Name-and-shame for dumb assumptions: PayPal

[jducoeur]

Today in Stupid Assumptions Engineers (or Designers, or somebody) Make: that people have two phone numbers.

I ordered something the other day, and paid for it with PayPal. I use PayPal a lot, and am generally happy with it. (Yes, yes -- it's not perfect. Seriously, I used to work on check-fraud detection software: I can assure you that PayPal is a paragon compared to the traditional banking system.)

But I noticed on my receipt from the company that the phone number attached to my order is downright antique. Not just old -- like, seven-years-dead, my phone number from my old house.

So I went to remove it, since at this point we've cut the cable and are just using our mobiles. And what do I find? PayPal doesn't allow you to have fewer than two phone numbers. Like, it is literally impossible to remove the dead number without adding another one.

I'm not quite sure what they expect me to do here. I'm not enthused about adding Kate's mobile onto my account. And what do they expect people who really do just have one phone to do? That's not exactly unusual.

So: Boo to PayPal for bad design.

Comments

[l33tminion]

That doesn't seem correct. At least, I have only one number on my PayPal account, and it's supposed to be possible to remove numbers:
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-add,-edit-or-remove-a-phone-number-on-my-paypal-account-faq947

You might need to mark the new phone number as your primary one before removing the old one. Failing that, you can call PayPal's support phone number and they'd probably be able to fix it for you. I haven't used it that recently, but in the past PayPal's customer support was pretty solid.

[jducoeur]

That "click Remove beside the number" in the documentation? There is no such Remove button there.

I have two numbers listed, one home and one mobile -- both are marked Primary, and both are unremovable.

On looking at it again, I could believe this is some sort of idiotic bug, but it's definitely annoying, and it's getting in the way, since they are giving the dead phone number to shippers.

I may try calling -- I've gotten cynical about phone support in recent years, since so many companies are so bad at it. (Their text-messaging system is "unavailable", with no information on whether that is temporary or permanent.)

[sporky_rat]

I have had pretty decent phone support with them, better than a lot of other companies.

(Best phone support is still the IRS.)

[l33tminion]

Yeah, that sounds like a bug. You should try contacting their support.

some spoofing options.

[dsrtao]

NANP reserves (NNN) 555-01XX for fictional usage.

555-1212 is reserved for directory assistance.

1 604 555 1313 incurs a 50 cent charge to BCTel (Canada).

The FCC complaint line is 1-888-225-5322

Re: some spoofing options.

[jducoeur]

Fair, but really not what I'm looking for. I mean, the cranky here is because they're attaching a bad phone number to my (sometimes expensive) shipments -- attaching a spoofed phone number isn't an improvement...

[laurion]

Create a Google Voice number that also goes to your phone and enter that.

[squirrelitude]

Mmm. Or that people have a phone number. :-)