fed uip doesn't describe it!!

[Norman Verona]

bernie, the only big danglers I know all work for paypal  

I've know sent a complaint to paypal asking for the £1 transactions to be refunded (it has allowed 5 to go through - don't they know how to write software!). I've asked them to close my accounts.

I've also explained all this to the seller and apologised that I can't pay for his item due to paypal but will happily pay by my credit card.

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

Had the same problem Norman, but did eventually get there.

You've missed out the other key bit, have you seen the charges made by PayPal and e-bay      they can easily take 14% of a transaction. No wonder they threaten any other sites who attempt to copy them or use part of there name. Must be some of the easiest money going.

So why is it we are all so hooked

[Norman Verona]

The seller has agreed to cancel the transaction. They declined to accept payment by any other method that Paypal.

I've not had a response from paypal yet.

The item was only £6.95 plus £5 postage (from Hong Kong).

[Norman Verona]

Paypal answer:

QUOTE

Dear Norman Verona,

Thank you for contacting PayPal. We understand your concern about your

difficulties to link and confirm your credit card (8233 V). In order to

resolve this, we recommend that you open a balance in pounds so that we can

reverse the amount taken in pounds onto your credit card.

Mrs. Verona, I checked your account and realized that you did select France

in the country list therefore you are not allowed to use a credit card in

pounds. You can only link and confirm a credit card issued from the country

you live in.

Please follow those steps to proceed any further with a refund once you are

done with this get back to us:

When you add a new currency, future payments you receive in that currency

are credited to that balance. To add a new currency:

  1. Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.

  2. Click "Profile" at the top of the page.

  3. Click "Currency Balances" in the Financial Information column.

  4. Select the currency to add and click "Add Currency."

PayPal must comply with different financial regulations specific to

individual countries. To ensure compliance with the laws of each country,

PayPal does not allow members to add credit/debit cards that are issued

outside of the country from which their PayPal account is registered.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter and regret any

inconvenience this might have caused.

Yours sincerely,

Sebastian

PayPal

I know of no law that prohibits me having a UK bank or a UK issued credit card whilst living in France. If so then HSBC, Barclycard & MBNA are breaking the law.

I'll follow the instructions and see what happens.

[Blatman]

I interpret the PayPal email differently. I think it's PayPal saying that, in order to easily avoid any confusion and to help them (PayPal) not fall foul of legislation, PayPal prefer to disallow using credit cards in countires where they are not registered. In other words, it's just a T&C of PayPal use. C'est la vie...

[Norman Verona]

Blatman, you are, of course right, but I've lived here for over 4 years now and have used my UK bank and credit cards online at least once a week over the time.

If Paypal don't want to accept a UK credit card which has a French address linked to it they should have made that clear when it was set up.

Any decemt programmer would have checked the organisations T&Cs were being met before, twice, informing the client incorrect information.

Even the above email is incorrect. The profile isn't at the top of the page. I had to find the link to my account, logon again and then find the relevant item.

I've had to assume they wanted me to add Sterling to my currencies, but they didn't state that.

Don't you think this is a joke. They can charge my credit card with money but to refund it I have to make changes to their system!

[Blatman]

Oh Norman...

but I've lived here for over 4 years now and have used my UK bank and credit cards online at least once a week over the time.

So what? That's got othing to do with PayPals T's & C's.

If Paypal don't want to accept a UK credit card which has a French address linked to it they should have made that clear when it was set up.

I'm sure they did. You just didn't read the T's & C's properly... or at all... That's not a criticism, none of us have, did or ever do, so they resort to the only option left, which is telling us when we dangler it up, which they have done by emailing you when they were aware of the transaction.

Any decemt programmer would have checked the organisations T&Cs were being met before, twice, informing the client incorrect information.

Does your software code for your garages account for every possible eventuality, or do unusual issues get flagged up for dealing with by email? I think I know the answer...

Even the above email is incorrect. The profile isn't at the top of the page. I had to find the link to my account, logon again and then find the relevant item.

OK, so the email ain't perfect. I'll give you that one.

I've had to assume they wanted me to add Sterling to my currencies, but they didn't state that.

You didn't ask them?

Don't you think this is a joke. They can charge my credit card with money but to refund it I have to make changes to their system!

Don't know enough about it to make a judgement on that, but a skim of their T's & C's makes it seem to me that they are not really set up for credit cards domiciled in one country to be used in another country. Remind me, how do phishing scams work again?

[Blatman]

From PayPal T's & C's...

2.1 Eligibility. To be eligible for our Services, you must be at least 18 years old and a resident of one of the countries listed on the PayPal Worldwide page. You further represent and warrant to us that if you are an individual and you open an Account with us that you are not acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal or a third party beneficiary. This Agreement applies only to Users who are residents of the United Kingdom and all other European Union countries except Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and the Vatican City. If you are a resident of another country, you may access your agreement from the PayPal website(s) in your country (if applicable).

and...

Fees for Users registered in the UK and certain *other European Countries are set out below. *For this purpose, the certain other European Countries are those countries in the European Union in which the PayPal Service is made available other than: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the UK and the Vatican City. For Users with a PayPal Account registered in a region which is not the UK or one of the other European Countries, then for the avoidance of doubt, those Users will be liable to PayPal for the fees as set out in the terms of the User Agreement relevant to that other region or as set out in the Fee Table available from the “footer” of each page of the PayPal website applicable to the country where the User is registered. If other Fees apply for services or functionalities not referred to below, you will be notified of those Fees on the PayPal Website(s) where those other services or functionalities are offered or provided.

France, Germany and others are separated out by PayPal for charging of fees, as well as having different eligibility sections in the user agreements. Clearly there would be issues paying with a card registered in one country for a transaction that takes place in another.

[Blatman]

And this...  item 11.6

QUOTE

11.6 Eligibility Requirements

What are the eligibility requirements for PayPal seller protection?

Your primary residence, as listed in your PayPal Account, must be in the United Kingdom, Ireland or Sweden (however, different levels of protection apply for each region, please see section 11.2 above).

[pistonbroke]

b****y forieners causing trouble again  

[Norman Verona]

Clearly they don't like a card in one country with customer in another. However to allow the application to be processed and even to confirm the account is open, not once but twice is downright incompetent.

Or are you saying that we should all read the T&Cs first?

So, they can't check the application is valid, they send an email with an invalid link, they can cherge a card from an invalid application but cannot credit it and finally their own staff can't give correct instructions in an email.

If I ran my business like that I'd have been out of business years ago.

Bernie, I know they're registered in Luxembourg but that's no reason to be abusive  

[pete g]

Ebay & Paypal between them are complete & utter t***s. I am in dispute with them as they have charged me the final value for an item which the buyer never paid for. They have been informed of this several times but no response.

B8stards

i agree

if you are in the right. then recover your money through your credit card or bank.

thats what i had to do once .paypal would not accept it was there fault.

got my money back they  threatened me with action ,i replied please do.

never heard anything from them again. still using them. but only because i have no choice some times.

[Norman Verona]

I've informed MBNA of the dispute and asked them to note it. I will not be paying whatever they have charged my card, which looks like it's £5. (£2 on the statement and £3 pending)

[Jonah]

Hi Norman, Just managed to get my selling fees refunded for an item that didn,t sell, but what a hassle & the same degree of misinformation about the procedure to follow. Ebay & paypal don,t give a flying f*ck about their customers.

How do you get on paying for petrol in the cheaper self service petrol stations. In the South of France they only seem to take French credit/debit cards or maybe its only euro credit/debit cards. Its a pain in the A*** as manned service stations are getting harder to find.

[Norman Verona]

Jonah, The card problem at European outlets is, apparantly, due to the UK chip & pin being one version ahead of the rest of europe and the system not being backward compatible. However it's largely solved now as most of the card readears have been upgraded.

The £2 (it is only £2) has still not been credited. MBNA have agreed to deal with the matter. The young lady seemd to say that Paypal always do this and didn't have a problem charging it back for me.

I suppose Paypal must earn a bit by people not claiming this money back.