posted on October 5, 2000 09:47:33 PM new
I am a seller on most of the auctions sites. I take a lot of payments through Paypal. On September 26th I received a notice to prove a product was shipped to a customer in early May. I immediately emailed a copy of the documents and never heard back from them. On October 1st when a customer attempted to send money to my account they were greeted with a message saying, "the account has been locked". I now have no access to my account including being able to retrieve the money I have in the account. I have emailed Paypal over twenty times attempting to settle this with no answer. I have used every email address I can find. After looking for several days I found a phone number for them - (877) 672-9725. They are not listed anywhere in any directory. When I called their toll free number, everyone I talked to there say the department that locked the account is completely separate from the main location and no one "is allowed access or phone numbers to that department". I am losing business (not to mention customer goodwill) every day. I literally have no option than to initiate a lawsuit. Fortunately my brother-in-law is an attorney. If anyone else has had this or similar problems with Paypal please contact me.
posted on October 7, 2000 08:26:33 PM new
Hi,
I too have the same problem, and can't find out why. They said it was due to fraud and I asked who. Then they sent me my son's email address, And I know for positive that he would never fraud me or anyone else, My account has been Restricted since 9/22, and there is about $600 in it that I would like to get, My son has almost a $1000 that is in the same situation, we are both quitting Pay Pal, as we cannot send money or refund money
posted on October 9, 2000 10:25:57 AM new
Sent to Paypal on October 3, 2000:
(to Paypal) I cannot stand your methods of doing business. This subterfuge that you have used (and outright lying) are things that humankind should have left behind. Your greed and dishonesty should leave you poor and homeless.
I hope everyone gets the message and leaves your company until you see the truth and start behaving. For my part in this I will try to educate everyone regarding your methods. I will not lie, nor will I embellish the truth to suit my needs. However, I do know how to write and to use the computer quite well and will use these skills in all of my emails (the signature tool works well for this) to educate everyone I email. You have brought this on yourselves. I hope you reap what you sow.
From the desk of Thomas P. McKeon, President/CEO, Sitelayout, Inc.
Additional information as requested from an email acquaintance of mine:
Regarding Paypal deception, lies and greed
(email originally sent on October 5, 2000)
They have been advertising "always free" and have held to their promises until they have enough people suckered in to use them.
Now they are using strong-hand tactics to get people that already have been using them (since it is "always free" (yeah, right!)) to register (actually have a bank account and pay $12/mo. and credit card fees) with them. These tactics include an ominous warning to buyers that the paypal seller is "UNVERIFIED" in red bold type.
Paypal states to the buyer that they are not protected by using a credit card to pay an "UNVERIFIED" account. This is an outright lie. People don't give up their credit card protection rights. I have had several buyers that were "scared" to pay me thinking that somehow I was a risk because of this tactic. I can forward the email I had to send to that person to assuage their fears.
Also, on the introduction screen at one point, users were given only two choices...either become a "business account" (i.e., pay them a lot) or state that you are not a seller. This leaves out the selection for sellers that don't wish to pay Paypal (since it was supposed to be "ALWAYS FREE". Many people are not aware of all of this and Paypal is counting on the lack of knowledge to keep people from seeing the truth of what they are doing.
I was a strong supporter of them before and they have backhanded their initial supporters with their current behavior.
I am including detailed information on all of my outgoing mail to shine the spotlight on the lies, deception and greed of Paypal. This is my way of helping people "see the light". I hope there is a mass exodus of people from Paypal until they start behaving in an appropriate and honest manner.
posted on October 11, 2000 08:40:17 PM new
Yes, yes, yes!! We have had exactly the same problem with paypal and are soooo frustrated! We will be happy to join your lawsuit against this ludicrous company. Please tell us how to contact you via email. We sell on the major auction sites and have been doing so for over 1.5 years. We have (just this evening) removed paypal links from all of our pages and will not be accepting any more payments through this service.
Our account is currently restricted in excess of $800!! They have hung up the phone on us two times this evening and will not answer any emails or give out any information on the problem. They called it an 'administrative restriction'????? Please send us any info that you can. Thank you!!
posted on October 13, 2000 07:46:27 PM new
Yes I have a Big Problem with PayPal!
On September the 8th. I was browsing through Yahoo Auctions and I viewed 2 very expensive Barbie Dolls going for a very cheap price so I bid on them, they were from the same seller, she wrote to me and she said that she would accept payment through PayPal but in her letter she used 3 different first names such as Sue, Barbara and Doris...She reqested that I pay $102.00 including the shipping fees. I made the payment and I did not get a response from her giving me her last name or address so I wrote to her and I asked her for her full name and address...She wrote back to me and she apologized and she said that she would use a different method with PayPal and she did, she made a request that I pay her $102.99 so I figured that she did not get my first payment so I paid her again...I checked my PayPal balance and I saw that I was charged twice plus the extra .99 cents...I contacted
PayPal and I asked them to cancel the $102.99 but they wrote back to me and they showed me how to do it myself....
When I made the second payment to PayPal something very strange happened to my keyboard, instead of typing in English it was typing in Japanese....
Well anyway to date I never got my dolls....I asked PayPal to give me her information and they told me that they are not able to while they have close to $2000.00 in my account, they will not help me at all..I asked Yahoo for her information and they told me that they are a free service and they do not want to get involved...I checked her out on ebay and she has a minus 5
and I asked ebay to help me with her information and they told me that they could not because it is not there transaction...Well in short this horrible woman tried to get me twice.
I do not know who to turn to...I am out $102.00.....
posted on October 16, 2000 09:19:58 AM new
I think paypail is going through a merger with X.Com! They currently are changing their policies left and right, and are failing to notify their users... I am careful not to leave money in my account, and make daily withdrawls... However I notified X.com of the fact that they are no longer giving me $5.00 for refurals... They stated that I need to upgrade my account to premeir status to handle this... Im personally thinking about switching services due to all of this commotion...
posted on October 16, 2000 04:39:08 PM new
This is addressed to Pretty (Irene) - how did you pay that woman through PayPal without her last name? Whenever I've made payments through PayPal and there was a mismatch between the email name I entered and the seller's last name, the seller wasn't able to collect their money. It will usually tell you the names aren't matched and it will then list the transaction as unclaimed on your history page. You can then go in and cancel the transaction. Pls. help me understand how you were able to make payment without that seller's last name? I haven't had problems with PayPal yet but I haven't tried to use them as a seller though I'm planning to start selling soon and was thinking about it until I started reading about these horror stories! One time I was looking at an auction where the seller said very clearly he does not use PayPal as that would ruin his business. I found that hard to believe and then I started reading these msgs. about PayPal and find it hard to believe they can do this to people!
posted on October 16, 2000 05:43:27 PM new
PayPal is just totally quirky! Before I started reading these messages, I tried to open an account with them, giving them all the required info, but the system told me that an account already existed for me. I disputed this and kept trying several times to open the account, but it kept telling me the same thing. I contacted PayPal. What did they tell me? They said they DON'T find any records of an account with my name, email, address, etc. So I tried again. Same thing. I contacted PayPal again and suggested there might be a technical problem. They told the same thing as before, no account found. They didn't even acknowledge the remote possibility of technical problems. Finally I figured out that I couldn't open the account with my current street address so I gave a "false" address and was able to open an account. Stupid! I contacted PayPal about this absurdity and all they had to say was they were able find that I successfully registered. Duh!? Yeah, 'cuz I gave them an obsolete address. And they went on to say what I can do to change this and that in my account info. Forget it! I'm not going to even use PayPal after the problems I had just trying to open an account. This and all the other negative feedback on them made me think twice. And still no acknowledgment of any technical problems!
posted on October 24, 2000 07:15:55 PM new
I'm glad I found this thread about pay-pal, I have been using them since they were giving $10 to both the buyer & seller. Then came X.com (ugh!). I also had a x.com account and loved the banking features of it. After the merger things just keep getting worse. The $1000 overdraft protection was cut to $500 in a simple email, no notice! Then the $500 was canceled again with no notice (just a email that it is gone!) AND I HAD OUTSTANDING CHECKS!!! To make matters even worse at (X.com) I had sent in deposits that were acknoledged, but not cleared. When one of the checks I wrote hit.. INSTANT BOUNCE!!! While I don't have overdraft protection with my local bank, they would have never sent back a check with funds pending!!! Also Since the merger there is still not clear way of transfering funds between x.com and paypal other then ACH and 3+ days of wait. 2 services or one???
Either way I don't like what is happing with paypal and x.com and I am going to discontinue before they pull something like you have described in this thread.
look at payplace.com, so far it seems like what paypal used to be.
posted on October 24, 2000 07:19:49 PM new
Big problems here ! - the one that hurts the most is the complete lack of response and the feeling that they have absolutely no control of the situation. I might be looking at legal action if they do not start cooperating soon.
posted on October 25, 2000 04:01:44 PM new
This thread has so intrigued me that I spent the day searching for PAYPAL problems, I'm very sorry to report that there are problems everywhere! DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBERS!!! If they have them, go to your bank and sign papers to keep them from accessing your account!! They will reverse deposits without warning and freeze your account even if one person uses a bad credit card to pay for a auction!! All of your money in the account is at risk!!! As stated earlier in this thread, they will not respond or help when this happens (ugh!!!).
Also here is the email address of a PAYPAL employee that seems to want to help.
posted on October 25, 2000 08:22:30 PM new
I'm having a problem with Paypal, and here's how it goes. I was auctioning a guitar effect on ebay. I originally wanted to keep it domestic, but had an
interested party in Indonesia asking to buy the unit. He offered to prepay
for the unit and shipping using Paypal($115unit + $63shipping).
I used Paypal to buy, but never to sell. I read up on how to do it and found that money would go into my existing account, cool. I checked Paypal, and the money was in my account. I shipped the unit using Fedex.
I checked my account on Paypal, and it was restricted. I called Paypal, and
was told that it was purchased using a stolen credit card number. The
person(Andra) at Paypal that I've been working with has been really helpfull. We worked together to get Fedex to stop delivery and return unit to me. Fedex is trying to stop the package when
it gets to customs in Indonesia, if they do, it will be shipped back to me
at no return postage. Original shipping charges still apply, which were paid out of my pocket, but which was covered in the Paypal payment. If it makes it to the Fedex office in Indonesia, I have to pay $63 to have it shipped back. Paypal is doing what they can to get the
package back, but they aren't going to guarantee that I get reimburst for
the shipping, even though the shipping was prepaid using Paypal. They
inform me that for a sale to be guaranteed, it must be domestic only. I
looked through the site, and the only thing I saw was that it had to be paid
using a U.S. credit card, which it was.
I don't buy or sell alot, so this is all new to me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
posted on October 26, 2000 09:36:11 AM new
akozols: Sorry to give you the bad news but almost every service, including Paypal, has made it very clear the you do not accept payment for an overseas shipment. It is obvious that you missed the information, but that doesnt excuse you legally. You will have to eat any charges.
The worse news is that about THREE MONTH AGO, we were asking PP to do what almost every other company already does: send the address of the buyer with a note to ship to that address only. Had they done that, you wouldn't have been tricked. So much for the "safety" that PP pretends to give you. http://www.ygoodman.com [email protected]
posted on October 28, 2000 10:18:47 AM new
I have sold quite a few items and just started using PayPal a month ago.at first it seemed to go smoothly,but the last couple of times I have sold something through PayPal,They (PayPal) Sent Me an Email Saying That I Received Cash Through PayPal And When I go Into My Account It Is Not There.I Wrote To Them Several Times In The Last Week And They Responded Once,Saying That They Have No Way Of Knowing The Person's Address.Don't We All Have To Fill Out That Information To Have A PayPal Account?They Tol Me That The Buyer And I Had To Settle This.Now If PayPal Sent Me An Email Saying I Had Received Cash From This Person And Thier Address Is Right On That Email,Don't You Think They Should Be Able To Figure Out Where The Money Is?I'm Only Out About $26 So Far,But Am Afraid To Use PayPal Any Longer.I Wouldn't Recomend PayPal To Anyone! Doreen Redcay
Here's an update. Working with Andra, my account is now open again. It contains all the money from the bad credit card as well as $70 from a good transfer. I was told to not touch the bad money until the unit is returned, then the Appeal Dept would determine if I would get reinbursed for the shipping. QUESS WHAT, THE PACKAGE MADE IT TO IT'S DESTINATION,,,,DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN. Fedex states that it does not guarantee a change in a shipment once it leaves. They pretty much admitted that foreign offices are not as efficient as U.S. But they graciously refunded my money since it was delivered a day late. DELIVERED A DAY LATE AND THEY STILL COULDN'T STOP IT..DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN.
So now I have money in my Paypal account that is going to be taken away, and lost the unit that I shipped. "IF" I removed the money from my Paypal account, can they go into my credit card or bank account to retrieve it?
I was reading some posts at auctionwatch.com and it seems like alot of people are having Paypal problems
Thanks, AL.
posted on October 28, 2000 10:30:57 PM new
This msg. is addressed to Doreen641. As a buyer, a seller and I experienced the problem you describe in your msg. I bought an item, went into PayPal to pay for it and thought the transaction was successful. The seller received an email notice from PayPal that the money was paid. When she went in to PayPal to check it, the money wasn't there. She sent me an email msg. asking me to check into it. I went back into PayPal, went to my History page, and saw the transaction said it was Unclaimed so apparently there was something wrong with either what I did or with PayPal. I was able to go into that transaction and cancel it. After trying to make the payment again, this time I paid attention to detail and noticed it said the email name didn't match the seller's last name but it let the payment go through anyway - at least from my end. Again, when I went into my History page, the transaction was unclaimed. To make a long story short, even if the payment doesn't reach the seller, the seller will still get an email msg. automatically generated stating the payment was made. The problem was from my end. The seller's email name was slightly different than the one she registered with PayPal so that's why the email name and last name didn't match up. It was an honest mistake on my part because her emails to me showed a slightly different name in the Sent From line than what she actually was. Not sure why this happened, but in the end, she went into PayPal and added the other email name to prevent this from happening again. After confirming her real email name, I was able to make the transaction successfully. So, you should ask the buyer to check his/her PayPal history page to see if the transaction says it's completed. I'd be willing to bet it's not completed, that it's unclaimed, and that he/she will have to cancel the old unclaimed one and redo the transaction making sure all the information is entered correctly. This has happened to me more than once and every time I check into it, the problem has been from my end. I am way more careful about entering the information and making sure the responses I get from PayPal are the right ones. I'll be interested to know if this works for you. Hope it helps!
This is not to say PayPal hasn't been a pain for a lot of sellers, but I thought this might help with your particular situation. If anything's not clear, post reply and I will get it in email - I'm keeping track of these PayPal comments.
posted on October 29, 2000 05:27:01 AM new
This msg is for akozols. This sounds like paypal did not verify the credit card befor giving you the $, this is the key reasion for all the fraud going on. IF you can get the $ out of your account they will reverse the transaction out of your CC or Bank account, in one case this happened 30 days later out of someones bank account (Bad paypal!). All I can tell you is to sign papers with your CC and/or bank account to not allow paypal any further withdraws and take the $ (if you can).
This will not garantee they will not still get the $ back or sue you for it later.
posted on October 31, 2000 11:32:46 PM new
Here's another update of my situation. I was checking some Ebay feedback, and noticed that the guy I sold the GT-2 to had a positive feedback. A few hours after my auction ended, he won another auction for the same thing. I emailed the guy who sold it to him telling him of my situation. Some of the buyer info was the same, some was different. He was paid using Paypal, which cleared. He even recieved a delivery confirmation from the buyer. I told the seller about some Paypal feedback where a problem was not found until a month after the transaction. He'll let me know if anything happens.
posted on November 2, 2000 08:33:17 AM new
To Deborah970:
As a buyer, I had the exact same thing happen to me. When I went into history and saw that a payment was unclaimed I emailed the seller. She told me to cancel it and send it again. The second time everything went through fine.
I, too, am not disagreeing that paypal can be a pain, but the history area is one place to start!
posted on November 2, 2000 04:14:49 PM new
I'm not having any PrayPal problems. That's because I dropped them like a hot potato as soon as all these problems were brought to light on these boards.
Thanks for speaking up!
posted on November 3, 2000 08:03:38 PM new
Well, here's my final update. It's been over a week since I sent my email request to [email protected] and talked to Andra. I left a few messages for Andra to call me, but he was either out of the office, or sick. So I got no phone call or email, but when I checked my account tonight, they withdrew the funds.
So because they approved a bad credit card, and I shipped overseas, I'm screwed. Does it really matter where I sent it? Isn't the main problem that they approved a bad card.
posted on November 10, 2000 05:31:19 PM new
I'm one of the PayPal victim. My money frozen over three month.
I never received any document or any explanation from PayPal. All my
complaints was ignored. Finally Damon from PayPal asked to contact him
with information and I did. Than I contacted him again and he ask to refresh
his memory and I did. Nothing happen, so I contact Damon again and offer
to file complaint against PayPal together because they didn't respond.
From that time Damon disappear, I sent few more e-mails to him with
one question: " what happen?", but Damon stop reply to my e-mail.
Anybody know what happen to Damon? Maybe they fired him or he
quit. I understand, very stressful job.
So this is my conclusion: Close your accounts with PayPal ASAP
before they grab your money and do your business old fashion way.
Money Order is the best way. It takes few days extra but you will
receive your money and will send your merchandise. With PayPal
you would see your money is there, but you cannot get them.
Your Account restricted and you cannot brake that wall. PayPal
silent no word from them, like you are not exist.
posted on November 13, 2000 02:17:40 AM new
I have been with paypal since before they merger with that other outfit and now I cannot get "verified" and I can't get an answer and one buyer was scared off because of my "unverified" status. They have my checking acct number and credit card and still cannot get verified. Can someone give me any suggestions? Really appreciate it.
posted on November 14, 2000 06:01:48 PM new
PayPal has restricted my account and requested three things.
1. A copy of my Driver's License
2. A copy of my most recent credit card statement.
3. A copy of the email the sent me sent to my primary email address.
I am already a verified user but I have sent them the requested information. I faxed the information because they have freezed my account and it has money in it.
I have emailed them 4 times and have called customer service without any results.
I want to straighten things out but these people won't talk to me. I am so frustrated.
posted on November 22, 2000 11:55:24 AM new
Yes, indeedy! One day two+ weeks ago I found myself unable to withdraw my money with a message that I need to have my address verified. I refuse to give them my bank account number or credit card # so the alternative was to fax a utility bill with name and address on it. I did but nothing happened. Emails were initially answered with more stuff to send (like driver's license) and was told my address had been verified. However, attempts at getting my money still didn't work and they don't answer my emails anymore. They really want bank account numbers and credit card numbers so they make it difficult without that. I will stop using Paypal with my next set of auctions. I also hope AuctionWatch will look into these things and report on the problems we are having.
posted on November 22, 2000 01:45:07 PM new
We are looking into an alternative to paypal-need we say more? Check out c2it.com or ecount.com or paydirect.yahoo.com or propay.com
posted on November 23, 2000 07:23:03 AM new
There are serious problems with just about every credit card payment service out there. Read about it here and feel free to email or post comments.
posted on November 27, 2000 06:09:50 PM new
I've had nothing but problems with PayPal. I won't go into detail here, but dodge98ram if you're going to file suit give me your contact info -- along with myself, I know of quite a few merchants that have unsettled grievences against PayPal that might be interested in joining the cause.
Also, I heard about a multimillion dollar lawsuit, in another forum, currently being filled against PayPal but I lost the link. Anyone know anything about this?
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For better, more reliable and honest Internet Payment Systems, take a look at:
. Many people are not aware of all of this and Paypal is counting on the lack of knowledge to keep people from seeing the truth of what they are doing.