PayPal Tells Customer Her Death Is Breach Of Contract
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Bucklebury, U.K. (CBS Local) - PayPal apparently doesn't believe that death is a good enough reason for their customers to not pay their bills.
The online payments system has been forced to apologize after mailing a letter to a woman in the United Kingdom, three weeks after her death was reported to the company.
The notice was still addressed to Lindsay Durdle - who died of cancer at the age of 37 in May - and informed the late Bucklebury resident that her death constituted a breach of contract because she still had an unpaid balance in her PayPal account.
"We have received notice that you are deceased... We are entitled to close your account, terminate your agreement and demand repayment of the full amount," the notice reads according to Durdle's husband Howard, who posted the letter on social media.
The infuriated widower says PayPal blamed the mailing of the insensitive letter on one of three causes: a bug, a bad letter template, or human error.
"I'm a member of the charity Widowed and Young, and I've seen first-hand in there how a letter like this or something like it can completely derail somebody," Durdle told the BBC.
Durdle added that PayPal apologized shortly after their letter was posted on Twitter. "I just hope more orgs can apply empathy and common sense to avoid hurting the recently bereaved," the grieving husband wrote on July 10.
Lindsay's husband says PayPal officials told him they would not share any information about how such a letter was sent out because it was an "internal matter." "We are urgently reviewing our internal processes to ensure this does not happen again," a PayPal spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Next Web.