Paypal Charges $81 Billion To Fill Your Gas Tank... Demands Proof It Didn't Cost That Much
from the maybe-last-summer...-but-not-now... dept
Gas prices have gone down quite a bit since highs last summer, but it still shouldn't take long for anyone to realize that charging someone $81.4 billion (with a b) to fill your gas tank is a mistake. Yet, that's what happened to Juan Zamora when he put what he thought was $26 worth of gas into his car using a PayPal debit card. And then the best part: PayPal customer service people weren't ready to believe him, arguing with him for at least 10 minutes, before realizing that, perhaps, there was a mistake on PayPal's part.
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Exchange rate
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Re: Exchange rate
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Re:
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The kind of mistake
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Re: The kind of mistake
I look for those moments in life now and find that they're everywhere.
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Re: The kind of mistake
now tell me if you think its still funny.
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Re: Re: The kind of mistake
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Re: Re: The kind of mistake
If they did, nobody would want to do business with them once they've been outed. And they are always outed sooner or later.
And yes, I still think it would be incredibly funny (partially because their error should never affect my credit rating).
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Re: The kind of mistake
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Never use Paypal
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Customer Service....
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Re: Customer Service....
Here's a quick funny on the subject of "wrong".
We get a call. This guy is claiming we're(an ISP I worked for) blocking his favorite website. No such thing is happening but this guy keeps persisting that he's typing it in correctly and that we're to blame. We send out a field tech to observe what he's doing since we can't figure it out. Come to find out he was typing "www,nameofsite,com"...using commas. No "thank you". No, "I'm sorry, I was wrong" instead we got "at least you fixed it". Fucking idiot.
Or the grouchy old retired military dude who complained cause he couldn't get email cause he didn't READ the email we sent him that said we were imposing quotas and that mailboxes had to be cleaned out before a certain date. Asshole.
Or the woman who called saying it was "ridiculous" that she couldn't get online and that she had to wait for us to call her back(which only took like 5 minutes) for us to discover her kids had installed Limewire and had picked up a virus that was killing her connection. Yeah, she got a "first strike" warning from me simply because she complained where other customers were simply told "be careful, if we get a complaint, you can get in trouble".
Then there's the people who for some reason think that they can buy something and that the job of customer service is to teach them ENTIRELY how to use it. Like Windows.
That is not the role of customer service but at some point in time our society became so fucking retarded that they assumed it was our job to spoonfeed them over the phone. Take a fucking class at the library, losers.
Then we treat the CSR's like utter shit because WE are having a bad day. They have it worse because they deal with a ton of you assholes every day, have to listen to their managers bitch at them about time quotas, etc. so the fact that they're not all stealing our private information so they can visit us late at night with duct tape and baseball bats is beyond me.
Being the customer doesn't mean you're always right or honest and many times means the exact opposite.
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Re: Re: Customer Service....
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Re: Re: Customer Service....
And if you worked for me, you'd be fired.
Yes, it is sad but true that most people don't know what the hell they're doing. But, there is absolutely no justication for the attitude you displayed here. It is precisely that reason, that cistomer service has gone to hell.
Is it frustrating? Asbolutely.
Do customers grate your nerves? Yep.
I've dealt with them all; and some days you want to literally kill them.
But, they are why people have a job.
With an attitude like you have, it's a wonder you are employed. But, in an economy like this, well, I wont expect too many more checks if I were you.
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Re: Re: Re: Customer Service....
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Re: Re: Customer Service....
Here's a quick funny on the subject of "wrong"."
Here are some of my encounters with customer service from the users' point of view;
1. I had a dialup ISP that outsourced its Usenet access to Supernews. In order to access the server, I had to use my ISP email address and password, which would then be sent to the ISP's RADIUS servers for verification. One day I couldn't logon to the server for over an hour. I called the ISP's "tech" support to report the problem. I was asked what error I received. I attempted another logon, then read the error directly off the screen. As near as I recall, it was "Winsock Error 502: No valid RADIUS response received." When I read this, I was informed "A Winsock error means that your network configuration is corrupt. You're going to have to re-install Windows Dialup Networking and recofigure your connection from scratch."
2. Several times I wasn't able to logon to the ISP at all. When this happened, I'd call tech support and after explaining the problem, the first words out of the CSR's mouth were "Ok, I need you to go into Dialup Networking..." At that point, I'd cut them off and ask them to try my name and password themselves. This invariably resulted in "Yeah, it's not working for me either. I'll let someone know and it should be fixed within the hour..."
3. When I joined the dialup ISP, they worked as well as could be expected for a dialup company. Downloads ran at about 6K per second according to my bandwidth meter, using a single connection or "thread". Then, literally overnight, the speed went from a steady 6K/s to an average of about 2K/s. I called tech support and was told that there were no problems. They blamed line noise, even though my USR modem's diagnostics confirmed that line noise wasn't an issue. I even had the phone company come out and test the line and they told me that my phone line was as clean as a phone line can be. They then blamed the sites. I told them that my friend with broadband was able to download at over 100K/s from the same sources. Then they blamed my computer. I told them that I could use the free Juno internet service (which otherwise sucked like a vacuum) and get perfectly fine speeds to the same places. Then they blamed "general internet congestion". A former employee of Supernews volunteered to help me. He connected to the same access numbers using his system and discovered that the ISP's network was suffering major data loss. I tried to report this to the ISP, but was told that their network was working perfectly. When I collected all the previous evidence and presented it at once, I was told that 2K/s was "normal" for a dialup connection. When I asked why my speeds went from good one day to absolute crap the next, they stopped answering me.
4. I live in CT and get all of the network TV channels from New York. One day I noticed major problems with all the NY stations, such as bad interlacing and repeating frames. I tried to report this and the cable company said that was the first they'd heard of it and they couldn't do anything until they sent a tech out to check my connections. They sent the tech, I showed him a tape of the problems and he said "That's not here, there's nothing I do about that." Duh! He called his boss, and was told that they were working on it. He said to give it a week and if I still saw problems, I should call again. I did continue to see problems, every single hour on the NY stations. I called again, described the problem and was told that was the first they'd heard of it and that they'd need to send a tech out to check my connections. I explained that they already did that and that the tech department was supposedly working on it. She then cheerfully replied "Oh, well if they're working on, I'm sure they'll have it fixed soon! Why don't you give it another week?" A week goes by and I repeat the whole thing all over again. I'm starting to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
After about two months of them denying that there's a problem, some of the CSRs I talk to say they've seen it too, but there's no official comment on it. One day, a friend confirms that he's seeing the same problems on his (different) cable system. Ok, maybe the problem is with the stations, although that seems unlikely given that all the NY stations are affected. I contact one station and the head engineer says I should tell my cable company that they have a "head end" problem. I try, but it goes nowhere. I also contact a person in NY, who confirms that the problems I'm seeing don't occur in NY. I think that maybe my friend's cable company will be more receptive. He doesn't want to deal with them, so I start emailing them proof. I asked them to tape one of the NY channels and the next day I'll send them a list of the times the problems occurred so that they can check them themselves. After a couple days of this, someone from that cable company calls me, the main gist of which was "You are not one of our subscribers. We have no problems here so stop bothering us!"
One night, while trying to report the problem for at least the dozenth time, the CSR offered to connect me to the engineering department. The man I spoke too worked in a different department, but he gave me the direct phone number for the head end department. I called the next day and the person who answered the phone seemed surprised to be talking directly to a customer. I explained the problem and he agreed to look into it. The next day he said he'd seen the problem and that it was caused by a transfer link that relays the stations from NY to both cable companies. He said they switched feeds and that the alternate feed was causing the problems.
The problems went away. Then they came back almost exactly two months later. I called him again, he contacted the transfer station and the problems went away. Two month later they came back. Another call, the problems went away, two months later, back again. Finally, I wrote a letter to the head engineer and included a tape of the problems collected over the last several months. I explained that the other engineer was very helpful, but that he didn't seem to have the authority to make a permanent fix. The problems disappeared permanently after that.
5. When that same cable company went to all-digital for the pay channels, there were some transition glitches, then everything smoothed out. A few months later, almost every single pay channel started experiencing glitches that went on for several minutes at a time. Choppy movement, wildly out of sync audio, etc. I reported this every few days, had techs sent out to my house to "check the connections", swap out the boxes, etc. I discovered that I could manually 'fix' the glitches by temporarily switching channels. This fixed it on that box, but the glitches would continue on any other boxes tuned to the same channel, indicating that the problem was in the box. I called, I wrote letters and they still denied that there was anything wrong. It probably took at least six months before this problem disappeared.
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Re: Customer Service....
Unfortunately, you are correct, with most companies. And you know it's sad when you have two expectations, and companies cant even reach that bar? Check this out. Only two:
1. Do what you say you will do.
2. If you make an error, fix it.
Sad, isn't it?
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PayPal
I say this because the PayPal Debit Card is just a trap for that. If you went in to Wal-Mart and bought box of .22 ammunition using your PP Debit card - that's it. They will not release your money for 6 months.
They're not a bank - they have no rules to follow but their own.
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PayPal Freeze based on Purchase
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Re: PayPal Freeze based on Purchase
eBay, PayPal's owner, is all big on being anti-gun (among other things). I wouldn't be surprised if purchasing ammunition violates their PayPal terms.
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Customer Service
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Re: Customer Service
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Re: Re: Customer Service
Anyway, didn't the guy know he was selected to pay for the stimulus bailout?
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Re: Customer Service
You see, *companies* don't want to pay for customer service because there is a load of morons 400 miles long just waiting to complain because they don't know how to plug their computer in or even if it's on, or they really put a cheeseburger in their VCR but don't want to admit it, etc. and those people want to be handled RIGHT NOW!! Those same people are the ones who will curse the CSR like a sailor and then complain when they finally goad them into responding emotionally, potentially getting them fired but definitely lowering morale and raising costs for the company even higher.
People simply don't want to pay for customer service because in the past the most you had to pay for service was a long distance phone call(you remember those right?) but now, for instance, Dell wants $75/year so you can talk to "a representative from North America"(that is not a joke). Note, I simply use their online chat because there is no problem hearing through each other's dialect in written text and they're perfectly polite and knowledgeable but I digress.
However, I agree that we should all be going to smaller shops if for nothing else than to stimulate the economy on a local level. Just because we're giving money to an American store doesn't mean most of it is staying in your community and benefiting the people around you.
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Re: Re: Customer Service
You see, *companies* don't want to pay for customer service because there is a load of morons 400 miles long just waiting to complain because they don't know how to plug their computer in or even if it's on, or they really put a cheeseburger in their VCR but don't want to admit it, etc. and those people want to be handled RIGHT NOW!!
is that even in those situations, the idiot on the other end of the telephone is not only NOT smart enough to tell you how to plug the computer in, but cannot even understand the question.
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Re: Re: Re: Customer Service
> on the other end of the telephone is not
> only NOT smart enough to tell you how to
> plug the computer in, but cannot even
> understand the question.
No kidding. I called my ISP a few years back when their nntp servers went down and I couldn't access Usenet. When the CSR came on the line and asked what my problem was, I said, "My access to Usenet seems to be down." The CSR responded with, "What exactly do you mean by Usenet? I don't know what that means."
At that point, I knew it was going to be a long night.
I mean, please. You work for an Internet Service Provider's HELP DESK and you don't even know what Usenet is?
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Re: Customer Service
Pay more, if you like. It's your prerogative; but, spare us the elitist rationale.
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Typical Paypal
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http://carsmedia.ign.com/cars/image/article/815/815627/gerald-r-ford-class-aircraft-carrie r-20070824021838533-000.jpg
Or, you know, a Hummer.
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Anyone who says that Paypal is not full of flaws is either lying or lucky. Sooner or later everyone who uses Paypal gets screwed. Most glitches with Paypal can be resolved, but the time wasted is infuriating.
Like was stated, Paypal is not a bank ...in the US, yet. They have their own rules and they will bend them as they see fit.
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There are many alternatives that are thriving,
onlineauction.com
ioffer.com
etsy.com (for craft items)
Amazon, bonanzle and ebid are all good alternatives too.
Usually less headaches too.
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After a half hour, even the $5 fee + tax were rescinded, but I laughed out loud at the 3 customer service agents that I dealt with. The first two insisted that they were not allowed to take late fees off bills...I kept saying, "What bill?"
I'm still chuckling now over this.
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Mistake
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/26/2483568-your-gas-tank39s-full-that39ll-be-81-bil lion
Much ado about nothing.
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Re: Mistake
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Re: Mistake
Apparently, Zamora has documentation to the contrary. From the article: "When Zamora returned to the Conoco gas station, he said, the attendant would not believe him until he showed her the printout of the PayPal receipt."
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National Security
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Customer Service
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Third World User Support
Maybe math skills should be added to the to the hiring criteria in addition to language skills and people skills.
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Trouble at phone company
I had only moved in a few weeks before and had not even got my first bill. I called the phone company and they said that my account was past due about 1/2 of my deposit. When I told him that could not be, since I had no bill, he looked it up and confirmed that the previous owner had not paid and they transferred the amount to me.
He cleared that up but then said that there would be a re-activation fee!!! Why??? Because my account was past due!!! Catch 22 here. After going up supervisor's 2-3 times I finally got a very irate woman saying that she would wave the fee this time, but they were flagging my account (would it be on my permanent record too???) and if I ever let this happen again, I would owe the new reconnect, plus the current one.
I said I would be happy to pay for it in the future if she could tell me how I was supposed to keep them from making mistakes. She hung up on me.
Now that is service!
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Hummer?
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Stupid customer service rep.
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Re: Mistake
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/641204.html
Zomara did have the $81B charge on the account and has a recording of the automated system reading the amount.
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How to generate a profit
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Second, yeah, customers are a pain, but you are paid to take care of them. What, you all work for the government and don't bother with customer service? The customer pays CSR salary. Maybe if more people remembered that, they would take a breath and always follow what Patrick Swazie taught.
Be nice. When it comes time to not be nice, I will tell you.
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