PayPal unauthorized access to bank account Omaha Nebraska

PayPal has caused me about 200 dollars of charges with my bank since November 2004.

On november 7th, 2004, I made a payment for a 1 dollar brooch, for a total of 4 dollars canadian to a seller on ebay. As soon as I made the payment, I realized I had made the payment with my bank account rather than my credit card. Knowing I didn't have any money in that account, I CANCELLED the payment. After hitting cancel, I got a page stating "If the payment has not been accepted, this payment will be cancelled". Since it was about 30 seconds after I made the payment and the seller hadn't accepted the payment, I (very falsely) felt assured the payment wouldn't go through.

A week later, I had an NSF charge with my bank for the payment. I tried calling paypal, over and over, but i would only get a message saying they were busy and try again later. Fine, I said I'll chalk it up to experience. A week after that, I had ANOTHER NSF charge. They went in TWICE into my bank account for a payment I CANCELLED.

After trying every so often to contact paypal, and getting nowhere with them, I finally spoke with a human today (March 18th 2005) about the situation. The lady said she sympathized, but could not issue a refund and I would have to go through my bank for a refund for an NSF charge. I explained to her that this had NOTHING to do with my bank. Paypal was NOT authorized whatsoever to go into my bank account, how was the bank supposed to know that?

Finally, frustrated, I hung up on them because I was going nowhere.

This whole situation, in my opinion, is extremely bad business. Even if one was to know that after cancelling a payment (ignoring the misleading cancellation page) that paypal was still going to get the money, they eventually refund it back into your paypal account. This might be fine and dandy for an american user, but for Canadians, to get funds out of a paypal account back into a bank account costs 50 cents. 50 cents on 4 dollars is 12.5% that I lose.

I will never deal with Paypal again. They have lost a loyal customer. I have cancelled all of my bank accounts and credit cards with them. I will keep the account open to have a "paper trail".

I want my 70 dollars back for Paypals idiocy. And I will take this all the way up until I get my refund.

Agnieszka
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Canada