I didn't think this warranted the creation of a new thread, but I definitely think this is worth knowing about, for anyone and everyone who uses Paypal currently or is thinking about using them in the future.
As you'll see from the earlier portions of this thread, someone stole my Paypal password (assumably) and charged a bunch of money to my account. Well, those charges liquidated the money we've made so far from EE sales, and to make up the difference, Paypal sent a charge of about $177 and change to my bank. They did this in two units... one for $100 and the second for $77 (which is remarkably stupid imo). This money was refunded to my bank shortly thereafter, but that's not where the trouble lies.
I didn't have that much money in my bank account (as I don't trust banks). I keep enough in my bank to cover monthly charges, and a bit of spending money if I feel like getting fast food or something while I'm out and about. Otherwise, all cash, all of the time. Well, because I didn't have enough money in my account to cover this attempted theft, I ended up with two separate overdraft fees (because they broke up the withdrawal into two charges, for no apparent reason). Shortly after this happened, my website hosting service, aplus.net, took out their annual monthly fee for the MISoft Studios website. This created a third overdraft fee. Then, about a week later, Paypal tried to charge this to my bank A SECOND TIME. so here I am with FIVE... yes, FIVE... overdraft fees of $32 each (for a grand total of $160). Then I was hit with a $10 "extended overdraft fee" for not leveling the balance within five business days (because I was trying to get stuff sorted with my bank and Paypal so I didn't need to pay it). This brings the grand total of money lost from attempted identity theft to exactly
$170.
I contacted the bank about the overdraft fees, explaining that this was identity theft and I shouldn't be charged overdraft fees for something that is definitely not my fault. They told me that Paypal should send the bank a fax containing a bunch of information, and if Paypal did that, the fees would be reversed. So I contacted Paypal and told them this, and they said they'd send the fax within 48 hours. Two days later, the fax hadn't been recieved by the bank. I contacted Paypal a second time, insisting that they send the fax, and two days later, no fax yet again. I then contacted Paypal a third time, this time speaking with a supervisor and
demanding the fax be sent.
The next day, I head into my local bank branch to make a deposit, and while I'm there, I decide to talk to the lady at the customer service desk (which is within earshot of the manager's office) about this fiasco. I tell her what's going on and ask if Paypal sent the fax, and the manager comes out to also assist me. They wouldn't tell me if they'd gotten the fax yet, but the bank decides to reverse the $32 overdraft fee from Aplus's withdrawal, and also the $10 extended overdraft fee... so I recieved a total of $42 from my bank. But the manager said that Paypal should be paying me back the rest of the overdraft fees as it was their fault entirely.
Frustrated, I call Paypal the next day and ask if they had sent the fax. They tell me they did. I then tell them the bank said that Paypal should reimburse the overdraft fees, and the Paypal representative quite blatently stated that Paypal wouldn't reimburse me whatsoever. I explained how wrong this is, and how Paypal is solely to blame for their lack of security. She then ran off to talk to her supervisor, and when she returned, she said Paypal was willing to reimburse me for exactly $50.
So then I called my bank. "Paypal said they sent the fax, so why haven't you people given me my refund?" I ask, angry and lost in a sea of corporate nonsense.
"Because the fax we recieved from Paypal was incomplete."
Yes, incomplete. They didn't sign it, they didn't include dates or dollar amounts... they just said "yes, Matt was the victim of identity theft, we're not paying his overdraft fees." Even though I clearly stated that this information should be included in the fax.
So that's this situation up-to-date. Of the $170 in overdraft fees caused by this mess, I've gotten exactly $92 in retribution, and I'm still fighting to recover the other $78 that was wrongfully taken from me. I had to call Paypal a mind-numbing THREE TIMES to get them to send the bloody fax (I use "bloody" because of TGC's swear filters, even though it's obviously not the right word for what is being done to me here). The bank doesn't want to pay it, Paypal doesn't want to pay it... and I simply can't afford to chalk this up as a loss, and quite frankly, I shouldn't have to. And so, with no alternative and being only two steps shy of contacting lawyers and suing for $3,000,000+ (for the constant headache this has caused and for interupting my life for a full month), I've taken Xplosys' advice and filed a report with the Better Business Bureau. The claim is being taken care of as we speak, and if I don't get my money back through the BBB, I'm calling a lawyer and finding out if I can sue for as much money as possible. If I take them to small claims court, this will never get resolved. If I sue them and either force a settlement or bring this matter to a proper court, maybe they'll re-think their security practices and try to prevent things of this nature from happening in the future.
My girlfriend and I are about to move into a new apartment, and every penny counts. I've budgeted money for purchasing new software so we can get to work developing new games, and this cuts into that money as well. It's only $78, but with everything hitting us at once, this is the worst time we could get slammed with something like this. Of course this had to happen while we've been planning to move, and finishing off the payments on our car, and upgrading our software and computers... it couldn't happen last month when it wouldn't have been as much of a problem.
edit: If I sue and win, I'm totally buying everyone on the MISoft Studios team a new computer. And probably new software too. This started with the theft of our profits from Eternal Equinox, after all.
