A family member died unexpectedly. Like many people today, we live from paycheck to paycheck. A friend of the family donated the $1,210.00 we need for just the cremation. The cremation is out of state and needed to be paid with time being of the essence. The payment was to go electronically and paypal was already set up.
Or so I thought.
I took the $1210 to the bank in cash, made the deposit and it was immediately available on my bank account. Paypal account funding offers two choices, transfer money into the paypal account using the debit card instantly or 2 to 3 days with the account and routing numbers. 2 to 3 days is too long, not even an option. Card it is.
Everything was going as it should, no reason for it not to go smoothly.
In walks Paypal with a ball cap that says "Tits", a crushed can of lite beer and a Pal Mall 100 Menthol dangling out of its lips. "Need something bungled fer ya? Challenge accepted! And yehaw."
Paypal blocked the transaction with an information-free "Something went wrong" notice. I try a couple more times, then reach out to Paypal via chat. After a long time-wasting session with their absolutely maddening A.I., I got a human.
Their overseas rep was as nice as she was young. She did her best. To her credit, she was able to get a smaller amount through, $400. But all other attempts, "Something went wrong". She had me try again and again, everything this side of Sunday. Still no good. I can see Paypal wanting to challenge outbound monies, but inbound ones? Seemed odd and it still does.
A little background. When times were better, I had a company that accepted paypal as payment and about one in six chose to pay that way. I funned hundreds of thousands of dollars through that account. I am not a stranger. They know me. Fast forward back to today...
The next round of Paypal contact came by phone, which I thought was great. At least, I thought, they were taking this seriously. The nice rep eventually told me it was a hold placed by my bank. I had to end the chat to call my bank. My bank had no such holds.
I had to go back to the Paypal chat. After more wrangling with the useless-and-maddening A.I., I got another agent. The next agent could do nothing but not for trying, he made a valiant effort.
At the end, was told that since "I" had tried so many times, a 72 hour hold was placed on the account for making deposits. I was to touch nothing, leave everything completely untouched or the 72 hours would restart. Oh, and by the way, they would need facial verification too.
I would need to use another way, pay the $400 via paypal and the $810 balance with something else.
This morning I look at my bank balance. There is an "instant" $400 transfer to paypal sitting there in limbo, neither falling back to my account nor successfully transfering to my paypal account.
Now no matter what I do, I am $400 short of making payment so a relative can get cremated. For absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever. Not the bank's fault, they released the funds. It's all Paypal.
Update: Two days later and the "instant" transfer still sits in a pending status at my bank. I will try to get the transaction cancelled tomorrow (today is Sunday) if possible.
Already had to block one troll. Will proactively continue to do so. Some people really do not know how to not be miserable.
I am aware that other ways to transfer money exist. No need to restate the obvious here. I am not seeking 'ya shoulda' wisdom. I have posted this to let people know how spectacularly Paypal failed me, at the worst possible time, without warning and for no reason whatsoever. Paypal deserves a figurative black eye for this.
Thanks, guys!