Three weeks after a British man told PayPal that his significant other had passed away at 37 and that her credit record ought to be shut, he opened a letter from the organization: Her death, it appeared, was infringing upon the organization’s agreement rules.
“You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased,” they wrote to, Lindsay Durdle, on July 10 who had died of breast cancer on May 31.
Her husband of almost 10 years, Howard Durdle, 40, of Bucklebury, read the organization’s rundown of potential consequences which included, shutting down her account, requiring repayment of more than $4,000 in debt, and even legal action.
In Britain, partners aren’t immediately responsible for their spouse’s debt. Such obligations must be paid through the estate, including cash or belonging. Mr. Durdle said his better half’s estate couldn’t cover her debt.
“With grief, there are ups and downs,” he said. “There are days when you are very fragile, and there are days when you are feeling stronger. We are lucky that this week I was feeling quite strong.”
PayPal said in a statement on Wednesday that they apologized “for the understandable distress this letter caused” and that it had “quickly performed a thorough investigation.”
“As soon as our teams became aware of this mistake, we contacted Mr. Durdle directly to offer our support, cleared the outstanding debt and closed down his wife’s account as he requested,” the company said. “We have also urgently reviewed the company’s internal processes and have made changes to ensure that an insensitive error of this nature never happens again.”
