Going to apologize ahead of time for the rant, but this kind of shit is why crypto is so damn important.
I set out to make a large purchase the other day. A personal development program for entrepreneurs, essentially.
The sales page only had credit card information, but that wasnt going to work for me.
My main card just expired, the replacement was in the mail but hadnt arrived yet - and I didnt want to put this much money on my back up card.
So I reach out to the owner and asked if we can use a different payment method.
(Obviously I suggested Bitcoin.)
Yes, we can do a PayPal link.
We can't accept Bitcoin yet, specifically for this, however, I'm certain we will in the future.
I get not being able to accept crypto at this time. There just arent any great 3rd party systems for merchants, and it quickly becomes a tax and automation headache. This is changing, but slowly.
Paypal works for me, Ive used it for years.
I go to send the transaction direct from my bank account, but it gets declined. I know that there is plenty of money in the account, so this is strange. The error too, was strange - something about the card not being accepted even though it was supposed to be doing a bank transfer.
My natural distrust of the banks immediately had me putting the blame there, so I gave them a call.
That blame was entirely misplaced. The bank had no issues, no problem with my account, or my debit card. Plenty of money, no holds/restrictions, nothing. In fact, they never even saw the transaction request coming from Paypal.
I called Paypal.
Apparently, some security system of theirs has decided that in order to keep me safe, it refused to complete the transaction.
Not only that, but that there is absolutely nothing the employees can do about it - they can't override the system.
What the fuck?
What gives Paypal the right to decide what I do with my money? Who the hell are they to say that a transaction I choose to make is "too risky" or "unsafe"?
Paypal's recommendation for what I can do? "Go find someone else to send your money."
🖕
So now I have to go back to the guy, looking like an idiot and embarrassed as hell, begging for yet a third payment method to try.
Thankfully, he's a nice guy and went out of his way to get me bank information for a wire transfer.
Should be straightforward, right? Went to Western Union to make it happen. Plugged in my bank info and their bank info, pressed the button, and....
Error.
Damnit. Went back, triple checked all the info, and tried again.
Same problem.
So here I am, on the phone with Western Union, asking what the hell is going on. Their response?
"Yea our system is down, try again in an hour."
...
Six hours later I try it again.
Same. Bloody. Problem.
Back on the phone with Western Union, clearly there is an issue here. The lady told me that she's "escalate my issue" and that "IT will reach out to me to gather more information."
I asked her when I can expect IT to reach out, and her response was "within the hour." (Spoiler alert, that didn't happen)
The next day, I was finally able to send a wire transfer, but it should NOT have been so damn difficult!
You know what system doesn't try to tell me what I can or cannot spend my money on, doesnt go down, and send transfers waaay faster than 0-6 business days? Bitcoin.
Paypal, Western Union, watch out - your incompetence will be your downfall.