See more of Howard Durdle on Facebook ||||| PayPal likes to get paid, even if you're dead. The online payments system has apologized after mailing a letter to a woman in the United Kingdom three weeks after her death was reported to the company, CBS Seattle reports. 
 
 Lindsay Durdle, who lived in West Berkshire, England, died of cancer in May at the age of 37. Her husband, Howard, informed PayPal of her death three weeks ago, the BBC reports. He provided PayPal with copies of her death certificate, her will and his ID, as requested. 
 
 PayPal replied with a letter addressed to his late wife, informing her she still had an unpaid balance in her account and that her death constituted a breach of contract. It was headlined: "Important: You should read this notice carefully." 
 
 "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 Howard, who posted the letter on Twitter. 
 
 Durdle had a balance of about £3,200, or $4,200, according to the letter, which said that PayPal intended to "take action." 
 
 PayPal has since apologized, according to Howard. "I just hope more orgs can apply empathy and common sense to avoid hurting the recently bereaved," the grieving husband wrote on July 10. 
 
 He told BBC that PayPal blamed the 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," he told the BBC. 
 
 He added that PayPal had told him it would not be able to share the cause behind the letter's mailing because it was an "internal matter." ||||| Three weeks after a British man told PayPal that his wife had died at 37 and that her credit account should be closed, he opened a letter from the company: Her death, it seemed, was in violation of the company’s contract 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,” said the July 10 letter to the woman, Lindsay Durdle, who had died of breast cancer on May 31. 
 
 Her husband of nearly 10 years, Howard Durdle, 40, of Bucklebury, read the company’s list of potential consequences: shutting down her account, requiring repayment of more than $4,000 in debt, and even legal action. 
 
 In Britain, spouses are not automatically responsible for their deceased partners’ debts. Such debts must be paid through the estate of the person who died, including money or possessions. Mr. Durdle said his wife’s estate could not cover her debt. ||||| Howard Durdle recently contacted PayPal to let them know his wife had died and that her credit account should be closed. 
 
 Three weeks later, he received an unbelievable response, addressed to his wife. 
 
 "Dear Mrs Lindsay Durdle," the letter began. 
 
 "This is a default notice...You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased. In accordance with condition 15.4(c), we are entitled to close your account, terminate your agreement and demand repayment of the full amount outstanding." 
 
 Incredulous, Mr. Durdle shared the insensitive letter in a Facebook post. 
 
 "What empathy-lacking machine sent this?" he asked. 
 
 Once informed, PayPal immediately reached out to Mr. Durdle to apologize. 
 
 "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 told the New York Times. "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." 
 
 This was surely an egregious mistake on PayPal's part, but there's a much larger lesson at stake here. 
 
 How emotional intelligence could have made things better 
 
 While PayPal's mistake is getting lots of press, the truth is companies send out similar letters all the time. 
 
 How can we do better? 
 
 Emotional intelligence, the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions can help. 
 
 According to the Times, Mr. Durdle said he was informed by phone that the letter could have been due to a software glitch, a poor letter template, or human error. That simple information can be used as a catalyst to improve your own company's processes, and keep from making similar missteps in the future. 
 
 Here's how: 
 
 1. Fix your automation. 
 
 Most large companies use software to generate automatic responses to payment problems. 
 
 But as this story illustrates, not all problems are created equal: Sickness or a death in the family requires higher sensitivity and a human touch. By taking time now to make sure you're not using automated processes in such cases, you save customers (and yourself) pain in the future. 
 
 2. Fix your templates. 
 
 One of the things that sticks out about PayPal's letter is the attempt to use legal and corporate speak to intimidate. Large companies may need to use some type of form letter in various situations, but they don't have to be written like this. 
 
 Rather, make sure your form letters use empathy and sound like they're written by a real person, rather than a money-grabbing corporate machine. Doing so will help you establish rapport with the intended recipient, and have a much better chance of motivating them to positive action. 
 
 3. Fix your training. 
 
 The single most important thing you can do to prevent mistakes like this one is to train your people to deal with others with emotional intelligence. 
 
 For example, in this case the initial PayPal employee whom Mr. Durdle contacted could have flagged the case and made sure any follow through was appropriate to the situation. Doing so may have actually inspired customer loyalty, instead of outrage. 
 
 Additionally, with the right guidance, employees can be trained to catch and fix potential problem scenarios before they play out in real life. ||||| Image copyright Howard Durdle Image caption This photo of Lindsay and Howard Durdle was taken last year 
 
 PayPal wrote to a woman who had died of cancer saying her death had breached its rules and that it might take legal action as a consequence. 
 
 The firm has since acknowledged that the letter was "insensitive", apologised to her widower, and begun an inquiry into how it came to be sent. 
 
 The matter came to light after her bereaved husband contacted the BBC. 
 
 He said he wanted to make other organisations aware how distressing automated messages could be. 
 
 Lindsay Durdle died on 31 May aged 37. 
 
 She had been first diagnosed with breast cancer about a year-and-a-half earlier. The disease had later spread to her lungs and brain. 
 
 PayPal was informed of Mrs Durdle's death three weeks ago by her husband Howard Durdle. 
 
 He provided the online payments service with copies of her death certificate, her will and his ID, as requested. 
 
 Image copyright Howard Durdle Image caption PayPal had been informed of Lindsay Durdle's death 
 
 He has now received a letter addressed in her name, sent to his home in Bucklebury, West Berkshire. 
 
 It was headlined: "Important: You should read this notice carefully." 
 
 It said that Mrs Durdle owed the company about £3,200 and went on to say: "You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased... this breach is not capable of remedy." 
 
 PayPal has told Mr Durdle that it is looking into this "as a priority", and has written off the debt in the meantime. 
 
 "We apologise to Mr Durdle for the distress this letter has caused," a spokesman added. 
 
 "We are urgently looking into this matter, and are in direct contact with Mr Durdle to support him." 
 
 Image copyright Howard Durdle Image caption PayPal sent this letter to Mrs Durdle 
 
 Mr Durdle said a member of PayPal's staff had told him there were three possible explanations: 
 
 a bug 
 
 a bad letter template 
 
 human error 
 
 He added that he had been assured that whatever the cause, it would be addressed, although PayPal had told him it would not be able to share the information because it was an "internal matter". 
 
 "I'm in a reasonable place at the moment - I've got quite a level head on my shoulders - and am quite capable of dealing with paperwork like this," Mr Durdle said. 
 
 "But 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. 
 
 "If I'm going to make any fuss about this at all, it's to make sure that PayPal - or any other organisation that might do this kind of insensitive thing - recognises the damage they can cause the recently bereaved."
– "You are in breach of condition 15.4(c) of your agreement with PayPal Credit as we have received notice that you are deceased." That's the very real message a British man received three weeks after informing PayPal of his wife's May 31 death from cancer at age 37. "What empathy-lacking machine sent this?" Howard Durdle, 40, first wrote on Facebook, sharing the letter threatening legal action over Lindsay Durdle's $4,200 debt, which her widower says her estate couldn't cover, per Inc. "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," PayPal tells the New York Times, adding it has "made changes to ensure that an insensitive error of this nature never happens again." Durdle, too, says his goal is to prevent future instances like this—"it can be hugely damaging for people who are trying to recover"—and he thinks speaking out is the best way to accomplish that. "While PayPal's mistake is getting lots of press, the truth is companies send out similar letters all the time," Inc. notes. Speaking to the Times, the president of consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen blames companies' increasing reliance on software and algorithms to communicate with customers. Per the BBC, Durdle was told a software glitch, bad letter template, or human error was likely to blame in his case, but that the exact cause would remain an internal secret. "I just hope more orgs can apply empathy and common sense to avoid hurting the recently bereaved," he wrote in a Tuesday tweet, per CBS News.