Problem solved - (formerly "Problem w/ Kiva site")

[Guest]

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[michael]

I am an newbie but I immediately saw the inherent value in this.  So I signed up, selected four applicants, saw them in my "Basket" and Checked Out using Paypal.  Paypal sent an email receipt.  So far so good, right?  This wasn't for major cash, but I want to take it slow until I feel more comfortable with the org's integrity, etc.

So anyway, Paypal has taken the funds from AMEX.  But now I can find no reference to my activity on the Kiva site.... Basket empty, Portfolio empty, etc.  It's as if I were still merely signed up and screening profiles without having funded anything.

So is there someplace to see which loans have been made using (in part) my funds?  I did not write down the applicants' names, I assumed they'd show up in the portfolio section.

I've used that site's contact address but assume they are swamped.  Any suggestions?  Am I looking in the wrong places?  Or does this black hole really exist until eventual repayment by the borrowers?  Or does it take days / weeks for the site to update my activity?

Thanks for any reply.

[Joe]

Welcome to the forum, Michael! And thanks for signing up at Kiva.

When did you make the loans? I've had multiple loans at once take a little while to show up on my portfolio. Not sure if it's a little glitch or something but eventually they would show up after a few hours. If you did it today then hopefully your activity is displaying on your portfolio by now, if not very soon.

Also, did you get any confirmation e-mails from Kiva? They usually send out thank you messages for each business you lend to separately from the PayPal confirmation. The subject line of those is usually Your Name, thanks from Kiva and contains information about your loans.

Kiva is good about replying to e-mails so you'll get a response soon.

[Julia]

All of my loans showed up right away in my portfolio (which doesn't mean there isn't a glitch sometimes and I have been lucky). Do you have two accounts perhaps?
I would contact Kiva about it today if its still not there.
They are great about responding, even though there are so few of them. (I think there are only 7 people in the office?)

[michael]

hmm..... well, it has only been about 24 hours.  Perhaps they got buried by responses to the NYT article, etc.  I'll wait until tomorrow to bother the staff again - maybe they'll catch up with new business or reply to my email from yesterday afternoon.  But it does raise a little concern to hear that I should have received four emails yesterday from them (one from each loan.)  The only thing I actually got was a registration confirmation from the site.  I'd hat eto think the money is just "spinning in infinity" between Paypal and Kiva.

It's good to hear that there are others here who have been involved with Kiva for a while - helps to allay any concerns.


Tomorrow, then....... 

[Joe]

I've gotten into the habit of lending to one business at a time since those show up instantly. If I'm doing more than one, I'll fund one then go back to the site and start the process again for the other. Back in January I did 2 at once and I think only one showed up instantly on my portfolio. The other took about a little while but it eventually showed up.

I'm sure Kiva will track things down for you, Michael. It's a growing but small operation that does have the occasional glitch. The last one I remember was the broken HTML codes on lender pages. They just fixed that.

[randulo]

I'm sure Kiva will track things down for you, Michael. It's a growing but small operation that does have the occasional glitch. The last one I remember was the broken HTML codes on lender pages. They just fixed that.

The Kiva site has been very slow serving for the past several hours (perhaps the NYT article caused this?) There is a real explosion in this field, finally something good comes out a Internet buzz! Snakes on a Plane didn't do it for me

[optimistic.bob]

I read on the Yahoo forum that they had done $78K in loans within hours of the NYT article. That is 3120 loans of $25. Wow!

[Joe]

That is great to hear! By the way, the graphic on the site has updated. They are now at...

[michael]

Update:  After a third email to Kiva, this one today, I got a name and a number from Kiva and spoke to Anushka, the poor soul that is handling all their email.  Apparently, they got swamped this week.

Anyway, they have notice that my money got there (they show my account with a positive balance) but have not received the actual transfer from Paypal (in another place they show me as a zero balance account).  Anushka is at a loss to explain this.  None of my funds were credited to the borrowers since the money, um, never arrived.  But it left my credit card, so it arrived but they don't see it so it didn't arrive but..........

So Kiva is looking into it.

In the meantime, the money is in limbo.  I told her that I'd give it two weeks before I challenged the charge and simply started over.  She was not pleased with this "final solution" but was professional in her promise to resolve it and get back to me.

So I am not really participating yet.  You may now begin to shun me. 

[optimistic.bob]

I have had issues with PayPal payments at Kiva and other more commercial ventures. In two instances here, I saw funds in my portfolio but PayPal wasn't charging to my cc, as I had instructed, (or thought I had) but rather doing a bank electronic fund transfer so Kiva was really left waiting for PayPal to clear funds. With the millions of transactions through PayPal and the thousands through Kiva I guess we could expect some glitches. Welcome to the forum - if you continue to be as positive and supportive as your posts suggest - you are surely a Kiva friend.