I've been using PayPal for years. When it works, it's good, and it usually works. That's very good, because when there are problems, “customer support” is a disaster. I think it's fair to say that I have never received a useful response from them, and in following their instructions I once lost both the goods and the payment.

I originally wrote this page in response to some fund handling problems I had on 12 June 2008, but there have been many:

• In 13 May 2006 I had trouble with an item I bought on eBay. I paid with PayPal, who responded and told me what to do. As a result I lost both the goods and the payment. The behaviour of the PayPay “customer representatives” prompted me to say that they would fail the Turing Test.

• In March 2008 a friend tried to transfer money to me via PayPal (not a good idea anyway, as it turned out). And we ran into all sorts of problems.

• In 12 June 2008, PayPal took money out of the wrong account without my permission.

I'm not the only person who has had this kind of problem, of course. Even after this experience, I find http://www.paypalsucks.com/ a little frightening.