PayPalReviews 2,135

While I have wrote great reviews about eBay and Half.com, Paypal is a different story.

For those of you who don't know, PayPal and Half.com are all owned by eBay.

First, not only do you get charged fees for eBay, but you again get charged to use PayPal when you receive money. So essentially, when you sell an item, you have to pay two fees to the same company.

Second, I have had one instance where PayPal helped, yet another where they completely blew me off and ignored proof and documentation I had.

My suggestion is that if you are doing a transaction that involves alot of money and has the possibility of something going wrong, don't do it or don't use Paypal. Now I have had only one or two bad experiences in the many times that i've used it, it still can be a good service assuming you use it with people whom you trust.

Like everything else, just be careful, check, and double check!

On the whole, I have had no problems with Paypal - I use it fairly regularly for buying and selling via eBay. The lower rating, however, relates to a transaction with Dealsniper.com, from whom I purchased a DS game. I was dubious, but when I saw the payment would be processed by Paypal, I felt a little better about the whole deal.

When the game arrived, it didn't work, and after much digging turned out to be a fake copy. When I put in a claim with Paypal, they said there was nothing they could do! So, why have such a system in place then?!

Paypal seems to be a law unto itself. What gives them the right to freeze funds paid by a buyer in the middle of a transaction hence making it impossible to complete the sale. When asked to refund the ebay fees nullified by their actions they say they are unable to do this even though they are both the same company. Consider the huge amount of funds recieved by this company with no service provided... consider the huge sums of money being made by this company for providing little more than a shopping site and a credit card service. Paypal definitely not preferred!

If it wasn't because certain places only have this as their only option I would never use it. Once, the company I was paying didn't deliver on time and I called PayPal hoping they can do something to help, they told me there's nothing they can do. So the so call "assurance" you get of using PayPal really went out the door.
I also use it to receive money too when I sell some stuff on sites like eBay and I think they take too much. Especially since eBay and PayPal are merged now, so they take a bit from my selling price and then some more when I receive the money. >,<

I'm going to have to write my first "hate it" review. Unfortunately I can sympathize with one of the reviewers who had his/her account held for seemingly no reason. This past week the same thing happened to me as I tried to pay my student loan bill before the due date. Paypal apparently thought that the fact that my paying my student loan, which I do every single month, was unusual and put a lock on it, with one requirement being that I send them a utility bill with my address. For what, I have no idea. My living in Guatemala makes this impossible, and the fact that it has now taken me 4 days to try to resolve this is just ridiculous. I think this may be my last transaction with Paypal, if I can help it.

Paypal has terrible customer service - use Google Checkout instead - I just accepted a payment on Paypal and for no reason other that the amount was larger than other transactions the amounted was placed on "hold" and my account was "restricted."

I had to spend 3 hours trying to get my account restored, which I am told will take 2-3 business days. In the meantime, the funds are unavailable to me. Had I known it was this much trouble, I would have just used Google Checkout or normal bank.

Also, I received a very rude call from a woman from Paypal who demanded I tell her what my transaction was for. When I asked her who she was and why she needed to know, she hung up on me and placed the hold on my account.

I would not use Paypal in the future. Stick with your bank or Google Checkout.

Note: Paypal also charges more per transaction - to receive $4000 Paypal charged $130. Not a good deal.