FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER!

I love live music, and the pandemic has made it harder to find. Some of the local bands have gone online, putting out their virtual tip jar while they play for an hour or two. Sometimes they are sponsored by a business, sometimes they do it from their apartments.

I love the Beatles, so when the leader of the Sun Kings, a Beatles tribute band, started doing virtual shows on Facebook Livestream, I was there with my Paypal password at the ready.

I tipped Drew every other weekend or so while he did All Beatles, a combo of Beatles and other songs, some original tunes, etc. I even bought a CD that he recommended (I am old, I still buy CD’s).

So when his ex-band member, Jim, decided to do a show with him on Sunday and call it The Two of Us, I marked my calendar for a live stream of John and Paul singing Beatles.

I went to Paypal after the show and left Jim a $20.00 tip. I wanted to get Jim’s info into my Paypal account since he sometimes does solo shows. I already had Drew’s info.

The payment didn’t go through. The next day I got an email from a Paypal associate named Gaurav, asking about the identity of JohnandPaul. What was his birth date, please? I had put in the comments that I really liked the John and Paul combo. In the meantime, my account was frozen.

I had to explain the situation, about the virtual tip jar and the Beatles live stream. I went to the resolution center and submitted my answer.

The next day I got another email from a different Paypal associate named Sadiq, asking the same question and telling me to go to the resolution center.

I did that, and my answer was marked as submitted. My whole account was still frozen. That was Wednesday.

Then I forgot about it. Jim emailed me to show me that the payment was still pending. I got the Paypal phone number and called. It was after business hours, and the message said to please call back.

I called yesterday and got a message asking if I wanted a callback so I wouldn’t have to wait. Ashley from Paypal called me back, a sweet young thing. I explained the situation, told her I was an old lady who liked live music and that there was no such person named JohnandPaul.

Fortunately she had heard of the Beatles. She put me on hold while she escalated the case.

I love the terminology for everything today. Escalate. Upgrade. You know, words that weren’t in our everyday vernacular way back when.

Ashley came back on and said she had handled the problem. I thanked her again and hung up.

Why did my virtual tip take two emails, two phone calls, one call back, and all that wasted time, just to leave a tip for two guys trying to make it with few-to-no live gigs?

I’d been tipping the Zoom Zumba instructors for weeks without a problem.

I’d better be careful what I put in the comments. The next Paypal question will be, what is identity and birth date of ThankYouYuko?