PayPal - Complaints from Buyers

Steven of Sacramento, CA September 18, 2009

I sold two California minig claims through PayPal for 5000. PayPal now claims I need to reimburse them 600 for any overpayment they deducted from the purchasers account before they will credit any of the funds to my account. The two mining claims are all I have from my father passing way last year. I am on a fixed Social Security Income and was planning on having the 5000 months ago.

Vincent of Miami, FL September 16, 2009

On 9/15/09 I joined PayPal and made a first purchase using them. I had linked a credit card to Paypal for payment. When I pushed the last button to purchase, Paypal popped up a message stating that since the order was over a 700+ amount, I would have to either register for their credit card or link a bank account (instead of credit card). I chose not to do this and cancelled my new Paypal Account (which was very difficult by the way).

The next morning I discovered that the order still went through. There was no way to cancel the order and get my money back. The purchase price was supposed to include a 98 Microsoft Bing (Live Search Cashback)rebate which I did not get because Paypal did not report the purchase to Microsoft Bing. The forced purchase of a 1235 dollar product (an ASUS Laptop Computer) I decided I did not want due to the obvious fraudulant actions by Paypal and the loss of a 98.20 discount.

Blaine of Grove City, OH September 15, 2009

Paypal suspended my account and kept my fund solely because they said I made too many complaints about them. I'm out about 200 so far and increasing daily. The following is part of the email they sent me:

"Every business must balance its exposure to risk with its business goals. At this time, we are not comfortable with the amount of risk your business exposes itself to. We would like to begin the process of ending our relationship in a manner that is least disruptive to your business. In addition, your related eBay account will remain closed due to this current PayPal action.

10.3 Actions by PayPal. If we have reason to believe that you have engaged in any Restricted Activities, we may take various actions to protect PayPal, eBay, a User, a third party, or you from Reversals, Chargebacks, Claims, fees, fines, penalties and any other liability. The actions we may take include but are not limited to the following:

We may close, suspend, or limit your access to your Account or the Services (such as limiting access to any of your Payment Sources, and your ability to send money, make withdrawals, or remove financial Information); We may contact buyers who have purchased goods or services from you, contact your bank or credit card issuer, and warn other Users, law enforcement, or impacted third parties of your actions; We may update inaccurate Information you provided us; We may refuse to provide our Services to you in the future; We may hold your funds for up to 180 Days if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability; and We may take legal action against you.

PayPal, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to terminate this Agreement, access to its website, or access to the Service for any reason and at any time upon notice to you and payment to you of any unrestricted funds held in custody for you."

Ken of Fairless Hill, PA September 11, 2009

I returned a printer to Office Max purchaced with my Paypal debit card. now Paypal tryed debit my card for 60.10 instead of crediting my account, I called Paypal and they insist it was a purchace not a refund, I called Office Max to verifiy the receipt I have in hand was indeed a refund like it says in bold print, they said there books balanced out and a refund was sent to may card, yet paypal says it was a purchace and there was no mistake.

Arda of Izmir, Turkey September 7, 2009

I bought a PC game last week from a seller that is registered to ebay UK. I paid 7.20£ including the shipping. The game arrived today and unlike the description of the game on ebay, the DVD was full of scratches. There was no way to install and play the game. I tried to contact the seller and the seller responded threatening me in someway.

I stopped the communication with the seller and tried to solve my problem through paypal. The answer they gave me was '' send back the game with a trackable service and then the seller will refund your money''. The trackable international shipping from Turkey to UK is already around 7£. What would change when I already spend that much money for sending the game back to the UK and they will refund my 7£?

Eric of Sonoma, CA July 21, 2009

An individual opened a phony Paypal account and tied my Wells Fargo Business account to this Paypal account. 5 days later, the individual transferred 3520.00 to the phony Paypal account. Fortunately, I logged in to my Wells Fargo online statement the day after, and saw the transaction. I had my bank put a hold on it and contacted Paypal, who told me that it is my problem and I should contact my bank. I had to call back a second time to get a claim number, and the are still in possesion of my money at this time, even though they know this to be a fraudulent transaction.

Vernon of Las Vegas, NV July 17, 2009

On 04/04/2009 I purchased a car GPS on eBay. GPS was shipped from Hong Kong. Received GPS 04/18/2009. Opened package. Appears all components ok. I was a little concerned as no Cd or drive included.GPS was already programed. I connected to the car and was unable to program in my address. Had a map of Las Vegas, but I could not route on the screen. Battery notice weak, then battery died. Running the car and driving around would not recharge the battery. I contacted the seller by email. He emailed me to programs to download on my computer which I did. Could not install the programs because computer could not recognizethe programs with out a CD or drive. Several emails between myself and dankefly in Hong Kong.

Finally, the seller told me if I returned the GPS he would replace or refund my money. I chose to take the refund. Sent GPS back to dankefly. I filed a dispute with Pay Pal, which was a waste of time.That company has over 100,000 claims against them for holding money, and hiding money. I filled out a form with Pay Pal as to how much money I was out. 95.00 for the GPS and 12.62 return mail to HongKong. Keep checking with Pay Pal but no money.

Pay Pals web pages are so miss leading when trying to find information. You take a complete tour to no place. I was sure everything was going to be alright. Wrong, I was out of town a few days and when I returned I found my dispute had expired and I did not file a complaint. Some people have to stay up all night to figure out all the trap doors to be included in their programs. After, I got burnt I checked on the internet. First time that I have dealt with them -- and the last. I checked with the San Jose BBB about Pay Pal. They have alot of complaints filed against Pay Pal.

Karon of alpharetta, GA July 15, 2009

I have had to jump thru hoops to get money paid on Pay Pal. But, they go and honor 'an electronic check' request from a vendor that did not have my permission to utilize my account AND THEY HONOR IT! Couldn't stop it, didn't try. Paid 60 to an unethical vendor

Iraz of Ankara, Turkey July 15, 2009

It is a common limited account problem since May,31 2009. Paypal both limited my account and my supplier account that I have sent money for the items that the customers paid for. And since the supplier could not be able to get the money, he could only send some packages because Paypal wanted 5 track numbers belonged to 5 customers. Although we did not get the money and Paypal holded this money, we just wanted to them to lift the limitation and made our money free. Anyway, with these track numbers, I have sent to them all the other necessary documents to restore my account. Guess what? Sure they did not restore my account and also did not refund the money that I have sent to my supplier, they all got that money for more than 1 month.

As you can guess, in that time,all other customers opened cases against me! It was all Paypal fault, not mine. Because of their fault, I have lost all the customers. I explained the situation to all, but they did not believe me since when they asked Paypal about it, Paypal had told them it was not true! Anyway, in the begining of July, after too many e-mails sent to them, they finally refunded that money to my account.And I immediatly refunded the customers money that did not receive any item from me.My account was still limited, I was only able to refund, nothing else.

It did not finish of course, other 5 customers that we have sent the goods to, learned that my account had limit due to some problems with Paypal. They immediatly moved and opened cases against me although they got the items! I could not be able to believe in this but it was true! I was going to loose both money and items! I could not do anything, all the cases were about ' not as described ' and Paypal agreed their cases. I called those customers but they did not answer me. I could not click resolve button since Paypal did not let me to do it or I could not send them massage in the same page of the case. All the cases were under investgation by Paypal and no action required by me. And when I wrote to Paypal about my account status, they replied me unless these cases was not closed, my account could not be restored. There was lot of money in my account seperate from those 5 customer's money. I also could not reach my own money.

After so many callings and e-mails to Paypal, I realized that I would never save my account and my own money without refunding those scamming customers. I wrote several massages about authorizing Paypal for refunding. And finally, 2 days ago, they refunded those 5 customers' money too. Guess what? Sure Paypal did not restore my account again! I was about to be mad. I called them again and again. They never helped me and told that it was their final decision for this limitation.

Yesterdat morning, I have got 2 e*mails from Paypal that my account has been restored but of course it was not. They officially play a game with our lives. They just apologized for this mistaken e-mails. It did not finish, they all tell me different things, some says it is out final decision about your account, some says we will review, some says they need extra info. And they also say that they will hold my money for 180 days in case of any chargeback! But I am telling them that there is no more customer that can chargeback or file a complaint since they ALL refunded, all! Now I filed my complaint nealry to everwhere and also to the laws here.

Dawn of Delano, MN July 14, 2009

I sold a printer on eBay (with a bonus of three brand new unused, still in the box, cartridges). I disclosed the exact condition it was in and was honest about it. I have a 100% feedback and have been using eBay for 9 years without a complaint. The buyer received the printer, and left positive feedback on June 6th: "It was an awesome buy. Just as they explained and very fast getting it."

On June 26th, they filed a dispute with PayPal (didn't contact me first) and said that the item "was not as described." I provided PayPal with a screen shot of the feedback left on June 6th. That should have been proof enough that the buyer used this printer until it broke and then decided they wanted their money back, but since I had a no refunds policy, they had to lie. So, PayPal said that the buyer would be refunded their money if they returned the printer. (PayPal had already pulled the funds out of my account as soon as the dispute was filed.)

I received the printer, minus the brand new cartridges, and of course, the printer was broken and not packaged carefully, like I had sent it. I had the option to appeal, so again, I sent PayPal my side of the story - the new cartridges had not been returned, the printer was broken, and it was obvious the printer had been used (how was that possible if it was broken when the buyer received it?).

PayPal completely ignored my appeal and said that "nce PayPal has made a decision regarding whether an item is significantly not as described, that decision is final and cannot be appealed." So apparently PayPal doesn't protect sellers from fraudulent buyers. I am so upset - they obviously didn't even pay attention to my side of the story at all. Who protects the sellers? Can PayPal be allowed to do this? I thought my transactions were protected from this type of fraud by PayPal. Obviously not.

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