posted on April 19, 2003 11:20:33 PM new
What is going on with PayPal
This is the THIRD time this has happened:
I used the debit card at a grocery store. Checked the account that evening, and there it was debited; ok. That was April 14.
I look today, and PayPal REVERSED the charge and put the amount I spent in the store BACK in my account.
When I click on that transaction it says 'Expired'.
But, this is the THIRD time PayPal has done this.
I took money out at an ATM last month twice, both times PayPal debited it, then a week or so later reversed it. THEN about 2 weeks or so later reversed it again, meaning they debited that amount again.... good thing I had the amount there.
I am afraid to even ask Paypal why they do this... with problems I've heard in past.. I'm afraid my account will get messed with, like dipping into the bank account its attached to... or is that what they want...
I've never had a problem with them, but this kind of looks like a problem to me.
Anyone else have this happen?
And no, I will not touch the money they put back. I spent that money at Safeway, and it would be plain wrong.
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posted on April 20, 2003 04:15:01 AM new
I too have had this happen and I cannot figure out why. Once at a grocery store and then at a gas station. I cannot figure it out.
posted on April 20, 2003 05:47:12 AM new
It's not paypal, it's your merchant. When you use your card it recieves what is basically a temporary charge. Depending on the merchant thy will "batch" their charges once a day, once a shift, or with small merchants some do it once a week. It is not until the batch is run that the actual charge goes thru. Merchant accounts require the batch within a certain time period or the charge "expires". After a charge expires the amount is refinded to your account but if the merchant confirms the charge it is recharged.
The store across the street from me has done this twice with ATM withdrawals and once with a counter sale. One of the ATM withdrawals has still not recharged but I am leaving the funds there just in case. After 30 days I'll just consider it a rebate on my twice daily visits (They have a geat deli )
Example of how this can happen.... I used to work for (eventually run) a small mail order company. When our owner shut down one of his other businesses he decided to "help" me and my co-manager out by inflicting two of that companies employees on us. One as a bookeeper, one as a general assistant. One of the assitants responsibilities was to run all credit card charges, batch at the end of the day and give the receipts to the new bookkeeper to enter. After about three weeks of this I got a call from our accountant wondering what to do to about a $20K check I had sent to the printer that was now sitting uncovered at the bank. She was also curious about our rather dramatic drop in sales and asked if our terminal was down because she had not been receiving deposit confirmations from credit card sales. Turned out the assistant was running charges but not batching and the bookkeeper was entering totals based on adding the individual receipts, rather than the batch report total. (So much for that check and balance!). I had to refill the printer paper to run that batch report but luckily everything was honored, we covered the check and I convinced our owner that there was a reason that the company these two had come from had failed and we did not want to follow in its path. Then we made him foot the bill for our "Thank God They are Gone" celebration lunch .
Now that a lot of companies have the batching process set up to happen automatically at assigned times, it can fail from something as simple as a dropped modem connection and won't be caught until the accountant/bookkeeper notices the missing deposit.
[ edited by neonmania on Apr 20, 2003 05:52 AM ]
posted on April 20, 2003 05:51:32 AM new
Yes, it has happened to me also. There is also a canceled fee of $1.00 that I think is credited each time. I just noticed though that one says debit card authorization, which is expired and the next says debit card purchase and the next says ATM withdrawal rversal. All on teh same transaction. Maybe they just found a new way to make it more confusing and harder to keep track of.
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