I am wondering if any other 'long-timers' have had similar experiences to mine or care to comment on my recent experience.
Upon getting home from work, I had purchased a buy-it-now item on eBay and proceeded to pay for it immediately with my PayPal account. I went to add a new card (a one-use virtual Mastercard number tied to my regular major bank credit account), and was alerted my account had been set into Limited status, meaning I could not use it to send money or withdraw any, if I had any in there, amongst a short list of other things I could not do until resolved.
I could not resolve online, and had to call in to the toll-free number. I waited until 9PM so I would not burn minutes. After listening to company propaganda and advertisements for over 20 minutes, I finally got a rep who verified me relatively quickly. We moved onto the problem, and it was explained to me that virtual account numbers were not "liked", because they "like" to verify who the people are sending money through the system... this despite my account being verified for what is probably close to 10 years now, if not longer (whenever they implemented account verification). I am a fairly early adopter of both eBay and PayPal (eBay had about 200 items listed on it when I found it in my college dorm room) and have a lot of history, both positive and negative with both companies. I used to be an online seller, so both accounts may not have a lot of recent history, but cumulatively in the archives, quite a bit of it.
I asked the CSR why the address that I provide mandatory when I add the card isn't sufficient, when it is run against the bank records, he told me they don't run the comparison at that time, even though I swear I have had additions declined because of just a slight variance in my address or zip code. I then pointed out, that the address I am using to register the card is the same verified address on my PayPal account. He said that was not good enough to verify the card I am using is me. The only way to verify it is me is for them to charge me $1.95 on the account. I suggested that this was basically another revenue/fee generating process for them, so of course that's what they would "like" their buyers to do. He disagreed and stated eventually they refund that $1.95 once they know it is you; their process or what it really proves was not explained to me in any amount of detail despite me asking about it further. To explain why I am using "like" in quotations: it is because he kept emphasizing that word strangely whenever he said it, I suppose kind of similar to how the criminal justice system would "like" you not to murder, steal from, and cheat one another in a civil society... just a preference really, and if you choose not to comply, you suffer the consequences. That's really just a conclusion I draw since the answers I was provided did not adequately seem just.
So, I continued to explain the reasons why "I like" to use virtual credit card numbers instead of locking in a long term usable card number to my account. 1) The extra layer of security is on me, somebody I trust most days completely. 2) The card number can't be used a second time even if someone were to hack into, or swipe the password to just my own personal PayPal account. 3) My memory is already fading at my young old age, but I swear PayPal has been hacked in the past, and/or partial account info had been leaked. Technological warfare and thievery is more rampant than ever and will continue to be a problem. If you can do something extra that is simple, now, why wouldn't you "like" to have that extra security?... Well, based on my conversation this evening, taking extra personal precautions does not appear to be what PayPal "likes". I pointed out that if people cannot take these steps on their own, they will likely stop using the service to pay sellers and merchants, and ultimately they will lose revenue (oh right, they just raise their fees when that happens, I'd forgotten about that and am reminded why, in part, I left e-commerce.)
After approximately 5min of me challenging his unsatisfactory answers, there was about 5seconds of nearly dead air (could hear rustling/movement in the back), then the call 'dropped' mysteriously or was I hung up on.
It makes me wonder how many other long time customers are getting treated this way and if PayPal can stay as a legitimate way of transacting e-commerce.
