Paypal limitation

bigman99

Hello folks,

Am new on board and require urgent help.
This is my story:
I have a 5 year old account on ebay and paypal all verified and smooth. Never had any issues. Power seller and TRS. I sell mainly clothing.
About 6 months ago, a friend of mine owed me some money but was struggling to pay back. We made a deal as follows: he was willing to trade some of his household stock and also resell some items he got from car boot on his ebay account so he could pay me. He was genuine and honest. The only issue he didnt have time and didnt even have a working computer to use his ebay account.
We agreed that i would log into his ebay account and paypal; list all his items for him and basically look after everything for him. The plan was for me to take all the proceeds until i get up £1500 which was the debt he owed him.
I felt it was a good plan. I didnt fancy the idea of selling his items via my own account cos what if there were issues with his household items leading to neg feedback etc.

Everything went well, and i raked him the money he owed me within 3 months. As agreed, i simply transferred the proceeds from time to time from his paypal to mine.

Obviously, within this period i was logging in from same machine onto my own account and his. I never for once thought, ebay would create a link by virtue of same IP address and cookies. Infact, i thought all this was normal as i never firgured out any wrong would occur.

Now, the prob began after i handed back account to my friend and he chose to carry on trading by himself based on my guidance as way of extra income. Unfortunately, last month he fell into the hands of a dodgy dropshipper who has failed to deliver items paid for to the tune of £1800. He is currently trying to chase dropshipper via small claims court. His paypal account was limited due to nagative balance i.e. paypal had to refund customers that paid him and he clearly does not have funds to repay paypal at this moment in time.

Well, i got the biggest shock of life when i received an email from paypal 3 wks ago stating my own has been limited. I logged into my paypal and i was told to confirm address, credit card and 'RESOLVE ISSUES WITH RELATED ACCOUNT.........friend's email address....'
I immediately went on to the phone with paypal and a lousy lady told me the 2 accounts ( my friend and i) were one and same and that their computer systems dont lie. She stated the source of the link was from ebay.
Next step was to call ebay. They had their own version. Yeah there is a link cos of same computer bla bla but it is now a paypal issue. When i pressed ebay further, i was told point blank -'ask your friend to sort out his account and then yours would be free'
I argued that they were holding me to ransome over someone's else issue but they werent having it.

My friend has also advised them that he is one solely responsible for his account and no one else. He has written to advise as to origin of prob i.e. dropshipper but they dont seem interested.
From what i can deduce at the moment, they are not chasing me but punishing me for associating with someone who owes the money. Surely this can't be right.
So far, all the debt recovery threat have been emailed and addressed to my friend

bigman99

Just to add that i have searched forum and seen a similar tale of mother and son being linked together but no follow up update on thread as to if there was any success with removing link or limitation.
Also, i didnt tell paypal and ebay that i was helping my friend list from my 'puter etc cos i wasnt sure of the T&C. I simply stated that he was living me at the time and hence we shared same 'puter etc

cyberbob

bigman99 wrote:

He was genuine and honest.

Obviously not if he has left all this debt behind

Paypal can't legally hold your money but they are within rights to freeze what they see as associated accounts. If you push them to refund your money with threats of legal action they will refund you but they will close your paypal account and you will be unable to use paypal and ebay again. Paypal are within rights to withdraw the service from you.

The issue paypal have with linked accounts is this is how a lot of fraud happens and Paypal take a bit of a heavy handed approach and sometimes the innocent get causght up.

If you wish to try and keep the account open you need to push them phone them and ask what evidence they require to prove you are not the same person. If they don't know ask to speak to a supervisor. Most PP customer service are a little clueless so you need to keep pushing them. Any conversations you have get a name of who you are speaking to and follow any conversation with an email stating what was discussed.

bigman99

Thanks for your contribution. My reference to 'genuine and honest' specifically relates to his desire to repay me back.
Also, the only reason why he hasn't cleared his negative balance with paypal is cos he doesnt have it. I dont see him as being dishonest cos if that was the case, every debtor on the planet would be labelled dishonest. Inability to pay a debt due to change in circumstance is not a dishonest crime.
Friend has taken the pain to explain in detail to paypal but they are not interested. It seems the only explanation they want is their money.

soolin

Unfortunately I think this might be a complicated one to get a decent result from. Look at it from another point of view:

You are running a successful ebay business and friend 'A' asks you to sell on his behalf. You set up in your friends name and sell for him..but basically it is you doing the selling and taking the money. I can see why Ebay and paypal have tried to associate the accounts.

bigman99

Good point but does it empower them to ask me to get him to resolve his account.
I havent denied that i know him etc and he hasnt either. As stated he has pleaded for more time to resolve his negative balance. However, i do not feel it is right to punish me by limiting my account until he does this. Surely, this is unethical and unreasonable. Perhaps if my friend was denying the debt to paypal, then i would have understood their view point. On this occasion, he has accepted fully, yet they still desire to punish me. 'Guilty by association'!!!
They using illegal and bad tactics cos they feel since we known to each other, embarassing me might lead me to pressurise him to pay up. Surely, this is 'jungle justice' and reminds me of some third world country where Police can arrest and torture an innocent father cos his son refuses to report to Police station. Their belief is that threat of torture or arrest might force father to help them fish out his son

emweaver

Your very lucky they didnt close you down for money laundering transfering money from his paypal to yours, this is what myself and my husband got accused of a few years ago.

I will be very surprised if Paypal ever lift the limitation on your account from my personal experience

bigman99

This is getting even more bizarre and interesting.
How can transferring funds from one account to another be classed as money laundering especially as we are talking 1500GBP and we were both verified paypal users.
On top of this all the transfers were done as personal payment - money owed.
Perhaps another reason why they are vexed cos they dont get fees for personal payment transfers.
To be honest, i dont mind if they close my account. It isnt the end of the world.
But i would not allow them keep my funds for 180 days .....NO WAY!

emweaver

well my husband transferred £6 n some odd pence to me via money owed and thats what they said to me when I rang them. They said if it wasnt laundering why didnt he withdraw it I said because its below your withdraw limit and I was making a purchase so thought I would use it as I was a bit short on my paypal balance.

emweaver

bigman99 wrote: »

This is getting even more bizarre and interesting.
How can transferring funds from one account to another be classed as money laundering especially as we are talking 1500GBP and we were both verified paypal users.
On top of this all the transfers were done as personal payment - money owed.
Perhaps another reason why they are vexed cos they dont get fees for personal payment transfers.
To be honest, i dont mind if they close my account. It isnt the end of the world.
But i would not allow them keep my funds for 180 days .....NO WAY!

If they close your account they will not allow you to use paypal ever again and will block your credit card and bank details and as soon as they notice your name, address tel no etc will close the paypal down. Ebay dont allow you to have an ebay account to sell now without a paypal account and even if you only buy how will you pay for items

bigman99

Thanks., There are ways around this blockage but i dont want to dwell on this now.
I honestly feel i have grounds for a good case.
So far, no mention of money laundering has been raised. In all the numerous calls i have made, i have gathered that their issue is that 'a related account' is in the red. This is what triggered the limitation.
All they want is their money.