Silicon Valley's Better Business Bureau has branded the Paypal email funds transfer service as 'unsatisfactory' after being inundated with consumer complaints.
The Santa Clara arm of the consumer affairs watchdog issued its reliability report after receiving up to 40 complaints a month from consumers about the P2P payments operation provided by PayPal parent company X.com. In particular, PayPal's policy of freezing customer accounts when it suspects fraudulent activity has been heavily criticised.
"Our file experience shows that X.com has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints alleging that accounts are being opened without the consumers consent and by third parties," the BBB notes in the reliability report posted on its Web site. "The company answers all complaints by closing the accounts, reversing charges and/or restricting the accounts involved to initiate an investigation."
Currently adding more than 20,000 new users a day, PayPal is the most heavily trafficked financial site on the Internet, with more visitors than any bank or brokerage site, according to PC Data Online. PayPal claims its users send approximately $7 million in more than 130,000 payments each day.