Honey, I Think It’s Time We Got A More Fuel Efficient Car…
Memo to self: Don’t get a PayPal debit card…
Driver Fills up Gas Tank, Receives Bill For $81 Billion
When Juan Zamora stopped to refuel his car at a Conoco service station in Richland, the gas pump’s calculator registered a total fee of $26.
But in a freak computer hiccup, the PayPal debit card he used recorded the transaction as $81,400,836,908. Yes, you read that correctly, that’s more than 81 billion dollars.
Initially, Mr. Zamora thought it must’ve been a joke. But after contacting PayPal customer service he was surprised to see that the company treated it as anything but a laughing matter.
“Somebody from a foreign country who spoke in broken English argued with me for 10 to 15 minutes,” Zamora said. ” ‘Did you get the gas?’ he asked. Like I had to prove that I didn’t pump $81,400,836,908 in gas!”
This is more understandable then it looks. If PayPal is outsourcing its customer service to Zimbabwe then the rep would have had no trouble believing you’d bought eighty-one billion dollars worth of gas.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Zimbabwe? Can we be sure that he didn’t help the exiled royal family transfer their wealth out of the country via his paypal account? I mean, he probably thought it was a deposit, in which he would get a 20% "commission fee".