PayPal Takes eBay Users’ Funds Without Permission

Earlier this week, some eBay users got quite the surprise when they discovered that PayPal was making charitable contributions with their money. The unauthorized donations were taken out of customers’ PayPal accounts and put into eBay Giving Works. eBay spokesperson Ryan Moore said this mistake is the result of an internal technical issue and the company is working to refund all the accounts.

Total Retail's Take: Whether it’s going to charity or not, people don’t really like when a company takes their money without permission. Even worse, this was an internal issue. An error like this can cause brand distrust, troubling for a company considered one that “your grandma probably would have used.” It will be interesting to see how PayPal responds to this screwup and what steps are taken to make sure something like this never happens again.