I last wrote about the current state of PPDG back in August – see What’s the Deal with Paypal Digital Gifts?
At that time, what seemed to be working for most people was to buy up to around $250 without any verification, and up to ~$500 with some verification loops. The $200 was a daily limit based on rolling 24-hours, and the $500 reset at some unknown point after a few days.
More recently, we’ve been noticing that it’s become increasingly possible to checkout even large amounts in one shot, albeit with going through a few text verifications. I’ve had success doing as much as $1,575 in one checkout.
On the flip side, there’s this new error message that me and others are bumping into. After logging into Paypal, this screen pops up:
Sorry, this payment option isn’t available…Contact Paypal customer service to resolve this issue
I haven’t tried contacting Paypal yet, but friends who tried got nowhere; they say that all looks good on their end.
I’ve been able to push through a few small transactions since this began appearing, but more often it errors out on me. Our best guess now is that it’s some sort of rolling monthly limit. If that’s the case, it seems they’ve relaxed the old daily/weekly limits and focus now on your monthly purchase volume.
Who knows?
I’ve only had success buying through PPDG using 2 methods:
1 – there is $$$ in my paypal account (purchases go through immediately)
(trying to only use a CC associated with my PP account is where I encounter problems)
2 – call PP and hopefully speak with a knowledgeable rep who knows how to override the ‘fraud flags’ to complete the purchase
Anyone have a phone number they used to call? I have a ski weekend upcoming and would love to save ~$100 on my booking with the discounted AirBnB cards. I’m in the same boat as everyone else, endless loops of authenticating. I’ve tried to do it on two different browsers on MacOS, a Ubuntu VM, and my iPhone via the eBay app, no dice on any of them.
it is paypal’s Risk Management Algorithm kicking in… I have talked to numerous a rep over this crap.. Basically some bs algorithm farts through a pipe somewhere and if the wind blows the wrong way then you cant buy stuff… But anyway it uses multiple things to determine if the transaction is “too risky”. if it is you will get that. Try removing all the items from your cart and go back in and add 1, buy it, then rinse and repeat. It will eventually say no more and your boned for a few days till your risk-o-meter cools down a bit… fk’in paypal… I cant wait till their contracts with ebay end because I am pretty sure even ebay’s people are getting tired of this crap.
can ya top this one?
went through verification hell last week, with paypal…. (on a purchase yes of a ppdg card via ebay) One “silly” rep tried to get rid of me by proclaiming “ebay is an unreliable merchant.”
She must have been new. Called up ebay right after (where the reps are usually more professional, better trained, etc.) and got a good laugh out of the irony in that claim….
Did ebay do anything to allow PPDG purchases?
I’ve had this happen repeatedly. First time had the infinite loop, then every other time I get this message. My gc buying habits are new, so completely different patterns for their computer system. I have to call in and talk to a Supervisot, but they have been able to Overide it every time so far. Reg reps say they have the same tools but never can fix it. One Supervisor advised me that it will likely be a month before the system catches on to my new buying habits. I opened a new PayPal account but purchases won’t go through. A supervisor advised me that if my account had been brand new, she would not have overridden the system, so to stick with my old account….
I was able to call Paypal and have them do a force verify over the phone to fix the issue. It’s the same verification test they use for credit items (i.e., a City you’ve lived in, year of your car, etc).
EDIT: This worked once, and now the same error is back.
Further Update: If you call in and do the phone verification with a live representative they can basically put an override on the risk flag that PPDG is tripping. The override lasts for 30 days, which is better than calling in each time you try to buy. Hopefully they’ll be able to resolve the issue within that time.
Not always. I’ve had it overridden once, successfully completed purchase, only to immediately be unable to buy even one more card. *Shrug* from PayPal rep who did the override plus all the rest. Have only been able to buy one set of cards in weeks.
And now verification loop eventually brings me into my actual PayPal account – a (weird) first.
I just gave up.
That’s the infinite loop. You won’t stand a chance ever entering normal checkout page in next few days. Just switch to another Paypal account or wait for cooldown.
That’s correct. You have to ask them to do the override for a longer period of time. If you don’t mention this, the rep (in their infinite wisdom) only overrides the security issue for one transaction.
this will not last 30 days that rep fed you a line to get you off the phone hahaha I fell for this one also.
Glad I wasn’t only one getting this message.
I received the same error and called in. Best PP employee I ever encounter said “I see nothing wrong. Let me try something.”
Then boom, he did ‘something’ and it worked.
Definitely not because of month limit, at least for me. I have purchased more than 6k worth of GC from PPDG last month and it still allows me to purchase the lowe’s GC yesterday. So no problem at all. It may depend on your pattern. I make a lot of GC transactions regularly. Normally after a large transaction, I will start facing infinite loop of verification but it will be restored after a few days.
With all of my accounts being permanently limited, I truly hope ebay will open up the payment options when it comes to PPDG purchases. Being able to pay for PPDG purchases seems to be the only valuable benefit to me from PP. Even now this is not a guaranteed service!
I’ve had that problem several times and just gave up. This past Saturday I received it when attempting a large order at PPDG. A couple hours later I received a call from Paypal, not PPDG, saying I was flagged as potentially fraudulent. I passed their test and was able to check out.