Comments for The $61 Billion Dollar PayPal Error

The $61 Billion Dollar PayPal Error

2007-04-10T23:44:12Z

Reader Dan tried to purchase a product mentioned on The Unofficial Apple Weblog, but it turned out to be a little pricey:

The item is priced at $28.95, which TUAW said seemed a bit high. It seemed fair to me. I should have listened. When I went through the purchase process and clicked "buy," my Paypal order screen listed the price as $61,803,552,167.70 USD.

No kidding. I've attached the screen shot.

I guess I should always listen to TUAW.

Silly Dan, you accidentally tried to buy the one manufactured by Halliburton. —MEGHANN MARCO

Comment from IRSistherootofallevil on 2007-04-16

2007-04-16T12:02:11Z

Whoa....did someone hire a Halliburton accountant? Um that's where all the Halliburton accountants are going!

Comment from Trick on 2007-04-11

2007-04-12T04:43:50Z

I would probably make the purchase just to see what happens! My PayPal account is linked to a free checking account that I don't keep money in except when I need to pay someone via PayPal...

Comment from bluemountainco on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T20:13:09Z

They fixed the error, it shows the correct amount now :)

Comment from mattzz on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T16:47:18Z

Wow! Did PayPal issue a response to you yet about this? It could be an issue with PayPal or with the way the TUAW webmaster configured the product PayPal shopping cart (although, I highly doubt PayPal's software will allow anyone to set such a high number).

Comment from Haxd on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T16:34:00Z

Recently I was writing a donation checkout system with the PayPal API and I calculated the total price first, fed it to paypal and then the quantity, and anyone who was making a donation would have been charged the amount of what they were donating * how many times they were donating ^ 2.

Not a pretty price.

Comment from freakinalex on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T10:55:14Z

Wow. What an oddly specific number.

Comment from cfs on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T10:19:27Z

Well, I was a customer of X.com, the internet bank that got consumed by PayPal during the great dot.boom and they had a massive bug in their web application that made it seem that you either had millions of dollars in your account or a negative balance in the billions. I wonder if this poor soul happened across some recycled code of theirs.

Comment from pediddle on 2007-04-11

2007-04-11T09:51:58Z

A math overflow error of some sort?

Comment from ironchef on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T04:42:35Z

that's less than HALF what America got on the Iraq Emergency Spending Bill.

Comment from Triteon on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T02:18:04Z

"Dan"...perhaps a pseudonym for one guy who could afford the purchase? But why--unless he's used his own products-- would Bill Gates be shopping at Apple?

Comment from adriennezurub on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T00:46:35Z

@scoobydoo: @eldergias:
Oh Happy Day! It must of felt good, at least for 2-3 minutes: "I'm Rich! I'm Rich!

Damn!"

Comment from adriennezurub on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T00:43:17Z

@scoobydoo:
Nahh, the long time employee was just let go so that they could hire this new kid at minimun wage and no health care. The check went through! Yippee!

Adrienne Zurub

Comment from ventidrip on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T00:41:48Z

These new DRM free prices are outrageous.

Comment from eldergias on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T00:41:42Z

Similar thing happened with me once, but it was with Amazon and involved a credit. I guess it had something to do with the fact that the item I was returning I had bought with a gift card, but I ended up with a $10 billion credit. I have since lost the email, but needless to say I was gasping when I recieved it.

Comment from adriennezurub on 2007-04-10

2007-04-11T00:28:20Z

He still has to pay the NSF charge, and every three days after that until they get their money!
Adrienne Zurub
author of 'NOtes From the MotherShip~Naked Invisibles'

Comment from Dragontologist on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T23:37:29Z

It's all just a cover for selling nukes to other countries. Or maybe Apple just has an all-new way of eliminating the competition...

Comment from tedyc03 on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T23:20:56Z

I would hope the comedy of errors would get laughed off at the bank and no NSF fees. LOL

Comment from katana on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T23:12:12Z

hello, NSF!

Comment from tvh2k on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T22:59:56Z

Good thing there was no tax!

Comment from rocketslide on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T22:58:22Z

Do you think he could do a chargeback & get credited?

Comment from scoobydoo on 2007-04-10

2007-04-10T22:52:56Z

I'd love to see Paypal try and debit that from his checking account. I wonder if that'll set off a fraud alert at his bank :D