Be Warned: Dying is Against Paypal Rules

[joztamps]

Dear {Dead Person]

"Important: You should read this notice carefully."

 "You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased... this breach is not capable of remedy."

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44783779

[digital*ghost]

Yikes. Pretty bad form, and awful for the husband, but just to be "that guy" , the breach was technically defaulting on the debt, and the death was what made the breach incapable of remedy; which likely would have triggered at least a semi-automated notice. Not that it makes it any better, and you'd think there'd be different protocols in place for these kinds of circumstances considering such things would happen from time to time with such a large company, but one can only hope a human (who has a full grasp of the English language) didn't compose that in full and send it. 😕 

[joztamps]

My guess is that it was a pro forma letter, but compiled by a human ticking boxes, who ticked a wrong box, sending the pro forma off into the wrong branch.

[eol-products]

Interesting how they could lay blame on anything but human error. 

[zanadoo_56]

Dying is a massive inconvenience for computers.

When my father passed away my mother phoned every company that they had dealings with where the accounts were in Dad's name.  A magazine sub however refused to be cancelled. 🙂  Then payments stoppped but the magazines kept coming.  Then Mum got a demand for the money for them.  She called them again.  No luck.  So my brother phoned the company.  Finally the account was cancelled with no money owing.  Do computers and their human slaves only listen to males?

[springyzone]

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@zanadoo_56 wrote:

Dying is a massive inconvenience for computers.

When my father passed away my mother phoned every company that they had dealings with where the accounts were in Dad's name.  A magazine sub however refused to be cancelled. 🙂  Then payments stoppped but the magazines kept coming.  Then Mum got a demand for the money for them.  She called them again.  No luck.  So my brother phoned the company.  Finally the account was cancelled with no money owing.  Do computers and their human slaves only listen to males?

---

Some companies make it very hard to cancel anything unless they can speak to the actual person. We struck the same thing when trying to get Foxtel cancelled for my brother when he was in palliative care with brain cancer for the last 3 months of his life. He wasn't able to hold a conversation or deal with business but they refused to cancel. We found the trick was to get another male to ring & pretend to be him.

With regard to the paypal letter the widower received, I would say it is a pro forma letter for debt but the human behind the computer should have put a bit more thought into what they were printing out.

There should definitely be procedures in place to cover this sort of situation as after all, everyone dies at some stage, it's hardly a rare thing. I can understand paypal needs to try to recover the debt as it is about $5000-$6000 worth?

It needs to come out of her estate, that's all.

[zanadoo_56]

You reminded me of when my father developed Alzheimers and Mum phoned the utility companies to get all the accounts put in her name.  One of them (electricity or gas maybe) refused to do anything as Mum 'wasn't the account holder'.  Mum eplained the issue but they wouldn't budge.  Finally in desperation she put Dad on the phone.

Dad was an amiable man still, but by this stage his answer was to always hand the phone back to Mum.  Anyway the company person pressed on with explaining how the account needed his OK to be changed....until the penny finally dropped and she realised Dad hadn't a clue what she was talking about, and in fact was no longer listening. 

Dad politely suggested he put Mum back on the phone.  Mum took the phone, the account was changed....and from the utility company employee no more was said.  LOL

[chameleon54]

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@springyzone wrote:

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@zanadoo_56 wrote:

Dying is a massive inconvenience for computers.

When my father passed away my mother phoned every company that they had dealings with where the accounts were in Dad's name.  A magazine sub however refused to be cancelled. 🙂  Then payments stoppped but the magazines kept coming.  Then Mum got a demand for the money for them.  She called them again.  No luck.  So my brother phoned the company.  Finally the account was cancelled with no money owing.  Do computers and their human slaves only listen to males?

---

Some companies make it very hard to cancel anything unless they can speak to the actual person. We struck the same thing when trying to get Foxtel cancelled for my brother when he was in palliative care with brain cancer for the last 3 months of his life. He wasn't able to hold a conversation or deal with business but they refused to cancel. We found the trick was to get another male to ring & pretend to be him.

With regard to the paypal letter the widower received, I would say it is a pro forma letter for debt but the human behind the computer should have put a bit more thought into what they were printing out.

There should definitely be procedures in place to cover this sort of situation as after all, everyone dies at some stage, it's hardly a rare thing. I can understand paypal needs to try to recover the debt as it is about $5000-$6000 worth?

It needs to come out of her estate, that's all.

---

Had a funny one awhile ago. The missus is blind, so I have to phone up on her behalf, any time things need to be read. Problem is  I,m a bit deaf after 30 years of driving heavy machinery and playing music in pub bands.

I called up Telsta about a problem with the wifes phone account. Got the usual CS rep from Manila or India or somewhere. He started talking, but I missed the first part of a sentance, but got the last half. I agreed with what he said and so off we went in converstation. It wasnt until the third time he reffered to me by my wifes very feminine name that I realised the bit I missed was the CS rep asking me if I was the woman whom the account name was in............... 

So we just went on, me in my gruff old farmers voice, answering to the missus name, the CS rep ever so politely helping me. The really funny bit was guessing from his lisp and a very feminine, male voice,  the CS rep may well have swung that way too. He seemed genuinely " interested" and extra helpful to this female with the gruff " Australian Blokes" voice.

So you are right............You just need to get a man to phone up and pretend to be some-one else..............

[springyzone]

That gave me a good laugh, chameleon.

mind you, I entertained myself this evening. not quite the same situation but had a call from 'telstra technical department', where the man started by asking if he would be right in saying he was speaking to the account holder?

I replied that he was telstra, so he should know. Buzz, immediate hang up.

[zanadoo_56]

I got a phone call from India (I think) from someone selling home insurance or solar panels or some other house related item I didn't want.

So I answered the phone and there was a long pause. 

Finally he asked: "Could I speak to the owner of the house please?"

"You're speaking to her."  Then I hung up.