PayPal Customer Support: "Sucks" doesn't begin to describe it.

Every month I get an Email from PayPal letting me know I can download a new monthly statement. A few months ago they went live with a new web interface.  I couldn't find my statements so I had to go back to "The Classic Interface."

Finally, I got tired of it and asked for help.

The stock answer sent in reply gives directions that do not match what is on display in the current interface.

The case has been in the hands of seven different people, only one of whom (Ailene) actually seemed to have read what I had said and responded to it.  Further attempts on my part to confirm that the wrong answer will be corrected in documentation and training elicit further DIFFERENT wrong answers to the question I answered myself on 25 February.

Unfortunately, my original question is lost.  Apparently when PayPal replies with a stock answer they throw away the original question and you have to reply to their thread and repeat the original text.

I include below the sequence of communications, with excerpts from the replies sent by PayPal:

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On Feb 15, 2016, at 2:41 PM, <webform@paypal.com> <webform@paypal.com> wrote:

Hello William Cattey,

Thanks for your e-mail. Based on your selection, we are sending you some details about PayPal account statements, user agreement, and terms and conditions. If you require additional information, please reply to this message or contact us at 1-888-221-1161, Mon-Fri 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM PT and Sat-Sun 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM PT.

A. How do I view my account history and monthly statements?

B. How do I view and accept our Electronic Communications Delivery Policy?

C. How do I view PayPal's Terms and Conditions? 

A. How do I view my account history and statements? 

Your Account Statements provide a list of your last month's PayPal transaction activity. The Statement will be posted to your PayPal account on a monthly basis. You can access it by clicking "Statements" at the top of your Account Overview page whenever you were logged in.

Please keep in mind that we don't mail Account Statements and they are only available for the last 3 months, so you may want to print or download your statements for your records.

Your History Log records all of your PayPal transactions. You may search your History Log with the Basic Search or Advanced Search.

Basic Search  allows you to search for certain transaction dates or types.

Advanced Search  allows you to search by Email, PayPal Transaction ID, First and Last Name, Receipt ID, or Auction Number. Seaching with your buyer's Transaction ID allows you to locate payments from buyers more effeciently. Subscription ID and Mass Payments can be located with either search option.

To search your History Log, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Statements and select Activity Report.
3. Click Advanced Search to use the advanced search feature.
4. Enter search information and select Date Range.
5. Click Submit to view.

If the transaction shows "Completed", the funds were successfully sent from your Paypal account into the recipient's PayPal account.

If the transaction shos "Unclaimed", the funds were not sent successfully. Check the recipient's email address to ensure the payment was sent to the correct email address.

To view a complete list of all of your PayPal transactions, download your History Log.

B. How do I view and accept our Electronic Communications Delivery Policy? 

We ask you to view and accept the terms of our Electronic Communications so that we can continue providing you information about your account electronically. This account information includes legal agreements and policies, annual disclosures, transaction receipts, account statements, and other information related to your account.

If you have additional questions about this policy, or would like to learn how to request a paper copy of a communication we have sent you, please click "Legal" at the bottom of any PayPal page and then click "Electronic Communications Delivery Policy (E-Sign Disclosure and Consent)."

C. How do I view PayPal's Terms and Conditions?

PayPal's Terms and Conditions are subject to change. Any changes to our Terms and Conditions will be updated in our User Agreement. To view the PayPal User Agreement, click "Legal" at the bottom of any PayPal webpage, and then click "PayPal User Agreement".

Thanks, 

PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2016 PayPal. All rights reserved.

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Sent: Monday, February 15, 2016 8:25:02 PM (-07:00)

To: webform@paypal.com
Subject: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS (KMM191249498V65297L0KM) :ppNA

The information provided by this boilerplate reply is WRONG!

THERE IS NO "Statements" link at the top of the page.

There is no page labeled "Account Overview" in the non-classic design.

So if you are going to presume to offer help, then accurate help must be delivered.

As a user and a PayPal stockholder I am extremely disappointed.

Please escalate this ticket to someone who will ACTUALLY READ IT and ACTUALLY GET SOME ACTION TO CORRECT basic failure in both the interface and the documentation!

-William Cattey

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Feb 16

PayPal Customer Support

RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA

Dear William Cattey,

I can feel your frustration and I sincerely apologize that the new PayPal interface is difficult to use when it comes to accessing your monthly statement.

At this time, this is the only way that you can access it since the new interface is not yet fully functional. Not all features are easily available in the new interface.

I appreciate your patience and understanding. 

Sincerely,

Lois

PayPal Consumer Support 

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Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 2:39:54 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com

Subject: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM191337918V25365L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Thank you for the reply.

Was there something I clicked on to make this incomplete new interface the default?

How do I undo that?

If someone at PayPal made the decision to make this incomplete interface the default, it is harming the experience, harming the brand and harming the bottom line. Again, I say this both as a user and a stock holder.

-William Cattey

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Feb 24

PayPal Customer Support
RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA
Dear William Cattey,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide assistance to you today.

We apologize any inconvenience you may have encountered concerning the new website.

Please understand that we have developed these features on the website to provide you with all the information you need to know about your account.

We appreciate you taking the time to try out the new website though. We're continually working on improvements to help you manage your PayPal account better so if you change your account back to the classic view you will still have the option to change again to the new website. You can only switch your account back to the Classic view if you had previously been using the Classic website.

We appreciate your feedback as well as your patience regarding this matter.

Thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,
Jean
PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2016 PayPal. All rights reserved

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Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2016 3:43:20 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com
Subject: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM192404879V52826L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Jean,

Your reply was EXTREMELY UNHELPFUL.

I have been a PayPal customer since LONG before the new site came online.
WHAT DO I CLICK ON TO GET THE CLASSIC SITE BY DEFAULT????

Your apology feels like a lot of words someone told you to say to pretend all was well when a BAD AND INCOMPLETE interface was imposed. It did not make me feel better. It made me feel WORSE! It made me feel like I was not listened to.

THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT MY INCONVENIENCE!
IT IS ABOUT A BAD DECISION TO GO LIVE WITH BAD SOFTWARE.

MY INVESTMENT IN PAY PAL STOCK IS HARMED BY THIS BAD DECISION.

MY TRUST IN PAY PAL HAS BEEN HARMED BY HOW TONE DEAF A REPLY I JUST GOT.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TICKET TO SOMEONE WHO CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE PROBLEM, AND STOP SENDING MEANINGLESS APOLOGIES!

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Feb25

PayPal Customer Support
RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA

Dear William Cattey,

My name is Charlene from PayPal Consumer Support. I apologize for the inconvenience that this may caused you. Let me assist you.

William, we have updated the Monthly Sales Report to provide you with the information you need to review your monthly sales, refunds, and other debits and credits.

The Monthly Sales Report provides a quick overview of your daily sales for a selected month or 31 day custom date range. For each day, you will see the totals for payments received, amount received, payment fees, refunds sent, amount refunded, refunded fees, payments sent, amount sent, other debits, other credits, and net amount. Additionally, the beginning and ending amounts for your overall balance, reserve balance, and available balance will be displayed.

To access your monthly sales reports:

Log in to your PayPal account.
Click Activity near the top of the page.
Click Statements and then Reporting center.
Click Monthly sales report.
Select the desired month or date range (the maximum date range is 31 days).
Click View Report.

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Sent: Friday, February 26, 2016 2:23:15 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM192566277V52244L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Charlene,

Your answer was not correct and did not answer my question.
But NONE of the others who responded to my inquiry did.

However, from your answer I was able to find, for myself, the
answer to the question I originally asked.

My original Question was:

"How do I view my monthly statements in the new interface?"

The correct answer is below.

The original reply with instructions contained WRONG DATA, relevant to the OLD interface.

Lois's reply said the feature was not present.

Jean's reply apologized for my being the victim of a forced march.

Your reply sent me to DIFFERENT functionality than what I asked about.

Give me ONE reason why I should not paste all of this into a Blog posting announced on Facebook with the title, "PayPal customer support sucks!"

Correct Answer:

1. Log in to your PayPal account.

2. Click Activity near the top of the page.

3. At the far right of the page is a pull down labeled, "Statements"

4. Selecting "Account Statements (PDF)" will bring you to the same list of monthly statements that you found in the Classic interface.

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Feb 26

PayPal Customer Support

RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA

Dear William Cattey,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your inquiry. I am happy to assist you further.

I apologize for any inadequacy or inconsistency of service you've received to date.

I will use your email as a form of feedback so that the representatives will be coached.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Have a wonderful day!

Thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,

Alaine 

PayPal Customer Solutions

PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2016 PayPal. All rights reserved.

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Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2016 3:24:32 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM192698203V42231L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Thank you. That is the outcome I hoped for in my previous reply.

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Feb 27

PayPal Customer Support

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA

Dear William Cattey,

You are welcome. We are always happy to hear from our PayPal members. We at PayPal take pride in our service, and it's a pleasure for us to know that you're a satisfied PayPal customer and that your issue has been resolved. We hope you'll tell your friends about our service.

Thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,

Froilan

PayPal Customer Solutions

PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2016 PayPal. All rights reserved.

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Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2016 3:43:57 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com

Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM192785942V30228L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Actually there is one more VERY important thing that is needed:

If you look back in this email thread, you will see that the documentation given that is supposed to tell people how to access the statements page is for the old interface and is TOTALLY wrong. This most basic initial outreach must be fixed IMMEDIATELY! Can you see to that?

Also, it would NOT be accurate to call me a "satisfied PayPal customer."

Customer support pretty much TOTALLY failed me MULTIPLE times on a

simple "How do I find this feature on the web site." I am still planning to blog about this failure.

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Feb 28

PayPal Customer Support

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA

Dear William Cattey,

Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support. My name is Gerard and I am happy to assist you.

I understand that you are trying to download the monthly statement on your account. I apologize for what happened. This is possible a browser issue, please be sure that you are using a updated browser. It may help to clear your cookies and cache according to the browser you are using.

Thank you for choosing PayPal.

Sincerely,

Gerard

PayPal Customer Solutions

PayPal

Copyright © 1999-2016 PayPal. All rights reserved.

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Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 5:31:32 AM (-07:00)

To: stkana4-NorthAmerica@smc.paypal.com
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA (KMM192871229V18110L0KM)

[From] William Cattey:

Gerard,

Congratulations! You are the fourth PayPal support employee to pick up this ticket WHO FAILED TO READ AND UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS WRITTEN!

1. I have my answer.
2. The reply I got to my initial question means that the database of stock answers is WRONG. 
3. By offering me YET ANOTHER WRONG ANSWER BOTH TO MY ORIGINAL QUESTION AND TO THE MOST RECENT POINT I RAISED YOU HAVE FURTHER DAMAGED MY OPINION OF PayPal Customer Support.

I'm putting this whole thread up on my blog next week as a lesson to all support organizations and as a public shaming of PayPal.

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Feb 29

PayPal Customer Support
RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Re: Questions About User Agreements, Terms and Conditions VV44REXUS :ppNA
Dear William Cattey,

Thank you for your email regarding your account.

I apologize if the previous responses did not fully meet your needs and regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

I understand the urgency of this matter. Don't worry! I am here to help you.

I want to assure you that you can definitely download your monthly statement through the new interface.

PayPal's Monthly Financial Summary provides you with a monthly snapshot of your PayPal account activity. This report consolidates fees, payments, chargebacks, and refunds, detailing your account transactions from beginning to ending balance.

Here's how to view your monthly financial summary report:
Log in to your PayPal account.
Click on Activity.
Click on Statements on the right hand side of the page.
Click Monthly financial summary.
Enter the month or date range you want to view and click View Report.
Select what format you'd like to download your report in, and then click Download.
Note:
The statement defaults to your primary currency. If you wish, you can select to view the statement for a different currency.
For a list of descriptions for the different sections of the statement, click the Help with this page link in the upper right hand corner of the page.
You can download this report to as a PDF, Excel, CSV, or TAB file.
We appreciate your business and resolving your query is very important to me.

Thank you for choosing PayPal.

Sincerely,
Jessica
PayPal Consumer Support

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Your reply was sent 02/29/2016 22:39:35

[From] William Cattey:

WRONG!
YOU DIDNT READ THE REPLY EITHER!

I FOUND THE ANSWER ON MY OWN ON 25 FEBRUARY!

SINCE THEN I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET SOMEONE TO STOP GIVING WRONG ANSWERS AND FIX THE STOCK ANSWER AND THE TRAINING TO GIVE THE RIGHT ANSWER.

PayPal Support IS AN EMBARRASSMENT!
I AM PUBLICLY BLOGGING THIS EXCHANGE AT:

http://angrypoetnerd.blogspot.com/2016/02/paypal-customer-support-sucks-doesnt.html

READ THIS REPLY AND TELL ME:

WHO WILL FIX THE TRAINING AND THE STOCK ANSWER?

THE QUESTION AND CORRECT ANSWER FOLLOW:

Q:
How do I view my monthly statements in the new interface?

A:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click "Activity" near the top of the page.
3. At the far right of the page is a pull down labeled, "Statements"
4. Selecting "Account Statements (PDF)" will bring you to the same list of monthly statements that you found in the Classic interface.