PayPal Horror Stories

There are millions of PayPal horror stories on the internet today. There are many more yet to be written -- perhaps yours. This collection of "horror stories" is here to give you a small sampling of what others have gone through when dealing with PayPal. A good tip is to read our "PayPal TOS Exposed" section first, and then read some horror stories. You'll see how PayPal really works!

You can find more recent PayPal horror stories in our FORUMS and in our LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

If you would like to submit your PayPal horror story here, you can CONTACT US and we will place your story in this section. There are other places on this website where you can submit your experience with PayPal. First you can post your story in our FORUMS. Second, you can have your story featured in our LETTERS TO THE EDITOR section. Third, you can submit your story in full article format and we will feature it in a special section. You can submit your article by CONTACTING US.

NOTE: The following stories have NOT BEEN EDITED for spelling and grammar mistakes. To protect user privacy, we have removed names as well.

Paypal has limited my acccount, for the absurd reason being that there email address is similiar to mine, and they owe them 500 dollars. I have called, and called and received the same old run around with the rep's on the phone. I have more than 500, in my limited account and I can not get any of my money out of it because I need to resolve this other account. Which does not belong to me, I told them and their appeals department this over and over. Has anyone here been able to sue them and got their money back from Paypal. I am at my wits end on what to do next, I filed complaints with all the online places listed here, and don't know what to do next.

I need some advice on my situation with paypal.

I am a personal buyer and seller on ebay, I sold a chanel watch which I had authenticated and valued through an authorised chanel stockist prior to selling.

The buyer who purchased is a collector of vintage watches and upon receiving I got an email from him stating the watch was not authentic, then another email apologising saying he made a mistake and then finally a buyer complaint lodged through paypal.

He paid via echeque and I immediately withdrew the funds to my bank account upon clearing so my account is now in a negative balance and have been limited.

Paypal never requested further info from me other than the standard "confirm who you are" email.

I have now received an email stating paypal found in favour of the buyer - gee what a surprise!

Paypal have not given any explanation as to how they come to this decision whatsoever and I am awaiting to hear from them regarding an email I sent them demanding to know what information led them to their decision, that I do not authorise a refund as per stated in the resolution centre etc etc.

What happens now and what options do I have.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, screw you paypal, and i say @#%^ paypal and the ceo and the founder, and the workers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!they froze my account just cost i attempted to add a credit card, it never went through now they just limited my account saying the following: xxx.xxxxx.xxxx.xxx visa card- we have restricted your accsess because the card provider sayed that: card was reported lost or stolen, or some other problems. case id: blah blah blah..

omfg i tried adding the card to see if it would go through but the card was cancelled lol. wtf 10.62usd wasted...o well i submited ticket and a damn bot answered saying "how to solve the problem"lol.

I've been using Paypal as a Personal Verified account for 3 years. Never had a problem until I wanted to start selling laptops on the side to make an extra little money. Boy, what a mistake. After doing this, I shipped out a laptop to France. The buyer claims he never received a laptop and he just received the laptop bag so he refused it. I responded back that is impossible because on the shipping receipt it states 14LBS, so obviously there had to be a laptop in there because a bag does not weigh 14lbs. Paypal then responded for the buyer to file a police report. Several weeks later, I receive in my email stating that Paypal has reverse the transaction and told the buyer to send back the goods in orignal condition to the seller within 10 days. This is OBSECURED! Now I couldn't believe this because the buyer NEVER purchased insurance, why should the blame be placed on me? Then I log onto my Paypal account which has been limited and it states: "Status: The buyer is responsible for shipping and handling costs associated with the return shipment. We have asked the buyer to confirm that they shipped the item by providing tracking information.

The buyer’s deadline for responding to this case is Apr. 19, 2006. If the buyer does not respond by the deadline, the claim will automatically be canceled. No further action is required of you at this time."

I NEVER authorized Paypal to issue a full refund. Never, why is Paypal claiming this?

Problem #2 with Paypal. I had sold 10 Used Hard Drives on eBay. In the auction description I stated: "Drives were in working condition when last tested 2 years ago. Unknown condition to present date. Hard Drives are sold as is." I clarified that there would be no returns in this auction. The buyer files a complain with paypal complaining that since I stated hard drives were in working condition that it fasely mislead the description because he claims the hard drives could not have worked two years ago as these errors could not have been 2 years ago and are much longer. I was shocked and I knew no doubt I would win this case. I receive an email from Paypal a couple weeks later stating the buyer has 10 days to return the merchandise and receive a full refund. I cannot believe this.

A third problem occurred when using their USPS shipping labels service. I had paid for five shipping postage labels. I figured I would wait to print them in a couple days because if I print them now, I would just lose them. So on the third day, I attempt to print them out and I cannot retreive them, I look over the FAQ and it states that Shipping Labels cannot be printed after 48 Hours. What another shock! That's pure bull as I have paid for full postage and I cannot even use it because 48 hours has passed. 48 Hours is NOT A REASONABLE time of fashion! I emailed Paypal several times, they kept stating the same thing stating that they cannot refund the shipping labels. Finally, after my third attempt I received someone who said they can only refund one, the one that was the highest amount. I can't believe this. Here i am a great customer to paypal, not only do they charge outragous fees (with ebay) they won't even refund all my labels I was unable to use?

PAYPAL DOES NOT PROTECT THE SELLER IN ANYWAY! Its obsecured! I don't understand how Paypal can get away with this? It's like buyers can just purchase all this stuff on ebay, pay with paypal and claim they receive an emtpy box, but yet take all the goodies out, and send the item back and Paypal grants the refund. I've taken all my money out, Paypal still owes me almost $600. What should I do? I am serious about taking Paypal to a small claims court. I will never ever use paypal again. Ever since eBay bought out Paypal it's been a disaster it seems like.

I had a limited acct thru paypal over some stupid shit. I sold a laptop thru ebay, with pictures and all, and they limited my acct saying i was involved in some supspicious on unusual transactions or whatever. They wanted me to fax over tons of stuff, from reciepts, to business info ( i have no business??), to letting them run a credit check on me, and verify my location by calling me. I said forget that and refunded the buyer and kept the notebook.

I was reading on here about greendot and how people were using it to get back on paypal. Well i got the greendot card and opened up a new acct. Since i needed the acct for buying, and live in apartment where you have to show ID to pick of your packages, i couldnt use a fake name like others do with greendot. So i used my real name, and address. I bought 2 things, one thru ebay, and one that wasnt thru ebay. Both people emailed me today saying paypal froze the funds!!!!!! I dont know what to do. The ebay item i paid for hasnt posted to my acct, but it was still authorized meaning it was deducted from my acct balance already. The other item has posted to my acct.

Im just lost right now. The one seller already shipped the item, the other hasnt. I cant refund the money b/c then im paying double. Paypal said they wouldnt lift my acct from limited until i fax all that crap in, which i cant, and even if i did, the wouldnt lift it anyway. How can i get these bueyrs there money w/out paying double by paying them again out of my own pocket. Im thinking of calling greendot and trying to get them to remove the charges since paypal took the money, but then froze the money of the buyers.

In my situation, how can i open a paypal acct with a prepaid card for buying w/out getting caught.

my paypal is frozen for no reason on morning. with automated returns replies for all my screams.

and then next morning, my eBay is suspended for "dignity and integrity of eBay" ??

now some paid buyers screams at me for their item but I ve never got the money, paypal has it and I dont even have buyers infor since eBay is totally kicked me out and have no access to the buyers information.

luckily, i withdrawn the half of the money but half is frozen and I dont think paypal will pay me back at all. it says I am permanently blocked for ebay and paypal since I am linked to another account which they never disclose that to me at all.

Now what will happen to me?

Am I going to Jail now??

I always give the benefit of the doubt until I got a charge back from a credit card for items the guy purchased and I had no recourse. Of course they were expensive care parts, so he never returned the parts and I had to give his credit card company the money back through Paypal. What makes me laugh is that this jerk works for Nissan in California. After that I always said no refunds on my Ebay listings.

Then I had a company refund a purchase because it was truly an error when buying tickets. They placed a hold on my Paypal account that was suppose to be released after 6-8 business days. After 8 business days the hold is still there and I still am short $180 and I am told to wait! Wait for what. They have had my funds for the last 7 days.

I am done with Paypal and I will seek alternative methods from this day forward.

I just love when they send an e-mail asking you to rate the information you received. Where does that information go...CYBER SPACE!!!

I recently purchased something off ebay and payed via c/c. I payed the seller and never got word from him, so item not recieved what do i tell my c/c company? In a professional way, should i say it was not recieved?

Also i have a friend who got his paypal account stolen and his paypal info got out and was charged to the limit via c/c, what can he do, what will he say to the credit card company to refund him his money? AND what should i say so i can get back my money.

what is paypal ran by the mob? one day i was going to pay for somthin on ebay when it said i couldnt, my account has limited access. meaning i cant do anything but log in.

i call them finally, i guess against there policy, an employee released the name of the person they said was "connected" to my account. it was my good friend. so i call him and hes clueless, logs in and finds his account -$1000, because of chargebacks or whatever.

i call them a few times, they asked me the stupidest questions like did we sell simalar items, did i ever use his account, etc.. i admit i may have used his computer to log into my account before, which might not of even happend, and they say, thats probly why. and you cant use paypal anymore until he takes care of his account, (which he has no plan of doing)

i hate it but not having paypal sucks. i need stuff on ebay somtimes that the seller only accepts paypal, i try to work with them with money orders etc but it just sucks.

paypal sucks and i hate them now, but is there any way i can get my account back? should i be worried about them trying to get money from me for him? were not even related, and we dont live at the same address. theres no way paypal should have "linked " us

Paypal put a "temporary hold" on almost $1400 of my funds after merchandise had been shipped and received by the buyer. They kept telling me they were "investigating" and I would know the results in 7-10 days, which was then changed to 30 days. After they had taken $1400 from other buyers who paid me, they told me I would not ever get the money back as it was to be returned to the buyer. The buyer now has my merchandise and his money back, and I am left with nothing. Paypal got the mine and I got the shaft!!! I was told there was no chargeback, buyer had not questioned the transaction and credit card company did not question it, so who did? Why did they take my money? Just try to get answers to those questions and you get the royal runaround. Paypal is no friend to anyone. They take your money for their own reasons and will not tell you anything, even tho you are the one in the right. You have no rights on Paypal.

Pay Pal froze my account first because they wanted to check my address, done!
Then because they wanted to check my credit card details by charging my card, done!
Then they said the buyer made a complaint but they hadn’t, Liars!
then they admitted that there was no buyer complaint and that they had every right to not pay me, Thieves!

Now they have said that they will only pay me after 6 months or I can have the item returned, but the buyer wont return the item be cause they have in their eyes, paid for it.

What makes it worse is that I’m in Australia and they don’t have an office here so I don't even know what my rights are.

I would be VERY grateful for any information on how to get my money or get my item returned.

I'm new selling on ebay & I've encountered a PAYPAL PROBLEM, and altho' as much as I hate to use them because it limits account easily, I can't avoid them as most buyers feel safe paying that way and there's a higher chance of getting my items sold.

OK, so I accepted a payment via PP for a necklace a buyer paid me last nite. I immediately withdrawn it to my bank a/c only to realized this morning when I woke up, my PP a/c is limited and the withdrawn payment had been reversed and a reversal fee charged. Now the amt of USD85 is stuck in my PP account & I even told the buyer I'm shipping the item today via registered mail with a tracking number. Problem now is, what happens if PP won't remove the limit and the $$ is not going to get to me as it's going to be stuck in there till God-knows-when (???)

On top of it, I'm don't own a store or a business and the stuff I sell are from my personal collection, so at the resolution center in my PP a/c which I tried to be co-operative, they asked for an inventory list of my suppliers for the 3 payments I've accepted. Although the amounts are not huge, just a couple of tens but just WHAT inventory list of my suppliers (???!!) Have any of you out there encountered similar case like this ?

To me, this is absurd. So if I don't provide the inventory list, my account is going to be limited and I feel uneasy the payment is not in my hands yet I'm shipping the item tonite just as I had promised my buyer. I don't want to get a bad rating not sending the item and to explain to my buyer just because PP screwed me and her payment can't be withdrawn to my bank(???) Sigh ! I'm fustrated at how PP works and worse, they have this automated reply which will be sent to your email whenever you asked a question on "Account Limit Access".

That sucks and I tried to contact their customer service by email and many a time, they don't address my problem accurately and they don't seem to understand what they are talking about !

I've heard of horror stories on PP from friends and from the anti-paypal website that if there's money stuck in PP and if PP decides not to remove the limit on your a/c, that's BYE BYE to your $$ there ! Unbelievable and this is ONE THING I really do not wish it to happen tp me. SIGH !!

Anyone out there has a similar case ?

My account had been limited for some time and i was getting the run around. I finally was fed up after repeatedly calling paypal and following all of their ridiculous steps to reinstate my account. So i sent the appeals department a nasty but, polite email and sure enough they sent me the infamous email saying that they would like to part ways with me and would be holding my money for 180 days. It just goes to show you that if you ask for a little customer service this is what you get they will eventually go down or have a serious competitor in the future. Also, this is money that i received for items that i purchased that were shipped out to customers this has to be stopped this is extortion.

My brother owes Pay Pal money on the East Coast so they froze my account and want me to pay his off account to get mine back!! I have over $2500 in there. Here is the latest e-mails we have going back and forth:

This is from Pay Pal today, below that is what I sent to Appeal@paypal.com

Dear Jody Thawley,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

Unfortunately, due to the large negative balance on your brother's
account it will need to be resolved.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Deb
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Dear Pay Pal,

You guys continue to limit my account periodically because my
brother has a delinquent account.
When I was stationed in Virginia I used to visit my brother and his
family in Delaware and I would use his computer to log onto my Pay Pal Account
and do my auction work. We also had transactions between each other. This
was probably late 2004. Some time after that my brothers account went into
the red and to be honest he is a financial mess. I have not had any
computer/Pay Pal interaction with him in about a year and a half. When this issue came
up initially I explained all this to one of your managers and having some
common sense he turned my Pay Pal account back on and said he put detailed
notes of our conversation into my file and I wouldn't have a problem again.
I used my Pay Pal account to both sell and more frequently purchase
items using my discover card which is linked to Pay Pal and my Pay Pal Buyers
Credit. It is also linked to my bank account and all my credit info and
address are confirmed with Pay Pal. Not only have I not had any computer/pay
Pal contact with my brother but in June of 2005 I retired from the Marine
Corps after 22 years and have been living at my confirmed address here in CA since
then, 3000 miles from my brother. I have had my Pay Pal Business Account
since you guys opened and have over 1800+ transactions w/ confirmed
individuals and probably another 1500 with unconfirmed ones. I also have 2993 Positive
Feedbacks on EBay. To show how honest I am, my account went into the red when I was
deployed a few years ago and immediately upon my return I called my account manager Christian and promptly deposited $2000+ to bring my balance back to Zero.
I have absolutely nothing to do with my brothers account, I live over 3000 miles away and have not had any contact/dealing with him for over a year and a half. You guys limiting my account and freezing up my money puts me in a financial hardship as I use that money to ship the items, pay my EBay fees and pay my credit card bill that I purchase the items with. I hope you can see that by my history I am an honest person and a reliable Pay Pal partner but if not, please close my account and send me the balance ASAP so I can at least pay my bills.

After they sent me the response at the top basically saying to settle my brothers debt I sent this one back (No answer yet from them) tomorrow another phone call :)

Deb,

What exactly does that have to do with me? If he falls behind on his cable bill are they going to ask me to pay it? Did I co-sign on his Pay Pal Account without me knowing it? Would you like me to pay for everyone's Pay Pal Account who might owe money? Maybe I can pay your car bill next month? HE owes you money not me...............!!!!!! If you look up the word extortion this the exact definition.

Your brother owes money so we will just take yours!!! That is my money from my EBay sales where I have over 2900+ feedbacks. I can't believe how stupid you people are even suggesting I pay somebody's account that has nothing to do with me.

Close my Pay Pal Account immediately and send me MY money!!!!!!!! I want nothing else to do with Pay Pal. The worst customer service whatsoever with no common sense or people skills.

Another horrer story! I have been using paypal and ebay for months and never had a problem untill recently , I received a paypal payment for 230 dollars on apr 2 and they are holding my account
Does anyone know why this is? Did the buyer on the other end initiate this to get their money back> I emailed the buyer and they said that their account is limited> Any advice is appreciated this is what I was emaled from paypal

It has come to our attention that you may be the recipient of potentially
unauthorized funds. We have initiated an investigation into this event. In the
meantime, we have placed a temporary hold on the funds in question until the
investigation is complete. This temporary hold will show as a deduction in your
available balance. In the meantime, you are free to continue transacting using
your PayPal account.

Transaction Date: Apr. 2, 2006 12:29:55 PDT
Transaction Amount: $268.80 USD

If you have not delivered the goods or services related to this transaction, we
ask that you delay or stop delivery until our investigation is complete as you
may be liable for the amount in question.

To assist us in our investigation, please send an email to
pending_reversal@paypal.com with the following information:

1. The item, service or purpose of the purchase, and the associated value;
2. The name and address given to you by the sender (if an item was purchased);
3. If shipped, the company used for shipping, date of shipment, and tracking
number for the shipment;
4. Details of any other transactions related to the transaction(s) in question;
5. A phone number where you can be reached during the day and evening; and
6. Insurance information, if applicable.

Any additional information you have regarding this transaction, such as email
correspondence, will further help us to expedite our investigation. Solving
these cases helps us continue to offer PayPal as a secure and cost-effective
payment service. We appreciate your cooperation and assistance.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Team

I was selling on ebay with no problems for about 6 mo & 1 day get an email from PP saying they need me to verify some info on my account. I log in to find out the account has been placed on Limited Access & go to the 'Resolution Center' & see they need me to verify the location for my account by doing a phone call. I click on everything, get the phone call, enter the code, get an email saying it went thru...and *POOF* another email saying the account is still on Limited Access cuz they're linking it to another account.

I call them the next day to find out they are somehow linking my account to my old roommate's account & until he brings his neg balance up to $0, mine will still be on Limited Access. I went thru many phone calls with them trying to figure this out, especially since I am female & he is male. Different names, different CC #'s, different bank accounts, different ebay accounts. But the same info was stuff like address, phone number, IP addy, email addresses both ending the same, etc.

In the meantime I had about $300 in there when they did this & had items that had ended within that week that needed to be shipped out, so I had to take everything to the post office & pay for shipping out of pocket.

I then get another email saying they need me to verify more info & to fax them my ID, bank statement, & utility bill. And also to add & verify a new bank account. My previous bank account was an online one & apparrantly they don't accept those. So, I jump thru all their hoops & open a bank account at a regular bank, add it in, verify it, get all my other documents & fax it to them, and I wait. I finally get more emails from them telling me the same thing, that my account is 'Linked' to his & until his is paid my account will remain on Limited Access.

I call them again & this time got a total jerk in the Resolution Center. He practically had me in tears he was being so mean to me. I was just trying to figure out HOW they were linking these accounts when this was another person who I have no control over his finances or what he does/did with his money & WHY did they have me verify all my info & show them that it was me & still have these linked?

His answer: 'Well, we have no way of knowing if he's using your account to conduct business' WHAT??? You've got to be kidding me!!

I asked him to put me thru to someone in Account Review & he informed me that there is no direct line to them (however, after doing some looking around on here I see that's not the case).

Not only is he no longer living here, but even if he was & we both went into a local bank & each opened our own accounts & he ran his into the neg & left it that way, there is NO WAY that that bank would suddenly come after me & my account & my money.

Well, since I have been selling on ebay FT & this suddenly happened, a friend of mine was kind enough to let me use her PP. Unfortunately, they somehow caught up to it & locked up her account as well. Funny thing is, she lives like an hour from me so NONE of the info on her account matches mine.

To top it all off, since they are owned by ebay, they reported this info to ebay & ebay NARU'd me. At first I thought it was cuz of seller fees due. I had fallen a lil behind due to the PP lock up. So I paid the past due amount & that got cleared but still didn't clear up the ebay account. It took awhile, but I finally got an email from ebay saying (you guessed it) they were linking my ebay account to his (which he had also ran into the neg & got NARU'd).

So I have since gotten a PO box & opened up a new ebay account, and now my sis is trying to talk me into using her PP...but I don't even wanna go there. During all the problems over the past month, I tried out Overstock, Yahoo, Amazon, & checked out some others...but didn't have much success on those at all. For the stuff I sell, it does the best on ebay & until there becomes a replacement for them it's what I'm stuck with.

I had also listed some items locally where I'm at on craigslist (funny thing was it was for local pick-up & cash only), but someone emailed me offering double what I was asking for it & would send a MO & no longer used PP & to see why go here & there was link to this site. I didn't respond back to that one cuz I just figured it was another one of those scams, but was very happy to find this site.

I have been filling myself up with finding all the necessary info I can on here & will be trying to find ways to do whatever is necessary to fight PP on this one.

man paypal bites .. i just had a two day nightmare and dontknw what to do. paypalfroze my account they gave no reason what so ever for a while then said i was linkied to another account, and that i couldnt get htem oney in my paypal till i paid over 200 bucks on this otehr accont i've never heard of in my life.. so sucks but i paid. yay account unfrozen.. the NEXT DAY i log in again to youraccount has beenrestricted.. WTF? so i call paypal this time i'mlimited because my bussiness picked up and my sales wereawopping 1500 bucks more this month that last mont.. these people have my license my bank my CC my ssn my adress and still say they arent sure i'm who i say am????? so i again fax them DL and account is again unfrozen.. can i expect to see this repeat??? i want to close my paypal account i think but not sure what aboutmy sale wont they go down? at any rate i have to wait because if i close it now then my accounts going to go negative because i told a customer whos package was lost to get her money back from paypal ( had her file a complaint) because at the time i couldnt get into to paypal to give her a refund.. so ghave to wait for it to come out if i pull my money now it willgo in the holewhen that goes thru.. and just grrrrrr dontknow what to do. dont understand..we've had all of two complaints from customers in the years we've had the account nothing out ofthe ordinary what did i do wrong?

had a bad chargeback experience with paypal last year. I got ripped off, paypal didn't care, i did a chargeback, paypal cared, yadyada, my account got froze, my account got locked out......

Anyway, I have sold a few things on ebay recently and accepted money orders with no problems. however, someone just purchased one of my items and I just got a "You've got cash" email. According to the auction, there is a paypal payment pending. WTF? Aside from the fact that "NO PAYPAL" was listed in the auction several times, Paypal was not even listed as a payment option! How did this happen? If i click the link from the auction "View PayPal payment for this item", I am taked to a "Welcome to paypal" screen and I am asked to set up an account. I obviously can't set up an account, since paypal will link it with my old account (and they still feel that i owe them money from the chargeback). Has this happened to anyone here? How can I deny the payment? I have sent an email to the buyer requesting that they cancel the payment. However, they are a new eBayer and I am sure will be confused by all of this.

BTW. Sorry if this is the incorrect forum. But I guess I feel like paypal did it. lol. Since they are trying to shove their service down my throat

I have been using this account for 5 months. I had $350 in my account then it got locked down then I refund some ppls money b/c it got locked now I have $150 in January then in April a MSG comes to my email saying a chargeback for $288. and now I lost a product and the money and now I have a neg balance of $-138 and paypal want me to pay them the neg balance which is crazy b/c all this happened because of them. And now my account it indefinitely locked. Basically I used there service I even paid them to F*king Service fee and then boom I am Locked SO they get paid and I get screwed and the PPL on the phone goes Oww I don’t know why this happened and they said don’t worry it will get unlocked we send all the info but we don’t we do it again still not but they keep telling us it will get unlocked but it did not.

So Basically they lied multiple times to me.

This is totally ridiculous, I have 100% feedback on eBay, I have sent them proof that all my sales are shipped promptly with tracking number and delivery confirmation. What is so high risk about that??? I replied to their email, and all I got back was some defaulted electronic reply!!!! It was the same exact response that we fellow victims have posted online. I had to cancel all my auctions on eBay because of that!! See below for their 'defaulted' replies, it seems like they just follow through the SOP before they drop the bomb on you!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A.
service@paypal.com to me
Apr 11

Dear XXXX,

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system.
We recently noticed the following issue on your account:

We have observed activity in this account that is unusual or potentially
high risk.

Case ID Number: PP-xxx-xxx-xxx

For your protection, we have limited access to your account until
additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.

To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used
to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the
Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek
further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal
by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand
that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And after I faxed them all the transaction details and shipping confirmations that they asked for as quickly as I could....

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
B.
service@paypal.com to me
Apr 11

Dear XXXX,

This message confirms that we have received the documents you faxed to
PayPal regarding Case ID PP-xxx-xxx-xxx.

The documents have been successfully attached to your PayPal Account and
will be reviewed shortly.

We review faxed documents in the order in which they are received and
generally require 3 to 5 business days to process these documents. Once we
process your faxed documents, we will contact you about the status of your
PayPal Account.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation. If you have any questions,
please contact us using this link:

http://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_email_receipt

Sincerely,
PayPal

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any page. If
your inquiry is regarding a claim, log in to your PayPal account and go to
the Resolution Center.

PayPal Email ID PPxxx

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That response was just less than 2 hours after I faxed the documents! And I thought,” Wow! That’s really good response time!”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
C.
service@paypal.com to me
Apr 12

Dear XXXX,

We're sorry, but your account access limitation cannot be lifted at this
time. We need more information about your account before we can restore
full access to your account. Please complete the steps below so that we may
review your account further:

1. Fax photo ID

2. Confirm Location

3. Provide Business Information

4. Provide Proof Of Shipping for the transactions listed below:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxF
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxB
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxK
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxH

5. Fax In Invoices for the transactions listed below. If you purchased the
items through PayPal or eBay, please provide the transaction ID and/or
auction number.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxF
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxB

If you are faxing information, you must use the cover page provided by
PayPal. The cover page contains information specific to you and using it
ensures that your documents are routed and handled in a timely manner. To
print the cover page, log into your account and click on the fax documents
link on the "Limited Account Access Details" page.

Sincerely,
Craig
PayPal Account Review Department

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any page. If
your inquiry is regarding a claim, log in to your PayPal account and go to
the Resolution Center.

PayPal Email ID PPxxx
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I phoned their customer service line, asked the resolutions dept what they needed exactly. They asked me to match my sales transaction IDs on eBay to the ones I’ve bought off eBay. That’s easy, since I had kept records of my own. So within minutes, I emailed them with the requested transaction details (what they specifically asked for). I followed up with an email asking for a immediate lift on the limited access on my paypal account, since this is just a routine check.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
D.
ME to paypal
Apr 12

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have faxed in all the required documents as requested by Paypal, will it be possible to lift the limited access immediately? I have 2 items that are pending payment on eBay, and fees I need to pay too. I would really appreciate it if you could.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,
XXXX
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

They sent me another ridiculous email, telling me that they will handle my claim. What claim??? 30 days for a routine check??? I was infuriated that they

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
E.
Paypal to me
12 April
Dear XXXX,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. I am happy
to assist you further.

Thank you for providing this information to us. The information has been
added to your claim. We make every effort to resolve claims within 30 days
from the date of filing, although we may occasionally require additional
time to complete our investigation. If additional information is required,
you will be contacted via email. If you have any other questions, please do
not hesitate to contact us again.

Thanks again for contacting us, and thank you for being part of the PayPal
community.

Sincerely,
Irene
Protection Services Department
PayPal, an eBay Company
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So I shot an email back to them to correct them. But they did not reply. And later that morning…..

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
F.
Paypal to me
13 April
Dear XXXX,

We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk
involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least
disruptive to your business.

Please reply to this email by logging in to your PayPal account and filling
out the Limited Account Access web form to facilitate the disbursement of
any funds remaining in your PayPal account. You can locate the web form by
typing the following in your browser: https://www.paypal.com/emailus,
choosing the topic "Limited Account Access," clicking "Continue," and
writing your instructions in the message box.

Disbursement can be handled in one of two ways:

1. Your remaining account balance can be used to provide refunds to your
buyers (if applicable).

OR

2. Your remaining account balance will be held in your PayPal account for
180 days from the date your account was limited. After 180 days, you will
be notified via email with information on how to receive your remaining
funds.

If you choose to provide refunds to your customers, please log in to your
account and contact us with a list of transaction IDs for the buyers that
you would like to refund.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,
Lesley
PayPal Account Review
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I knew it was a futile struggle against paypal, so I didn’t put up a fight at all, but decided to do what they suggested, and send in my instructions for the remainder of my funds in paypal.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me to paypal
13 April
Hi,

I do not understand why my account had excessive risky transaction, I would like a more
detailed explanation. Thanks.

Regards
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And this is their reply, totally off topic again….

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
G.
Paypal to me
13 April
Dear XXXX,

Thank you for inquiring as to how to restore access to your account.

PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the
accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and need more
information to help us provide you with secure service. Until we can
collect this information, your access to sensitive account features will be
limited.

To return your account to regular standing, please complete the checklist
items indicated when you login to your account and click on the link
provided on the 'Account Overview' page.

The link will appear as: Click to Resolve or Check Status.

Once you complete all of the checklist items, our Account Review team will
review your case and send you an email with the outcome of the review.
Cases are reviewed in the order they are received.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we would like to restore your
access as soon as possible.

Please do not respond to this email, as responses to this message will not
be answered.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Team
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What the???????? !@%%^!@#$. I’ve since did nothing, and I’m hoping some of you guys give me some advice on this matter. Thanks.

Hello. First im sorry for my bad english, im french people who living in japan.
I have a REAL company ( www.directfromjapan.net ). Few month ago we descide to open EBAY and PAYPAL account for work at international.
(we res-sales electronic stuff from japan).

Last saturday, without ANY reason, paypal limited my account (for security reason)
Paypal request some document about my identity and some invoice. I provide this document to paypal after 30 minutes.

Since last saturday (april 8) my account is in same situation.
Paypal keep around 1,1 millions yens on my account. its 70 percent of the money of the company.

I try to call paypal every day, but i only obtain the same answer: your information is in review, you must wait...

Today i talk with manager who say to me than my invoice is in japanese and its take more time....

I start to be crazy, i cannot work because if i cannot use this money, i cannot buy product for my customer.

Please, if someone have any information about that....

What occurred is that after receiving payment from this person, I mailed out the item with USPS Delivery Confirmation & I have proof that the item was delivered.

The buyer was unsatisfied with the item and instead of trying to work out the issue with me, they claimed that they received an "empty box". I have the mailing proof that showed the item weighed 2lbs and that the box was not mailed empty.

Paypal asked them to file a police report. They filed the report, as anyone can for anything. The box was not opened in front of the post office or at the police station, the police merely took a report. There was no evidence that the box was actually empty. According to Paypal, filing a police report is all it takes for the action to be decided in their favor. I have appealed and Paypal will not listen to me now, even though I have proof that the item was received through delivery confirmation and mailed, because of weight of the box.

Paypal is basing this decision solely on the fact that this person filed a police report, not understanding that anyone at any time can file a police report but the burden of proof was not established, but Paypal went ahead and found in this person's favor anyway.

Any idea what can be done? I filed a complaint with the SEC and FTC

sold a used notebook, the buyer exchanged the LCD monitor and return it to me next day with a tracking # (this guy sell used notebooks on ebay), and then filed a claim with Paypal that my item was not as described. shortly after, paypal reversed the payment, so I called them, first to ask the rationale for their action. The lady calmely and said nicely, that they did ask the buyer send the notebook to a 3rd party to examine, and the 3rd party found it WAS NOT as described. I said what, how could you do that, the buyer returned it to me (check the online tracking) even before he filed that claim with you? Then she said somebody made a mistake, I can appeal, so I did. but it never change anything as all you know. The point here is how can Paypal lie openly and support frauds? I truly believe paypal is THE most evil company in the world, but why it still prospers? I did find a little way to protest my disatisfaction, I use google, yahoo to search for 'Paypal' or 'online payment', after find the sponsored paypal link, I click it many times every day, so I hope they will pay the searching company. If there are millions people doing this, it will give paypal a little financial purnishment. If you have better way to purnish Paypal, please post it here. Thanks.

Have you ever tried to pay for your purchase by credit card but were first directed to a screen telling you that "paying with your bank account offers the highest level of PayPal protection and security" and that "this payment is eligible for up to $1,000.00 USD of coverage with PayPal Buyer Protection?"

Did you think that because PayPal said that your payment was eligible for $1,000.00 worth of protection that you were protected? Did you switch to paying to your bank account because of this message? What happened to you when you did not receive what you ordered or received a bad product?

Many of you did not in fact get your money back from PayPal! Why? Despite the fact that PayPal told you that "this payment IS ELIGIBLE" for protection, PayPal has very specific rules as to which transactions are actually covered under the Buyer Protection Plan. PayPal's language here therefore may have mislead people into thinking they are protected when they are not!

IF this has happened to you, or someone you know, please respond to this message!

I just heard on the radio that PayPal has agreed to help the IRS screw their customers by providing information to the Feds. A company spokesperson was reported as saying that PayPal is very responsible and concerned about protecting its members' privacy! How's is that for
a kick in the teeth!!! PayPal is probably the biggest money launderer and crook on US soil and they are going to report the poor little schmucks on wellfare trying to eek out a living selling on ebay. I bet they only report the customers who win complaints against PayPal.

I have two premier accounts, one is with SSN, and the other one is not. Both are using real name and current address. Today, the account without SSN was limited with near $2000 in it.
What I was selling with this account is some merchandize coupons, they are cheap but the quantity is large. all are sent by email. So there is no way I can provide tracking information and inventory proof.

I have the following questions:
1) Email delivery problem: I heard there might be some restriction in ebaypaypal on digitally delivered goods. So will I get trouble if I told them honestly that I sent the coupon by emails. Or should I say they were sent by USPS first class mail. For a coupon about 2 bucks, it is impossible to get tracking number.

2) SSN problem: SSN was required to resume the account. But if I provide SSN, they will find out that I have 2 premier accounts. Is this strictly prohibited by paypal? Would this make things even worse? What should I do?

3) Chance to get money back? Do I have to complete all steps in paypal resolution center to get the funds back? I heard that paypal will refund you after 180 days. What if I just don¡¯t do anything and just wait for 180 days? I don¡¯t mind wait for 180 days. But I really don¡¯t want to lose $2000 eventually. What is the chance that I can get money back for my situation?

And comments would be highly appreciated!!!

Hello All

well here is my paypal horror story I had used paypal for over 2 years had never had any problems well they all started when I moved into my new apartment my paypal account was limited because apparently who ever lived in my apartment before me had a paypal account that is negative well after fighting them on the subject being on hold forever to have a rude person answer the phone I faxed them my rental agreement showing I had just moved in everything they asked for but they never restored my account well 2 days before this happened I bought a new wedding ring and engagement ring to replace my old set to make a long story short when the account got frozen paypal reversed the transaction from the buyers took their money away though I paid with a credit card and the money was immediateky removed well I was not aware they had did this I had not logged into my paypal account I received my rings thought all was fine well February 1 2006 I got a rude awakening got a knock at the door and it was the san jose police department doing a search warrant for my home ( now I work at the county jail surely this was a mistake ) not at all they took my rings said that the sellers filed a police report saying I stole their rings because paypal never gave them their money back I was in total shock the total amount for the rings was 922 dollars which paypal has the money I explained all this to the officers they still walked me out of my house in hand cuffs and charged me with grand theft well after alot of comotion consulting a lawyer and re sending payment to the sellers all charges were dropped and I got my stuff back that the police seized during the search warrant the rings my computer all that type of things but now the paypal acct has 922 dollars in it but of course the acct is frozen so I have no idea how I will get my money back I would not recommend paypal to anyone I have not purchased one thing online since this happened so for those of you with limited account be careful this doesn't happen to you

First of all, I never used and wanted my crap PayPal account. I once did a freelance job for a company in the US and they could only pay me if I opened a PayPal account because I'm from Europe. Since I didn't need the money immediately, I just left it there for about 6 months. When I finally typed in the 4 digits that they sent to my credit card company(which was suppose to lift my status of limitation) my account stayed limited. Now they wanted all kinds of infos. I was suppose to fax my bank statements and further information. I couldn't be bothered at the time, so I just left my money there once again.
I then traveled to South America and wanted to order something from the US. The problem was, you can only pay with PayPal. I wrote to PayPal that I will fax the info they need from South America, since I traveled here recently. They wrote that I violated their Users Agreement(by traveling????) because they don't offer service in South America. They closed my account and kept my money.

I called and said that I still live in Europe and am only here for a temporary period of time and that my bank account, address and credit card company are still in Europe and they should reopen my account.

Well, I never heard from them again and also didn't get any further emails answered.
Can I kiss my money goodbye?
Normally you call someone who takes your money a thief....

I've been with PayPal for 5 years. I sell about 5000$ per month worth of goods on eBay as part of my business. I have one account that I use for business, and one account that I use for personal use. Last week, PayPal froze my business account with $550 in it, and limited access to my personal account. When I called them to ask why, the service rep was really rude to me and told me to get a subpoena if I would like to know why my account was frozen.
I decided that I'd wait the 180 days and started using another company to proccess my payments on eBay. However, it seems that nobody wants to use anything but PayPal. Before, when I had PayPal, I had 20-25 bids on each of my auctions and I was earning money. Now I get max 1-2 bids, and I lose money. PayPal screwed my business over and kept $550 from me. I have no clue what to do now.

PayPal is terrible, please help me.

I opened an account in 2000, I was one of the first Belgian accounts and I actualy helped PayPal Belgium testing the system here.
I came a t a point I didn't used it anymore and at that time I came to 6500 EUR mark and they need more info about me or they would close my account. There was no negative balance, nor had I ever had any problem. I just let it go as the creditcard had expired too and they closed my account.
CASE CLOSED
----------
I opened a new account last year. My business expanded and I came again at the point they required additional information, I did so and the limitation was lifted. So far, so good.

A few months ago I wanted to seperate payments coming from my auctions and I opened another account. I have two now. One for coins and one for antiques. Again I came at the limit and they asked again for additional information.
Here the problems started.

First they hadn't received my faxes, then they did receive them but the information was older then 6 months (which was untrue as I sent my payslip from december 2005).
And there was a problem the PayPal employee told me. In the meanwhile my other account has become limited because paypal granted a buyer 15$ for a non-receipt. I had just withdrawn all my money and there was nothing left in my account (no negative balance however). They told me that I need to solve this first. I said, OK but my account is limited and adding funds from my bank account isn't an option for belgian accounts, so what should I do. "Write a request through email to PayPal to authorize them to transfer money from one account to another and the problem will be solved withing 72 hours".

I authorised the transfer on december 29th, reply on december 30rd: It will happen withing 72 hours.

WE ARE NOW JANUARY 10TH, nothing has happened yet. Just called "there is a long queu in front of me, and they will do it asap".

Now about my identiry proof again, I sent it now a 3rd time from a different fax machine. I now sent a payslip from november 2005 together with bank statements, 8 pages long.

This was sent on january 5th, since I hadn't heard a thing I emailed and called. By phone the employee told me everthing was fine and I thinking he lifted the limitation as it doesn't show up any more when I log in.
By email the other employee tells me again that the information is older then 6 months... AND that my account is linked to an account which has been closed and one with a limitation.

This is absolutely unbelievable. I've done everything what I was asked for, these people don't act! In the meanwhile I have over 6000$ blocked for almost a month!

I must admit that I've been rude to the paypal employee by email but she sounds like a voice recorder, each time telling me the same. "Your information is older then 6 months" Hell now it isn't are payslips from November and December 2005 older then 6 months??!!
They are fooling around with me.

By phone people are friendly and helpful telling me that everything is alright and they will give it though...

By email they keep telling me the wrong things.

What should I do? 6000$ is worth contacting a lawyer, besides I already sent out the goods from my auctions so my cost here is somewhere near 10000$
I've always considers paypal as useful and helpful but now I just hate it.

I can understand that there are people misabusing the system and rules are necessary but they ar eloosing a good customers.

I'm a realy sick from this. 6000$ is a lot of money and I'm very concerned what will happen when the 45 days period will end. If this problem hasn't been solved by then will they expand the period?

Do I have a chance they take my money like that?

It can't be, can it?

I have an appointment next week with my lawyer. What adress does the correspondence for PayPal Europe goes too? That PO box in Ireland?

I just found this site while googling for help on paypal. Here is what happened... I made a PayPal and Ebay account a few weeks ago to sell a laptop I no longer use. The auction went off fine and the buyer payed me quickly. I had a verified PayPal account, And I transfered the money to my bank account and was going to ship the laptop out the next day or two.

Then the next morning I recieve a mail from PayPal saying they have 'Held' the payment from the buyer and told me I had recieved fraudulent funds they also 'restricted' my account pending an investigation. I called PayPal and the person told me they prolly had used a stolen credit card, And once they investigated should be cleared up and my account restored.

Well I've been in contact with the buyer and now feel pretty sure he wasnt a scammer or using a bad credit card, And today PayPal also 'unheld' his payment but left my account restricited and they say I need to send in an ungodly ammount of proof as to who I am. So I decided piss on this and tried to refund the buyer, Except it will not let me refund the buyer since I am restrcited. So the buyer filed a complaint today/yesterday and only options I get is dispute or refund I dont want to dispute and it wont let me refund...

So is my account totally ruined now? Also they told the buyer that after 30 days they will ONLY refund $175 of his $611 payment, how can this be? Sounds like PayPal is trying to keep $425 of his money for no reason... I suggested to him he should do a chargeback, any advice people? :(

I HAD A BUYER RECENTLY FILE A COMPLAINT THAT THE ITEMS THEY RECIEVED WERE NOT AS DESCRIBED. MIND YOU THEY HAD KEPT THEM 40 DAYS. THEY HAD 2 SEPARATE TRASACTIONS FOR APRX $400 EACH. I CONTESTED THE BUYERS REQUEST FOR A REFUND AND SUBMITTED IT TO PAYPAL. THEN A DAY OR TWO LATER I GET A LIMITED ACCESS TO MY ACCOUNT OR WHAT IS CALLED FREEZING IT. I TOLD THE BUYER I WOULD JUST REFUND HER SO I COULD MAKE THIS DISAPPEAR. SHE TOLD ME SHE WOULD LIKE TO KEEP ONE OF THE ITEMS AND JUST GET A PARTIAL REFUND FOR THAT AND A FULL REFUND FOR THE OTHER. I AGREED. I CALLED PAYPAL TO SEE WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON. THEY INFORMED ME I NEED TO FAX INVOICES OF MY PRODUCT FOR THE LAST 5 TRANSACTIONS. I TOLD THEM I DONT HAVE INVOICES, THAT I PAY CASH FOR THESE ITEMS.( THEY ARE SAMPLE PURSES MY MOM GETS AT MARKET) THEY "TOOK DOWN THAT INFORMATION". THEN THE PERSON AT PAYPAL TOLD ME TO SEND AN EMAIL TO COMPLAINT-RESPONSE@PAYPAL.COM AND TELL THEM THAT I WANT TO REFUND THE BUYER AND PUT THE TRANSACTION ID ON IT. I DID SO AND INFORMED THEM I WANTED TO REFUND THE BUYER $600. (LESS THE 200 I AGREED TO KEEP AND THE BUYER AGREED TOO). MIND YOU THE ORIGINAL $800 WAS ALREADY TAKEN OUT OF MY BALANCE SO THE REMAINING BALANCE IS $589.00. THEN PAYPAL SENT ME SOME GENERAL EMAIL SAYING THEY ARE INVESTIGATING AND WILL FORWARD MY REQUEST TO WHOEVER. THAT WAS YESTERDAY. THEN TODAY I GET THIS:

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk
involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least
disruptive to your business.

Please reply to this email by logging in to your PayPal account and filling
out the Limited Account Access web form to facilitate the disbursement of
any funds remaining in your PayPal account. You can locate the web form by
typing the following in your browser: https://www.paypal.com/emailus,
choosing the topic "Limited Account Access," clicking "Continue," and
writing your instructions in the message box.

Disbursement can be handled in one of two ways:

1. Your remaining account balance can be used to provide refunds to your
buyers (if applicable).

OR

2. Your remaining account balance will be held in your PayPal account for
180 days from the date your account was limited. After 180 days, you will
be notified via email with information on how to receive your remaining
funds.

If you choose to provide refunds to your customers, please log in to your
account and contact us with a list of transaction IDs for the buyers that
you would like to refund.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
John
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

WHAT DO I DO? PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!

I had a Paypal account a few years ago and all was fine until I had a scammer take a few hundred directly from my bank account. The minute I saw this I filed a dispute with my bank and called Paypal. I was new to all this then so I didn't know that pissing Paypal off was the worst thing I could do! My bank reversed the transaction and that threw my paypal account neg. They kept trying to debit my bank and I had to keep disputing until I closed that bank account. My husband also had a paypal account so I used his, but within a week his was limited, when I called they wouldn't tell me anything!!!! Well about a year or so passed I moved halfway across the country had a new addy new bank etc, so I opened a new Paypal account, within 2 weeks FROZEN with all my money in it. Called them they said it was linked to several others but at this point I played dumb and said I didn't know what they were talking about but it stayed that way and they won. With no solid proof except a NAME, and mind you there are over 10,000 people in the US with the same first and last name as myself. So a few months later one ofmy friends said hey, I can just open a bank account in my name and a Paypal account in my name for you to use, then they can't link them. I had just lost my job and needed to sell on ebay to supplement income. SO she did and all was fine for 2 weeks then yesterday, FROZEN, so we added the bank card as they requested and waited, but this freeze is different because I can accept payments but can't touch the money in the account. So it can come in but it can't come out. I get an email from them saying it is linked to other account and the limit will stay until those account issues are resolved. HOW are they able to keep doing this? My friend ison the phone with them now trying to fix it. ANy advice would be great! I have to pay bills etc with this money and Paypal doesnt care. HELP!

Seller sells an item, buyer recieves it, yet still files a chargeback because they know thet Paypal will grant it. here is how to get around it and it works for me. set up a second account, everytime you make a sale transfer the payment from the official paypal account to which your ebay is linked to the second account. make sure you register the second account to a different email, make up a different name and address and always make sure to leave NO MONEY in the paypal account that is likely to suffer a chargeback. The second account should not be linked to your EBay sellers account.

Well I use paypal just because I do alot of ebay, I know paypal not the best, but just for the ones that don't know nothing but paypal I got to use it to make more money. So they ask from me at 25.00 fee and take it from my bank acct, now I do over $500USD a month with paypal and after I get the money I mostly put in my bank soo it dosen't sit there, well after they took the 25.00. I look and it was 91.26!! what the ??? SO I turn around and try to call them and email, nothing soo it got me all piss off I got bills to pay and I'm short $65. So I talk with my bank and I got the money back luckly!!!! but I still use paypal today, soo I say if you still use it get Washington Mutual as your bank for paypal, WHY ? because they give the money back and file a claim on paypal.. YES die!!! lol and a good bank will help you, I ask if they did something like this again they will return the money and file more claims ~grins~ more claim can get more pain as I see it. I used paypal for 2 years never had nothing go wrong until now. SOo looking in getting a online merchant that will take paypal payments just soo I can get those that still use it ~look on~ wait I still do? lol

I sell lots of things on ebay, i buy them locally and naturally make a small profit on each item. I sold 11 sandisk flash drives totaling $1300. I shipped them all and all customers are happy. The day after valentines day paypal decides to freeze my account. I complete all the steps to un-freeze it and they still havent. They say i havent faxed enough information, when in fact i have faxed all they said to NUMEROUS times. I did it again this morning.
What else can i do?
What else can i use for online payment methods?

p.s they said 180 days later i will get a check.

I use paypal for sending/buying I never received/sold anything.. anyways.. Here's my story.. I have a credit card from an Australian Bank, I had a paypal account with an Australian address that worked very well for me. Then when I moved overseas to the US, I changed my billing address of my aust. credit card to my US address, I closed my Australian Paypal account, and re-opened an account in the US so I can change the shipping address, since once you choose the country there's no changing whatsoever.. I can't get my address to be confirmed, even though i've done transactions using this credit card and my US address as billing address successfully with amazon.com and other sites without using paypal. Now they limited my paypal, I can't close my account, I can't remove my credit card details, they tell me that I have to confirm my address ("which i can't figure out why it's not being confirmed") and add a US bank account that I don't have in their Resolution Center. I can't confirm my address, and I can't add a US account because I don't have one.

now, changing the billing address and opening a US account is this legal?! am I allowed to such thing??
How do I contact paypal by email that actually they reply to and not send me an automated response like they did to my last 4 messages that I sent through their contact us Help by Email service "contact customer service".. Please any one with experience let me know what to do in this situation...

I sold an item to a previous buyer of mine 2/27/06 in the amount of $1600.00 (no auction involved). Guess what?!?! The next morning, I find my account "limited" due to suspicious funds, blah, blah, blah. I'm obviously upset and I really needed that money (hello - rent is due!), so I begin to jump through the Paypal hoops to get the limitation lifted. My problem is that I don't have any receipts, invoices, etc., so I'm thinking that this is pointless.

I received an email from them this afternoon wanting me to fax over my utility bill and driver's license, and proof of purchase. What does it matter anyway? The buyer has already received their item and is happy with it.

I've been reading this forum for hours now, and my thought is: If they are not going to lift the limitation (and I'm sure they won't because I don't have any invoices), and they will refund my money after 180 days anyway, why bother to fax them my utility bill and driver's license? Should I just ignore their emails?

I bet these morons just sit around all day laughing at everyone's driver's license photos. What else are they doing besides sorting faxes and NOT lifting limitations?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

EBAY/PAYPAL ARE MUCH MORE FRAUDULENT THAN SCAMMERS !!!!

I used to a big fan of Ebay & never used Western Union or money order or personal ckeck to pay any winning bids. Never have any problems with small items.

One Sunday afternoon, I won the bid of a $2000 digital camera & subsequent I paid with the PayPay
buyer credit. Late Sunday night the Ebay Loss Prevent Department emailed me the seller account is suspended & advised me to contact PayPal & file claim.

I emailed PayPal instantly & a followed up a phone call in Monday early morning. If Paypal was responsiveenough, Paypal had ample of time to chargeback because it happened in non banking hour. PyaPal & Ebay was the same company & they should share the same information.

Instead Paypal just wanted to make the money on commission & hope I just went away.
PayPal said the scammer provided a tracking number. Yes, the scammer sent me a worthless & unrepairable 30 years old 35mm SLR camera. Email back & forth...
Then Paypal asked me to fax any documents to support my claim within 10 days. By 8th day PayPal emailed me it was over because the scammer provided the tracking number from USPS.
Paypal changed the rule at the middle of the game. Paypal knew in advance this was a fraudulent seller.
So PayPal closed this case before 45 days lapsed & before I could able to fax the evidences. PayPal lied about 100% traceable, 100% secure, $1000 buyer protection plan. It is totally 100% false criminal intent advertisement.

Unless you are unemployed, do not bid any thing beyond your risk tolerance. Now I had to file so many complaints to different agencies Federal Trade Commission, My Senators & Congressman, US Post Master, Sate Attorney General, local TV stations, State Consumer Affair Division & so on.
The time & energy that consumed is tremendous. I am pretty sure I will prevail. Now I need an attorney. Any class action lawsuits are pending against Ebay, Paypal or GE Capital Corp which own Paypal Buyer Credit ?

well, for starters i had the paypal debit card, ive been a long time paypal user, hundreds of transactions, thousands of dollars.... not much different than the majority of the other people on this site. paypal for some reason thought it might be funny, to freeze my account due to what they call high risk. but yet all the transactions they had in question were completed, paid for, shipped, and feedback ( all positive keep in mind) had been left... after a week of faxing everything shy of blood samples paypal tells me, dont worry sir, by noon your account will be completely fixed and youll have full use of it...... my question to anyone who cares to answer... HOW is TERMINATING my account giving me full use of it? no way to get into the account, no way to get the $3400 bucks i got in it, out. pretty sad that a few years ago little paypal was getting on there feet and now, those same people (ALL OF US) who helped to put paypal on the map, now get nothing more but a BIG F.U. ... we can talk about it all day and say how much we hate them... but ... what can we actually do about it? Paypal = Monopoly. think about it.. you sell on ebay. what must you have in order to do a large amount of business... paypal.... whos the #1 auction site?? whos the #1 payment processor... statistically its the eBay/PayPal monopoly... whats next? Paypal XP ? the last thing we need is microsoft jumping in with those 2, after that... there would be nothing left.. anyone agree? Thanks for the chance to vent, anyone else agree with me or been in this situation? Thanks

Ok we got an order for virtual offices set up at $6000. Then our account was limited and frozen. We were asked for additional documentation in compliance with an EU anti-money laundering act. We sent everything in the same day requested. Instead of one utility bill we sent 3, etc. Everything but a DNA profile and bloodtype. I called and spoke to operators for several days and I was run in circles. I was given the run around and the woman told me "Life is Difficult." One day they said "oh it will take 5-7 days and your account will be lifted so don't worry. We see accounts lifted all the time after they submit documentation." Then I found this forum. I have seen all the complaints and have also found that it takes 180 days to get funds back if they still exist. I have not seen a single post about lifting an account right away after documentation was sent. Can anyone tell me they had their account lifted after sending documentation? Is there 1 person? I really don't think so. How can they hold funds when they are not a bank? I asked my client to chargeback the amount and send an alternative way of payment. I also told paypal that I would ask my client to do so. My client calls paypal to ask about the problem. Paypal 'defamed' our company and spoke bad about us, without us doing anything wrong. Who is paypal to decide who and what we are? If we were in business to do bad, wouldn't our account be closed long before now? Thank you! They don't do business with us, our clients do. If we have a clean track record, why do they try to make 'lies' about us? This is illegal and how can they get away with this? We do not have a single chargeback or even 1 complaint, and they tried to make us look bad to our client. They told the client there is a "very good reason" they were holding our funds leaving a 'negative impression' of us. How can that be legal when we have not even done anything wrong? We wish to sue and file complaints about being defamed for no apparent reason. Is there a place to go complain for them bad mouthing our reputation to our clients when we have no complaints, chargebacks or anything wrong? If our client gets a chargeback from them, Paypal wanted to leave the impression we were somehow "bad" so that our client would not have confidence or trust in sending an alternative method of payment. Paypal tried to defame our company without having any complaint, any prior chargebacks, etc. All we did was get a large sale and we are penalized in every direction. Ok the EU anti-money laundering act needs addtional documentation, no problem with that. We complied. Of course we don't have anything to hide, why would we submit so much documentation about our company if we were doing bad business? What sense does that make. We are made to look bad in the eyes of our client, but we didn't do anything wrong. How are they able to stay in business defaming companies to clients? And if there is a good place to complain, please direct me to it. This is defamation of our reputation to clients when we have not done a single thing wrong. If we had chargebacks or complaints, rest assured paypal would have closed our account long before now to do any business. I wish to complain to every source out there. Is there a class action suit to join? Please direct me to it.

like the convenience of paypal, but they totally screwed me over. My friend wanted me to help him buy a computer, so he paypaled me the money for the cost unit we decided on. I was going to withdraw it and get it from a dude on craigslist. Nope! I got the money all right, but I had to become a verified business member in order to withdraw anything. So I did...and still nope! They had this $500 a month limit for withdrawels for new users (I guess because I switched to the verifies business status I was a new user?). So I thought, OK, i'll just send the money back to him and we'll rethink this. Nope! My account had been limited due to "irregular activity" (i guess only auction payments are regular activity?) and I could not withdraw anything, send anything, etc. So they had a list of steps for me to complete in order to lift the lock. I did them right away. I was supposed to verify my address by phone, which I did, reverify my bank account, which I did, verify my email, which I did, and verify my social security number, which I TRIED many times to do, but it wasn't working. So I called them and told a representative that it wasn't recognizing my social. She asked me why my account had been locked and I told her I had no idea. She said their was a transaction involving $1500 and a lot of account activity going on (me trying to withdraw it). So I told her what I was trying to do, and she made a note of it in my case file (a case file? whooopi!) and said the review board would assess my compliance with the requests for reverification within three days, and I would get an email telling me the outcome. So three days, nothing. Four days, five days, a week...So I call again. By this time my friend is upset because he needs the money that's locked up in my account. I have some money in there myself I wanted to take out. I call again and say I haven't recieve any information on my case, and that its been over a week, let alone three days. So she puts a rush flag on my case and resubmits it to the board. Three days later, I get an email telling me that, "It is the decision of the financial dispute review board that we require more information before your account access can be restored." Oh boy. But one minor detail...nowhere in their email or on their website did they ever tell me what information to send or where to send it. So I call again (each time I call there is a 20-30 minute wait of course) and let her know what's up, and she gives me the same schpeal about the review board, so I throw a hissyfit and ask to talk to a supervisor. I did, and she was much more helpful, but my account was still locked and all that she ended up doing was resubmitting my case to the review board. Great. So of course it got denied again. By this time paypal had sent the money back to my friend due to questionable activity in my account, so at least that was good news. I decided to just open a new bank account with a different bank and get a new paypal account so I could start afresh. So I started the new paypal account, and BAM! Becuase my social security number matched that the other account (hey, now it worked!), BOTH my account were now frozen. Fantastic! I called a few more times and no one was able to do anything different than before. Long story short, I now have two locked paypal accounts, and can therefore not even pay for my own stuff on ebay, all for trying to use a fuction of paypal that it is design to perform.

Hello,

Thanks in advance for any advice, it is greatly appreciated. I am 17 years and 11 months old. I have had a PayPal Verified Business Account for over 4 years now. Suddenly this morning I get a "Notification of Limited Account Access". They ask me to fax some documents, so I faxed my Social Sec. card, bank statement and photo ID over, but they replied and informed me that they needed to see my driver's license. My license has my date of birth on it, so they will see that my 18th birthday is not for another month.

My question is, what should I do in this situation? I understand that I have been in violation of their TOS, but it is very important to me to have this PayPal account going forward. I was also told that "Should access to your account remain limited for an extended period of time, it may result in account closure." If I send them the license with my age, does anyone have any idea of what they might do? Could I re-open an account once I was 18?

Thanks!

I accidently found this website and found some of the comments put in the front page is pretty true. The reason I wrote here is I need help.

I sell things in internet and using paypal to get payment from buyer. On 15 Dec 2005 I have received fund from buyer in US. Upon received of money, I released the goods and was picked up by courier company on 17 Dec 05. On 28 Dec 05 buyer received the goods.

Then suddently on Jan 27 2006, I received email from Paypal that they deducted the amount USD590 from my account to investigate that I may be the recipient of potentially unauthorized funds.

I thereafter provide the information to paypal including invoice, and confirmation receipt of goods from my courier company. Very disappointing the conclusion of investigation is that they find it is more appropriate to return the fund to buyer.

Did paypal actually return the buyer, who knows. I wrote to question again what is the reason behind but received unrelvenat reply and said that I need an court order for paypal to release the fund to me.

Up to today I still do not why it is more appropriate to refund to buyer where they have received goods on 28 Dec and buyer did not contact me for any complaint. Unfortunately buyer has changed their email address and I could not contact him.

I find that there are no protection over seller. Pls note that we release the goods based on the fact that payment are received via paypal and how can paypal just deducted the amount before informing me.

So, another lesson learnt here, do not leave your money in your paypal account. They can deduct anytime. I am going to write to the Newspaper too to warn people about my bad experience with paypal.

Can anyone advise me how to get back my money, paypal is a robber.

Can also anyone advise me beside paypal, which services can I use?

Ok, so last night I tried to use my PP debit card and it was denied, but there is money there. So, I rush home to check my account to find out its "limited". I provide them the information, and now they want receipts for my childrens clothes I sell, and proof that I sent them to the buyers. I hav eno negative feedback, and no open or closed disputes. Why is paypal doing this, I don't keep receipts for everything I own. So, tomorrow I am going to fax them a copy of an addressed box, and a delivery conformation slip even though the buyer DID NOT PAY for that option. I'm going to close my acct. ASAP, I just want my money. Can anyone help me, been through this before? Where was paypal when I got scammed 2x's for Nascar tix? This is a bad day!

It appears that Paypal service representatives are trained to LIE, stalling until a customer gives up in dispair. The following is what happened to me, judge for yourself:
Dec 30th: Won an auction for about 15 stamps on eBay. There was only one stamp in the lot that was of any significance. When the stamps arrived, not only was the significant stamp a facsimile, it was actually clearly marked as such. This wasn't mentioned in the listing, nor could it be ascertained from the slightly blurred scanned image, a clear case of fraud.
Jan 27th: The seller wasn't cooperative, so I filed a buyer complaint via PayPal.
Feb 4th: Paypal advised me that after investigation they agreed that I should receive a refund, once I had returned the stamps to the seller via signed for mail. On the Paypal website, one of the recommended shippers was Canada Post (I am in Canada, the seller is in the UK), I paid the $12 for registered mail, and sent Paypal the tracking number as instructed.
Feb 8th: Email from Paypal informing me (and the seller) that the case is closed as they are unable to track the shipment, and they are denying me a refund.
NOW HERE IS WHERE THE LIES START.
Feb 8th: I call Paypal (international long distance no 1-800), I get through to a very helpful customer service rep, I explain to him, that before Paypals involvment, I had paid out money for the item as well as shipping from the UK to Canada, and I still had the item, albeit it an incorrect item. After Paypals involvment, I was now worse off, as I no longer had the item and had paid to have it shipped back to the seller. After a while, he agreed that this was illogical, he then spoke to a manager, and got back to me with the FIRST LIE. He said, that if I fax them a copy of the proof of registration receipt, they would re-open the case and refund me the money. This would take 2 to 3 days.
Feb 8th: Fax the receipt to Paypal
Feb 14th: Still no response from Paypal,so I call again, the very friendly customer service rep, says they haven't received the fax, however the seller might inform Paypal tha he has received the item. I told her that it was unlikely that seller would do this voluntarilly, but if Paypal emailed him to query if he has received the item, he would be less likely to lie. She agreed with this, and then told me the SECOND LIE. She would have a manager email the seller, and CC me. Needless to say this never happened.
Feb 15th: I receive an email from Paypal saying that they have received my fax, which I sent a week earlier.
Feb 18th: Still no action from Paypal, so I call once again. I explain what has happened, tell the very friendly representative that I am extremely unhappy with the service. She then told me the THIRD LIE, she said that Paypal would refund me the money in full as a gesture of goodwill. It would however take 2 to 3 days to process.
Feb 23rd: Still no action or communication from Paypal, I can only conclude that they train their representative to LIE stalling customers until the customers eventually give up. I would love to take them to small claims court so that I could claim my time and expense as well, however being in Canada I don't know how I could do this.
It seems now as if my only recourse is a Credit Card chargeback.

Hello...this is my first post, yet I have some rather interesting paypal stories, all which are true and have happend to me and my family.
Back in 2002, I sold a vintage 4-track reel to reel recorder on ebay for $400. The buyer received it and had nothing but praise for me, the item and super fast shipping, but within 48 hours hense that email his story changed. He claimed the unti broke while he was loading a tape(my problem how?), and he wanted a full refund. I told him straight out no, the item was old, working when left here and no further warranty. He knew how to work paypal to his benefit and no sooner had he filed a fraud claim/reversal, 7 days had gone by and I found my paypal account negative $400. What's even funnier is 5 hours later an email came from paypal stating that they were going to take out $400 and give it to the buyer.
After all was said and done, I had an inactive paypal account, couldn't complete auction invoices which were sent out, I received around 20 negative comments because my buyers planned on using paypal and not sending a payment in the mail, thus ended my stint on ebay.
In 2003 I was able to open a new ebay and paypal account and all has been alright until monday night. I sold an old watch for $380, I since had used the money to buy an older van. The buyer again loved the watch in the first email, 2 hours later said she wanted her money back because it wasn't what she thought it was. I provided a great description, even had the watch appraised by a jeweler and posted her assessment on it, around 10 pics too. I told her there would be no refund and I quickly flushed my paypal account and closed it shut. She emailed me furious!!! She was probally no more than an hour late to file a claim. We exchanged a few more emails and I stressed the same no refund will be given text, and now, her email is dead. It's a hotmail account. I'm wondering if she was a cleaver nigerian fraud person. I told my wife, we are done with paypal and she's happy that we are. I do have one question....I flushed out $120 from my paypal account before it has cleared from paypal to my bank, does anyone think that money will make it to my bank within the next 2 or so days or am I out of that money? I figured it was a better risk to take then having to refund the $380, what are your thoughts?

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