I ordered my refurb iMac for $1,700 last week, and they charged it out of my PayPal balance. Today, I found out they charged it again. But this time, since there was only $74 in PayPal, they took $1680 of it out of my checking account. Which means I overdrew, which means I have absolutely no money for tomorrow. I called PayPal; they said Apple charged it originally, and set it as pending, and then when they went to complete the charge today they accidentally charged again. Of course, Apple's customer service is closed until tomorrow, and my bank can't do anything; I just called them. Just great. What am I supposed to do? Has anyone else had this happen to them?
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PLEASE READ - Apple store charged twice for iMac
- Thread starter upsguy27
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I had a similar experience with MacMall. Your problem is the pending portion, of the transaction. You'll most likely have to fight with Apple to get that reversed. With MacMall and PayPal, they both wanted me to wait 5 business days, and it was for an iMac, for my kids, for Christmas. But the lucky thing is Apple has far better customer service, so I'll bet they try to make it up to you, unlike me.
I will always use a credit card, for now on. You'll bet Visa or MC wouldn't tolerate an at fault vendor......
They don't, but PayPal allows you to generate a virtual credit card number that acts like a credit card but deducts from your PayPal account.
I guess we'll see in the morning when the customer service opens. Hopefully they'll be able to do something, because as of right now, I have -$1200 in my account.
Here's what likely happened:
When you placed the order, Apple authorized your PayPal card for $1700 to make sure the funds were available and the card went through, but your card was never actually charged. Yet a hold will deduct from your available balance. This is standard operating procedure for any debit or credit card. When they shipped your iMac, they converted that authorization to your charge. However, I think because PayPal is incompetent, because I've seen this before on my PayPal account, when a merchant converts a hold to a charge, PayPal treats it as a separate transaction. PayPal already placed the hold for $1700 on your account balance, so when the charge came through, they had no choice but to deduct from your bank account. 3 things happened here that probably shouldn't have happened: One, PayPal should just treat the hold and the subsequent charge as one transaction, only deducting $1700 from your account balance once. Two, failing that, PayPal should've declined the card when Apple tried to place the charge since there was insufficent funds in your PayPal account. And three, failing that, your bank should've declined PayPal's request to withdraw $1680 from your bank account if there were insufficent funds. After a few days, the initial hold on the funds will be released and your PayPal account should have a balance of $1700 or somewhere around there for you to deposit into your bank account. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a whole lot Apple will be able to do for you since I highly doubt you were double charged by them.
Like I said before, I personally think PayPal is full of crap by blaming Apple, because I've used my PayPal debit card for purchases elsewhere online and frequently see the double charge until the initial hold clears. Or, I use my PayPal debit card at a gas station, I'll initially see the $1 hold placed when I swiped the card to start the pump, then a few days later I'll see the $1 hold, plus a charge for however much I spent in fuel, and then a few days after that, the $1 hold will disappear, increasing my PayPal balance by a dollar. Contrast that with my Bank of America debit card, where I'll initially get the $1 hold, then a couple days later, that $1 hold will go away and be replaced by a charge for the full amount. So I think it's an issue with PayPal's system.
And just some advice for the future, I always recommend using a credit card for large purchases because you never know when something like this might happen. As long as you pay the entire balance before your credit card bill is due, you won't pay any interest.
When you placed the order, Apple authorized your PayPal card for $1700 to make sure the funds were available and the card went through, but your card was never actually charged. Yet a hold will deduct from your available balance. This is standard operating procedure for any debit or credit card. When they shipped your iMac, they converted that authorization to your charge. However, I think because PayPal is incompetent, because I've seen this before on my PayPal account, when a merchant converts a hold to a charge, PayPal treats it as a separate transaction. PayPal already placed the hold for $1700 on your account balance, so when the charge came through, they had no choice but to deduct from your bank account. 3 things happened here that probably shouldn't have happened: One, PayPal should just treat the hold and the subsequent charge as one transaction, only deducting $1700 from your account balance once. Two, failing that, PayPal should've declined the card when Apple tried to place the charge since there was insufficent funds in your PayPal account. And three, failing that, your bank should've declined PayPal's request to withdraw $1680 from your bank account if there were insufficent funds. After a few days, the initial hold on the funds will be released and your PayPal account should have a balance of $1700 or somewhere around there for you to deposit into your bank account. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a whole lot Apple will be able to do for you since I highly doubt you were double charged by them.
Like I said before, I personally think PayPal is full of crap by blaming Apple, because I've used my PayPal debit card for purchases elsewhere online and frequently see the double charge until the initial hold clears. Or, I use my PayPal debit card at a gas station, I'll initially see the $1 hold placed when I swiped the card to start the pump, then a few days later I'll see the $1 hold, plus a charge for however much I spent in fuel, and then a few days after that, the $1 hold will disappear, increasing my PayPal balance by a dollar. Contrast that with my Bank of America debit card, where I'll initially get the $1 hold, then a couple days later, that $1 hold will go away and be replaced by a charge for the full amount. So I think it's an issue with PayPal's system.
And just some advice for the future, I always recommend using a credit card for large purchases because you never know when something like this might happen. As long as you pay the entire balance before your credit card bill is due, you won't pay any interest.
Yeah, it sounds to me also like a glitch in the way Paypal handled the transaction.
Anyway, I hope it all gets resolved for you quickly and you can work it out so you don't end up paying overdraft fees and charges and things like that.
TGI Friday's did somehting similiar to my gf's credit card. they charged the whole bill to her card and not half the bill.
she was overcharged, over drafted because it wasnt the regular card she uses, then was charged by her bank for the over draft and then charged again by her bank for not having a minimum balance.
she called her bank (wachovia) and Friday's. her bank reversed all the fees and friday's sent her a gift card.
it was a pain in the ass, but wachovia strives for 100% satisfaction so they usually reverse any fees.
she was overcharged, over drafted because it wasnt the regular card she uses, then was charged by her bank for the over draft and then charged again by her bank for not having a minimum balance.
she called her bank (wachovia) and Friday's. her bank reversed all the fees and friday's sent her a gift card.
it was a pain in the ass, but wachovia strives for 100% satisfaction so they usually reverse any fees.
Happened to me before, a small duplicate charge of $15 the day before my work's direct deposit, sent my bank account negative and led to a huge amount of fees by my bank b/c of NSF and ate up my paycheck the following day.
It'll depend on your bank more than anything. Mine said they could do nothing until the charging party recognized the error and even still only reversed 1/2 of the fees, which still left a hefty amount to be paid by yours truly for a paypal error
Reason #1 to not link your checking account to Paypal. Giving someone else control of your liquidity is irresponsible. Link only to credit cards so that in an event like this, you are putting someone else's money at risk, not yours.
My suggestion: Call Apple. Good luck.
My suggestion: Call Apple. Good luck.
Yet another reason for me to avoid ever using PayPal. Not that I needed another one but still.
Glad it all worked out okay.
Glad it all worked out okay.
This is why I have not linked my checking account to paypal paypal says that if you link your bank account, it will always be your default funding source but you can change it at the time of purchase. (not true, I've had multiple credit/debit cards associated at points before and I could only use the default one for certain vendor's ebay purchases)
Plus, they will impose a "spending limit" on non-verified accounts, but they won't say what that is. this guy says it's $2k and has a scary story about what happens when you hit that limit. (not as scary as having money actually taken, but still enough to annoy you given that online auctions are expected to be on ebay cuz of their reputation, and you're expected to pay on paypal. darnit.) implied Requirement: link your bank account or you can't spend more than $2K on ebay. hmmmmm
this is why I only use ebay for little things it would be a hassle to find anywhere else, and which would be cheap. Example: where else would you find USB drive lanyards for super cheap, or a cheap audio-out to FM radio adapter (shipped from hong kong, but still.... the brand was Dynex which is actually the best buy store brand anyway) or the type of screwdrivers ifixit.com says you need to install stuff in your macbook or something.
This is why I'm not buying a mac on ebay, which is bad cuz if I specifically wanted a used one that someone logically tried to offload on ebay, I would otherwise have no problem buying it there. (Stuff like craigslist or facebook marketplace tho might be more trouble than it's worth, I want to "buy it now" pay online, have it shipped, and be done with it)