I wrote a couple days ago that PayPal made a mistake in their dividend distribution for Jan. 2008. I received a payout of $1.08 when I was expecting something in the $14 range. Several other people wrote in to say that their payouts were woefully short as well.
I opened a ticket at PayPal.com to complain about the dividend problem, and here is the email response that I received yesterday:
Thank you for contacting PayPal, my name is E. [edited by T.F.P.] and I am happy to assist you today.
I understand that you are calling [T.F.P.'s note: This is obviously a form letter, as I never "called" in.] regarding the dividends you received. I apologize for the inconvenience but we are currently experiencing a known technical issue in calculating Money Market Dividends. As of the moment, the dividend that posts on our customers’ PayPal accounts is unusually low. Rest assured that our technical team and engineers are resolving this issue as of the moment. Correction payments for the January Money Market Fund will be distributed this week.
Also, the 2007 year-end dividends and the form 1099 that you have
received are accurate.Thank you for being a valuable member of the PayPal community.
So there you have it. Yes, there was a problem with the January PayPal dividend payout, and the correct amounts will be deposited sometime this week.
Now let’s see if PayPal can actually follow through on this.