Effective today, July 1, 2015, Paypal’s new User Agreement (Terms of Service) goes into effect. It contains lots of small changes, and one big one: “You consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages from PayPal at any telephone number that you have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained.” Which is why we’re putting together a list of Paypal numbers from which Paypal calls.
Don’t want them to robocall you at all, particularly at numbers that you didn’t give them? (You did catch that is what the “otherwise obtained” means right?) Your choice is to close your account, and if you didn’t close your account before 7/1/15 you were, essentially, deemed to have opted in.
In other words, if you don’t like our new terms, including robocalling you, close your account. Otherwise, shut up and take it.
Now, did Paypal customers (wait, not customers..commodities) have any advanced warning of this?
Well, yes. No. Sort of.
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
In May, Paypal sent out this notice – we’ve highlighted the part that relates to this:
Notice of Policy Updates
Soon, PayPal and eBay will no longer be part of the same group of companies and will operate as unrelated, separate organizations. So we’re updating PayPal’s User Agreement, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy to continue providing the same great services you’re used to. Although we have updated the Privacy Policy, our focus on protecting your data is not changing. The updated Privacy Policy highlights how we will share data with eBay after the separation to continue to deliver the same level of service to our shared customers. We’re also making other changes to our business practices and policies that aren’t related to the separation.
These updates go into effect on July 1, 2015, so we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the updates. You can read them all at our Policy Updates page. Here are the highlights:
- We updated the Privacy Policy, including regarding sharing your information between PayPal and eBay after the separation.
- The User Agreement has been revised to reflect how PayPal services will work after the separation.
- We’ve updated the User Agreement regarding when and how we may contact you.
- We’ve expanded our PayPal Buyer Protections to include intangibles like digital items and services.
- We changed our fee structure for certain sellers and nonprofits.
- We also updated the terms of the PayPal User Agreement relating to how legal disputes with PayPal are resolved, including changes to the Agreement to Arbitrate.
If you don’t agree to the amended User Agreement, Privacy Policy, or Acceptable Use Policy, you may close your account before July 1, 2015 and you won’t be bound by the amended terms.
As always, if you need help or have any questions, give us a call or visit our Help Center. You can find the link on any page of our website.
Thank you for being a PayPal customer.
Sincerely,
PayPal
So, if you didn’t cancel your account after receiving that, you are now officially opted-in to let them call you. With no other clear way of opting out.
According to the Washington Post, a Paypal spokesperson told them that “it’s the company’s policy to ‘honor customers’ requests to decline to receive auto-dialed or prerecorded calls,” however, unless and until we hear of a way that can be done (and we’ve looked), the only way to “opt-out” seems to be to cancel your account.
And that’s why we are encouraging people to post the phone numbers from which you have received robocalls or robotexts or other telemarketing calls from Paypal, below in a comment. Once there are enough of them we’ll do a separate post with the list of numbers from which Paypal calls, to make it easier to reject or block them.
In the meantime, here is the full text of Paypal’s summary of the new Paypal User Agreement, along with a link to the full text.
Amendments to the PayPal User Agreement, the PayPal Privacy Policy and the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy
Effective Date: July 1, 2015
PayPal is changing its User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy. The amended User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy will be effective as to all PayPal users on July 1, 2015. We encourage you to review this Policy Update to familiarize yourself with the changes that are being made. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE AMENDED USER AGREEMENT, PRIVACY POLICY OR ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY, YOU MAY CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT BEFORE JULY 1, 2015 AND YOU WILL NOT BE BOUND BY THE AMENDED TERMS.
A summary of changes is provided below. You can also click HERE to review the complete terms of the revised PayPal User Agreement, HERE to review the complete terms of the revised PayPal Privacy Policy and HERE to review the complete terms of the revised Acceptable Use Policy in their entirety.
Amendments to the PayPal User Agreement
The update to the User Agreement is effective July 1, 2015. A summary of changes is provided below. You can also click HERE to review the complete terms of the revised User Agreement in its entirety.
Section 1.10
We are updating terms of the PayPal User Agreement regarding the means through and purposes for which we may contact you.The revised section 1.10 reads as follows:
1.10 Calls to You; Mobile Telephone Numbers. You consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages from PayPal at any telephone number that you have provided us or that we have otherwise obtained. We may place such calls or texts to (i) notify you regarding your account; (ii) troubleshoot problems with your account (iii) resolve a dispute; (iv) collect a debt; (v) poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires, (vii) contact you with offers and promotions; or (viii) as otherwise necessary to service your account or enforce this User Agreement, our policies, applicable law, or any other agreement we may have with you. The ways in which you provide us a telephone number include, but are not limited to, providing a telephone number at Account opening, adding a telephone number to your Account at a later time, providing it to one of our employees, or by contacting us from that phone number. If a telephone number provided to us is a mobile telephone number, you consent to receive SMS or text messages at that number. We won’t share your phone number with third parties for their purposes without your consent, but may share your phone numbers with our Affiliates or with our service providers, such as billing or collections companies, who we have contracted with to assist us in pursuing our rights or performing our obligations under this User Agreement, our policies, applicable law, or any other agreement we may have with you. You agree these service providers may also contact you using autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages, as authorized by us to carry out the purposes we have identified above, and not for their own purposes. Standard telephone minute and text charges may apply if we contact you.
You can read the full updated Paypal policy user agreement here.
The Internet Patrol is completely free, and reader-supported. Your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP.
CashApp us
Venmo us
Paypal us
I just gave them the phone numbers to my congressional rep & the state governor’s office….
So, don’t use Paypal. I’m thinking of dropping them anyway.
Thanks for the follow up to your previous article about this. I just called and cancelled my account. The rep offered to just have me “opt out” but I don’t want to be associated with a company that thinks this is okay and just cancelled.
The phone number that I used to call was: 1-888-221-1161. However, there is a one time pass code to obtain which required me to login to my account – several times, actually, which I suspect is intentional on their part to dissuade people from using the phone.
I feel just a tiny bit freer…