Paypal and "customer service"

I have just had to contact PayPal support. I started on the 1st of May. I have my reply now. It is now 7th May. Well, at least both dates were in 2009!

Like many folk I rent a web server. Like many folk I pay with PayPal. Recently I set up a "subscription payment" to pay for the server. This is simple stuff!

The money leaves on the first of each month. This month is the first month where it has worked correctly, but we had reached about noon and nothing had happened. Now I know that PayPal us a US west coast company, so I was expecting 8am UK time to be the earliest, maybe 9am. I contacted support.

We went through an interesting iteration. I asked "At what time of day does my subscription payment to my web host get paid?"

So I had some replies. Between those replies I re-asked my question, ever more forcefully:

1. We can confirm that your payment has been made
2. We can confirm that your payment has been made (oddly repetitive)
3. Your next payment goes on 1 June 2009
4. Your next payment goes on 1 June 2009
5. Your next payment goes on 1 June 2009 (lack of brain power at their end, here I think)
6. Your next payment goes on 1 June 2009 (wow. Again!)
7. Customer Satisfaction Survey!!!!!! (I was not satisfied!)
8. Your next payment goes on 1 June 2009
9. Your payment goes at 8pm (I asked what time zone!)
10. Your payment goes at 02.00.00 PDT, this means 9am UTC (so, not 8pm in my local or their local timezone, then!)

I have now at least got an answer. But the conclusion I can come to based on this woeful trail of unmitigated trash ids that one PayPal person in ten has the ability to process words and has a brain.

So perhaps the headline should have been "we conclude 10% of their staff has a brain and language processing skills"

Altogether a very frustrating and yet satisfyingly complete experiment in social anthropology! But what a shame thatthey are the only game in town.