Rant alert – I hate you, PayPal.

I have been using Paypal for years. I am an online business owner, and this is how I make my living. Reliable access to, and transfer of, funds is crucial to me, and my livelihood. Paypal apparently doesn’t give a hoot about it.

Last week I transferred a large sum from PayPal to my bank. A sum that would be responsible for payroll, for buying yarn, for paying my mortgage. The funds arrived in my bank, but also remained in my PayPal account. I called Paypal – they said it was a glitch, that they would call back, and in the meantime not to touch the funds in either my bank account, or my Paypal account.

It’s been 5 days, no contact, so I call Paypal back and asked to be elevated to a manager.

He basically throws his arms in the air and says:

“It’s not our responsibility. Must be your bank”.

I say:

“Ok, but shouldn’t someone from PayPal have contacted me about this? What if I tried to withdraw the funds again? What about recent transfers? What if I didn’t, on my own recognizance, contact you before I made this worse?”

He responds, like some horrible automaton:

“It’s not our responsibility. Must be your bank”.

The manager I requested to elevate this kept repeating that one sentence, basically hoping I’ll go away.

I think we can all rest assured that, had I done something dishonest, like pull the funds again, Paypal would have been knocking on my door with a good deal more efficiency. If my bank reverses the funds it will be catastrophic. If Paypal continues to not allow me access to my funds, including new, incoming purchases, it will be catastrophic.

I’m not sure what my alternatives are. Roughly 50% of our business comes through PayPal so it’s not as though I can ask my customers to charge their credit cards instead. Informing Paypal that I will take my business elsewhere elicited no response except “that’s your prerogative ma’am”. They are so confident in their monopoly that they don’t care if I stay or leave. It’s a horrible feeling from the agency that holds your livelihood.

A small business is feast and famine, and the consistent, reliable flow of funds is crucial. They have demonstrated that they don’t care one whit about this. I’m open to your thoughts, or even just commiseration at this point. I feel so powerless.

I hate using my beautiful blog as a rant space, and for that I apologize, I just had to get this off my chest!