PayPal Review

I was late in signing up for Paypal. I must confess: I was suspicious of the whole thing. A service I pay nothing for, but am expected to share my credit card and/or banking information with, and which acts as a conduit between me and the online retailers I fequent? What's in it for them? About six months ago, I finally caved and signed up. I was ordering quite often from Overstock, and got sick of typing in my 15 digit credit card number...and even sicker of not being able when I didn't have my card handy. So, yeah, I signed up and have been using it regularly ever since. Really, though, there was no way for me to guage how good a service Paypal was - until now.

About two months ago, I ordered a book directly from the publisher - an independent publisher. This wasn't a book that I would be able to get from Amazon or Borders - it was a highly specialized book that had been printed in small batches. The publisher (who I'd never heard of before) accepted Paypal, so I chose that option. One week later, and the book hadn't arrived. Two weeks later, and the book still hadn't arrived. I sent the publisher an email, but got no reply. Three weeks after ordering, and I started to get angry. The book was supposed to have arrived within seven days of payment! I wrote the publisher an email asking for either book, IMMEDIATELY, or a full refund. My email bounced back as "undeliverable." I decided it was time to take this to Paypal.

After going through the complaint/claims process, which was unbelievably simple and painless - Paypal does all the work - I just received an email from Paypal saying that the retailer has failed to respond within the alotted time, which will result in my $19.99 being credited back to my account. I'm really pleased. You just know I never would have been able to get that money back on my own - not without spending major time and, probably, money, going through the trouble of tracking down the elusive retailer. As a bonus, I also know that Paypal is now wise to this retailer's scam, and others won't be ripped off in the future, because Paypal will no longer work with them.

Paypal is simple to use, free to use and, ultimately, wise to use.