Today, I’ll talk about a minor problem I encountered recently. It caused some undue frustration, but the outcome was…well, let me just tell you what happened.
A few months ago, I got the opportunity to become a part of an amazing group of people by way of a forum. As you may know, forums are a wonderful way to connect with like minded individuals from anywhere in the world. Most forums are free to join and participate in, but the administrators of this forum decided to charge a very special, low introductory price because of the well known connections included. The intro price? A whole $1.95 per month – for life. Yep, that’s all…$1.95.
The introductory price was to last only for a short while, so I secured my $1.95 per month for life price immediately. I had nothing to lose. If I didn’t get any value from it, I could cancel at any time. Pretty good investment if you ask me.
Well, about two weeks ago, I tried to log into the forum only to find that there was a bit of a problem. My username and password were not working. I tried several times, but no success. Hmmm…
After the unsuccessful attempts, I had the normal questions. “What in the world is going on? I KNOW I paid MY bill!” No, really I did. It’s an automatic draft through PayPal. This should be an easy fix, right? Wrong!
After I logged into my PayPal account, I realized that there had been a problem I was unaware of. I’m not a frequent PayPal user so I called customer service to get some answers. This error had to be fixed immediately. Not corrected, I could lose my introductory pricing and would have to pay the new price which is now $5.95. Still not too steep, but that’s $4.00 more than what I was paying.
The representative checked my account and could not find any reason why there should have been a problem. She apologized and stated that there would be another draft attempt within the next two days.
The next draft attempt – successful. All access granted. But wait! There is another problem. PayPal has deducted $1.95 from both sources of payment I have listed in my profile. That means I have paid a total of $3.90 for the month. O.k., this has gotten a little out of hand.
The Lesson: Automating payments is a wonderful practice for those of us who use the service, BUT be sure to verify your monthly statements with your payments. Double checking avoids two issues: not paying and over paying.
Note to self: Call PayPal. I want my $1.95! <Seriously>
Have a great day everyone!
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I have had my share of issues with PayPal and they have always resolved my disputes in a timely manner. One time their error caused an unused bank account to go into over draft, you can imagine my reaction to that.
But it is a good idea to go in and check all auto pay options at least once a cycle just to make sure everything is in order.
I’ve not had issues with PayPal before and they have been very helpful in getting the matter cleared. It’s just a reminder for me to always double check. Thanks Ms. Freeman!
Great reminder, Patrena.
Love the convenience of automatic billing yet not at the expense of awareness.
I recently committed to the practice of checking in on my financial accounts each day.
It’s quick and easy and enables me to catch any mistakes while they are fresh.
Yes, daily is a very good practice. Even though our payments are automatic, we always have to do our manual checks and balances. I try to log in every couple of days to see if everything looks o.k. It’s hard to clear an error weeks later. Thanks Susan!
I think I also may be a member of aforementioned forum.
The forum is great, but sometimes I just don’t have enough time to stop by and get value out of it. But of course I’ve been too lazy to stop the subscription. Heck, it’s only $1.95 a month! of course I’m sure they count on most people doing that – and when thousands of people are signed up and don’t cancel, that’s a lot of money coming in every month!
Note to self… cancel autopayment.
LOL! You are right. Pretty good “passive income” strategy if you ask me:-).
Patrenia,
I’m also a member of said forum. This story is slightly comical to me as I have had my fair share of issues with Paypal and automatic payments in general. I guess the moral of the story is to watch payments closely!
Note to self….add you as friend on aforementioned forum
LOL! So you must be a fan of doing manual checks and balances. Computers and humans are not perfect and many things can go wrong so it doesn’t hurt to take a second look. Great, see you in the forums!
I recently had the same issue with the same service for $1.95. Contact their customer support and they will help you get it cleared up. Lara was great!
Yes, she has been awesome! Thanks.
Yep, the pitfalls of automatic bill pay. I have very few items setup for automatic bill pay. In most cases I prefer to pay my own bills, so I can keep track of payments and also of the amount of money in my accounts. Some of them getcha though, like the same forum that you are on. The problem is that you don’t get to take the time to analyze whether the service is still of value, since it automatically renews. I may evaluate that forum soon, I just haven’t had the time to use it, and I’m not sure I’m getting enough value out of it.
I prefer to pay my own bills as well. There are only 2-3 minor bills that are set up for the auto pay. I don’t get the opportunity to log into the forum everyday, BUT because I get so much free valuable content from the blog itself I view it as a thank you. That’s something each person has to weigh though:-). Thanks Eric.