paypal wins. I give up.

Last month it was so easy to order the necessary cello part from cellos2go and pay with paypal. Unfortunately, paypal decided that someone accessed my account and limited access. Next time I tried to log on which was this week, nope, no access.

That someone was surely me, since when I accessed the account to fix it this week, they slapped another limit on it.

They suggested three steps needed to restore access - to prove that I'm the account holder. Two steps were easy: change password, institute new questions. The third took more time and involved linking a credit card to the account. Paying a small fee and then getting the transaction number. Ok, did that too. This is taking 3-4 days so far and the cello lady has already sent the humidifier to MN since I paid so promptly last month.

Now they say, no, even though you did those things, please call us and we'll tell you what to do next. Actually, first they offer me the option of answering the phone at home in MN either immediately or in one minute (if I needed to get off the line). Don't know whether to laugh or cry about that. But this calling them to resolve the issue doesn't work very well either. I tried, but pre-paid cell minutes go pretty fast when one has to get through stupid automated menus.

When I finally get through they say, ok, now fax us your utility bill with your name and address. Unfortunately I got off without getting the fax number and the site will not give it to me. Call us, they say, so we can give you the best fax number. I don't know if our utility bill even has my name on it. Maybe. Probably not.

I gave up. My brother (thank you!) paid the bill.