This is here to warn you about some poor service or shabby merchandise that we've run
across. Take a look and perhaps you'll save yourself some (considerable) aggravation.
"Ebay Payments" (aka Billpoint) 
We made the mistake of using the "EBay Payments" service and discovered how incompetent this company is. Briefly what happened is that we attempted to use the service to pay for an item and it popped up a screen at the end that said "This service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Ah, but it was NOT down... it actually proceeded to deduct the amount from our credit card - however we did not know this. We used a different service (PayPal) to pay for the item. When we discovered the duplicate billing we attempted to get them to rectify their mistake - see below to see how unreasonable their "business" practices are. Oh, but first, look here to see the actual charges:
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5/1/02
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4/30/02
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EBAY ONLINE PAYMENT BILLPOINT.COMCA
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$44.75
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5/1/02
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4/30/02
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PAYPAL 402-935-7733 CA
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$44.75
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| What Started It? | Mon 4/29/2002 9:30 PM From: Billpoint System Notification [billpoint@billpoint.com] Order placed for eBay item 1823817371 Thank you for using eBay Payments to pay for your item(s)! Order Information (Order Reference ID: 5V7GUZP) |
| From Me: | Mon 4/29/2002 11:43 PM - this note sent by
e-mail after several attempts to use the "online" system which
only accepts 500 characters and times out before you can complete your
typing! The two responses are to the online request and the E-mail request
respectively.
The system said "I'm sorry the Ebay payment system is currently unavailable" so I backed out and used PAYPAL. Shortly thereafter I got a payment notification saying that 44.75 had been paid. This PAYMENT therefore should be reversed and something should be done about the erroneous "out of service notice" that I (and no-doubt others) received. |
| Their Reply: | Mon 4/29/2002 11:43 PM: Thank you for
contacting eBay Payments/Billpoint. I read your email and I understand
your concern regarding this matter. If a buyer wants a refund for an
item, s/he should contact the seller directly to arrange for the refund
and agree upon the refund amount. Refunds can be issued for any dollar
amount up to the full amount of the transaction. Refunds for credit card
transactions will be credited to the buyer's credit card account.
Tue 4/30/2002 8:30 AM: We are very sorry for the trouble that you have had completing your payment. We recently found that in some cases the state code entered by the buyer during Checkout was not being passed to eBay correctly which caused the System Temporarily Unavailable message to appear. The engineers for both eBay and eBay Payments/Billpoint are aware of the problem and are working on a quick resolution. We ask that you please attempt your payment again; making sure that your correct state code appears in the address that you select during the payment process. If you continue to experience difficulty paying, please ask your seller to send you an invoice from their eBay Payments/Billpoint account for the appropriate amount. |
| From Me: | 10:08:06.000 04/30/2002: Hmmh, looks like you
still haven't *READ* the message. THE PAYMENT DID GO THROUGH! THAT IS THE
PROBLEM. Unfortunately it told me it DIDN'T and I paid via a different
method...
PLEASE REVOKE THE PAYMENT |
| Their Reply: | Wed 5/1/2002 1:30 PM: I certainly understand your concern in this matter. If you have paid through Billpoint and by other means, you should contact the seller to request of refund of one of the payments. Should the seller need to refund the payment through eBay Payments/Billpoint, you can forward them the following refund instructions: Here are t he step s to take for issuing your refund: [They seem to be fixated on me contacting the seller - which seems odd since as far as the seller is concerned, our business was completed] |
| From Me: | Wed 5/1/2002 3:16 PM: I'm sorry. I fail to
understand why this needs to inconvenience me, or the seller any more than
it already has! The mistake was made by YOUR software using YOUR
interface. I have copied this message to the BBB and am formally
filing a complaint for deceptive business/refund practices. It
has taken over 5 e-mails, and literally hours to get to this point and you
continue to lay down additional "hoops".
You've created a problem where your software claimed that it had NOT processed a transaction when in fact it did - and when the error is CLEARLY pointed out to you, including agreement of the seller YOU need to fix *your* mistake. |
| From Me: | Tue 5/21/2002 7:17 PM: Hello again. I'm getting NOWHERE with Billpoint. I've reported them to the BBB and they've stopped responding to my E-mails. I guess their attitude is "if we ignore him we can keep his money." If I had more time, I'd take them to small claims court, too. |
It continues from there, over the next several weeks with no resolution. I even pursued the issue through several avenues. My recommendation: DON'T USE THEIR SERVICE. If you find yourself in the situation I'm in, here are a list of e-mail addresses to try.
E*Trade Online Investing Service
Avoid them! You can do much better [exactly who is better, I'll let you know in the future while I evaluate others - Datek in particular].
Basically you can expect that they will do the following: take your money. Then nothing else... for a month...
My experience is basically the same as this post:
| Date: November 30, 1998 09:38 PM Author: kanga (garyfotodr@aol.com ![[E-MAIL]](images/mail-to.gif){kind=small} ) Subject: etrade problems Please allow me to point out a few of the problems I have encountered since sending in a check to open an Etrade online trading account: (1) They never did send me my "Welcome Package" via US Mail containing my account number and password. Only after emails and two phone calls did I get this critical information. (2) Upon entering their "New etrade" site, their computer continually dumped my PowerMac/AOL back to their logon screen. I was unable to follow almost any links through their site. (3) The had recently offered a $50 signup bonus for new accounts. I signed up within their time period, but have yet to see any sign of that $50 posted into my account. (4) When I have attempted to complain to their customer service group online, it has always taken 2 or 3 days to get a response. One of the responses I got was "Sorry. We know we have a problem. We're so sorry" No indication of when the problem would be fixed or ways to avoid the problem. For your supposed #1 ranked online trading provider, I find them woefully lacking. (http://www.scorecard.com/Forums/Index.cfm?CFApp=4&Message_ID=1209 |
This came from the "ETrade" discussion at www.scorecard.com![[EXTERNAL]](images/leave-site.gif){kind=small}
where ETrade is still ranked #1 despite atrocious service. My "welcome package"
arrived the same day as my account closure - this despite warning them two weeks, one
week, and several days in advance by E-mail. The "welcome package" by the way
was a single sheet of paper.
One other allegation against ETrade is that they appear to be executing trades in ways
unfavorable to the investor. See the brief about a class action suit by Larry Cooper also see an alternative approach.
The only thing ETrade has done "speedily" is close my account. After calling
and waiting 30 minutes for customer service, I received my account closure check in two
days (it did NOT include the $50 opening bonus as noted above). There is also a VERY
strong caution about ETrade's
Irrevocable Power of Attorney. You should consider that, too before you leap.
Chadwick's Jewlery [Catalog Sales]
They REALLY border on incompetent.... Naw, scratch that, they ARE incompetent. How do I know this? Well, Tricia ordered a ring from them; however the ring was missing several stones, so she sent it back. This happened *3* times. Ok, so what's the problem? The ring that they sent back each time was the one she sent them in the first place!
Finally the manager sent her a "new ring" and told her to keep the old one. It was in WORSE shape then the one she had originally. Don't take my word for it, look at the pictures below. And this process took about a month and a half.
Chadwick Quality - you can't see it:
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