PayPal is now battling two problems that are affecting users of its debit card and continues to put the blame on its third-party processing vendor. One problem is ongoing and started right before Labor Day when some debit-card holders noticed duplicate withdrawals from their accounts. PayPal thought the problem was fixed last weekend (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m09/i15/s01). But PayPal spokesperson Amanda Pires said yesterday, "we found out it hasn't been fixed."
For now, they have put a "band-aid" on the problem, she said. Users affected by the problem will now see two transactions for every one they make, one that says "pending, will expire," the other that says "completed." Pires said while it looks like two transactions, money is not taken out of the account twice.
In the meantime, a second, separate issue occurred on Sunday. Pires said a small number of users who initiated transactions on September 8 and 9 that were completed on September 15 found PayPal had charged them again - in error. On the PayPal discussion board hosted on eBay, PayPal posted, "We are aware that some customers may show a completed debit card charge on September 18th for a charge that previously completed on September 15th. We are currently working to reverse the duplicate charge."
"While only a small amount of users were affected, we really apologize to those who are affected," Pires said. She would not reveal the name of the third-party vendor who is responsible for the problems.
"Whether this is happening to other companies that use this third-party provider I mentioned, we don't have that information as that company wouldn't release that information to us for privacy reasons," she said.
Forum thread dealing with the ongoing PayPal debit card problems:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000023859
Forum thread dealing with the 9/18 PayPal debit card problem:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000028105
