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Are you unhappy with some aspect of PayPal’s service and frustrated by theircustomer service? Have you just about given up hope of getting your issue with PayPal resolved because you just don’t know where to turn?

The good news it that help is on hand. The Mu Show #3 tells you who regulates PayPal, who to complain to – and how to complain for maximum effect. We’ve also been poking away at PayPal through our blog posts (like this one) in the hope that the company will start listening and communicating better.

Listen to the show here – and do let us know your views on our voicemail line 01752 548771

Consider signing this online petition.

I have to start by saying that I don’t think I’ve found a company with as many serious allegations againt it as PayPal. Here are just a tiny, tiny fraction. Take a moment to look at some of those complaints. Or these. Or this view.

Then ask yourself: “what would I do if this was my business they were talking about”?

I spent a couple of hours today trying to find out where these desperately unhappy and furiously angry people go, since it’s clear from what they say that PayPal isn’t listening to them. I want to know who or what – if anything – regulates PayPal.

Wikipedia has this to say:

“In Europe, PayPal is registered as a bank in Luxembourg under the legal name PayPal (Europe) Sarl et Cie SCA, a company regulated centrally by the Luxembourg bank authority, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF)

PayPal had been registered in the UK as Paypal (Europe) Ltd, an entity which was licensed as an Electronic Money Issuer with the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) from 2004.

This ceased in 2007, when the company moved to Luxembourg, however the Luxembourg entity is still regulated by the FSA, as it is an entity from the European Economic Area which conducts regulated activities in the UK. “

So it seems that the Financial Services Authority is a place to turn to. And here’s some extra advice from a disgruntled PayPal customer:

“BE SURE TO KEEP COMPLAINTS FACTUAL AND INCLUDE THIS – PayPal FSA Register Number: 226056. The FSA will not look into individual complaints but if they get enough people complain about Paypal then they will look into their business practices. Individual complaints should be directed to the Financial Ombudsman as they will deal with individual issues when Paypal steal your money!”

That’s useful information.

Next step will be to try to contact those bodies to find out how they handle complaints about a company like PayPal. That should be interesting.

I did that, and posted this step by step guide to complaining about PayPal in the UK.

Update: 8/01/10

You know, what’s probably most telling about PayPal’s lack of accountability and effective regulation is that if you do a Google search for “who regulates paypal” you don’t go to a page on PayPal’s site where they lay out clearly to their customers how they’re regulated.  Or a Financial Ombudsman page.  Or a UK Government consumer advice page or… or..

No.  You just get my post.

Just take a moment to think about what that actually means. Astonishing.

Apparently, this is all the rage. Happened to my brother. He talks about it here. Happened to lots of other people. They post about it here. This guy talks about a version of the scam here. And lots of other seriously unhappy PayPal customers air their views here. That’s a lot of bad, unhappy energy.

But the ‘buyer dispute’ scam is just a tiny fraction of the bad news associated with PayPal, an organisation that seems to be, literally, a law unto itself. And one that doesn’t feel it needs to respond publicly to those claims.

Why am I posting about it? Because I can and because I believe that a business should be accountable to its customers. With no exceptions. Even when you have 150 million of them.

I hope PayPal is listening because I’d like to hear what it has to say on this apparent scammer’s paradise.