by Mike Exner

Here is a quick little horror story on using the PayPal guaranteed service.

On November 8th, 2000 I ordered a DVD player from E-Commerce Inc. who only accepted payment via the PayPal service. The PayPal service is “supposed” to be very careful about who they do business with and are also “supposed” to check out each business to make sure they are honest and reliable. They stress this in their sign-up forms and in their on-line documentation.

E-Commerce?
Knowing that PayPal is one of the largest on-line billing companies I went ahead and placed the order for the DVD Player. After waiting the 2 weeks that my order was supposed to take I tried e-mailing E-Commerce Inc. to find out what the delay might be. They responded to my e-mail saying that they had a large backlog of orders and that my order would ship in 7 days.

Wait a Week
I decided to wait the additional 7 days and when I still did not receive a tracking number as promised I once again sent them an e-mail message.

After several re-sends of the email they once again responded saying to please give then 2 more days and they would have it to me via FedEx before Christmas (it is now December 14th, 2000).

Well needless to say I waited the additional two days and still nothing. I have since sent then dozens of e-mail messages with out receiving a reply of any kind.

Fraud
On January 2nd, 2001 I sent PayPay a FRAUD notice on this company. They responded with a Form Letter saying that I needed to send them a FRAUD notice. I replied saying that I did send them a FRAUD notice as requested and as explained in their on-line documentation. Their response was the same form letter telling me once again that I must first submit a FRAUD notice. A point of interest here is that the FRAUD notice has to be sent to the same e-mail address that the auto response comes from. I again sent them the FRAUD notice they requested and once again received the same form letter in reply.

Conclusion
I have submitted a FRAUD notice to PayPal three times now. They no longer are responding to my e-mail messages and in my opinion appear to have conspired with E-Commerce Inc. in taking money from internet users.