paypal closed my account :(

devilivus

Myyrrddyn wrote: »

Phone rather than email it is more personal and may help your case

is it an expensive phone line??

Starchar

devilivus wrote: »

is it an expensive phone line??

That one is.. try 020 8605 3000
its the same number as the 0870 one but cheaper

spyrothedragon_2

Good luck with PayPal. I will never use them again, and I urge anyone thinking about it to do some research first. They are thieves, and I challenge anyone from PayPal to prove otherwise. (Note to forum moderator: that comment isn't libellous, it's a statement of fact).
Last November I had a business client who wanted to pay me with a credit card. I don't have the facilities to do this so we looked around and were taken in by the lies on PP's website about it being free (I was charged £170) and easy to transfer money. I had a basic account that I use to make credit card payments on eBay, so my client set up an account of his own and transferred £3500. This was taken from his card instantly, but it took 6 weeks of effort on my part before I could access MY money.
Because the sum exeeded US$5000 I had to go through several security checks over a period of time to prove that I am who I claim to be, and that I live at the address I gave PP when I opened my account. It was a slow drip-feed of obstacles - you clear one security check and the account is instantly frozen again for some other reason.
The money was intended to be paid to me before a trip abroad, but thanks to the stress, anger, and lack of spending money they caused us, PP almost ruined what should have been the holiday of a lifetime and my credit card is now maxed out. I spent a small fortune on internet access every day, in a vain attempt to access my money. PP ignored most of my emails. I had to call them twice when I got home, and was kept on hold for over 20 minutes each time.
To prove my details I had the option of sending them copies of personal documents, or to request an automated call to my home telephone (they email you a code that you type into your phone). How could I do either of those when I was on holiday?!
There is a website in PP's honour: paypalsucks.com (McAffee antivirus is fine with this site, AVG flags up a warning). This is full of horror stories about PP freezing people's accounts for no reason.
There's a forum on PP's own website that's full of complaints from angry customers. Unless it's been removed there were a few people trying to get BBC's Watchdog to investigate PayPal. It seems that PayPal are rather fond of keeping your money from you, so it stays in their own account for as long as possible. This is theft, but they seem to get away with it.
Also check out the Wikipedia page about PayPal (scroll down to the criticism and limitations section). You'll see what a lovely bunch of people PayPal really are.

soolin

Unfortunately most people on here will be ebay users so we can't give up on paypal and the anti fraud measures are unlikely to apply to us as we have established history of use. As for paypal sucks it is actually run by a competitor to paypal and most of the stories are from people who have completely failed to understand how paypal works.

spyrothedragon_2

Ahhh... I didn't realise that PayPal freezing £3500 of my money for 6 weeks was helping to combat fraud. Or that by keeping hold of his money for 180 days (6 months!) and closing his account PayPal were actually protecting poor Devilivus. We should be grateful.

For the record I had a good history with PayPal before my recent experience. I must be one of those who failed to understand how it works, but I see it clearly now. Simple really - people give PayPal money and trust them to give it to you, but they keep it for months and make you jump through hoops before you can touch it.

Interesting to hear that it's a competitor behind the paypalsucks website, but it doesn't change my view of them at all.

You're right about PP and eBay being so closely linked that it's hard to boycott them. Glad to hear you've never had a bad experience with PP though, and hope you never do. I thought they were pretty good too until recently.

That's all from me on this topic for now. Time for a cuppa.

soolin

spyrothedragon wrote: »

You're right about PP and eBay being so closely linked that it's hard to boycott them. Glad to hear you've never had a bad experience with PP though, and hope you never do. I thought they were pretty good too until recently.

.

It's not hard to boycott them it is impossible as without paypal a seller cannot sell on ebay so although on here we are aware of issues it doesn't mean we can give up on ebay.

Dan_Gleebitz

devilivus wrote: »

Hiya,

I have been given no explanation as to why this has happened, however, I *think* I know why.
Bascially, my brother who is always up to no good had been using my computer for his own dodgy ebay dealings whilst I wasn't around (using HIS own Ebay account)
thanks

He wouldn't happen to live in W-king would he?
Dan.

devilivus

Its just such a shame that you are not given the chance to defend youself before they start limiting your account and then holding your money for 180 days!
I can see that certain activity has flagged my account, but *personally* I dont think i've done anything wrong. (other than having a moron for a brother)

I've had the chance to speak to other people who know more than me about this sort of thing since posting earlier, and it sounds like it might be a lost cause. They are too big and powerful and just dont care. They can do whatever they want.

I've tried calling them but after 15 mins on hold I gave up.
I will try again at, hopefully, not such a busy time.

From what I gather, if i send a letter threatening that my money be released or I will take action through the courts, there's a good chance ill get my money back soon, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT! The money being held isn't a huge issue for me. Its that I cant Ebay anymore because of this.

Is there a way that I could link a new paypal account to my existing ebay account out of interest??

soolin

devilivus wrote: »

Its just such a shame that you are not given the chance to defend youself before they start limiting your account and then holding your money for 180 days!
I can see that certain activity has flagged my account, but *personally* I dont think i've done anything wrong. (other than having a moron for a brother)

I've had the chance to speak to other people who know more than me about this sort of thing since posting earlier, and it sounds like it might be a lost cause. They are too big and powerful and just dont care. They can do whatever they want.

I've tried calling them but after 15 mins on hold I gave up.
I will try again at, hopefully, not such a busy time.

From what I gather, if i send a letter threatening that my money be released or I will take action through the courts, there's a good chance ill get my money back soon, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT! The money being held isn't a huge issue for me. Its that I cant Ebay anymore because of this.

Is there a way that I could link a new paypal account to my existing ebay account out of interest??

Unfortunately if you try and open a new paypal account they will consider it serious misuse and you'll never get your accoutn back.

I've rarely had to hold more than 2 or 3 minutes to get hold of someone at paypal, so give it another try maybe there was a problem with the line.

toffe

if you want to get your paypal account back it's best to just bite your lip and be nice and try to talk to someone in the paypal office although from what i hear once paypal tell you they are closing your account they rarely backtrack.

however, if you don't want to wait 6 months for your money paypal do tend to roll over and release funds if you make a county court claim, based on what i have read elsewhere.

while i can understand paypal's concerns if your brother is up to no good and accessing their site from the same ip you are not your brother and you can't impose a contractual term on one person because someone related to them also has a contract with the same company and breached that contract.

thats what is happening here, the 180 days rule is to protect paypal from chargebacks in cases like your brothers but you are having this contractual term imposed upon you because of your brother, assuming you are both adults then paypal has two seperate contracts with two seperate legally accoutable people and they have no rights to impose contractual penalties upon you because your brother breached his contract.

but it just depends if you want the hassle or are happy to wait it out. don't hold your breath on getting your paypal account back though.