Several PayPal customers who used the service to purchase Mac OS X Lion have been hit with massive bills, after being charged many times for the same download, MacRumors reports.
One customer was charged 122 times for the new software, adding up to a final bill of $3,878. Other users on the Apple Support forums are reporting similar problems.
"Apple blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple," John Christman, who's now down nearly four grand, writes in an email. "They both are claiming to investigate, but I am stuck broke for three days now." Another commenter chips in, "They charged me 4 times."
PayPal and Apple are blaming each other, according to another reader, with seemingly no clear way to resolve the issue. Apple seems to be blaming the issue on a high volume of downloads -- an email a commenter claims to have received from Apple reads:
"As you can imagine, with the launch of the new OS X Lion, our system has experienced a higher than normal volume of traffic. This has caused some irregularities within the Mac App Store, including with our automated billing system. Please know that Apple is aware of the issue and is currently working towards a resolution."
That's not much consolation when customers' bank accounts are being hit with overdraft charges as huge amounts are taken. And even once Apple refunds the amount, PayPal seems to be making people wait until it has withdrawn the cash from their bank balance, and then refunding it into their PayPal account.
Commenter JustinIowa complains, "This process is going to make me have overdraft fees and also miss a payment with my debt consolidator."
Waiting for PayPal to refund the money into your PayPal account and then withdrawing that cash into your bank account can take days, during which time customers will be without that cash.
"My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money," Christman adds.
The chaos is more bad news for PayPal. On Tuesday hacker collective Anonymous called for a boycott of the service, which is owned by eBay, for freezing donations to WikiLeaks last year, and, Anonymous claims, helping law enforcement to track down hackers.
Have you been charged multiple times downloading Lion? Who's to blame here? Let us know in the comments section, or on our Facebook wall.
Image credit: MacRumors
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Comments 6
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billfred 29 July, 2011 14:12
No good ever comes from PayPal.
Anonymous 29 July, 2011 16:06
Umm, so millions of people bought it using credit cards etc. and didn't have a problem... yeah I think you can chalk this one up to PayPal.
Anonymous 29 July, 2011 17:58
"And even once Apple refunds the amount"
Have Apple even refunded the amount yet? How can Paypal be blamed if Apple haven't even made a move yet? Apple admitted that the problem was on their end to begin with.
Anonymous 29 July, 2011 21:16
and thats why you should only buy using itunes vouchers... what are they there for??
Anonymous 30 July, 2011 16:56
I had a total of 13 charges - 12 have now been refunded to my Paypal account and I was able to get the 13th reversed before it went through. Now Apple has disabled my account - so we'll see how that goes. Interesting that the only way to communicate about iTunes store issues is via email vs. the Apple Store, which has very nice, helpful associates (at least in my experience).
Anonymous 31 July, 2011 05:22
Apparently the user had 122 macs that he put Lion on and got charged for each - just kidding.
I will never give PP my bank info. That is asking for trouble.
I use them to avoid spreading credit card info around the net.
I even use them for my Blockbuster account.
They tried to limit my account several times, but always gave in.
I have used them for years, but only through 2 credit cards - business and home.
A credit card would be much easier to deal with in this case than a bank.