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PayPal: Your Death Has Breached Our Rules

Glory1
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This is not a joke. Apparently PayPal wrote to a woman who had died saying her death had breached its rules and that it might take legal action as a consequence.

The firm has, apparently, acknowledged that the letter was insensitive (you think!) And has begun an enquiry as to how the letter wound up being sent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44783779

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Cleoriff
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Very insensitive indeed and I'm extremely pleased they wrote off the debt. Particularly as the husband informed them via the correct route of her death.

Having said all that, I use Paypal a lot and had absolutely no idea it could be used in this way. Naive or what?

I buy goods, sometimes use Paypal to pay and that comes directly out of my linked bank account. That's it for me.

My husband, who buys and sells on Ebay, has got Paypal credit.... which means the money from the goods he sells is credited to his account. He either leaves it there to buy more goods or transfers it into our bank

So if honest, I was a bit gobsmacked that someone had built up a debt of £3000+

It's obviously possible to use Paypal like a credit card. Something I was totally unaware could happen.

 

 

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Glory1
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No I had no idea either @Cleoriff. I thought, wrongly as it turns out, that PayPal was a secure way of paying for goods online nothing more.

Well, as I say I'm always learning on this forum. But I truly couldn't believe the headline when I first read it. I thought I had misread it at first as I couldn't believe any company, let alone PayPal, could be so insensitive. And I don't care if it was an automated letter, a human should, at some point, picked this up before it was actually posted.
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gmarkj
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In terms of what it does for the majority of it's users, PayPal is fine.
The problem, much like anything else, is what happens when it goes wrong.
There are a number of horror stories on the internet, but here are some that I have heard of:
-new business is taking pre-orders for a new product. PP freeze their account while waiting to receive a list of documents proving they are a legitimate business.
-student sells lots of unwanted electrical items has account frozen. Complaint to PP did nothing. Proving that items reached sellers (parcel track) and positive feedback on selling site (eBay) does nothing. As she was a law student she took them to court. And won.
-chap sells stuff before emigrating. PP froze his account for 3 months before finally allowing him to access the money.
PP are not fully under the regime of the FSA (Finanical Services Authority) as they registered voluntarily, meaning they can choose which parts of their activity the FSA can investigate. Which includes not whether or not the PP Ts&Cs are acceptable policy, merely if PP abide by them. So the policy is horribly unfair (and who is going to check a 36,000 word term of service) but because they followed their (unfair) policy the FSA can do nothing...
Personally I avoid them like the plague. I don't have an eBay account, I don't have a PP account. And I won't.

Please note, this is not customer services and we cannot access your account. Do not publish personal details (email, phone number, bank account).


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sheepdog
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Insensitve perhaps but its interesting to know the dates of when she took out the agreement and if the account was still being actively used until death. If she knowningly took out credit when already diagnosed then Paypal (or any other organisation) could persue the estate due to a terminal condition that has not been disclosed which is effectively fraud. If that is the case then the husband was also aware of the account usage, so isn't he complicit and trying to avoid prosecution by publically shaming?

 

Then if death was apparent, surely they knew that this debt was going to be an issue so was the intent to ignore it and play the law in having it written off?

 

Also if he's a member of a charity then rather than using the BBC, wouldn't it have been more productive to engage the Charity to talking to MP's and companies to get the law changed so the companies in question get fined for breach of process?

 

 

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Cleoriff
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On the other hand when we have had issues we have had nothing but full support @gmarkj

My husband sold a CD collection to a buyer who paid and then stopped payment (somehow). The CD's were despatched and we hadn't been paid. My husband contacted Paypal who investigated  and withdrew the funds out of the guys account and paid into his.

The other occasion was when we bought something. It was below par and we returned it. The seller refused to refund saying she hadn't received it. Luckily we had proof of delivery and Paypal refunded our money.

Both people had their accounts deleted from Paypal and Ebay after their attempts to scam.

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gmarkj
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I will admit that for most people there has never been an issue and when there has it has been sorted - a friend buys and sells a fair amount through his account and has never had an issue.
It is just a worry about some of the things that you (knowingly or otherwise) sign up to when you agree to their Ts&Cs.

Please note, this is not customer services and we cannot access your account. Do not publish personal details (email, phone number, bank account).


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sheepdog
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I've been fortunate over the last 15 years of ebay/paypal in having very few issues to deal with. Works well if you have money from relatives abroad that want to send something to you. 

 

Never been scammed and any refunds have been sorted quickly. Though some idiot (and I mean that with full intent) last year bid and won an auction, failed to pay after a couple of reminders so I engaged the non-payer thing with ebay which I obviously won as they failed to respond and closed the case.

 

Relisted and sold it to another person and then I suddenly get an ebay notice of a refund request from the original buyer about 7 weeks later! I replied back pointing out they had never paid after reminding them several times. They never responded so ebay closed the case. 

 

Saying that, I send everything by tracking now as I realised many years ago that some people are dishonest and will try to game the system. Even if I've understimated the cost of extra tracking I still view it as worthwhile as the hassle in having to deal with the system is not worth saving the odd pound or two.

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