Pay-NotSoFriendly

Dear PayPal,

Could you make it more difficult to change the address and phone number on an account?  Look, I understand that you're trying to keep my information secure, so I'm willing to jump through a few hoops.  However, now we've gotten to the ridiculous stage.

The primary address and phone number on my account are old.  I no longer live there.  To add a phone number, I had to call a PayPal automated line.  OK, that's not a problem, and it was pretty simple to do this.  The new address and phone number appeared on my account immediately.

Seeing as how I no longer live at the address/phone you're calling my primary contact, I need to make this new address and phone my primary contact.  When I tried to do that, I got this page:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@paypal.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

***

So I followed instructions and sent the webmaster@paypal.com a message, explaining what I was trying to do.  I got this message in return:

Subject: AutoResponse-Email Returned - SARA (KMM171834623I96L0KM) :ppk1

Hello Jill Jaracz,

We want to help you but we're not able to respond directly to emails
sent to this address.

If you have a question about your account, please contact us through our
website. Here's how:

1. Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.
2. Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.
3. Click "Contact Customer Service," and ask your question.

One of our Customer Service agents will reply to your question.

We value your business and want to provide you with the best customer
care.

Thanks,

PayPal


This email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User
Agreement, either PayPal Inc, PayPal Pte. Ltd or PayPal (Europe) S.à
r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. Société en Commandite par Actions, Registered Office:
5th Floor 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg B 118
349.

*****

Um, so if you can't respond from that address, why in the heck did you want me to e-mail it in the first place?

Sigh.  I'm putting this project on the backburner and am considering canceling my PayPal account.  I don't know about you, but I just don't have hours to devote to this administrative task.  You know what would be helpful though?  A little sticky note on each account editing page letting the user know about how long it'll take to finish what they're trying to do.  I would never have started in on trying to change my address if I knew it would be such a friggin' hassle.

Your pal,

Jill