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PayPal - BillMeLater - PayPal becomes BML and uses 'Bait and Switch' fraud technique

Complaint
Review by terrybrock on 2012-09-18
Rating: StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty Star
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS -- I've been both a buyer and a seller on eBay for quite some time and PayPal has certainly been able to speed things along provided you have included any fees for using the service in the price of your goods. As a buyer, Bill Me Later has offered some fantastic financing options; 6-12-18 months with no handling charges if paid in full by the due date. I'm good at finding these deals and for the things that I want and scrutinizing the bills once I get them. I've noticed twice now that Bill Me Later has offered me extended financing at purchase, only to decrease the time limit when billing time came. The last time I called them about this they took my information to 'send to accounting' stating that someone would get back with me via email in a few days. Two days later I got an email stating that the complaint had been reviewed and corrections, if any, would show up on my account within 24-48 hours. I waited 4 days to see the results of a transaction that took seconds to complete only to see that they had removed special financing completely. As it stands now I have a $1300 purchase that should have had 18 months of no finance charges, instead it has been changed to a straight purchase. I've sent an email detailing this each day for two waiting for a response and am moving towards hand writing a letter with a copy of their advertised financing and a list of dates and times of when I've called.

A few minutes ago I tried to make a $10 purchase using my PayPal account. I use it often and change the method of payment to credit card, that way I don't have to manually enter in the number each purchase. I have $40 in my PayPal account which is set to transfer today to my BillMeLater account as a payment. So PayPal knows I have have only $40 earmarked to go to BillMeLater. The only option they would give me was to charge the $10 to my BillMeLater account or take it from my PayPal account since I had a balance. Sure.... take $10 away from the $40 going to BML and have BML charge me for having insufficient funds. Or charge the $10 to the BML account where I already have another promotional balance being paid off and this new one to be resolved. I found it easier to pull out the credit card and punch in the numbers.

I went back through my memo notes in Quicken and found that this same bait and switch occurred with BillMeLater before and I have had issues with PayPal. BML is not a bank, and therefore is excluded from having to operate under the same consumer protection laws as banks do. It seems like the more I use them, the more shady they seem to operate... forgetting to apply the correct promotion and Ooops, we "forgot" and didn't put on one at all when we "fixed" it. Really? Really.

PayPal is a fast and easy way to collect and send money. BillMeLater is a financing option that might be helpful to some. But beware: At best their systems make a lot of mistakes and their people are not trained on how to fix them and at worse; This is the way it was designed to be.
Comments:
Posted by Alain on 2012-09-18:
Thanks for your review. It makes me reluctant to consider using either of these companies.
Posted by trmn8r on 2012-09-18:
I do not mind using PayPal - I have for several years. The only thing I don't like is accepting payments for an Ebay purchase and getting whacked with a high fee, because in the old days we got checks or money orders.

BML is a whole nother story. The whole concept of Bill Me Later is a crimson red warning flag. I don't mind credit card companies, because I know how they work. Whenever you get promotional rate offers, you have to be meticulous about the terms. Your complaint indicates that even when you are with BML, the terms can *change*.

I would not have used BML, and your complaint makes me double down on that choice.
Posted by David on 2012-09-26:
I too have used PayPal on Ebay, after selling an item(watch)the buyer contacted PayPal and claimed he never got the item, PayPal refunded the buyer in full without even notifying me.I have not used PayPal since.
Posted by jaytease on 2012-09-26:
Thanks for this review. I have always hesitated to use PayPal and buy products or services where PayPal is only option. Now, I will reconfirm to NEVER use it. Thanks again. PayPal ought to PayAttention!
Posted by billtech66 on 2012-09-26:
I use paypal a lot, but always change the charge to my credit card, since I've also found out the hard way that Paypal is not on my side when a dispute arrises.
Also, I was quite put off by the Bill Me Later option in the past, which sounded very suspicious. I never used them, so thanks for clarifying that I made the right choice. :)
Posted by Joe66 on 2012-09-26:
I really like using PayPal...but their customer service sucks. Its very hard to get a customer service rep on the phone and when you do you don't get good service. Most of them seem new. I sent in a survey recently giving them a bad review on customer service but have not heard back. After all they are handling your money and you should have secure access to it. Keep a small amount there until their service improves. Is Google coming out with something similar? By the way, if I transfer money from my checking account to PayPal it shows up instantly in the checking account as a deduction but takes 3-4 days to appear in PayPal? What gives?

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