Here's a twist. I make an online purchase, pay through PayPal, double checking that the only option, as always, is to transfer straight from my correctly identified bank account, confirm the payment and wait for the email confirmation. It duly arrives, correctly identifying the transaction, the amount, the recipient, even the date! And then it says:
"You'll be billed with Bill Me Later®, a PayPal service through your PayPal account. We'll send you an email when your statement is ready. For more information, or to schedule a payment to Bill Me Later, just visit PayPal."
This is somewhat unexpected, especially as I eventually managed to close my BML account last summer (that's another story). So I call PayPal customer service. There isn't really a good option on the menu, but it's easy to make the right choice to speak to a live person. This representative recognises that something is amiss, but resolving it is, I suspect, above her payscale. She passes me to an "accounts specialist", who reassures me that the transaction is proceeding according to my wishes (deduction from bank account). To double check, however, she passes me to a representative at BML, who reasures me that no activity is showing on my closed account (and no new account has been opened, with or without my knowledge). He doesn't understand the email I received, so suggests I talk to a supervisor at PayPal, and transfers me back there. The supervisor agrees that everything is proceeding as normal, but that the email is clearly flawed. She asks me to forward her the message, which I do, so that she can do something about it. We have progress ... I think!
Does BML worK? Maybe, sometimes. Is it a scam? I don't know, but if it's not, then the long littany of complaints against BML suggests rampant incompetence in the organisation. It's not the case that we've all clicked the wrong buttons. Somewhere in the system there exists the means to send out a substantially flawed email. That may be a minor issue by itself, but it is symptomatic of a system that is flawed. Who knows what else it can do that's unintended? Maybe create accounts for people who don't request them? Maybe sidetrack payments into the BML system rather than the requested payment method?
If PayPal cannot get a handle on what BML is doing and keep it under control, it would be better, certainly for PayPal's increasingly tarnished image, to opt for an amicable divorce.
