Some of what I told you before seems to be inoperative, as they said back in the Nixon administration…not about the time spent on hold but about what the problem is. Basically, PayPal accounts are linked to checking accounts and every so often, they ask you to verify the full checking account number as a security measure. My problem is that my full checking account number, as printed on my checks and confirmed to me on the phone by my bank, does not match the account number as I (am told) I entered it, back when I signed up years ago for PayPal. They're telling me I entered 13 digits then. My checking account number as I know it has ten digits. My bank says it has ten digits and they have no idea what the other mysterious three digits are. Nor do I.
What's frustrating here, of course, is that I am being victimized by a security procedure ostensibly designed to protect me. PayPal will not let me into my account until I come up with the extra three digits and my bank says, "We have no idea what they are." The connection between the bank and PayPal has worked fine for the transferring of funds for years. It's just this security discrepancy. I'm locked out of my account because I can't come up with the three digits…and of course, PayPal won't tell me. (For a while, they wouldn't even tell me how many digits were involved but I wormed the information out of them that there were three more.)
I said to the lady on the phone, "Come on…there must be a way of overriding this if the system has an error in it. Someone there must be able to verify who I am and reset the numbers."
She said, "For security reasons, we cannot allow you to access this account if you cannot provide the proper identification."
I said, "So you're keeping my money from me?"
She said, "We're not keeping your money from you, sir. It's right there."
I said, "It's my money but I can't get it. So therefore, you have it." And on and on…
Like it says above, I'm no longer on hold. This latest call meant 53 more minutes on the phone with PayPal and nothing was resolved. She says they'll look into it and e-mail me with instructions on what I can do. Somehow, I don't think their suggestions will be as creative as some I could come up with on my own.
You'll be hearing more about this.