Is Paypal safe?

After reading somewhere around 100 posts about Paypal over the past 6 months, my impression of their service is certainly not very favorable. I understand that the majority of people that use their service do so without a hitch and tend to be pleased with them. However, there do appear to be enough folks out there with bad experiences that I'm a little wary of using the service myself. Issues such as double payment if you hit the submit button twice, unsatisfactory resolution of bad transactions, and failure to respond to customer complaints in a timely manner are among the most common complaints I've read. Its enough to make me feel a bit edgy about executing a large transaction through them. That said, does anyone have experience with other escrow services that offer a different level of service? Is Paypal pretty much the best there is for managing Internet transactions? Information about alternatives would be extremely useful. Thanks, Ken

If you manage the transactions responsibly, as we should, PayPal is merely a very convienent way to pay quickly. As in any deals, make sure that you know who you are dealing with and hope for the best and PayPal should be fine. There are no guarantees and we take a chance every time we send $ out there, no matter how we send it.

Hi Puubie,

Our system has not been hacked. There are some general precautions that users can use to prevent account access.

1. Do not use the same password that you use on another site.
2. Do not click on any links in emails that direct you to a site other than PayPal.com. The web url would read www.paypal.com. We have no variations on this (save when you login it goes to an https:).
3. Do not share your password with anyone.

There are some additional guidelines, but those are the important ones. I am interested in you sending me your information to damon@paypal.com so that I can have this looked at.

Regards,
Damon

Kjg- I have completed several transactions thru paypal with no serious problems; however their customer service does leave a lot to be desired. I have used iescrow once and found it to be quick and easy. It certainly provides better protection than paypal. In my case, seller requested it and offered to pay fee. Seems to me that this is an item that could be negotiated and is probably the most equitable way of protecting both parties. Anyone out there have any problems with iescrow or other escrow services?

I don't know why it takes four days or more for Pay Pal's Customer Service to answer a question. I am currently having this experience with them and stayed tuned for how long before they reply to my email. I would say that apart from any problems or frustrations with their service, which there are some that I have, their customer service is so poor as to cause me to consider going elsewhere.