Disturbing email from PayPal regarding financial "errors"

[GhostOfAmazon]

Just got a weird email from PayPal about how they handle errors in your finances. Call me crazy, but this just sounds a TINY BIT like they intend to make "errors" in their favor and leave you no recourse, unless you notice it right away. Otherwise, why the need to change the policy? Am I being paranoid here? Weigh in guys and gals.

We are making some changes to the PayPal User Agreement that will go into effect on October 30, 2015. If you're interested in all the details, take a look at our Policy Updates Page. Here are the highlights:

We revised Section 3 to make it clear that our send money functionality requires that the person receiving funds create a PayPal account in order to receive the funds.
Person to person payments will not be available for payments sent from Puerto Rico after October 30th.

These changes will be effective on October 30, 2015 for all U.S. users.

We are also sending you a copy of our Error Resolution Notice below to provide helpful information if you have a billing error or unauthorized transaction on your Account. Just remember that you can check out our Error Resolution Notice anytime by going to Section 12 of the PayPal User Agreement.

As always, if you need help or have any questions, give us a call or visit our Help Center. You can find the link on any page of our website.

Thank you for being a PayPal customer.

Sincerely,

PayPal

ANNUAL ERROR RESOLUTION NOTICE
The purpose of this notice is to provide you with important information about reporting errors in payments made using PayPal's services. You should keep this notice for future reference.

What to do About Questions or Errors with Your Transactions.
You should notify PayPal as soon as you can if you believe:
• your account statement (you can access your account statement by logging into your account) or your transaction confirmation (which is sent to you via email) is wrong;
• you need more information about a transaction listed on the statement or transaction confirmation; or
• there has been an unauthorized transaction, other error or unauthorized access to your PayPal account.

You must notify us no later than 60 days after the error FIRST appears in your account statement. We will extend the 60-day time period if a good reason, such as a hospital stay, prevented you from notifying us within 60 days.

For any type of error, you can telephone PayPal Customer Service at (402) 938-3614. You can also notify us in writing or online by following the instructions below.

If the transaction does not involve a PayPal debit card, notify us by either:
• Using the form available in the PayPal Resolution Center to file an unauthorized transaction report, or
• Writing to PayPal, Attn: Error Resolution Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950.

If the transaction involves your PayPal debit card, notify us by either:
• Logging into your PayPal account, going to the "Account Overview" page and selecting the transaction details for the transaction you wish to dispute. Then follow the directions provided for disputing the transaction; or
• Mailing the Written Statement of Disputed PayPal ATM/Debit Card Transactions Form or other notice to PayPal, Attn: PayPal Debit Card Department, P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950, or faxing it to 303-395-2855. A link to the form can be found with the directions provided for disputing the transaction as noted above.

If you notify us orally, we may request that you send us your complaint or question in writing (by following the notification procedures described in the paragraphs above) within 10 business days of providing us the oral notice.

When you notify us (orally or in writing), provide us with the following information:
• Your name and email address you used to register your account, and
• A description of the suspected unauthorized transaction or other error and an explanation as to why you believe it is incorrect or why you need more information, and
• The dollar amount (and if possible, the date) of the suspected unauthorized transaction or other error.

During the course of our investigation, we may request additional information from you.
Once you notify us of a suspected error, we will investigate your complaint or question within 10 business days (or up to 20 business days for new accounts – accounts that have 30 days or fewer since the date of their first transaction). If we need more time, we may take up to 45 days to complete our investigation (or up to 90 days for new accounts, point of sale or foreign initiated transactions).

If we decide that we need more time to complete our investigation (as explained directly above), we will provisionally credit your account for the amount of the suspected error. You will receive the provisional credit within 10 business days of the date we received your notice (20 business days for new accounts). This will allow you to have use of the money until we complete the investigation. If we ask you to put your complaint or question in writing and we do not receive your written complaint or question within 10 business days (or 20 for new accounts), we will not provisionally credit your account.

We will inform you of our decision within three business days after completing our investigation. If we determine that there was an error, we will promptly correct the error. If you have already received a provisional credit, you will be allowed to retain those funds. If we decide that there was not an error, we will include an explanation of our decision in our email to you. If you received a provisional credit, we will remove it from your account. You may request copies of the documents that we used in our investigation.

For this purpose, our "business days" are Monday through Friday. Holidays are not included as business days.

[rsot]

You are being a bit paranoid GoA.

[yankee]

Paypal is protecting themselves against unauthorized charges better than they have before.
Not going to go into details about this but if someone wanted to scam paypal by this method, the currently policy makes it very very easy. If someone wanted to destroy someones paypal account, the current policy makes it exceedingly easy. If someone wanted to rip off a vendor over a long period of time, the current policy makes this exceedingly easy.

It is for the good of ALL parties that paypal fixes this based on my personal experience.

[jeffweico]

I think this is a run of the mill change. Yankee pretty much nailed it. It is all about PayPal trying to protect themselves. PayPal DOES have a legitimate problem, in that they are a huge target for scammers - everything from customers trying to scam a few freebies on eBay to hackers trying to drain PayPal accounts and get their greedy little paws on the money. If PayPal did nothing to protect themselves, they would be out of business by now.

In other words, I don't think we have anything to worry about.