Strange Pitney Bowes transactions on my paypal accout.

[kronk911]

Hey everyone,

Yesterday I used the buy it now option on an Asus motherboard and I promptly tried to pay for the item via Paypal. But it kept getting denied. I checked the balance on my reloadable prepaid visa and it was down over 40 bucks. I checked paypal and there were 2 transactions to Pitney Bowes. Then as I was investigating another one went through. I never authorized any these transactions and although they were all reversed by paypal I'm short those funds until the money is put back by paypal, (up to 7 days I was told). I'm now unable to pay for the item as I've cancelled the card and I'm awaiting a new one (3-5 business days). I have contacted eBay becaused pitney bowes is a part of their global shipping program, but my call got dropped after 45 minutes while an "account specialist"was looking into the matter.

How did these transactions get through without me logging in, and will they stop or just continue going through every time I have funds on my paypal account? I think something scammy may be going on here but I'm not sure. So I'm probably going to get a NPB infraction because of this... Thanks paypal and pitney blows.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them all.

Thanks for reading

At wits end

[pierrelebel]

Starting at the beginning, what is the listing number?

[kronk911]

321471187098 is the listing number for the motherboard. But these transactions had gone through prior to hitting the buy it now button.

[pierrelebel]

OK - did you check your PayPal account prior to making that purchase and/or attempting to pay for it?  Did you have a balance?

"reloadable prepaid visa and it was down over 40 bucks"

That would make sense since the purchase price was US$45.00 (almost Cdn$50.00)

Then there would be charges from Pitney Bowes for shipping US$ 12.80 (about Cdn$ 14.00) and US$9.88 (about Cdn$ 11.00) for import charges (tax, etc...)

Or is the $40 reduction in your prepaid Visa card unrelated to this transaction?

What does your PayPal account read?

[kronk911]

I had a balance of just over $70CAD on the prepaid card that I loaded onto it on Wednesday.The charges, 3x 19.08 USD, were unrelated to this transaction and were processed starting about 8 hours before I confirmed my buy it now. It's really strange,

[kronk911]

Paypal says payment to Pitney Bowes inc, reversed and then reversal complete on the next line.

[kronk911]

Yeah, I'm getting used to silence and being hung up on while dealing with ebay about this. I have taken every precaution, but I have not received a single answer as to why these charges were applied to my account. The auction was cancelled by the seller after I explained my situation to them. Which is ok with me because they couldn't be bothered to reply to any of my messages on any level. Paypal has informed me that I cannot block Pitney Bowes from accessing my account, so I'm at the mercy of these scamming dish rags.

Just to be clear, I am not a seller. There is no reason for Pitney Bowes to be making any transaction on my account. My anger is growing and the limit of my patience has been reached.

[pierrelebel]

Good morning.

Sorry for the late reply but, I generally do not post at night (family time).

There seems to be some confusion here.

On one hand you suggest three unrelated charges were placed on your account by Pitney Bowes prior to the beginning of this transaction.  That somehow does not make any sense unless these charges are for previous purchases you have made from American sellers using Global Shipping Service.

You also mention that you had Cdn$ 70 available on the prepaid card.  Yet, the total in Canadian dollars for this transaction (including shipping and import charges) exceeds Cdn$ 70. Could that have been the source of the problem?

You wrote "There is no reason for Pitney Bowes to be making any transaction on my account"

Maybe you do not understand how the Global Shipping Service works.  As indicated in my earlier post, you have to make a payment to the seller for the item and to Pitney Bowes for the shipping charge from their centre in Kentucky and for "import charges" (taxes, duty (is applicable) and handling (brokerage) fee).

Those charges from Pitney Bowes (shipping and import charges) are charged through PayPal to all foreign buyers (including Canadians) purchasing from American sellers using the Global Shipping Service (GSP).

[pierrelebel]

"Paypal says payment to Pitney Bowes inc, reversed and then reversal complete on the next line"

That may be because you use a prepaid card and there was not enough money on the card to complete the payment to Pitney Bowes, after the payment to the seller had been deducted.

[jos.ca2]

This happened to me to did they automatically reverse it for you or did you have to tell them to reverse it

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@kronk911 wrote:

Hey everyone,

Yesterday I used the buy it now option on an Asus motherboard and I promptly tried to pay for the item via Paypal. But it kept getting denied. I checked the balance on my reloadable prepaid visa and it was down over 40 bucks. I checked paypal and there were 2 transactions to Pitney Bowes. Then as I was investigating another one went through. I never authorized any these transactions and although they were all reversed by paypal I'm short those funds until the money is put back by paypal, (up to 7 days I was told). I'm now unable to pay for the item as I've cancelled the card and I'm awaiting a new one (3-5 business days). I have contacted eBay becaused pitney bowes is a part of their global shipping program, but my call got dropped after 45 minutes while an "account specialist"was looking into the matter.

How did these transactions get through without me logging in, and will they stop or just continue going through every time I have funds on my paypal account? I think something scammy may be going on here but I'm not sure. So I'm probably going to get a NPB infraction because of this... Thanks paypal and pitney blows.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them all.

Thanks for reading

At wits end

---

[maximus7001]

When you say the call dropped after 45 minutes that is not what really happened. They hung up on you to avoid dealing with a situation caused by the gsp. They don't care as long as they are raking in money.

[amira.1988]

Hello,

I have been charged from PAYPAL *PITNEYBOWES I'm wondering if you 

guys the department who charged me $33.00. I don't know why?
I can approve that I have paid for all my orders shipping 

why they charged me extra. Cause if this is the way they deal with customers 

steal money from their account. I'm not going to buy anymore from this 

stupid web.

please try the best to respond as soon as possible.

[femmefan1946]

Pitney Bowes runs the Global Shipping Program for eBay.

Those charges cover the costs of Canadian duty and sales taxes plus a service fee of about $5 to PB for trans-shipping to Canada and customs brokerage. (That is an over-simplified explanation. If you want a more thorough discussion, there are two threads over 4000 posts long about the GSP.)

Any imported item valued over $20CDN (about $15 USD) may be charged duty and sales tax by Canadian governments or their sub-contractors, like Pitney Bowes.

Look at the original listing (not on a mobile device, use a laptop or desk top).

Do these words appear?

Customs services and international tracking provided

Then you purchased an item that was listed with Global Shipping Program enabled.

[shakaroux]

Seems like a SHADY SCAM to me!!!

[shakaroux]

Why doesnt Amazon do this ?

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@shakaroux wrote:
Why doesnt Amazon do this ?

---

Why should they?

They have their own shipping centers in Canada and the USA to do the same type of thing.

NECRO THREAD by the way.

[louijosep-2]

I have been billed also by this company for 44.8 canadian dollars for no reason.  This is my billing item line:

03 08 U866211416 03 09 PAYPAL *PITNEYBOWES

4029357733 CT 44.48 MONTANT ORIGINAL EN DEVISE CAD 44.48

after I bought a phone in ebay.ca.

[pierrelebel]

"I bought a phone in ebay.ca."

It does not matter if you buy on eBay.ca or eBay.com.  The item comes from the USA and the seller was using Global Shipping (Pitney Bowes)

Check the listing on your computer.

You will notice the price of the item, a shipping charge and an import charge (Pitney Bowes)

[deeramondee]

I really hope somebody will pay attention to this message.

Ive experienced the same thing. Very complex and exahusting experience through past few days.

Id like to point out Im out off US which means all this includes currency exchange rates etc.

..Ive tried to pay for the item, payment has been 2x declined (2x app 70$ = 140$!! was taken from my account by PB). I even didnt use paypal but credit card. My first idea was of course to contact ebay and the bank. Bank didnt know whats goin on and ebay redirected me to paypal since they provide all the payments system. Paypal told me at this point that the money will return in max 5 days. It was back next day but not in the full amount... 10 bucks less. So the story continues and i keep emailing paypal..

After all - before I made the actual payment for the item again - I called the bank to make sure all the balance and limits are fine, everything was ok but I figured out one important detail that I never noticed ever in my internet payment history.

Just before you press that last confirming button to conclusively pay the item, you can see the exact amount of money in your currency youre about to pay.......And? The amount that is actually taken from your account is even higher! The currency exchange rate that is used to show you this amount is not the same rate used in the process of taking the money from your account.

So even when i thought, thats fine, theres enough money on the account to pay this, there was not. The system was taking approx 22 more bucks than I knew was taking (the total amount for the item was 250 buck).. so finally I paid sth like 272 + the 10 more that Pitney Bowes accidentaly took while reversing my money after declined payments.

For 170$ item + extremely high shipping and import charges = 250$, I finally had to pay 282$. Thats quite shocking. System (PB) that should make it easier is makin it very shady.

The customers support and the way informing customers about the prices is not working at all. Cant they at least inform a customer in advance that the payment is split in two parts? Im quite tolerant person, after all this the item I bought is still of better price than Id get it for in my country. But I feel like I really want to break this down.

All the emailing, hours Ive spend online to solve all this, the fact how hard is to even get the e-mail contact, to read all those inappropriately polite messages from ebay and paypal. Its very exahusting and upsetting.

I cant even imagine countless experiences of people without language skills that you need to figure this out.

Somebody do something

[pierrelebel]

"you can see the exact amount of money in your currency youre about to pay......"

Not quite.

If the transaction was in US$, you will be charged US$ - then converted into Canadian dollars.

The conversion amount shown by eBay is NOT the amount that will be charged.  It is an approximation of the converted value based on the exchange rate in effect the morning of the transaction. All eBay converted values (all sites, all currencies) are calculated the same way.

These approximations do not included a conversion fee (2.5%) charged by PayPal when converting from one currency into another.  That rate is competitive with most banks and credit card issuers for small retail transactions.  In addition there may have been some small fluctuations on the market in the value of the currency that may affect the results slightly one way or the other.

So if eBay shows (for example) US$100.00 = Cdn$ 127.00 The amount charged by PayPal would be $127.00 + 2.5% = Cdn$ 130.70