StatCounter lets fly at PayPal

30-05-2008

by Emmet Ryan

Irish web tracking firm StatCounter is enraged at PayPal over problems with an update issued by the e-payments business.

StatCounter claims that there have been several problems with PayPal since an update was introduced on 15 May. The Dublin-based business told ENN that many of its customers have been double billed since the update was introduced.

"It appears that the update was full of errors," Jenni Cullen, Finance Director with StatCounter, told ENN. "For anyone in business, if you roll out a new update and problems start to appear the smart thing to do is to roll it back and fix the errors."

She said the firm has been frustrated by its efforts to contact PayPal to find out the problem. "Our biggest gripe is the lack of communication from PayPal," said Cullen. "We've phoned and e-mailed and keep getting told 'we are investigating the problem, thank you for your patience'."

StatCounter provides web tracking services that enable website owners to gather information about visitors. The Dublin firm said the PayPal issue of 15 May was adversely affecting its members and after two weeks StatCounter decided to take action and inform customers through its blog.

The business posted an entry on Thursday detailing the issues it was currently experiencing. Cullen said StatCounter had identified a total of seven problems with PayPal since the update but that most of these had subsequently been resolved since the blog entry was posted. "I don't know if it's just a coincidence but it appears that several of the problems have been fixed," she said. "There have been complaints about the update on blogs all over the world."

While most of the issues appear to have been resolved, StatCounter claims that there are still two outstanding problems. The firm said the double billing issue has yet to be fixed and that merchants are having issues receiving instant payment notifications.

For its part PayPal has recently responded to complaints by customers in its developers' community forum. The e-payments firm has stated that the issues have either been resolved or are being investigated.

News of the grievance comes as PayPal announced plans to expand its Irish operation. The firm will move its Dublin Operations Centre to the Ballycoolin Business Park to enable the firm to expand from its current total of 900 staff up to potentially 1,250 employees.