Pay Pal Meddled in my Tenant Business, then apologized!

Pay Pal Meddled in my Tenant Business, then apologized!

Investor · Conroe, TX · Member since 2012 · 71 posts · 8 votes

I'm struggling with the title of this to make the keywords noticeable by the broadest group here to get ya'lls input. So maybe I will change the title before I post it.

I have been using paypal for about 18 months for my tenants to pay their rent, but this last episode has me thinking about looking for a different way.

My tenant messages me that paypal won't let her pay her rent. (great, a new excuse I haven't heard before)...

she says it made her create an account and it will take a few days for it to be approved, etc. .

Well, I know this tenant's computer skills well, she has good skills, sends me emails about pictures of bugs in the house, etc, even "strange noises" that she records and sends me them also.

Anyway, I go into my paypal account to look things over and see a red flag with no explanation on my pending invoice to her. This makes me call paypal right away to find out what is going on.

PP tells me that indeed my tenant needs an account to continue paying her rent every month, even though it has been going smoothly with her for about 8 months now. Well, I'm really ticked now!

PP is interfering with my relationship with my customer, and it isn't my customer (tenant) just making up a story. I let PP hear loudly and clearly here and now that this is not ethical, since I pay for the service, to strongarm my tenant, not just soliciting her, they actually stopped her ability to pay her rent, ....I would not have believed this if I hadn't heard it directly from the PP rep on the phone.

So, using my tech skills which I thank some BP members for sharing with me, I then told the PP rep that I am bringing my customer on this line in conference so they can explain to her what is going on, and help her fix it immediately,

PP rep was not happy at all, but had really no choice except to comply, especially when my tenant gave them her piece of her mind about it.

Well, an hour later, with PP rep on the phone the entire time, we got the rent paid, but now my tenant has an account that she has to use to pay the rent.

That did not set well with either of us, but at least the tenant knew that it wasn't me doing anything, and I knew she wasn't just stalling to pay the rent.

I guess I made a pretty big stink in that PP office, because an hour later I get a very long and very personal letter from PP apologizing for all the inconvenience this had created. I cc'd it to the tenant, and I hope next month there isn't more grief about it.

I have had very good results with PP up until this happened.

Anyone else have good or bad about PP that they might like to share here?

1Reply
23 views

7 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Hales Corners, WI · Member since 2013 · 229 posts · 80 votes
    13y

    Hi Paul,

    Glad you got things straightened out and that you and your tenant are both taken care of and the rent is settled.

    It sounds like PayPal's rule is that to make a payment via Paypal, the payer needs to have a PayPal account. Perhaps this is a change from it's former terms and conditions.

    But now you all know how it works, you and your payer need to maintain PayPal accounts to send and receive funds. Can you make that work, now that you know that it will take a few days for a tenant to set up their account?

    Paypal has the right to run its business and to update it's way of doing things. Changes to a system that was working well for you can be frustrating, I understand.

    Hope it works out for you in the future.

    Karen

    disclosure: Ebay shareholder

  • White House, TN · Member since 2013 · 47 posts · 5 votes
    13y

    Word of caution PayPal has been known to freeze peoples acct if they think something is going on they are not like a regular bank they freeze your money then you have to prove you aren't doing anything wrong. Just a warning. Use Square that money goes right into your bank!

  • Dawn AnastasiPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    13y

    Isn't PayPal an expensive way to collect rent? What fees do they deduct?

  • Investor · Conroe, TX · Member since 2012 · 71 posts · 8 votes
    13y

    I checked out square, I think I will use them!

  • Dallas, TX · Member since 2013 · 4k+ posts · 744 votes
    13y
    Anyone who used PP must be drinking some very old Boone farm's apple wine.

    Joe Gore

  • Multi-family Investor · Lincoln, NE · Member since 2013 · 19 posts · 4 votes
    12y

    I know this is an old thread, but I came across it on a search for 'paypal' and then later found the following resource here on BiggerPockets:

    http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/pay-rent-online-payment-tools/

    Definitely worth checking out.

  • J. MartinPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    12y

    @Paul Crowson I have not used them yet, but sparkrent.com allows you to accpet payment for $1 per transaction and is a subsidiary of Intuit - so at least it's not some fly-by-night or under-resourced company presumably..

    My tenants use money orders instead of checks though, so I don't know how well this would work for my tenants.. but if they're already paying online, shouldn't be tought at all. You pay the $1 fee..

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.