Help! Paypal lost my money!

Azrael_1701

michaels wrote: »

My solicitor sent a chaps payment to A&L but in my name rather than my wife's (it was her account) and A&L returned the payment as the details didn't match costing me about 100 quid in lost interest and more than a few grey hairs over a bank holiday weekend (it was a 6 figure sum that was missing); so in some cases they obviously do insist on the payment having the correct name.

a CHAPS payment is most certainly not the same as a BACS payment.

masonic

brokeinyorkshire wrote: »

When you do a transfer out of Paypal you are asked to choose the account you wish the money to go to and the details are already pre populated. You do not have to input your bank details, and like a previous poster said, your Paypal should have already been set up,. They won't pay funds into your account unless it has been verified first!

I thought exactly the same, and was fairly confident the system had been like that for quite some time, so I decided to test it. I tried to make a withdrawal to a new bank account and it would not let me do so until I had verified the account by entering the value of two small deposits made into the account. It would not be possible for me to withdraw to an account unless I had access to it to look up those transactions. The events the OP describes therefore seem not to be possible :think:

If you are unlucky enough to send money to a genuine account, you are completely at the mercy of the accountholder to give it back. The bank can request that they return it on your behalf, but they cannot disclose any information to you. To take any action against the accountholder yourself, you would need to know their name and address, which you will have great difficulty obtaining.

AnonymousForObviousReason

I remember seeing a news story where someone sent a payment to the wrong account but they didn't know which one, the banks refused to get involved, some rubbish about data protection (even though if the person knows it's theft).

The difference here is that at least you know the account you should be able to ask your bank to contact the recipient.

fishingcinema

To the op

Please do not be fobbed off by paypal or others telling you (a) they can not trace your funds (b) basicaly its your fault tough.
Yes you made a mistake but humans do :0)

Surely paypal have measures in place to deal with problems like this and should be using them to get you your funds back, the sad thing about paypal is they are willing to take your money and make fees for you using paypal but when things go wrong they just tend to tell you what you want to hear at the time or just ignore you and send you standard replies to emails.

I am quite confident that if you kick up enough fuss using there own t&c s on them they will have no option but to trace your money
I have had several problems with paypal in the past for large sums of money and yes it has taken me prehaps near on a month of frustrating phonecalls/emails to resolve but have managed to resole them before having to issue court proccedings against them.

I would write an email explaining the whole situiation and email to each address below, i am sure that someone will take note and deal with the problem.

cssupport@paypal.co.uk


ukresolutions@paypal.co.uk
ppelce@paypal.co.uk
crme@paypal.com
appeal@paypal.com
account-review@paypal.com
complaint-response@paypal.com

(one or two of the addresses will bounce back as undelivered but the rest will go through and make someone over there at paypal listen hopefuly)

I have had a look at there t&c s and different sections on the paypal pages and have found the below that may help you.

"There are a few reasons your funds may not be available yet:
- Make sure it has been 5-7 business days. The banking system does not operate on weekends and holidays
- Your bank may have encountered a problem with your request

Common problems include using an incorrect account number or routing number, or using an account that does not accept electronic funds transfers. As soon as the bank notifies us that there is a problem with a funds transfer, we will contact you by email to explain the source of the delay."

https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?&fli=true&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/UserAgreement_full&locale.x=en_GB#6. Withdrawing/Redeeming E- money

Read section 6 to 6.5 says nothing regarding withdrawing funds to the wrong account.

you could also use this form
https://www.paypal.com/ewf/f=sa_unauth
to report an error in your account the error being that the account details for the bank transfer was wrong anf that you phoned paypal to notify them of this and were told not to worry (do you have times/dates/names) of who you spoke to that told you not to worry it will be returned. and that fast forward 13 weeks and you are getting the money can not be traced.

Yes when you go to transfer funds it states

"Note: If your bank information is incorrect, your withdrawal will be returned and a fee will be charged. See the fees. Additional bank fees may apply. Please contact your bank directly regarding additional fees."

Interestingly if you click on the see fees on the above paragraph on the paypal page the below comes up

"Please make sure that the bank account and delivery information on the wire transfer is complete and correct. Otherwise, the amount will be returned to your PayPal account (deducting any bank charges) and a return fee will be charged. "

There they are saying it will be returned to your paypal account !!! so they need to get into gear and sort it out.

It dose not state that if you get your details wrong and phone us that we will tell you it will all be ok then 13 weeks down the line say we can not trace it and basicaly you have lost it, its beyond me why they can not trace the money or why they will not trace the money for you.
I would send emails to the above addresses and also send your bank a letter explaining the situiation to see if they can help.

Failing the above if it was me this had happened to then i would certianly consider issuing small claims procedings as this is not a little ammount of money we are talking about it is alot and for them to tell you it will be ok then basicaly tell you the money is lost is not good enough.

hope you get it resolved. keep us up to date :0)

masonic

fishingcinema wrote: »

Yes when you go to transfer funds it states

"Note: If your bank information is incorrect, your withdrawal will be returned and a fee will be charged. See the fees. Additional bank fees may apply. Please contact your bank directly regarding additional fees."

Interestingly if you click on the see fees on the above paragraph on the paypal page the below comes up

"Please make sure that the bank account and delivery information on the wire transfer is complete and correct. Otherwise, the amount will be returned to your PayPal account (deducting any bank charges) and a return fee will be charged. "

There they are saying it will be returned to your paypal account !!! so they need to get into gear and sort it out.

This is referring the situation where the bank details that were provided were incomplete or not valid. In this case the money was transferred correctly to the account specified. It just happened that it wasn't the account the OP intended. There is nothing Paypal can do in this situation - they followed the OP's instructions and the transfer was completed without issue. It is not within their power to go and raid peoples bank accounts, not even people who owe them money.

Loughton_Monkey

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

The difference here is that at least you know the account you should be able to ask your bank to contact the recipient.

Have you tried sending, say, 2p to the wrongly quoted account? Just do this from any normal online bank and see if it goes through.

At least that will confirm (or otherwise) that the wrongly quoted account exists, and that the theory that the account owner has just kept quiet is correct.

It will give you more ammunition/certainty, perhaps in getting the bank to do something.

If not, then you will notice that when sending a payment, you have about 18 characters in which to send a payment reference. Keep sending 1p, but use the characters to write "You B******!/Return my £400/Or I'll send my/bouncer friend/to ensure that/the next time/you see your/te***cles/will be on an/X-ray"

This may cost you a few shillings, but it will make you feel better!

jen245

I really don't understand how this could have happened. To be able to withdraw funds from paypal to a bank account, the account must be verified before withdrawals are allowed, the verification process being the 2 small deposits from paypal to the account, which you then confirm with paypal. Without the account being verified, paypal will not allow you to withdraw funds either to or from that account. I recently changed the bank account associated with my paypal account, and had to do this before I could use that account with paypal. I buy and sell quite a bit on eBay so make regular withdrawals from my paypal account, and have never had to manually enter my bank details. I'm wondering if OP has done a transfer rather than a withdrawal, but again a transfer from paypal is normally from email to email, no bank details involved. A little confused with this one!

Olipro

jen245 wrote: »

I really don't understand how this could have happened. To be able to withdraw funds from paypal to a bank account, the account must be verified before withdrawals are allowed, the verification process being the 2 small deposits from paypal to the account, which you then confirm with paypal. Without the account being verified, paypal will not allow you to withdraw funds either to or from that account. I recently changed the bank account associated with my paypal account, and had to do this before I could use that account with paypal. I buy and sell quite a bit on eBay so make regular withdrawals from my paypal account, and have never had to manually enter my bank details. I'm wondering if OP has done a transfer rather than a withdrawal, but again a transfer from paypal is normally from email to email, no bank details involved. A little confused with this one!

wrong, the account must be verified before it can be used for payments. you can add an account and not bother to verify it and you can make withdrawals to it.

desperate_dave

Olipro wrote: »

wrong, the account must be verified before it can be used for payments. you can add an account and not bother to verify it and you can make withdrawals to it.

Correcto. I added two accounts, first the incorrect one - realised my mistake and added account 2. I withdrew a smaller test amount to account 2 (without verifying) which went through, then to withdraw the larger amount I picked the incorect account 1 from the drop down menu. No verification is required.

Anyway, yesterday after having no joy on the phone with A&L I went into a branch (now Santander of course). I think what might make it more complicated is that A&L use one sort code for all accounts which makes the possiblity of the account existing much greater. The lady there was very helpful and confirmed that the account did exist. A letter was posted to the account holder yesterday to which they have 3 days to reply. Failing that they get another urgent letter. If they fail to reply to that, the money will be transferred into my account. Fingers crossed! Just wish I'd gone in weeks ago instead of Paypal to fart around doing whatever they were doing for all that time.

I'll keep you posted!

desperate_dave

By the way, I'm not in the habit of blaming others for my mistakes, and the title for this thread is perhaps a bit strong (I was a bit peeved yesterday morning!). Yes it is my fault, but one assumes that measures are in place to stop silly mistakes like this from happening!