge. I finally called Paypal and got into a bit of an argument with the representative. She had told me that Paypal "holds" a portion of the funds in the amount of the purchase to ensure that a merchant gets paid. However, once the merchant accepts payment ANOTHER charge goes through, and the held portion is released in THIRTY DAYS.

I had stated that I had done this process the EXACT same way for years and never had an issue - so why hold funds now? She stated that it had always been Paypal policy - so I asked for a supervisor.

Long story short - Paypal goofed on this one. I was given my funds back, but I wanted to let you guys know that if you are being witheld an amount for a purchase and then are charged AGAIN, you will want to speak with a supervisor immediately - that hold ain't "temporary".

I guess the $20 they took from my funds for an order wasn't enough

[Notalent]

I think they are worse since fleabay bought them out. Bad enough you are forced to use them for payment, they make money on both ends of the transaction.

[Chrismo]

Originally Posted by Notalent

I think they are worse since fleabay bought them out. Bad enough you are forced to use them for payment, they make money on both ends of the transaction.

NO KIDDING. You get nailed from ebay and get nailed again from Paypal! By the time you actually make any money, you've lost $100.

[bruce123]

I don't/won't use ebay or paypal anymore for these reasons.

[Strat62]

That's interesting- I got a $40.00 charge from E-bay on my last CC statement and I couldn't figure out what it was, since I hadn't bought anything off E-bay. I had used Paypal tho. I guess I'd better run that one down....

[Mark Davis]

Anytime you give a company permission to access your bank account you need to watch it like a hawk.

Im sure all kinds of people who just pay their CC bill every month without even looking at it get extra charges made to their account.

[Dan German]

I use an empty account for Paypal. No money in it until I need to make a purchase, and then only the amount needed. With online banking, it only means a few extra clicks to get the job done, and they can't "temporarily hold" money that ain't there.

[bowlfreshener]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

Anytime you give a company permission to access your bank account you need to watch it like a hawk.

Im sure all kinds of people who just pay their CC bill every month without even looking at it get extra charges made to their account.

This is why I do not use any sort of direct deposit or automatic withdrawal/payment options...I want to be the only one, other than the bank, to approve everything that goes in or goes out...Otherwise, you pretty much give them permission to access to your accounts whenever they choose, as opposed to whenever you pay them...

And I can only imagine how much of a pain it would be to retrieve, prove, and/or get back funds that they wrongfully took, when you have authorized for them to take funds from your account...How can you prove someone broke into your house if you gave them a key? I am sure there are ways, but its more complicated than if you never gave them a key to begin with...