posted on May 27, 2001 09:22:18 PM new
On May 12, Compubank merged into Netbank, resulting in a change in all their depositors' bank account numbers.
Naturally, the Payment Service That Couldn't Shoot Straight decided that this was evidence of massive user fraud, and restricted the accounts of users who tried to transfer funds to the Compubank accounts that they had been successfully using for months.
It took Paypal two weeks of ever-increasing stupidity to straighten out this mess for one user, with all the usual demands for faxes of personal information. (And, of course, the Paypal staff weren't bright enough to figure out the difference between a bank account number and a tax identification number when they did get the stuff that was faxed.)
But don't believe me, read the following quote from Paypal's "Resolutions Manager", which was posted by the victim elsewhere:
----BEGIN----
I have reviewed your PayPal account and the issue regarding problems with
your Compubank account and would like to take this opportunity to update you
on the situation that you reported and offer further explanation concerning
the issue.
I understand that Compubank recently closed and sold all of it's accounts to
Netbank. Due to poor communication, Compubank account holders did not
receive notification of this action until after it had taken place.
Therefore, as you did not have knowledge of the change, you initiated an
electronic transfer to your Compubank account. The transfer was denied and
therefore, in accordance with established PayPal policy, your account was
restricted. I would like to point out that this type of restriction is
placed to protect PayPal users form fraudulent use of their bank accounts.
These restrictions are generally lifted within a few days as PayPal receives
notification from the user's bank explaining the denial of the transfer or
when PayPal receives documents from the account holder confirming ownership
of the bank account in question. Unfortunately, the restriction on your
PayPal account was not handled in the usual, expeditious manner. The
restriction has been lifted form your PayPal account as of 05/18/2001, but I
would like to convey my sincere apologies for this matter and offer an
explanation of what lead to your difficulties as I feel that you deserve
such an explanation.
Your appeal to the restriction was initially denied, as we did not receive a
bank statement from your Compubank account with the documents that you faxed
to us. Unfortunately, PayPal was not aware of the issues concerning
Compubank and Netbank at the time of your appeal or we would certainly have
been more understanding of your plight and difficulty in obtaining a
statement form your Compubank account.
You were also then asked to send statements from the other bank accounts
that you have registered with PayPal. This request was certainly
unwarranted as our systems clearly identified that the problem was with your
Combubank account. I apologize that this request was made, as PayPal
certainly had no need for statements from your other bank accounts, PayPal
does respect the privacy of your financial information.
Your next appeal was denied as a representative mistook your tax
identification number on your bank statement for the bank account number and
incorrectly assumed that you had sent us an incorrect bank statement.
Please be assured that the handling of your issue is being investigated to
help PayPal better understand the errors that occurred. The information
from this investigation will be used to establish more efficient methods for
the handling of similar issues.
Once again, I apologize for confusion and mishandling of your account. If
you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter further please
feel free to reply directly to this message. You may also reach customer
service at [email protected] or by phone at (402) 935-7733.
----END----
BTW, I had the same problem with Billpoint. They handled it by sending me a polite e-mail asking me to enter the new bank account information.
posted on May 27, 2001 09:55:51 PM newI understand that Compubank recently closed and sold all of it's accounts to Netbank. Due to poor communication, Compubank account holders did not receive notification of this action until after it had taken place.
A complete lie. NetBank and CompuBank informed customers by email, letter and on the website. As usual, PayPal blaming someone else for their incredible incompetence.
posted on May 28, 2001 07:59:50 AM newA complete lie. NetBank and CompuBank informed customers by email, letter and on the website. As usual, PayPal blaming someone else for their incredible incompetence.
Oh really? This article leads me to believe things didn't go as smooth as you suggest.
Netbank's headaches
posted on May 28, 2001 08:54:56 AM new
The user whose situation I described said they never received any of the notices from Netbank, and, as uaru noted, there were quite a few glitches in the transition. Holden (a reporter who posts to the boards from time to time) did an article for bankrate.com on the Netbank screw-ups.
In my case, I got all the Netbank info, but was away from the computer when the actual transition happened. So Billpoint sent at least one transfer to me using the old Compubank info, before I was able to update my accoount.
The real issue for this forum is the difference in how Billpoint & Paypal handled this problem. Billpoint sent a polite e-mail asking for updated banking information. Paypal froze accounts, demanded irrelevant information, and then couldn't understand the information it demanded.
posted on May 28, 2001 09:30:27 AM newThe real issue for this forum is the difference in how Billpoint & Paypal handled this problem.
No Books, it isn't a case of how it was handled. The difference is the PayPal user has access to the funds when they are in the PayPal system. When a bank notifies PayPal the account is non-existant/closed the funds are locked (for obvious reasons). With BillPoint if the bank notifies of a non-existant/closed bank account there is no need to lock funds they are already secure because the user doesn't have access to the funds while they are in BillPoint's system.
I hope you give a fair look at that. I understand you have contempt for PayPal, but your comparisons aren't valid. Netbank's glitch were handled the same by both services if you understand how the services operate.
(1) There is no obvious reason (except in Paypal's imagination) why a user who has closed his bank account should have the account frozen and be unable to access their money in other ways. (In the case I referenced, the user had two other bank accounts registered with PP that he could have withdrawn funds to, except for Paypal's shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach.)
(2) Billpoint never demanded that I fax them bank account statements or anything else. They just politely asked for a new bank account number so they could continue processing transfers. Since the Paypal user already had other bank accounts registered with PP, ot would have been easy for the user to do this without any interruption in their service, had Paypal behaved sensibly.
(3) I'll certainly agree that an inferior business model -- as opposed to Billpoint's cleaner payment transfer system -- is at the root of many of Paypal's problems (exacerbated by incredibly bad customer service). While that inferior business model does make Paypal look bad in comparison to Bilpoint, I don't recall anyone forcing them to structure their operation that way.
posted on May 28, 2001 12:21:58 PM new
For the record, here is the relevant portion of the e-mail I received from Billpoint:
---BEGIN----
To avoid interruption of future payments, please:
1. Contact your bank and verify the accuracy of your checking account number and/or bank routing number.
2. Log in to My Billpoint at http://www.billpoint.com/ and update your bank account information in your user profile to reflect the correct bank account information provided by your bank. . It's easy to update your Billpoint banking information. Just go to the Billpoint home page at www.billpoint.com and log in using your Billpoint User ID and password. On the left-hand side of the page is a menu of options. Click on the "User Profile" link and you will see all of the details that you entered during your Billpoint registration and any changes you have made since then. Scroll toward the bottom of the page to the section labeled "Bank Account Information" and click the UPDATE button. Revise the information and be sure to click on the SAVE button at the bottom of the page. (Otherwise, your new information will not be updated.)
If you believe your checking account and routing number are correct, please provide your bank telephone number so we may contact them to further inquire about the notification that we received.
----END----
Could Paypal have done the same thing, even with their different account structure? Of course. But they didn't. Instead they demanded faxed information -- the wrong information -- and couldn't understand the information when they received it. That's not "handling it the same way".
posted on May 28, 2001 04:40:20 PM new
> Could Paypal have done the same thing, even with their different account structure? Of
> course. But they didn't. Instead they demanded faxed information -- the wrong
> information -- and couldn't understand the
> information when they received it. That's not "handling it the same way".
And therein lies the difference between customer service (Billpoint) and customer DISservice (PayPal).
- Dan
----------
This message has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your brain.
posted on May 28, 2001 05:02:03 PM new
Uaru, I did not comment on how smoothly the transition went. The banks did go beyond the pale in informing customers of the upcoming switch. I find it dubious that PayPal writes it did not know one of the most prominent Internet banks was transferring all its customers.
posted on May 28, 2001 05:16:33 PM new
Just to clarify, I am not saying NetBank did not incredibly mess up the transition.
PayPal is not at fault for creating the original problem. But the PayPal email speaks for itself on how their system is set up, how they handle individual and large scale problems and how they resolve them. Which is, quite poorly.
In contrast, I had a problem with my c2it account just an hour ago. I called them on Memorial Day at 7 p.m. and they fixed the problem in minutes.
