ALKHOBAR, 7 August 2007 — When PayPal announced a couple of months ago that it was offering its international services to the Saudi market, I was delighted. True, you still couldn’t receive money through PayPal in the Kingdom, but sending was possible. Since many e-commerce sites accept PayPal as payment for goods and services, it seemed that perhaps some of the hassle of not having a credit card from a US bank could be overcome. Individuals in Saudi Arabia have long had to deal with bizarre work-around solutions in order to cope with the number of online sites that offer “international” services but won’t accept credit cards issued by Saudi banks. Using a PayPal account it would also be possible to send small amounts of cash to relatives without standing in long lines or paying for international bank transfers. I decided to sign up for a PayPal account right away.
Setting up the PayPal account was straightforward and took just minutes. Then to be able to use the option in which the account was actually run on a credit card, rather than cash deposits, a verification procedure was required. That cost about SR8 and involved minimal hassle. PayPal stated that the fee for the verification would be credited to my account. Things seemed to be going delightfully.
My brother-in-law in Canada had purchased a Nintendo Wii and all its accessories for my family. He’d brought it to the Kingdom during the summer vacation. Rather than deal with the danger of carrying cash back to Canada, we agreed to simply electronically transfer the funds to his PayPal account. Then he could transfer the funds electronically to his bank account and the money would be available to him. Sounded like a straightforward virtual transaction, but it turned into a huge hassle.
First, we were not aware that because the account was based on a credit card, PayPal would deduct a transaction fee from the total amount sent. The transaction had been for 816 Canadian dollars, but my brother-in-law was only credited with 766 Canadian dollars. No problem. I sent more money to cover the difference.
Disaster struck. PayPal’s automated fraud detection systems determined that the transactions were criminal in nature. Instantly, my PayPal account froze. I was instructed to change my password twice. Then I was notified through an online message to send a copy of my utility bill to verify my address. That was extremely worrisome since the only utility bill available was the telephone bill and it was in Arabic. Never mind, I scanned it and sent it as required.
Nothing happened.
I waited a week and the account was not reinstated. I made several very expensive phone calls to a US telephone number. When I finally reached an agent after more than a dozen dropped calls and 15 minutes on hold, I was informed that PayPal can’t handle information presented in Arabic. “What should I do?” I asked. I was told to just wait.
After a further four days, the PayPal account came back to life but the transactions to my brother-in-law were still on hold. He advised me that from his side he had confirmed to PayPal that these were not fraudulent transactions but PayPal had stated that it would be up to their investigator to determine whether the transactions could go through or not.
In the meantime the transactions had been charged by PayPal to my Saudi credit card and I’d been forced to pay the bill — even though my brother-in-law had not yet received the cash. When he called them again about the issue, they told him that if it were determined that the transactions were fraudulent, then the amounts would be reversed and credited to my credit card account. No time frame was provided for such a transaction.
I never could reach PayPal again by telephone. Their voice over IP system couldn’t seem to deal with an international connection and kept dropping the calls. Eventually after sending several e-mails, I was informed that the transactions had been credited to my brother-in-law’s PayPal account. Total time for the “quick” transactions — 15 days.
In creating this story for publication, I e-mailed PayPal through their media contacts at their website. There was no response. While I can’t say that I would never use PayPal again, I would definitely not use the service for a significant purchase or whenever there was a time factor involved.
PayPal has won numerous awards for technical excellence but it is clear that in regards to its move into the Middle East, PayPal, like many other US-based businesses, just hasn’t put in the effort to get it right.
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