PayPal could benefit from ISO 9001

The following letter of complaint was written to PayPal on 13 January 2015 after sending an invoice using their ‘Create an Invoice’ service and receiving payment in December 2014.  It shows that even the biggest of corporations need to carefully consider how it treats the smallest of its customers.  Business transactions are all about dealing with people and their expectations.

Dear Paypal

In response to your fourth request for further information before you approve my Business PayPal account, please find responses below to each of your items:

* We are unable to accept your PayG statement as proof of address as it doesn’t qualify as a Tax Assessment.

I accept that the PayG statement may not be what you term a ‘Tax Assessment’, but it is an official document from the Australian Tax Office addressed to me at my address and therefore should suffice as Proof of Address.

However, if not, maybe one of the copies of the other 3 documents I’ve previously uploaded would meet with your satisfaction. If the Tax Assessment does not meet your needs you could select my driving licence, phone bill or council rates bill, all of which have previously been uploaded in pdf file format. As you may be aware pdf stands for ‘Portable Document Format’. It’s a file format developed specifically to allow persons to read files independently of application software, hardware, and operating systems (thanks to Wikipedia for that clarification) and yet eludes the technologies at PayPal. As such please select your preferred file format from the uploaded files.

The only further confirmation of address I believe will convince you is a personal visit. Please phone before you intend to call so that I can make sure I am available. Maybe I can show you how to download a popular and free pdf reader while you are here.

* We need your business model.

I can believe PayPal needs my business model. We put the customer first and we assist our customers in achieving their aims. We have the resources to serve our customers and operate in an ethical and professional manner. Maybe we can talk about this some more over that cup of tea at my place.

* Please provide information about the type of transactions you will be processing through your Business PayPal account. Please include a list of products/services and a list of prices/fees.

I would like to say that I am about to set up Ebay’s successor and expect to be processing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. The truth is I run a small consultancy which ekes out a modest living.
I was planning to send the odd invoice for electronic payment. However, based on recent experiences the only foreseeable transaction is the removal of my balance, which PayPal has been withholding for the last 6 weeks, and the closing of my account. However, at this stage I am less than hopeful this will happen any time soon.

* One document for Proof of Residential Address

Haven’t we covered this already? Maybe this is the problem. Maybe you have forgotten the number of hoops I have already jumped through to get this far. Let me take this opportunity to refresh your memory:

• Provided Personal details, contact details, confirmed email address
• Provided passport details
• Uploaded Australian Visa
• Uploaded Passport
• Uploaded Tax Assessment
• Uploaded Driving licence
• Uploaded Telstra bill
• Uploaded Rates bill
• Revised Paypal account name as PayPal advise that withdrawals are likely to fail if the account name and the Bank Account Name differ.
• Provided information about my company and company directors
• Provided Australian Securities and Investments Certificate as proof of business identity
• Uploaded a letter of authorisation exonerating PayPal in the event of fraudulent activity
• Provided Bank Details
• Confirmed ownership of my Bank Account via confirmed transactions
• Completed questions for Politically Exposed people (was Bill Clinton politically exposed?)

It is a substantial list, even discounting the fact that you required these same documents be uploaded multiple times in various file formats…..

* Mission Statement

In your haste to approve my business account you may not have had the time to look at my website (www.kbis.com.au), but if you had you would have seen that I am a Management Systems Consultant. I consult to companies who want to improve their customer service and customer satisfaction. My mission is to make companies like yours realise that without their customers they have no business.

As you can see I have diligently responded to your requests and continue to do so. I only ask you do the same.

Best regards

Rob Kellock