What’s in a name? Plenty, if the name of your residence happens to include the word ‘Isis’ in it. In fact, if your address includes “Isis”, Paypal will not process transactions for you!
According to an article by Ray Corrigan, a technology commentator with Slate and New Scientist, over on his personal blog B2FXXX, this was what a British Paypal user ran into when she tried to complete a transaction from her Isis Street residence – Paypal rejecting her transactions because of the term ‘Isis’ in her address.
Corrigan explains that she “ran into some unexpected difficulties when attempting to purchase a small quantity of haberdashery on the internet with the aid of a PayPal account. The transaction would not process. In puzzlement she eventually got irritated enough to brave the 24/7 customer support telephone tag labyrinth. The short version of the response from the eventual real person she managed to get through to was that PayPal have blacklisted addresses which include the name “Isis”.”
Corrigan also points out that ‘The Isis’ is the name given to a section of the River Thames, and that there are any number of addresses which include this forbidden term. And, indeed, a Google search for “Isis Street” turns up dozens of such listings. And not just in the U.K..
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As of the time of this writing, Paypal has yet to offer an explanation.
In the meantime, do check out Corrigan’s full article, The Tyranny of the Algorithm Yet Again, it’s worth a read.
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Pay pal is terrible. I wish they would get some competition and get put out of business.
Once, they froze my account and refused to tell me why. I followed the instructions the customer service sent me, but no luck.
I then realized the customer servive people who help you do not exsist. It is a robot. I tried saying that my dog just burst into flames. They sent me the same instructions that they sent when i said my account was frozen.
I learned that if you send several hundred emails, and be very insulting, a human would respond and fix the problem.
Never did fint out why they froze it, but i got it back.
Now, i never leave funds in paypal, pull it right out.
I ran into a similar problem when trying to order a tailgate lock for my truck.. Apparently Amazon lumps all automotive parts and accessories together, and classifies them as hazardous materials, and will not ship them to a PO box.