Paypal – A Warning from StatCounter – RESOLVED

UPDATE: 15.25am GMT 30 May – RESOLVED

Paypal have acknowledged the double billing issue!
Please see here and here.

If YOU are a merchant whose customers have been affected by double billing, Paypal have confirmed that you can EITHER refund one of the two transactions by yourself OR contact their merchant support.

Sincere thanks to Karen and Danny in Paypal for their help, for working together to resolve our problems and for keeping us informed along the way.

While we have received great service from two individuals at Paypal within the last 12 hours, this does not excuse the lack of communication or assistance that we were forced to endure in the previous two weeks. We remain distinctly dissatisfied with the way Paypal have handled this situation.

As far as we can see, ALL the issues we previously reported are now RESOLVED.

UPDATE: 13.45am GMT 30 May

We have just emailed all the requested information to our contact in the Paypal Office of Executive Escalations who has promised to further investigate our case.

It appears that Paypal really ARE capable of providing good support – it’s just a shame that it took so long (and a blog post?) for it to happen.

UPDATE: 13.05am GMT 30 May

The excellent chap now looking after our case in “PayPal Merchant Technical Support” has just updated us again:

I’m working with our management team to setup a procedure for all the PayPal merchant affected by this issue.

We will also post shortly on our forum an acknowledgement of this additional issue with subscriptions, where you can redirect your customers in case they need a clarification.

I’ll keep you posted.

While it has taken weeks for this to happen Paypal ARE now communicating and we hope that the remaining unresolved issues will shortly be resolved for all of us.

UPDATE: 12.55am GMT 30 May

We are delighted to advise that we have spoken to a very helpful person in the Paypal Office of Executive Escalations. She apologised on behalf of Paypal, is fully investigating our case at present and has noted all our points in relation to the lack of communication and assistance. We will keep you updated.

UPDATE: 12.05am GMT 30 May

We have received a further email from “PayPal Merchant Technical Support”.

After reviewing those transactions I fully agree with the description of the issue you gave me.

Folks – we hope this means that the double billing issues will be resolved shortly.

UPDATE: 11.50am GMT 30 May

We have now received a voicemail from the Paypal Office of Executive Escalations. They would like to speak to us about the ongoing subscription problems and double billing issues. They are due to call us back later today.

UPDATE: 11.20am GMT 30 May

We have received a further email from “PayPal Merchant Technical Support”. They have informed us that the missing subscription issue has been resolved as we established in our update at the end of this post at 11:20pm GMT yesterday.

They have also confirmed that they are investigating the double billing issue. We are very relieved to finally KNOW that Paypal are actively investigating and addressing our concerns.

We will update again as we hear more.

UPDATE: 7.40am GMT 30 May

We have received an email from “PayPal Merchant Technical Support”

Thank you for contacting PayPal Merchant Technical Support.

I will research this matter further and update you with more information as it becomes available. If you have any additional information or updates to your issue, please use the instructions in this email to update your ticket.

Thank you for your patience.

Although the double billing issue remains, in light of many of the other issues being resolved we are hopeful that this problem will be fixed shortly.

Many thanks to all of you for your support. Particular thanks to our customers who have been directly affected by these problems for their patience and understanding.

We would like to emphasise that if the problems had been “just” affecting StatCounter we could have lived with that (e.g. if payment to our bank account was delayed) but since these problems have impacted on our members also, Paypal’s lack of action is simply unacceptable.

We are not happy that these issues had to brought into the public domain like this, however, Paypal’s lack of communication and assistance left us with no other option.

It may be a coincidence, but on the day that we posted this blog, nearly all of the highlighted issues were reported as “resolved”, 14 days after all of the problems arose.

We would still welcome an official response from Paypal in relation to these these problems.

Hi folks,

The Issue
We are having ongoing, critical problems with Paypal.

In view of the complete lack of assistance from Paypal in this regard, we have decided that we have no option but to inform you, our members, about the facts of the situation. This will allow you to make an informed decision about whether to use (or whether to continue to use) Paypal.

Please note that these problems may arise not only in relation to payments made to StatCounter but in relation to ANY Paypal payments that you make. We hope that this post will equip you with the information necessary to make sure that YOU do not become another victim of this ongoing Paypal saga.

The Problems
On 15 May Paypal performed a site update – this is confirmed by Paypal here.

After this date numerous problems were reported across the globe:

  • The Paypal Handling Cart feature completely broke down – see update below
  • Cross border payments could not be made as the drop down country list did not work – see update below
  • Customers have been flooded with hundreds of duplicate subscription emails from Paypal – see update below
  • Payments from Paypal are no longer associated with the relevant subscriptions – see update below
  • Some customers have been and are being DOUBLE BILLED by Paypal
  • Merchants have not been receiving instant payment notifications or failure notifications
  • Merchants/customers are unable to cancel subscriptions – see update below

The main problem that we have with Paypal is NOT the list of issues above – we all know that errors happen – we are absolutely furious at the complete lack of acknowledgement or assistance from Paypal in relation to these matters.

At StatCounter we have tried phoning, emailing, posting on the Paypal forums… Many of our contacts are ignored, but even when we do get an answer all we are told is that “Upon review of your account, unfortunately we do not have a time frame for a resolution to your issue we are currently actively investigating your issue with subscriptions.” You can see our posts in the Paypal forums here and here.

It appears that all of these problems are the result of the update made by Paypal on 15 May. Typically, any software upgrades can be “rolled back” if they are found to be flawed. Paypal’s inability (unwillingness?) to do this does not bode well.

What does this mean for me as a StatCounter Paypal Subscriber?
Unfortunately, we will be unable to issue invoices to many of our customers who pay us via Paypal until such time as the above issues are resolved. This is because the “payment file” provided by Paypal and from which invoices are generated is incomplete.

There is also a danger that you may be “double billed”. Please make sure to check your Paypal account to see if this happens. Although we would be delighted to sort out any double billing for you, in the current climate of confusion we are unsure whether WE are actually receiving the erroneously charged amounts. This means that WE are not currently able to refund any of these overpayments to you. We strongly believe that since this is a Paypal error, Paypal should rectify the situation – and leave us to focus again on our members rather than cleaning up a mess of Paypal’s making. Please do report any double billing to us and we will take action to report each case directly to Paypal.

Other StatCounter Upgrade Options
Please note that you can also make subscription payments to StatCounter using your credit card directly, by cheque or by electonic transfer to our bank.

Conclusion
Folks – we sincerely regret any problems you are experiencing and assure you that we are doing our best to get all of these issues resolved for you. We strive to offer a high level of customer service and pride ourselves on being responsive to the needs and suggestions of our members. To have our hands “tied” in this way as a result of Paypal’s inaction is frustrating to say the least.

These problems with Paypal have already cost us thousands of dollars. We continue to expend large amounts of time and resources on these issues – resources which we would much prefer to concentrate on improving the service we provide to you. We would be very grateful for your patience at this time as we wait for Paypal to resolve these issues.

We would also ask you to be patient with any of our fellow internet merchants experiencing difficulties with Paypal at this time.

Please post any comments or questions below.

Notes:

  1. This post is not intended to alarm, instead it is intended to inform.
  2. We at StatCounter do not take any pleasure in having to report these issues to you, rather we feel at this point that we have no option but to do so.
  3. While we hope that this post will generate media attention which may force Paypal to finally act and respond to the various problems outlined above, it is not the intention of the post to generate publicity for StatCounter.
  4. As we like to try to accomodate the needs of our members Paypal is still currently available as a payment option on StatCounter for new upgraded account subscribers. This position is currently under review and opinions from our members in this regard are being sought here.
  5. Paypal, of course, have a right of reply to this post and should they wish to contact us, we would be happy to post their response here.

Other Links:
www.channelregister.co.uk

tech.blorge.com
www.finextra.com
Paypal Forums 1
Paypal Forums 2

Paypal Forums 3

Update 2pm GMT 29 May: This post by Paypal indicates that the following issues have been resolved:
1) For subscription signups, when trying to enter billing information users
are not be able to change the country on the billing page.

2) For merchants using “handling_cart” parameter with PayPal Shopping
Cart buttons handling amount is not charged.

To the best of our knowledge the other issues remain and do not yet appear to have been acknowledged by Paypal.

Update 9pm GMT 29 May: A post by a Paypal staff member here indicates that these issues (some of which we weren’t even aware of) have been resolved:
1. Cannot change ‘country’ for subscriptions.
2. Free trials not being charged once trial period is over.
3. Subscriptions with free trials not being shown in history log.
4. Can’t cancel an active subscription.
5. Multiple emails being recieved (sic) for subscription payments.

No mention appears to have been made of these issues:
# Payments from Paypal are no longer associated with the relevant subscriptions
# Some customers have been and are being DOUBLE BILLED by Paypal
# Merchants have not been receiving instant payment notifications or failure notifications
The double billing remains the major issue of concern to us.

Update 11:20pm GMT 29 May:
Although we have still not received any official communications from Paypal, we can confirm from our own experience that payments from Paypal ARE now again being associated with the relevant subscriptions. For StatCounter members with Paypal upgrades this will mean that we can now issue you with your outstanding invoices.

We have confirmed in our account that the double billing issue persists:
# Some customers have been and are being DOUBLE BILLED by Paypal

As far as we are aware, the following issue also remains:
# Merchants have not been receiving instant payment notifications or failure notifications

234 Comments

  1. I’m so glad I checked my spam filter and saw this. I’m so sorry you all are having issues with them. I’m not trying to pimp my blog, but I just posted like two posts ago (here: http://www.baby-faith.com/?p=954) because Pay Pal basically told me their while they understood and they would keep my claim open.. it wouldn’t do any good.. no protection, I was basically screwed – but they understood.. So what is the benefit now of using Pay Pal over a credit card?

    None.

    I will most likely be closing my Pay Pal account.. especially after reading the whole policy change on eBay (unrelated.. but still crappy) about buyers no longer being able to leave negative or neutral feedback. They’re just turning Pay Pal/eBay into one ginormous scam where you have no voice.. you just shut up, bend over – and take your chances. Like it or not.

    Okay, I added nothing of value here. I am sorry!!!! I hope you all get this figured out.. I am actually going to the Post Office now to try and figure mine out – in the middle of a cross country move no less. Thank you, Pay Pal.. I appreciate your hard work. F’ers!!

  2. Switch to Google Checkout, and offer your subscribers an opportunity to sign up.

  3. “We would be very grateful for your patience at this time as we wait for
    Paypal to resolve these issues.”

    Statcounter Team: Please accept this fact right now: You are on your own and they will not help you.

    They promise protection – but when you request a refund for an item not received, etc. – they bluntly refuse to help. After quoting their own terms of service to them (proving they were obligated to help me), they just gave some bullcrap answer that had nothing to do with their obligations. I eventually ended up sending a complaint to my credit card company who refunded the error. This is the primary reason that:

    1. I don’t trust PayPal
    2. I always use a credit card through their service – and not a direct transfer from my account. In the event of a problem, paypal will not live up to their obligation. Using a credit card gives me a way out – another 3rd party who is at least reasonable in making refund decisions.

    So just remember paypal sucks – and it’s overpriced anyway. A merchant account will probably be more cost effective. Paypal’s rates are highly inflated.

    Best,

    –Rob

  4. Paypal is going way down, I have an account since a couple of years, Now I earned more than € 1000 and they asked avery kind of information, I had to send them very personal details to Frankfurt/Germany in the end without result. I even had to wait about one month to get all my money back. And now my account is very restricted and they refuse to close it. Folks, hands off – no Paypal for serious business!!!!!

  5. Hi guys. I’m also with PayPal, and have had similar issues, most notbaly where I don’t get an Instant Payment Notification, and then I have to hear from my customers “I bought the product, where IS it?”. I have also registered several calls with PayPal about this, but NONE of them has resulted in it being addressed.

    I am looking at replacing PayPal as a payment provider as well. Good luck to you!

    g

  6. PAYPAL IS A BULLY OF A COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Good for you for speaking up! I have had nothing but problems with Paypal…. funny thing is “we” use them to be protected but when something actually happens their protection is minimal at best and actually bordering on ridiculous. It is somewhat ironic to even use them in the first place for buyer protection.. Unfortunately, Paypal is very convenient to use and for business owners to implement, but when something goes wrong your eyes get opened to the sad truth about their business practices. They hide behind a wall of legal mumbo jumbo that pretty much borders on illegal practices imo….

    Best of luck

  7. Thanks for informing us! Don’t be disheartened by the few negative responses. Whistleblowers always get attacked by people who don’t want to know and are driven by obscure moral convictions.

    StatCounter Team Response:
    Many thanks for your kind comments Abby.

    We don’t like to speak badly of anyone, but in this case, when we found ourselves being blamed for things beyond our control we felt we had no option but to take action.

    If the problem was “just” affecting StatCounter we could live with that (e.g. if payment to our bank account was delayed) but since this problem impacts on our members also, Paypal’s lack of action is simply unacceptable. We’re not asking for a miracle, we would be happy with a simple acknowledgement and an estimated date for resolution of these issues.

  8. Just another instance of the dreaded PayPal monopoly trying to penalise and impede a respected and well-conducted business. The alternative will come. They are BEGGING for competition. Best of luck!

  9. Had a double payment taken from my account recently but I had a refund processed before I’d even noticed it.

    Personally, I’ve never had any problem with them but then that’s the same as any company around the globe – some people will have problems, some people won’t and you’re more likely to hear about it from those who do.

  10. I wonder if PayPal will ever get their customer service in order? You may be interested in this PayPal saga…make sure to read from the starting post…

    http://success.grownupgeek.com/index.php/2008/05/27/paypal-reinstated/

  11. I trusted PayPal once several years ago and that is the last time I have ever dealt with them. Now if I meet a merchant who uses PayPal, I will find another way to settle the finances or simply not deal with the merchant at all and will shop elsewhere to find a merchant that is less limiting.

    Why? Several years ago before Spam was the problem it is now, I used PayPal to purchase attendance to a technical class (1 time) and shortly after that, I began receiving spam at that email address. I had a strict policy about spam and which email addresses I used (even back then) but thought I had good reasons for breaking from that policy just this one time. And PayPal obviously thought nothing of it and distributed my email address thus violating my trust of them as a vendor. There was no other possible source for the leak of information. I will not use them.

  12. We had issues with them too but we decided that there is no better option. Here is a funny cartoon about PayPal staff 🙂

    http://www.jpgbox.com/page/71

  13. Why not just get a real merchant account?

    StatCounter Team Response:

    We have one John! We also accept check payments and money transfers…some of our members though prefer to use Paypal.

  14. I dont’ understand why you don’t mention that you will remove the option to pay by PayPal. PayPal has been known to be totally horrible with customer service and not responding to issues, as well as keeping merchant’s money and locking their account erroneously. Why in the world would you still give PayPal business knowing their lack of integrity, customer service, and total lack of concern for their customers?

    StatCounter Team Response:

    Note 4 beneath our blog post explains VL!

    Thanks for your comment.

  15. Hi. Thanks for the information. Really pleased that you are monitoring our needs and have informed us of these ongoing issues. The service you provide for me is free as my current needs are very basic however, if this were to change your customer care will get my vote and money.

  16. Just a note. I run 7 servers with 16-20 websites on them at any give month. I USED to require the sites to use paypal for the donation to pay for their server use. Then because one site had a photo of a boy without a shirt on it, paypal froze my account! It took a month to get it resolved. Then a year later, we noted the balances were always off by just a few dollars… but add that up over 20 websites and a years time and it was a lot!

    Now for 2 years we have used AMAZON HONOR PAY, where a member clicks on the ‘donate’ button. gives a donation. money is auto transferred evry 14 days to my bank or I can intiate it to xfer at any time.

    No hidden fees and it simply WORKS!

  17. Apart from these there is another issue which paypal never solved. I made a payment using my credit card via paypal as the merchant only accepted paypal. This was when the exchange rate was Rs 37 for US$ 1. they reversed the transaction and again charged me 3 months later when the exchange rate was Rs 41 for US$1, which means I lost Rs 4 per US$ the amount was 200 US$ and hence effectively I paid Rs 800 extra ie nearly 10% of the cost of the item I bought for no mistake of mine, so be more careful when the transaction involves different currencies.

  18. I stopped using paypal years ago for my business merchant trasactions. Their “protect themselves and no one else” approach lost me over $5,500 in one transaction. I was involved in a class action suit with them but never did hear how it ended if it did truly end. At least Amex, Visa and Mastercard have a fair process for chargebacks that usually ends fairly and justly.

  19. I’ve used paypal for the last two years – for tiny amounts of money. I would never consider them for handling anything large or frequent amount of monies. I always use my own Merchant account for that. I would recommend anyone doing serious business on the internet to utilise their own merchant accounts for payments – even if it is additional work at least you know paypal cannot lock up your money for 6 months whilst they ‘resolve’ whatever the it is.

    Just my 2 C.

  20. Thanks for the heads up, guys. I have used Paypal for several years without problem but my use is minimal and I haven’t had any problems but it never hurts to watch carefully. You folks run a great service, by the way, with Statcounter and I really enjoy the features. My site is strictly volunteer so I’m not a paying member but I really appreciate it.
    Don

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