1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Consumer Affairs


Is this your Business?

PayPal - Complaints from Sellers


Consumer Complaints & Reviews

500+ positive feedback rating seller. I sold a used cell phone package on eBay worth approximately $150.00+. The buyer started asking questions after they paid and the item had been shipped out. First of all, they opened an eBay account just to purchase this item from me. After they bid on the item, they emailed me to ask how they would pay for it. So we sent an email saying they should open a PayPal account. That is the best way to pay us (It usually is). No payment for a week! EBay's automatic system opened a non-payment dispute against the buyer. I was contacted by the buyer's sister who said she wanted to purchase the item, how could she do it (Really)!?

Okay, so another email was sent with instructions. All emails should always be sent through eBay so they can see the conversations (PayPal can see it too). They received the item, and didn't contact me after they did. So, after a few days, I left a positive feedback. Once I did this, they sent me an email saying they were returning the phone package and wanted their money back. I said fine, send it back and I will refund you your money back minus the shipping. They opened up a claim against me because I wouldn't refund them all of their money. PayPal is still holding my money, $31.50. Seriously, this is an open and closed case. The buyer clearly doesn't have a clue about basic life and internet principles. I am horrified that PayPal is dragging this dispute through the mud. It is only $30. Could you imagine if it was a few thousand? I will continue to use PayPal for my internet selling but I have started to look into other payment options. I think I may have to block all people with 0 buying feedback.

We have been doing business flawlessly with our customer for over six months since we started accepting credit cards. Unfortunately, they said we need to hold 20% of each transaction on hold and that after 30 days, "We will review your account and return some funds to you." The problem is they want to keep the money for 120 days without paying interest. Currently, they have over 5,000 USD, and the goods have been delivered and paid. The customers are happy. But they still hold the money. I called several times and they always gave me the same old story. I opened an account with PayJunction and Bank of America, and I am currently doing business with them. I took my business elsewhere. I recommend that you take your banking elsewhere.

I sold an item for $950 and the buyer deposited the full amount in my account within two days. As soon as I shipped the item, the buyer claimed he never ordered the item and refused to return it. PayPal put a hold on the $950 pending an investigation which dragged on for weeks. Even though I provided evidence that the item was delivered to the buyer, PayPal honored the buyer's claim and deducted the money from my account. To make things worse, PayPal reduced my account by an additional $50 for no reason.

I have sold an item for several hundred dollars last weekend. I was paid the day after the auction ended. PayPal put the fund on hold for 21 days. They may release them earlier if positive feedback was left by the buyer. They may release the funds 3 days after they have confirmed delivery of the item. I am a casual seller. I am not a business. I have a 100 % positive feedback rating. This is my money and PayPal has no right to put the funds on hold. This company appears to be totally out of control. If this practice isn't illegal, then it definitely should be.

We withdrew money from PayPal on the 15th and16th of April and still waiting for funds into our bank account. Thousands of other PayPal members have not received the funds either if they withdrew on the same days! This will probably total millions of dollars and needs to be investigated! Please help.

I joined PayPal in Jan 2012. Since I would like to boost my sales through website online shopping, I planned to use PayPal service base on friend's recommendation. My shopping online itself was under construction. I got the first payment from an international customer who suggested to use PayPal method but when I tried to withdraw the money partially, I got notification that my account has limitations. The first requirement is only four items that must be resolved. When 90% I submitted the supporting document and I made a phone call to ASPAC PayPal service in Singapore, I got unhappy service and the rep would like to transfer the phone to China because he cannot assist me with my case. Twice he tried to connect me to review division in China but failed and I didn't have any idea on how to continue what they required.

My money from customer was there and I already delivered the items which were on their way to USA. The problem I got is they keep asking for shipment evidence when I have already provided the tracking screen shot that the goods have already moved out from the Indonesian port to USA. Also, I've provided picture of shipping doc (not clear enough since I only got 2nd page of the copy of shipment), plus other requirements. How crazy service you have in treating new customers like me. I don't even plan to put your logo on my website if I could not solve this problem within a week and I will ask my customer to request his money back from PayPal due to I could not withdraw the money and tell him to send money to me via wire instead.

I also submitted my customer's letter to explain how I sold the product. I also got rate for international calculation for the money that I withdrew back to PayPal account. I lost about $8 without any solving good method to clear the problem. Any one having similar experience as this case? Let me know how I can close this case and what should I do to contact the right person? I need to call directly to US as main office of PayPal service because ASPAC service is no good at all. Thanks for reading my complaint.

PayPal took money for a genuine sale out of my account and refused to help me recover my goods. Item was sold in January 2012 via eBay. Payment was received via PayPal from the seller. Due to unfortunate alliance between the two, they are forcing you to use them and have to mooch your money twice. Seller was forced to take the item back, threatened/harassed for bad feedback. I did report to eBay - no recourse. The buyer opened a case with eBay to return the item with lame excuses. eBay investigated the case twice and decided in my favor that the sale was genuine and the transaction was all justified; thus, case closed.

After 3 months, PayPal took money from my account via my cc and paid the buyer. I did plead for umpteen times to PayPal that eBay, after multiple deliberations on this case, decided in my favor. So, PayPal doesn't have any right to go against eBay's decision and rip me off the goods and my $420. I have mailed and phoned both eBay and PayPal and they are recusing themselves, telling me that they are two different companies. Despite my genuine transaction, they have to oblige the cc by raping me off my money and goods, stating that they were not supposed to take loss. So, they passed it on to me. This is preposterous. I shall sue both eBay and PayPal to force them to return my goods in original condition, revert money taken from my account and pay me for damages for my time lost and mental anguish.

I sold a new pair of hearing aids to a customer. She said they didn't work and Paypal froze my account and took the money. They also gave the customer an incorrect address to return them to. I am now without the hearing aids and the money. They refused to do anything about it. Their value is depending on where they are purchased, up to $6000.00.

Funds held, reserve, closed account, won't release statements: I own a small business and have worked very hard to make sure that it became successful. I began using PayPal for the same reason many others like me did. I thought it was convenient and beneficial to the growth of my business. Unfortunately, after several years with PayPal and having stuck with them through some of their changes, I learned through investigating my problems with PayPal, that PayPal is licensed as a money transmitter. They are not regulated the same way banks are. This makes sellers and buyers vulnerable to PayPal.

My situation is horrific! Last year, PayPal suddenly placed a reserve on my account. I was not notified of any changes applied to my account until I attempted to use my PayPal debit/credit card and it was declined. Of course, I placed a call to PayPal to ask what was going on and why, and was transferred to a person who portrayed himself as "the god of PayPal", Patrick. I have to admit that I wasn't happy to hear that my account was placed in reserve, but I never yelled and became obnoxious like I wish now I would have.

I did tell Patrick that it is illegal to make changes to a money account without proper notification and that I would be seeking advice from my attorney. The inclination that I might follow through with what I said angered Patrick in a way that I had never experienced in the professional customer service industry. Patrick began yelling at me and told me that he could terminate my account if he wanted to, he could limit it and do pretty much anything he pleased.

As I attempted to humble myself to "the god" Patrick of PayPal, he said I just placed your account in limited status. What that did was prevent me from charging any of my customers and accessing my account with full capability. Within a short period of time, for reasons that the business had no control over, I began to see a negative growing balance with charge back after charge back. Many of these charge backs were from customers that only received items/service but had done so months prior and suddenly they were all at one time complaining about service.

I knew that something was wrong. I attempted to contact PayPal several times as I watched my account spiral out of control for the first and only time ever since opening my PayPal account. No one was able to help me but Patrick and Patrick did not return any of my calls, he did not send any e-mails and he would never pick up his line when transferred. I don't even have a record of the supposed customers that filed charge backs. I have no records period.

I have been blocked from accessing any information from my account with PayPal. I used PayPal to pay bills, make purchases for the business and send money. I have a skeleton record of account activity and need to access my monthly statements from 2010 and a partial of 2011, but have been denied time after time.

I need assistance in resolving this situation. I refuse to pay any money that PayPal claims that I owe because I have no knowledge as to who, what or how that happened. My business suffered a great deal because of PayPal and their representative, Patrick, but I am happy to report that despite their attempts to cripple my business, I am still in existence.

I would like anyone who remotely considers using PayPal to look elsewhere and for those that are currently using PayPal to not make yourselves completely dependent on PayPal. Set up an account with another processor that is regulated the same way banks are. This issue is not over for me. I will pursue this until my situation has been resolved to my satisfaction and PayPal is forced to change how they do business with sellers.

For a couple of months, I haven't been using my PayPal account. I still have some money on it. I wanted to enter it to change my credit card information as my credit card was stolen. PayPal is says, "We are currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures. Your account has been randomly selected for this maintenance, and you will now be taken through a series of identity verification pages." They ask me to enter my credit card info and that is the only option to proceed. I find it very inconvenient. I have been contacting them for at least 5 times in the last 2 weeks and I still got no answer. I am very dissatisfied and angry because my PayPal account is connected to eBay and I cannot buy or sell anymore. I would be very thankful if my complaint would change something. Thank you.

I got ripped off by a buyer and PayPal. I sold a Montblanc watch to a buyer in California for a price of $4,500. The item was delivered to the buyer two days after it was shipped. A few days later, the buyer filed a complaint with PayPal saying that he never received the item. Even though I have evidence that the item was delivered with a USPS tracking number, PayPal sided with the buyer since I failed to get a signature confirmation. Basically, PayPal took the buyer's word that the item was never received over my evidence that the item was received. The bottom line is I lost $4,500 and my watch because of PayPal's unfair and, in my opinion, unlawful rules.

PayPal put my money from my customer on hold. When I called and complained, they said they would release the money and never did. I have called back 10 times and now I just get the runaround. I talk to supervisors overseas and they tell me I already got a courtesy release and they will not do anything else for me. When I ask to talk to their supervisor, I'm put on hold for 30-45 minutes then disconnected. When they told me a supervisor would call back, they never do.

Man this "reserve" & "rolling reserve" policy is really affecting my business and forces me to go out of business if I don't seek another alternative merchant account. I run about $8,000 a week through PayPal. I have had my eBay and PayPal account for 4 years and I haven't had any customer complain about my products and my services. I've always kept 100% positive feedback. About a week ago, I got the below email from PayPal Merchant Risk Mitigation Specialist by name Peggy (just Peggy no full name).

"During a recent review of your PayPal account, the determination was made to apply a reserve to the account beginning today. A collateral amount of 25% has been set aside from your current available balance. Additionally, a rolling reserve will be set at 25% of the processed amount for each day, to be held for a 180 day rolling period beginning today. The decision regarding your reserves setting was based on the review of the risk exposure inherent to your account. A risk review is the evaluation of several factors related to an account, which include, but are not limited to, transactional activity, customer disputes, and type of business, credit attributes, delivery and customer satisfaction time frames. Reserves are monies that belong to you, but are set aside to ensure your account can cover transaction liabilities. You will be notified if your reserve settings are adjusted in the future."

It surprised a lot and I still can't believe that they have done this to me since I've always had good records and never had any claims, fines or penalties. So, I called the Mitigation Specialist "Peggy" (which she reminds me of a TV commercial for Discovery Card "my name is Peggy"). She couldn't give me any detail reasons why they put reserves on my account other than what she said on her original email. Since 25% is about twice my net profit I tried to reason with her if they could lower my rolling reserve. She was unsympathetic and insisted that she could do nothing about it but to put 25% reserve and rolling reserve. She told me that I have no choice but to accept that. I don't even know how they come up with the amount that "I have no choice but to accept".

On the PayPal User Agreement Section 10, under paragraph 10.5, Actions by PayPal Reserves I couldn't find anywhere that says any actual percentages other than "Account are held for a certain period of time, or that a certain amount of money is held in reserve" and "PayPal may change the terms of the Reserve at any time by providing you with notice of the new terms," which I know now after they put the reserves on my account and had the account for 4 years.

If they mentioned this 25% reserve and rolling reserve for 180 days on their "User Agreement," I would've never opened my merchant account with PayPal. I feel that PayPal has grown so greedy and they don't care anymore about their customers. They treat us like we and our businesses have no value to them and whatever we say doesn't matter to them.

I sold a $400 Monster Voltage Stabilizer in Jan 2012 where the item was shipped with USPS. The item sustained minor damage while in transit and buyer wanted credit (which I agreed to once I received the pics). I asked the buyer to send pics evidencing damage, which he did about 7 days later and then in between those 7 days, he decided to file a claim with Paypal and his credit card company on the basis that he did not receive the item. I provided the tracking number, which clearly reflected that the item was delivered and the buyer retracted his claim acknowledging the receipt of the item in multiple emails through eBay Messaging.

Paypal then closed the case ruling in the buyer's favor and disqualifying me for seller protection on the basis that the item was delivered without obtaining a required signature. I spoke with Paypal numerous times that I have emails from buyer, stating he has my item and even paperwork from the buyer's credit card company, that they sent the money back to Paypal in Feb 2012, but they refused to release my funds on the basis that they don't have my money and by law, they have to wait out 71 days before they can clear the charge back claim. Nearly 60 days later, funds are still missing and I have reps named Steve, Bob, and Anna from India telling me that I now have to wait 81 days.

I have two eBay and PayPal accounts. I had one and recently opened another. The funds I had are being withheld and I was misled that after 5 transactions, they would be released. I think it is illegal for them to withhold my funds.

PayPal has implemented a new "program" whereby they hold all sellers' funds for 21 days or longer. They indicate they will release the funds earlier under the following conditions:

1. The item is shipped with a tracking number and 3 days elapses from delivery with no buyer complaint or refund. Issue: some items ship first class mail inexpensively. To ship with a tracking number requires a more expensive shipping method which I either have to eat or pass on to buyers who are then more reluctant to bid due to shipping costs.

There are times that a buyer has paid for an item with shipping and after preparing the package, I am able to ship at a lower cost. If I refund my buyer the difference, it counts as a refund and PayPal considers it a problem and determines that a 30 day hold will be required on all items sold regardless of the fact that I was actually doing a good thing and received positive feedback.

2. The buyer posts positive feedback (Note: I have received 100% positive feedback). Issue: Some buyers do not post feedback. Some buyers will post negative feedback before giving the seller a chance to rectify what may be a very simple issue or misunderstanding which the seller can easily and very willingly fix. Despite the honest seller who did not intentionally do anything wrong making good on the issue, some buyers will not update the feedback to positive, and even if they do, the negative has been logged and the hold policy put in place.

3. The seller receives all five on the detailed ratings. Issue: Some buyers think they are doing a good thing by giving ratings at just above average. Some do not believe in perfection and won't give it. Some buyers never indicate they were less than completely satisfied to allow the seller to improve their experience. Some buyers will give a low rating on shipping time when they were aware of the average shipping time of the carrier, even though the seller may have sent the package out as soon as payment was received.

Additionally the new policy states that funds to pay for shipping purchased through eBay/PayPal will be released. What I soon discovered is that first, you must pay for it yourself and then they will release an amount equal to what is used. This then requires the transfer of released funds to your checking account to reimburse for shipping. This process of transfer takes about 3-4 days. For the "Power Seller" with plenty of funds, this may not be an issue but for the average Joe or Jane, I'm selling because I need the money and the shipping was expected to come from the sale proceeds.

I am unclear as to how, with 111 feedback and a 100% positive rating, I find my funds held. How much better must I be in order to remove these holds? In short, PayPal's process for determining hold times is based on factors sometimes completely out of the seller's control, and completely arbitrary factors. As a money transmitter, they are holding my funds. If this were a bank, I would simply change banks. This is, however, PayPal a service which eBay sets up in many ways to be the only viable payment method. They do say we can use certain other methods, but those methods require a seller to purchase a "merchant account". The cost of this is prohibitive for those sellers such as me who are not truly merchants per se.

I sold a widget on eBay, transaction date was March 11, 2012. This wasn't my first sale on eBay, I have 100% positive feedback and no chargebacks. Anyway, PayPal froze my money for 21 days according to their reply to my complaint. I emailed their support and received a standard email that listed all possible reasons for holding my money, none of which applied to me. I will check with them after the 21 days, but don't have high hopes. This is ridiculous.

Earning millions holding money when should it be released - Hold money despite items being received and positive buyer feedback. It's a scam to increase their earnings and cash flow. They pay no interest on money.

Money is put on hold for 21 days unless positive feedback is received and/or delivery confirmed. I met both requirements on March 15th, but my money was not released a day later on March 16th. I called customer service and they released the money immediately. It should have been done the day before. They also put shipping fee part on hold, which makes it impossible to ship an item to buyer unless I pay from out of pocket. Is it even legal?

I sold an item and the auction ended 2/13/12. I shipped the item on 2/14/12. The buyer posted positive feedback on 2/16/12, no problem whatsoever. PayPal is withholding my money for up to 21 days because of some new policy. I looked for the policy on eBay to see what's going on. I did not see it on eBay anywhere. I looked on PayPal and found it hidden under the policy section (fine print). I emailed PayPal asking what was going on, this is not right. They said in a robotic type statement it's a policy and you have to sell over $250 in 90 days to get out of it. I told them I didn't see anything on eBay because I would not have posted the auction. I told them that they tricked me. How do you put a policy on the back end of the transaction? You don't go to PayPal until the auction is over to learn they are holding the money. I also asked how they, PayPal, took their end of the transaction when the transaction was not yet completed. eBay was sending me invoices for the auction, but I still have not been paid. I emailed PayPal 3 times until they just would not answer anything back.

I called eBay customer service, and they rudely hung up on me the first time. I called back and received the same they don't care and there is nothing you can do about it' attitude. I told them their policy might not be legal. I then told them how I thought they tricked/trapped me by not posting the policy on eBay and billing me (taking money) for services not rendered. I asked to talk to the manager to tell everyone I can about the problem. She said she cannot get the money faster and I will be waiting till the 24th, or so. Well, today is the 25th and I still have not received payment for the item. I did not at any time resort to cussing, insulting, or not trying to resolve this in a civil manner. I did try to gain some kind of sense of why they are doing this. Do they not want people to sell on eBay anymore? PayPal took a good smooth 3-day transaction and made it absolute nonsense. I have 72 100% feedback. The only thing I could come up with is they are trying to make interest on the money. In conclusion, today is 2/25/12, I still have not received any payment from the sale. I did just send in another email to PayPal asking what I had to do. Thanks for reading, everyone.

Even though the item was delivered, eBay is using their subsidiary, PayPal, to withhold my funds which do not belong to them. Also, during the time the funds are being held, they do in fact take their own fees out of the withheld funds. I did not sign up for any type of escrow yet they are forcing an escrow type funding upon me.

My wife opened a new PayPal account to transfer money to our bank account in Mexico and they block her account. Then she calls an asked why. They said that she needs to provide some information and a phone number, but my mom doesn't have phone number in Mexico. Then she tried to send the money back to me as a refund and they limited the account. Now, they limited my account and they are asking us for IDs and proof that we are who we are or they will hold the money for 180 days.

Anyway, I called them and even though I provided them with my information over the phone, they still want me to send my picture ID and other personal information. Who are these people and what can I do to close the PayPal account and get my money back? I need an advice.

I sold an item back in October and received the payment through PayPal. I shipped it promptly (have the receipt). 3 months later, I was informed there was a chargeback because the buyer's card was overcharged. So? I received the correct amount and she has received the item. Actually, she emailed me saying she was also charged the correct amount. If there was no problem from my end or the buyer's end, this is obviously a scam by PayPal who is now charging me for an item I sold! When you call them they only say it's already been disputed and the credit card won, even though I proved everything in my end. They make you feel helpless and threaten to send you to a collector even though you were the seller! There must be a way or a class action lawsuit going on to make justice.

I sold my laptop on eBay, which I wont use eBay ever again. They charged me $55 to list my item, so I'm done with eBay as well. Then the buyer sent funds to Paypal, who charged me $18.00 to transfer my funds, and they were paid. But they told me I cannot have the funds for 21 days, so it cost me $75.00 to sell my laptop, and I didn't get my money for almost a month. How is this legal? The answer is, it isn't.

But justice comes at a cost and it's for those who can afford it. I cannot! So, I'm finished with Paypal now as well. I have been a customer with both for over 15 years , but I don't do business with criminals.

How can the Government not get actively involved. This is Fraud on a major scale, PayPal is a payment processing service. That's it, it's even listed on their Business registration, holding money for 180 Days, what? PayPal held my funds and suggested that if were to use their shipping service (which I wasn't) that my payments might be released sooner, sound like something Al Capone would do when your trying to weasel someone out of his money, same deal different times, they've just been more politically correct "which just means your doing something illegal." PayPal is not moral or ethical and needs to be brought before an ethics committee to decide whether they will be allowed to continue in business, they are not making money off the interest, they are using your money to expand their business model, since when does any "Payment Processing Service" hold anyone's money let alone for 180 days. Not even for 10 days, the attorney general needs to be notified of what's going on here.

Here's another solution? Don't ship until you've been paid, that means your funds have been released to you. PayPal can not afford to have that happen, if you walked into a store and bought something and the CC company told the store "We will release funds to you in 21 days" how long do you think that store would accept that CC "Don't ship until you have tour money. PayPal is a scam of huge proportions.

After having already closed my girlfriend's account and making us wait 180 days to claim our $1600.00 because we live together and obviously that justifies their claim of linked accounts.(Couples can't have PayPal.), I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau due to their gross mistreatment involving a dispute I filed on a seller who sent me a damaged good. After siding with me, eBay closed my case and then didn't return my funds.

On the 11th of February, I received a response from PayPal's corporate office in regards to my complaint with the BBB. It was false and incomplete. 30 minutes later, I received 2 emails saying my account was limited until I provide needed info. Needed info? I'm a preferred member who has done business with them for years. They wanted to know what I was purchasing and from whom.

I provided them the info and replied back to their corporate office demanding an explanation! I even threatened to sue for punitive damages. 15 minutes later, I received an email stating I was a risk and we must part ways, which we would do in a manner that would not be harmful to any business I was conducting. They stole my money, saying Id get it back after 180 days or I could refund it. So should I let them have 180 days of interest-free money that belongs to me? No! I refunded it and apologized to my buyers. I also removed PayPal from my website. But now, I'm stuck with buyers who can't receive their items because I can't pay suppliers who reside in China when all they accept is PayPal!

Ebay forces you to list with only PayPal as a payment provider. They charge you to list a fee when you sell, a fee for the shipping costs, even to receive payment. They make sellers wait 21 days to receive their funds. And they can freeze your account and funds at any time without just cause. They are a monopoly of the worst kind and need to be regulated by our federal government. It's bad enough the BBB is in bed with them!

Complaint I had filed. Please contact me if you have had problems with this company or eBay. Let's stand together to fight them. Power of the people.

I'm writing you in regard to the methods and the ways PayPal treat honest sellers that use their service. I'm highly agitated by their procedures in resolving my issue and their method of acting as an escrow agent by holding seller's funds claiming that it is for the buyers protection. But even after the buyer receives the item and also leaves positive feedback, they still continue to hold the funds. I can fully understand that PayPal wants to protect the buyers and I have no problem with that until the seller is proven that they are a legitimate seller.

But the problem that does concern me is how they treat the sellers. I have called them dozens of times, to be precise 4 hours 38min in a three-week period to no end and their customer service center agent literally laughed at me. And the end result is them hold my funds for 180+ days. I had did a web search with Consumer Affairs and read hundreds of problems that PayPal has caused to honest sellers like the guy that sold some gold coins and the buyer had scammed him and PayPal to the end result of the buyer receiving a refund and kept the coin and the seller was out both.

In my case, I had sold several items for a business as a trading assistant on eBay and I didn't have a problem with the hold until the buyer received the item because I realized the account was new and had explained this to the seller. But then, they put an account is limited on my account and the funds were frozen. So I had refunded the customers and had requested a check for the item in which some had and now I'm out close to $400. The reason why I had refunded them was because they were going to hold the money in the limited account for 180 days and then I had to file a request after that only to jump through more hoops.

In the meantime, the business that I had sold the items for want their money which is not unreasonable on their behalf. But the problem is that I'm on disability from the military USS Boulder LST 1190 Little Creek, VA and I'm on a fixed income. And I'm a single parent that receives no child support from his mother. But that neither here or there. I have tried to work with them to the best of my ability to no resolve except to their of the holding the money for 180 days (please read my emails and complaints attached).

In my opinion and from what I have read about escrow, this holding period is just a way that PayPal holds the seller's funds not mainly for the buyer's protection but for the simple reason of the interest that accumulates over time even though it seems like a very little amount for me if you compound the hundreds of thousands of sellers if not millions. The accumulation of funds would be in the millions of dollars. And the most interesting point here is their verification process. When you join as a seller, you need to be verified and such in which I have no problem and I had done it but since I live in the country, I don't have a landline phone. Only a government provide cell phone because a landline call out is long distance and you cannot verify a cell phone. I had done the mail in address method and the others. But the account was still limited.

The other method is to apply for a PayPal credit card and you will be verified instantly. My main concern here is that if a person such as a scammer is to open an account to steal from people on eBay, as such he/she would be intelligent enough to do identity fraud and he/she would have a perfect credit score and would in turn be able to open the account and therefore have a verified PayPal account to perform illegal activity. And in turn, PayPal would be an accessory to the crime by allowing such a verification methods.

Furthermore, PayPal, which is owned by eBay, forces the seller to use PayPal as the main payment form and doesn't allow the buyers to send payment by check. In these payment methods, PayPal acts like an escrow and from what I have read, an escrow service cannot be part of the transaction company eBay because they need to have no motive means in the transaction and in this case is the holding of the seller's funds for the simple reason that I had mentioned above interest in said money. They (eBay) had covered this issue by the lawsuit that was filed in California and a settlement of $9.5 million was concluded which is a drop in the bucket, so to speak, because both companies cannot be sued again for the illegal practice in California.

But in my opinion, the customer call centers should be in fact be held liable for said actions due to intentionally misleading their customers and not resolving the issues at hand and the end result is the 180-day hold on the seller's funds. I realized that you may think I'm making a big deal about this but if one doesn't stand up and help resolve issues at hand, they will continue to do it. I believe that eBay and PayPal should pay interest on whatever funds that are held on a seller. Furthermore, the verification process be more secure for their customers and the seller has the option for mailed in payments.

I also know that selling on eBay is an option but it is a public service that was established as a small community values outlet for the average person that have items to sell I believe that was their logo when they started. I believe what is going on now is they mainly want larger businesses to conduct business instead of the little guy because they don't need the money right away like myself and they are willing to leave the funds in PayPal. This way, PayPal and eBay make money on the interest like I mentioned earlier. In my opinion, eBay and PayPal should not allow the small guy to sell period on their site because of the way they treat them.

In closing, I respectfully request that an investigation take place to look into this practice of the interest of frozen funds and assets and that some type of committee be established to further assist people that do in fact have legitimate arguments and complaint on the holding of funds. Furthermore, if it is legal to file suit against PayPal customer service center or eBay's call centers that are in fact doing business outside the state of California and have a DBA in said state but represent eBay or PayPal, that this lawsuit information be available to the general public on the Federal Trade commission website.

After years as a 100% FB and no complaints or charge backs, I received the letter that my funds would be withheld. I filed complaints with the NC Attorney General and the NC Banking Commission. My hold was removed before I had received word of the complaints from either agency. With all the pressure on eBay/PayPal, they are trying to quell things quickly without any real notice. My problem is that they admitted no wrong doing, followed the user agreement but was in good faith removing my hold and that my complaint needed no further action. With the banking commission, I was given "actual reasons for the hold to be started." But I am finding false information in their reasons and will try to follow up on these.

I wish I had another source to sell through but eBay/PayPal holds all the cards and there is none. I buy only what I cannot find elsewhere and ask sellers to accept other forms of payment or complete the deal outside of eBay. A large amount are doing that very thing. We can only scream, fight and take any actions to hurt eBay. I have given information to news agencies and hope someone will try to give the true story. I will not give up and quit but neither will I do anymore than necessary to feed the pockets of eBay/PayPal or as I chose ePrey/PreyPal. The small individuals made ePrey/PreyPal and it is us who must take them down. Take all legal actions you can as an individual to inflict pain on their greed.

Twice in six months PayPal and eBay have decided to put payment holds on my account both time for no reason. I have followed all their rules and jumped through all their hoops. First time they did it, they warned me in advance that they were going to randomly select us, not quite sure how that is random if they emailed me in advance. Anyway, it took three months of waiting for the hold to lift even though I have 100% positive feedback and have sold over 300 items over the course of seven years. And now again, for no reason at all, they put a hold on me again! Not one bad feedback! No issues at all with my seller account!

Why is this allowed? If I took something from the store and walked out and stated that they would get their money in 30 days I'd get locked up! Why isn't anyone locked up, the thieves over at eBay and PayPal. They are the same company for those that didn't know and best yet, they make interest from the money they hold and they get to keep that too! So my question is this, if so many people are complaining, why hasn't a lawyer filed a suit yet? And if one does, put me in! It's funny how most of the names on this site of people complaining sound either minority or foreign. My name is Tamika. I'm black. It must make me a thief, right, PayPal/eBay?

For the second time this year, Ebay and Paypal are withholding my funds because "they say" 3 buyers, in the last 3 months, rated me low on the item not as described star rating feedback system. I sell old salvaged vintage tools and handmade craft items. I put accurate descriptions in my listings. I put disclaimers in my listings and I urge buyers to contact me with any questions they may have. Usually I list the vintage tools and machines I sell as for parts only or to refurbish. I put in the listing whether or not it works, condition, etc. Some buyers may be my competition, having a bad day, or just made a mistake. EBay's anonymous rating system makes it very easy for other sellers to get rid of their competition. Some buyers may rate me low because I turned them in as a no paying buyer. I received 1 negative comment due to listing my handmade crafts as new. If I just made them and just listed them, aren't they new? For some categories, there are only 2 choices on the listing template: new or used.

Ebay does not check to see if the buyer, who marked me down on item not as described, asked me any condition questions. These ratings that buyers can leave against sellers are anonymous, so I have no way to defend any low star rating I get. I've been selling on eBay and other online venues since 2002. I have well over 700 plus positive feedbacks on EBay (actually more because they set everyone back when they revamped the feedback system). I also run a small service business. I have instructed all my clients not to pay me through PayPal, as a result of their randomly limiting my ability to access to my own money. Why PayPal thinks they can limit my ability to collect fees for services I supply, I do not know! They do not have anything to do with my service business. I have also taken PayPal off my other online selling sites as a way for buyer's to pay for items.

I will use Google check out, or take our clients' payments ourselves. Why Ebay and Paypal want to lose good customers, and that is what I am, is beyond me. My eBay and PayPal fees are always paid. I am an honest business person, and still they want to treat me as a second class citizen. I am not going to use my own money to pay for buyer's shipping, when they have already paid for the shipping fee. When the buyer gets an invoice from me on the amount they owe for an item or service, the invoice is broken down by item/service price and the shipping cost, etc. When they pay for the item/service, using this invoice, they are entering into a legally binding contract with me. If anyone alters this legally binding contract, they are breaching our contract. How can Ebay and Paypal continue to get away with this?

I sold a gold coin in eBay. The buyer pay at PayPal at first. After the buyer get the gold coin from me, the buyer fill unauthorized payment at pay-pal. So, the PayPal charge my money back from my PayPal account to the buyer, and make the decision in the buyer side. Thus, I lost the gold coin. I check the buyer (The buyer :Tadashi B. ** and email : **) feedback that the buyer did the same as before as cheat sellers. I ask the buyer to return my gold coin back if the buyer don't need. The PayPal never ask me more details and make false decision. I just want my gold coin back or return money to my account.

I can approve any document to you to against PayPal. According PayPal seller protection policy, the buyer abuse the buyer policy .Why PayPal favorite the cheated buyer?

I shipped a phone to a customer in Russia, using first class international mail, which had tracking information, which is only known in the US, and not in Russia. The person complained, after 30 days, that they never received their phone. PayPal sided with the buyer immediately in the dispute process, before I could have the Russian Post properly get back to me, as to where the item was. The buyer never provided any proof of looking into it. The buyer never said anything about the Russian Post, and got his money back, stripping my account negative, and losing all sales right after that, because of the negative balance, at the time I need the money most.

PayPal is a bunch of haters, so I reported them to the BBB, and the Attorney General. I went to **, and found the CEO's fax number, and sent a letter to Scott Thompson, who has not responded. I reported them to the FTC, and countless fraud watching sites online. Next, I am contacting the media. The only response I received, was for the the Attorney General in San Jose, who sent a letter that they are contacting PayPal and have received numerous complaints.

The people can take this company down. Stop using their service and get a Money Bookers account, to receive and make payments. Also, you really don't need PayPal for everything. Some sites allow you to use Amazon check out, and Google check out. I am getting ready to send a letter to Amazon and Google, and hope they crush their competition, and gain insight and advantage against PayPal's useless ways. eBay is to blame too.

I had two eBay sales where the buyer paid me through PayPal. Both were delivered and there have been no complaints. PayPal has put a hold on my funds and will not allow me to withdraw these funds. They said they are holding them for 180 days.

I sold four items through eBay auctions, which were won by a single buyer on 1/2/12. I received payment for same, and promptly forwarded the gift card information through eBay's so-called secure messaging system, as was the specified delivery method in my listings. On 1/24/12, I received an email from PayPal, indicating that my account had been debited $309, the total amount I received from the sale, as the buyer had filed a charge-back with his credit card company.

I immediately submitted proof of delivery of the gift cards, by uploading the correspondence between me and the buyer to PayPal's Resolution Center, however they've refused to reverse the debit of my PayPal account. My account now has a negative balance, and because PayPal has refused to allow me to close my account, or remove my financial information, the only way to prevent the company from debiting my personal bank account is to close it, and open a whole new account. I am in the process of exploring any legal avenues available to me, in order to resolve this matter.

I am longtime PayPal and eBay user in good standing. I identified items to sell on eBay and got about 90 orders in a little over 24 hours totaling about $40,000. Items were being drop-shipped which is permitted on eBay. PayPal noticed the large order volume and suspended my account without notice or review. Their action caused eBay to also close my account.

All of my purchasers got "security notices" from eBay and I got a lot of hate e-mails and even some threats. I refunded all of the money to all of the customers. PayPal refuses to open my account again and same with eBay. I never did anything wrong. The only thing that called their attention to me was that I had a lot of orders for my products. This is my livelihood and now I have no way of supporting myself and earning a living.

In addition, before this incident, I had 100% satisfaction rating and was a Top Seller. PayPal says they have no evidence that I did anything wrong but they are doing this anyway because the User Agreement says they can. I am at my wits end now over how I am going to pay my bills and keep a roof over my head!

When paying on PayPal, the new system states that they will automatically draw fund from your alternate account (credit card) if your bank account has insufficient funds. This is completely false and misleading! What they don't tell you is that with overdraft protection, the funds will be withdrawn regardless of available funds and regardless of overdraft fees.

After speaking with PayPal, the rep said I could select in the beginning of the transaction to draw funds from the other accounts. Well, this was confirmed after I found the tiny small blue word (change) at the end of one of the sentences at the top. What they couldn't explain was the misleading description of their billing process and webpage changes that accomplished nothing other than fraud.

This is not an automated system, if insufficient funds are in the account! What is automated is the withdrawing funds regardless of account status if the account is protected with overdraft coverage and the bank is willing to send funds. Beware all!

As you probably know, I have been a business owner for 10 years, and receiving orders through this website for two years using PayPal. The last four months, I have never seen such a lax attitude by PayPal to investigate theft. This statement is in response to PayPal not investigating theft occurring from my customers' bank accounts. Starting in July customers ordered products through my website, money was deducted from their bank accounts and no money was received into my account. What ended up happening is customers are bitching at me and not at PayPal's responsibility to investigate the missing funds. All last names have been withheld for privacy. Starting with Mr. Herman K. I received an order for one bottle of my industrial strength natural air freshener. After sending an e-mail to PayPal asking why no money was received in my account, they stated that we can find no transaction of this occurring. Thinking it was a spoof e-mail, I dismissed it. Then again on August 24th, I received another e-mail from PayPal stating one two oz. bottle of Scott's Hawaiian Multipurpose First Aid Liquid. Once again I contacted PayPal about this transaction and they gave me the same reply. No transaction of this occurred.

Anyway, Ms. Claudian Y. started calling me by phone about this transaction. I thought if this was a spoof e-mail order, surely the person would not confront the issue. So I asked her to contact PayPal, and once again PayPal said it was a clerical error. Then Ms. Charlene M. contacted me about one gallon of Scott's Hawaiian 4 in 1 Multipurpose Spray. She was told by PayPal that my account was unverified. If this is true, how come I have been receiving hundreds of dollars in transactions over the past year through this account? What has happened is sometime during July, my PayPal account stopped receiving funds from my customers. By October I finally removed all PayPal buttons from my account and replaced them with Google checkout buttons. I suspect that somewhere in PayPal's system, the code has been hacked, re-directing the funds into another bank account. Shame I had to figure this out and not PayPal.

PayPal refuses to investigate my customers' missing funds, and in part, has hurt the reputation of my business. But most of all the major disservice PayPal has done was to lose trust in their customers. Trust that for many years worked for my business has now had to be removed due to their failure to investigate this theft. In doing so, I hereby find it no surprise that the current Occupy Wall Street Campaign that is so far (as of October 4th) starting to spread to cities across the U.S.A. comes as no surprise as a corporation as large as PayPal has been a total failure to address this issue over the past 4 months. This is just one example that the corporate system is clearly serving the needs of their investors and not maintaining fair business practice across its spectrum of operations.

Total outstanding charges: $111.00, which has been stolen from my customers and has not been deposited into my account so I can ship their items. Clearly this money is going somewhere, but yet, PayPal refuses to investigate this matter. I did the right thing. I contacted PayPal. My customers and in the end fired PayPal from my website, and most of all I am informing all future customers by publishing this incident for all future customers of mine to read and judge for themselves PayPal's irresponsibility. I'm one for giving business their freedom; however, when you get so big and start ignoring misuse of trust such as this, surely some sort of oversight is necessary. PayPal boasts 91 million customers. All this power with no independent commission overseeing such a large number of daily transactions or investigating disputes. What has happened here?

Scott **. Owner of Mightyz.

On Dec. 2, 2012 PayPal initiated an investigation for 3 transactions (same buyer for all transactions). They froze my funds and asked for shipping information. I submitted the info as well contacted them to find out what was going on. The lady agent stated she wanted to make sure the buyer received her orders even though the buyer did not open an investigation. I contacted the same day and she stated she received the first 2 November orders and was still waiting on the 3rd. Since PayPal froze the account I stopped shipment on the 3rd order (could not withdraw the funds). I shipped the order because the funds were in my PayPal account.

A few weeks later Payday reversed all 3 transactions. No explanation given. I contacted PayPal and was told by a lady that the charges were reversed because I did not ship to China. The buyer on her order form listed a USA address as her ship address. I called again and was told that the buyer did not receive her items. I stated I had emails to prove otherwise. The lady then stated there was nothing PayPal nor I could do because I was not protected under the Buyer Protection.

I do not see how that applies as the lady received her first 2 orders and she would have received the 3rd order except I cancelled that order since I would not withdraw the funds from PayPal. I called yet again and spoke with another agent. This agent implied the buyer used a fraudulent credit card. I asked for contact number of the card company so I could contact them and the agent the info was private. I stated I would file a police report and needed to know if the buyer used a stolen/fraudulent credit card and the agent stated I needed a subpoena. Now, PayPal expects me to pay for the reversed transactions but they refuse to tell me why they initiated the investigation or what evidence was used. On their website it specifically stated you can ask to review the evidence but they want release stated that the information is private. How much sense does that make?

I suspect there is no evidence and that PayPal just trumped up the whole thing so they can rip people off. The buyer stated she could not refund the payments and PayPal froze her account for 180 days.

Now, a few weeks later I started receiving calls from PayPal internal collections representative. I explained my situation, and then asked where is the evidence to show I owe you money and here are the responses I received. The buyer did not receive her items; it looks suspicious for the Chinese buyer sending me, an American, thousands of dollars (well, she ordered thousands of dollars worth of product). My responses were there is nothing in the User Agreement that stated you had to ship to address on the payment receipt. There is nothing in the UA that states you can only receive a certain amount of money sent to you. It was not like the buyer was just sending me money. She was paying for product that she stated she received.

Now this was the most information I was able to get thus far so I called back and was transferred to the fraud dept. I spoke with a male agent for well over 40 minutes and he finally stated the money was refunded because it looked suspicious that the items were sent to a USA address as opposed to China. I do not ship to China and the buyer was fully aware of that and listed a USA ship address on the order form she submitted. I was then transferred to a supervisor, another 40 minutes of explaining the situation. This agent stated the funds were reversed back to the buyer because there was some concern of where the buyer received the funds to pay for the orders she placed with me. The agent was not willing to give me any details regarding what provoked PayPal to open an investigation; however, he did confirm that the buyer nor the credit card filed a complaint against me. What a relief.

I sent countless emails and have filed complaints with the BBB and the Cal. Attorney General. PayPal finally responded to the BBB complaint with a generic statement alleging there was some fraud and that they could not release the information I requested. They also had the shipping numbers mixed up, which made the matter worse as it appears they are now lying in their formal complaint responses. I replied to the email and am waiting on a response. My questions to PayPal still are: why did PayPal initiate the investigation and what evidence was used to make the decision to reverse the transactions? As you can see there is no fraud going on. The buyer paid for orders via PayPal. PayPal placed the funds into my PayPal account. I withdrew the funds to cover the cost of the items. I shipped the items to the address listed on the buyer's order form. Buyer received the items and sent email confirmations that she received the items and that she told PayPal she received the orders.

PayPal should be investigated and charges should be filed against them in a court of law for what they are doing. I am hopeful justice will be served one day and those in leadership will be jailed for their criminal behavior. If you have not filed complaints with the San Jose BBB as well as the California Attorney General do so today. Regardless of how long ago you were victimized by PayPal.

I have a major problem with PayPal. They charged my credit card and my bank for the same things and those accounts are the same. The bank charged me $25 for each transaction and so far, I owe the bank $175 in fees. When I ask them to stop the payments or use a different card, they tell me they cannot do anything because they are using a system that basically acts like an irreversible robot, it is a dead end transaction once I make it.

They got me so mad this morning. I just canceled all my bids on eBay because I am through with PayPal after I finish making my payments. My bank waived $50 for me so that the next time they try to take money for the checks that had already bounced do not bounce again. A representative from PayPal told me to borrow money from friends to deposit into my bank account to cover my fees because they will try to withdraw money for those checks again. I think this is ridiculous.

I just received an email saying Paypal is holding my payments for 21 days as I may be a risk..blah,blah, like above. I agree they are holding monies & accumulating interest off of our money, but they take out all the fees on time.

I just started an Etsy shop & set up a Paypal account. I'm a single mom with health problems & Etsy is a way for me to try to make an income from home. I recently had a good sale day (a one-time vintage valuable) & I turned around & shopped for hours using Paypal with those funds as I need stuff. Thankfully, all of those payments went through, but now this email!

The fact that you cannot reach customer service by the phone or email, contact the link on their site is a first indication of noncompliance. I believe this all falls under the legality of non disclosure & it is illegal! Now I (we) need to find out how to handle it. I told them to send me my $85 balance in a check by mail within 7-10 working days as promised when I entered the agreement with them. Any suggestions?

I have used PayPal for many years and haven't had an issue until recently. I ordered a pair of boots from a website. I had done my research, however once the order was placed and I received a confirmation email with a different email address, when I Goggle that email address it came back as a scam. And when the package was delivered, it wasn't a pair of boots, it was a reusable shopping bag. I right away filed a complaint with PayPal (in November). They contacted the seller, gave me an address in China to send the package back to.

I did everything that I was instructed to do, uploaded plenty of evidence and yesterday, they closed my case because they couldn't confirm delivery. Of course, they couldn't confirm delivery because the seller wouldn't accept the package. For me, I'm only out around $37.00 bucks but to have them take all the evidence and close the case is crap and shows that they support the scammers out there. And the sad thing is, plenty of people have been scammed by this same website and PayPal is still processing their payments.

My problems with PayPal include the fact that they are trying to permanently restrict my access to their payment processing services when I have been a loyal, dedicated and profitable customer for them since 2003. I have also used the services of their parent company (eBay) since 2003. I am also upset that they have frozen the funds in both of my accounts. I will not quit my complaints and legal fight with the company until they concede and allow me to use their services again.

I am in a difficult position because their company owns a virtual monopoly in the payment processing sector. My livelihood and eBay sales depend on having the ability to use PayPal as a payment processor. Additionally, I also sell sports tickets on Stubhub (also an eBay owned company), and PayPal is the preferred payment processor for this company as well. Nobody at PayPal seems willing to give me a second chance and I am outraged that they can take such a stance.

I am demanding to have access to their service ASAP, otherwise I will be pursuing a lawsuit against the company and I will encourage all of my friends, acquaintances, business contacts, and social networking contacts never to do business with the company again due to my negative experience with the company. Many other individuals have had extremely negative experiences with PayPal as well. We are all put into a difficult position due to the monopoly-like nature of their market position and eBay ownership of the company.

I will continue to fight Paypal legally until the company restores full access to both my Premier & Personal accounts. I have been in contact with multiple Supervisors and even a gentleman (Trevor) from Paypal's Executive Escalations team. I have sent out a letter to Paypal's Legal Department which they will receive by tomorrow. I have been a loyal customer since 2003 (both of Paypal & its parent company eBay). They have unfairly characterized me as an excessive risk to their company when I know for a fact that I would not present any significant risk to them if I were to be given a second chance with the company.

There's a new PayPal deceit. Join their Bill Me Later service and you will save $5 on this purchase and take 6 months to pay for it. You have to click the button on the EBay web page then sign up for the service which dings your credit, of course. Then you will get the bill but not $5 and not 6 months to pay. "Well, we didn't see anything about you signing up for a special order!" Crooks. Now I have to pay my bill, cancel the account and live with the hit to my credit score.

After 2+ years of selling on eBay from time to time and having nothing but the best feedback from all buyers, I just received an email stating that: 'We reviewed your account and determined that there's a relatively higher than average risk of future transaction issues (such as claims, or charge backs, or payment reversals). We understand that it may be inconvenient to have your payments temporarily held but please know that we didn't make this decision lightly".

If PayPal had Actually reviewed my account, this would not have happened. I think this is just a way for PayPal to earn interest on subscriber's money, just like a bank does, to earn income themselves.

I had a customer in Canada who bought a diamond bracelet from me. She wanted me to falsify the customs paperwork to state the value at $100. I told her I could not do that before I shipped. $42.95 shipping with insurance. She paid $35.95 and I paid the rest. When it got there, she refused it because there were customs fees. Then she contacted Paypal and opened a case against me saying she didn't receive it.

They froze my accounts leaving a negative balance of $1735.95. I called and wrote emails to Paypal explaining that I didn't have bracelet, but they sided in her favor anyway. They not only gave her the $1699.99 she paid, but the $35 shipping as well. On top of that, they charged me an additional $61.06 processing fee. The package is still in Canada. I had to put a trace on it through the post office. None of this is my doing. I made it perfectly clear to her that I would not falsify documents before I shipped.

Paypal is withholding funds. People, please read this. Don't ship until you've been paid. Paypal cannot afford to have this happen. If they hold your funds, don't ship.Inform Paypal of your intentions and inform the customer. This will stop Paypal from holding funds but it won't work unless you do it.

I want this thread to be a place for sellers of the community to let PayPal hear just how badly we are hurting because of the new payment holds policy. This policy is especially poorly designed for sellers of services. Those who, like myself, sell services instead of goods have no tracking numbers or delivery confirmations, which PayPal is treating as the only proof of exchange. Thus, my payments are almost assured to be on hold.

So here's what I want to say to PayPal:

Some of us make a living selling goods and services. I can't afford to have my payments on hold for 21 days and to have my account "reevaluated every 35 days", a statement that is vague and unhelpful to me. This is ridiculous. How would you feel if your employer said, "Sorry, but we're going to hold your paycheck indefinitely until we arbitrarily decide the customer is satisfied, based on factors that are often out of your control."

Let me give you an example of how this policy is flawed in practice. On eBay, I have no control over whether my customers rate our transaction. In addition, since I sell a service, I have no way of providing a "tracking number" or "delivery confirmation". In the eyes of PayPal, I have not provided a service, and while my customer is enjoying the benefits of my hard work, I am waiting indefinitely for the money that I have earned. I work hard for my money, and I have never had a single negative review or dispute for the service I provide, even after 2.5 years.

PayPal claims that this policy is in place to "ensure that the transaction is completed smoothly". But that's not what this policy is really about, is it? It's not just about ensuring that customers are satisfied, it's about reducing the number of disputes and expediting the dispute process for PayPal. Buyers are happy, PayPal is happy, and meanwhile, sellers--especially sellers of services--are getting sacrificed because PayPal knows we have no other option when it comes to transactions through eBay and outside of eBay with the majority of our customers. Don't you think it's wrong that people like me are getting sacrificed just so that PayPal can save time and money avoiding disputes? In addition, I have a strong feeling that this money is being put on hold to allow PayPal to profit and invest with it illegally while I wait indefinitely for money that is rightfully mine.

All of this boils down to one thing. Effectively, this is what this bad policy has done to my life: I had a successful online business while the money was flowing, when I could do the work and get the paycheck. I was living my dream working from home. But now, my successful eBay business is dead. I have had to get a traditional job because I cannot afford to "wait and see" if I'll get paid by PayPal, who has effectively become my employer for all intents and purposes. Hence, my business has suffered and I can no longer maintain it because I can't depend on a paycheck from my employer. I would switch to a different middle-man, like G_____ Checkout, but with PayPal so widely used and closely intertwined to eBay, it's really not an option.

It's really sad. I trusted PayPal and have advocated it for years to friends, family and customers as a trustworthy "people's company". Unfortunately, I can see that the company has shifted its focus from people to profit margins. I'm very disappointed. This bad policy has had a profoundly negative impact on my life, and I hope PayPal quits sacrificing it's sellers soon.

PayPal is a criminal enterprise as well as eBay their parent company. eBay held my funds for 6 weeks because of an error they made in my account status. I was told that they could not update my account status until they did their monthly account review one month later. Any listings that has ended up to that point, would be held until 5 days after the buyer received the item, which ended up meaning that they held my funds for 6 weeks for their error. It has cost me $50K-$100K in lost income because I was not able to make a final payment on goods I ordered to sell for the Nov and Dec holiday season until the beginning of Nov, so I didn't receive all of my goods until Dec 23rd.

PayPal and eBay have assisted buyers to swindle me on several occasions. The last time PayPal refunded a buyer $307 for 6 items that I shipped to Austria, that the buyer refused delivery on because they didn't want to pay the tariff on them, and then claimed the items were not as received and that they had sent the items back to me. Despite the fact that I had all the information from the post office to prove that the seller never even saw the items as they refused delivery, and that the items had never been sent back to me because the seller just gave the same tracking info on the package that I sent them which showed the item was still sitting in a post office in Austria waiting for the buyer to pick it up. PayPal withdrew the money from my PayPal account, including reversing 2 deposits I had made into my checking account and gave it to the buyer.

PayPal withheld an $11 sale. Here's what do to effect a solution to PayPal. You are not a creditor who offers credit to PayPal or your customer. When someone buys something and PayPal decides to withhold your funds from a sale don't ship until the funds are released. Inform PayPal what your intentions are and inform your customer as well. I got results and an apology from doing this. PayPal is a credit card processing center who is holding your money and making money off of that. No one else holds money from a merchant when a sale is made. PayPal cannot afford to have people not ship from a sale. It's really simple. Don't ship anything that you haven't been paid for and you really haven't been paid if PayPal is holding your money. They are getting way out of control with this and the only way they will stop is if you stand your ground on this.

Paypal is withholding funds that I have made from eBay. They say it is because I am a "below average seller". I was not emailed or warned that getting too many 1 or 2's on my detailed seller ratings would allow them to withhold funds for up to 21 days. They say they evaluated me on December 20th and I had received one too many 1's or 2's on my DSR's. I sold on eBay to pay for Christmas for my five children and was not able to buy them Christmas because of Paypal and eBay. I have sold on eBay for 13 years and have 100% positive feedback and 4.8's or 4.9's out of 5 overall on my detailed seller ratings. I feel Paypal is working in conjunction with eBay to push the small sellers out. The DSR system is completely unfair because sellers are being rated on the postal service and how much they charge and how long they take to deliver.

I received an email from PayPal stating that I am possibly a high risk seller and that my payments will be on hold for 21 days. I received this email on the 24th on Christmas eve and I am shocked. I am not a high risk seller. I have been selling for years and using PayPal and other forms of payment. I stopped selling on eBay because of their Communist rules and lack of payment options for me and the buyers. PayPal stated to me that if I sold on eBay that they probably would send my payments to my bank account as they used to in 2 to 4 days. They are trying to high pressure me into using eBay as my selling website and they are using my money so they can accumulate interest. We need to fight back. Does anyone know of a good class action lawsuit attorney that will help us fight eBay/PayPal?

PayPal limited my account, but no one can explain it why. This is what they sent me after a few phone calls:

"Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding your limited account.

Based on a review of your account and the information received, we show that you have or/are related to other/another PayPal account(s) that has/have unresolved issues. Unfortunately, due to the link(s) we have determined that we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least disruptive to your business."

No one can tell me what other account is/are or what those unresolved issues are. All my cases are closed, and I never had second PayPal account.

PayPal representatives and PayPal as a corporation are criminal at best. They have officially frozen an account of mine and refuse to tell me why it was limited, claiming, that information is proprietary and they don't share it with customers. The money is for an iPhone that I delivered and sold to a service, who paid me after receipt of the phone. My funds have been frozen without explanation or cause. How is this legal?

Paypal 'was' a good company to use? Paypal decided to put a hold on an $11 sale after they promised me this wouldn't happen again. I've had many emails to them and no response. Gee, I wonder why. Guess what? Here's what to do, I am not in the business of offering credit to Paypal or the customer, anywhere else you pay for a product the merchant receives his money immediately. So next time Paypal decides to hold your money, tell them as soon as money is released, I will ship the item then inform the customer as such, this action will get a response. After all, why should I send somebody something I haven't been paid for, and why should you? It's real simple, don't ship unless you have your money, no one does.

Paypal is a horrible company, stay away. I sold a housing for an underwater camera, and yet the payment was held and is now being held for 180 days. I provided my photo ID, utility bill, went through all kinds of verifications. It's complete ** and I feel like I'm applying for a job at NASA due to their regulations. The company is making interest off money that is rightfully yours.

I run a small massage therapy practice. I recently had a customer pay for 2 gift certificates on my website via PayPal. The total was $100 for both. The client, who I've worked with a number of times, received the gift certificates via email. After over a month of the funds just pending in my PayPal account, I contacted PayPal to find out why my funds had not been released. The first time I contacted them, I never got a response. About two weeks later, I contacted them again and got a response from a lady who did not speak English very well and she said that it was probably because the customer had not paid for the items even though it says pending on my account.

So I replied and got another response from another representative who said that PayPal will hold the amount until the gift certificates are redeemed on my website. Since I performed a service, they can't be redeemed on my website. So PayPal said, in that case, they hold my funds for 18 months, regardless of when I perform the services. So PayPal is expecting me to perform $100 worth of services and wait over a year to get my money. I want my money now! I will never work with PayPal again.

So I'm a casual seller. Mostly electronic-mailed goods, some tangible ones. Got into PayPal/eBay with buying computer parts for family repairs. So I started selling and it's working fine. I do realize this "seller protection" basically is a thin piece of paper. But I did not have big problems. Met two jerks who left Negative feed backs, but still I was up around 90%, no financial loss. so I was still selling. I sell these digital stuff for a dollar and these sons of fitches take about 50% (PayPal and eBay), and then they're still not even loyal to the buyers!

So I sold my laptop. "Seller Protection Eligible" address was confirmed. Payment was confirmed. Blah. So I shipped the item, via Insurance, and it's one of the stupid most thing I did: I did not charge that on my credit card. I will file dispute against eBay fees that I've paid for, though. No way am I going to let them fly with my money free. So according to PayPal, you're "protected" when you ship the item with delivery tracking (I did), and since it's over $250, get a signature (I did too). Alright... so I did both, plus I bought a full insurance.

The stuff arrived in 3 days, buyers picked up (since they need signature to pickup, you know?), so I assumed things are OK. Paypal released the money (which I do feel like it's ridiculous! why can't I hold that in my pocket! I rather feed that to my bank, who would actually back down from "swipe fees", eBay/PayPal do not back down from any of you weak buyers and sellers). And then I did rule of thumbs and took the money into my bank account, instead of PayPal.

Alright, the drama began after 2 weeks, the buyer says, Oh it's DOA. Fix this situation for me. I thought, well crap. but I did the things I could, filed the insurance claim. told the buyer that I need to wait. Nope. the buyer seems fraudulent starting from that point. Demands returns refunds all the blah blah. I said no, so he "sued" me over to the buyer protection program.

Under PayPal rules, sellers, you're air with eBay protection suits.
Under PayPal rules, sellers, you have no rights under PayPal rules, sellers and buyers, you do whatever PayPal says, you only can shut up.

So then I got all the evidence up, escalated the claim. They only granted me a little hold for 15 days, and I doubt it will recover my money for me.

Either way, I won't sell any tangible goods over PayPal anymore. Whoever wants to defraud a buyer, can do it freely. Get a expired debit card.... start screwing around, register it over PayPal, and then pay the stupid current PayPal sellers! And then you do snad. After snad do charge backs. Then you get freaking 2x your original payment to seller, and then 1x the goods in the listing.

It's basically BS! and the sellers are basically stupid suckers. You need to believe me in this. A seller who sold over $600, and I'm not quitting because I'm stupid enough to let people defraud me when I deal with sales carefully like hell! I get defrauded if PayPal simply wants me to pay for what their buyer protection wants to pay, while keeping their hands clean, kissing banker's ass by withholding all of our dollars and running interests out to PayPal's pocket from our money!

On August 22, 2011, I sold an item on ****. The purchaser paid through PayPal and contacted me with shipping instructions. The item was shipped with insurance and delivery was proven. 7 days later, ****'s message states that the purchaser could not be verified and the items should not be shipped to this user. It was too late to warn me! On November 30, 2011, I received a notice from **** that a dispute was issued against my account. Digging deeper into what this meant, I found that the cardholder either tied to the **** account or a **** account using the stolen credit card which was what was used to pay me. The cardholder disputed that the transaction was not authorized. **** told me that the credit card company simply was too powerful to fight but they would try. To make the long story short, **** allowed a criminal to either hack a **** account or didn't verify a stolen credit card for use in their system and now wants me to pay for it. It is bitter to swallow a pill since the item was $2,000 USD.

I had sold something on eBay and the buyer was out of the country. Now, I sent the phone using sups with a tracking number. The buyer said he did not receive the item and is demanding his money back. I have talked to PayPal and they are going to favor him because there is no delivery conformation. I called sups and nothing. I have contacted the US customs, the Russian customs, the Russian post and nothing. When the package goes overseas they do not use the USPS tracking numbers so there is nothing to ever show were the package is.

He has had complaints on his feedback saying that he said he never received the item and that he is a liar. He told PayPal that he was getting it as a gift for someone for Christmas. He has purchased over 60 iPhone from September to December, that's a little fishy! Now, he most likely has the phone. He is getting his money back and I lose my phone and have to pay out of pocket. This is not right! There is a scam going on with people in his country and people are getting ripped off left and right. Please help me.

PayPal and eBay placed a hold on my account and I have had nothing but positive feedback. Sell and ship on time and pay right away when purchases are made. Answered all questions from buyers and respond quickly. Now, I have cancelled all my listings and transferred all money to my bank account. I will now be an Amazon customer. I would like to see a joint effort on all eBay sellers part where all sellers end all items for just 1 day to send a message to eBay and PayPal that if they want to play so can we. Join together sellers and take this back.

It is the same problem here. When I confronted them on the phone, at first they claim that I need to establish a seller-buyer relationship. Then, I explained that I have previously sold items, most importantly, as much as 3-4 years ago. Then, their excuse is I need to re-establish a selling relationship because I have not sold for a while. However, they continue to hold my money for 21 days after I have sold 2 or 3 items within the past month. I have called and complained to them and all they give me is excuses. The problem is that the seller has already paid therefore I don't receive any money for three weeks.

Then, the last time I sold an item, I called them to get payment and it was more than 21 days. It seems to me that they did not want to pay money owed to me. I threatened to turn them in to the FBI and Consumer Protection Agency. Meanwhile, during the conversation, I did inform them about the fact that they are out-of-the-US, consequently, they feel as if they can do as they please and no one can touch them. Conclusively, it is a fact that when people out of the U.S. are handling your money, essentially, there is little legal action you can take because they are not regulated by any governing agency.

PayPal limited my merchant account for no reason, except a "concern" that was never explained to me. Now they refuse to let me erase my back account or credit card information. I am fearful if their data-base is hacked that sensitive financial information is at risk.

I recently began selling items on eBay for extra Christmas money and to help me with paying my obligations. I have used eBay and Paypal in the past, without any complications. However, this experience was and is horrible. Getting your money from Paypal is worse than pulling teeth. They hold your money for 21 days after the completion of the sale and the merchandise has been delivered to the purchaser. Earning interest on the money that is lawfully yours. eBay and Paypal do not employ US workers. These people you speak to are in India. You can't understand them and they are not helpful in resolving your issues. I will never use eBay for anything and once all this is completed, I will be closing my accounts with both eBay and Paypal. I am trying to support America and American workers. Someone needs to file a suit against eBay and Paypal.

Paypal has a new policy that places payments on hold for up to 21 days automatically. Despite having a superb track record of positive transactions on Ebay for almost ten years, with 100% positive feedback, power seller status, etc., our account funds are being restricted due to some criteria that categorizes us as high risk. Excuse me? What have we done wrong? This is entirely unwarranted and unfair. This new policy is blatantly wrong and likely illegal.

We are unable to access our rightful funds for a delayed period of time. As such, this places a hardship on our business cash flow and impacts our fulfillment process. Customer satisfaction suffers.

It is clear Paypal is making additional interest on our withheld funds, to the detriment of our business. This policy should be repealed immediately and punitive legal action taken against PayPal and potentially Ebay as well. A class action lawsuit should be undertaken ASAP.

I have been selling on eBay for a few years now, and learned a long time ago to use delivery confirmation to protect myself. I recently sold a jewelry item on eBay for $259, and 3 days after it was delivered, the buyer opened a case against me on eBay with a Paypal dispute. I answered with the usual delivery confirmation/tracking number and thought I was safe. It was not!

Paypal awarded the buyer, all the money back after a few days. The buyer had only 12 feedbacks, and now is no "longer a registered user" on Ebay.

When I called the Paypal to discuss this issue and any course of action, the Paypal representative, "Sarah", was not helpful at all and left me feeling like I was troublesome to her. Yea, you would be too, if you just lost $259 and a 14kt gold necklace! In our brief and non-courteous phone conversation, I learned of a little known clause that Paypal has concerning sales of items over $250, and that a confirmation number is not enough. They also require a signature confirmation on all items over the above amount or they will simply give the buyer back their money, no questions asked.

After stating that the buyer made no effort to contact me, the Paypal representative stated "they don't have to!" However, that has not been the case in times past, when they encourage buyers and sellers to work things out before going to the resolution center. There was no arbitration, no communication, no evidence given by the buyer of any kind, and no advance warning by Paypal to alert me of the need for the signature. The clause that was described to me concerning this issue, was buried beneath 2 or 3 different links away from the Paypal/eBay finalization process for the transaction. I feel robbed!

After over 8 years of trouble free transactions, PayPal began withholding the customer's payments, making it impossible for me to ship the items in question (shipping being included in price). Their customer service was condescending and unhelpful.

I made an eBay sale and waited two weeks while the shipment made its way to Canada. When the shipment was confirmed by the buyer, I had to call Paypal to ask them to release my funds. I spoke to three different agents. The first told me the transfer was immediate - lie. The second told me the transfer was in progress and that my bank had to clear the deposit! A third agent gave me the same story - Paypal is not a bank. Your funds transfer goes to a "clearinghouse" and the process takes three - four days.

Ever since Ebay and Paypal went together, their service has gotten worse. I sent a package out by FedEx, which is not a Ebay or Paypal, confirming the person got their package. Paypal has not release the funds even when they saw it was delivered and claimed. I need to wait another 3 days since Paypal is not a bank, they are not covered by Federal laws. Ebay has seen the last of my business. I'm going to contact the AG in their state next.

After 3 hours on the phone, eBay and PayPal are holding all of my PayPal payments for 21 days because some yahoo doesn't like my shipping charges. If you don't like my charges, don't buy from me it's that simple. eBay is forcing us to use their shipping methods which I choose not to use. Is this compromising my free trade? When I signed up with eBay in 1999 and have sold over 6,000 items, with over 3,400 feedback, with 100% feedback and they dare to hold up my money because some ** doesn't like my shipping fee. I'm sure this is illegal and I am pursuing legal action. I am not bound by anyone to charge a certain fee for shipping and as a standard my shipping fees are very reasonable.When did eBay become a dictatorship?

I sent an item to customer with confirmation twice and eBay & PayPal still refunded their money. To top it off, the buyer gets to leave negative feedback.

People should know that PayPal is owned by eBay.

Purchased item, receives items, verifies it is received. Never ask to return it. Files a "no receive" complaint with eBay/PayPal. PayPal refunds all funds sent + shipping , charges me a "filing fee". Refuses to provide any proof of "acting on my behalf." Refuses to provide buyers payment info. Buyer refuses to return item, has funds. I am not even able to warn other eBay sellers about her. All PayPal does is return my letters/emails with form letters.

I have account with Paypal and I am doing a kind of outsource work from my home with RBI guideline. As per new RBI guideline, Paypal automatically withdrew the 2 above-mentioned funds to my ICCI bank account but unfortunately that ICCI account #** has been closed by me on June 2011 due to some personal reason and I forgot to update new bank account details on Paypal. Regarding that withdrawal, I have contacted my ICCI home branch. They said that they did not receive any fund from Paypal due to that account having been closed by me.

So as per Paypal request, I have given a Global Trace Request on Paypal for my missing funds a few weeks before, but still haven't gotten any response from Paypal. The Paypal executives are giving me wrong information like saying Paypal already sent a check to me and others are saying PayPal sent a demand draft to me.

But few days back, I spoke with an Indian Paypal customer support person, she said that there is no check or demand draft PayPal sent to me. So I don't

know which information is correct. Today also I spoke with one Paypal executive, she said that on the 4th of November, Paypal dispatched a check to me but I am not going to trust them. If you can please do the need for me. Thanks.

Withholding money on their end is just like stealing and how do they get away with it? I have a 100% positive feedback. With one issue, when I ended up in the hospital in which I refunded the person as soon as I got out and now they are holding all my funds. Not fair at all. It is ironic that this holds on not just to me but so many other people who have been selling a while come on the eve of a lawsuit eBay is dealing with. I hope this does have some impact and trust me, I will be closing that PayPal account ASAP.

I have been a PayPal user and promoter for 7 years. Recently, they've begun holding money customers have paid me for 21 days. It makes it rather difficult to ship items when week's worth of business is being held (presumably invested somewhere) by PayPal.

I recently began selling DVDs on eBay. PayPal handles the financial part of the transactions. Money is withdrawn from a buyer's account, given to Pay Pal, and then the money is transferred to the seller's account. PayPal has informed me that because I am a new seller, they are holding my funds for three weeks before it is transferred into my bank account. PayPal claims they have this policy to protect the buyer. But I have communicated with many of the people who have bought from me and they think this policy is unfair as well. I am selling and people are buying from me.

I clearly tell everyone that if there is a problem, they can return it and get their money back. I am shipping my DVDs the very next day after the sale is made. Now, once the buyer has received my DVDs and sees there is nothing wrong with them and leaves positive feedback on eBay, the matter should be closed. Positive feedback at both ends says the seller is satisfied and the buyer is satisfied, that this has been a good transaction.

I too have had the issue with money being held. I was supposed to receive funds today, as Paypal stated the item had been delivered. Well, its after 8:00 am and still nothing has been made available. I think if everyone stops using Paypal and takes money orders and checks, Paypal will lose business and change their rules. I also think that Ebay should let sellers leave negative feedback, as some buyers can be mean and rude for no reason other than to get something for free. I work at Wal-Mart and see this a lot.

PayPal is a fraud. They are purposely holding onto funds to make interest on seller's money. They put a hold of my funds for 21 days and refused to give me my money after I shipped the item. I told them that I couldn't ship the item until I receive the shipping money included in the transaction. How are they expecting you to ship the item without the funds from the buyer in which they paid for. Their policy doesn't make sense at all and the people at San Jose, CA office need a wake up call.

I believe all buyers who have gone through this should get all interest that PayPal made and sent to them because we all know that they are making money by holding funds for 21 days. I think this is illegal. I want a lawsuit against PayPal and eBay for the fraud practices against consumers and the immediate change to their policy back to where it used to be or I want the interest on what they made on my money while they are holding it.

I have recently began selling on eBay again after a break. My sales flew out the roof, always a good thing. However, PayPal limited my account. I spent a large portion of my day finding and emailing in all the relevant information required and waited. Meanwhile, items were still selling and I had to work almost 15 hours per day 7 days a week just to keep up. Then, PayPal froze my account, all my earnings gone. Not only that as I had to borrow money to pay for stock in the first place, I am now way out of pocket and exhausted. PayPal claimed that I am "high risk", however, I have been nothing but honest and gave them every piece of info they required. They state I am selling designer items.

I am doing no such thing as I explained to them so it is now in review again. In the meantime, my eBay has been suspended and I have no sales coming in. I have buyers saying eBay has told them to open cases up against me and I am also being named a fraud! Excuse me? So now, I have worked all this time, shipped items, money frozen and buyers claiming it back. I have called PayPal about 4 times today and there is apparently nothing they can do until it has been reviewed. So now I am expected to sit back, watch my good name be tarnished, see my funds locked and await a decision, a decision which, in my opinion, is completely irrelevant as I have done absolutely nothing wrong apart from have a good start to my business.

This payment hold policy is keeping money that is rightfully mine out of my hands. This is my money from a sale of one of my pieces of property (Snowboard). I need this money and counted on this money to ship the item to the buyer and pay my bills. How does anyone have the right to take your money, and charge a service fee in the process, then hold your money. I need this money now!

PayPal states that they will hold my funds now because I am considered high risk and although my feedback score is 100%, it's not enough! Well, I have had enough. I hate PayPal and eBay. This has to be illegal. I need the money to live on. If not, I wouldn't be selling my stuff! Meanwhile, they are using my money.

My identity was stolen and several bank accounts and credit cards were opened up in my name. Police reports and affidavits were filed. The banks and credit cards recognized that fraud was committed and that they made mistakes by allowing accounts to be opened up. Paypal, on other hand, waited almost 4 years before contacting me about an account that had been opened up and linked to the fraudulent bank accounts. They have arrogantly chosen to freeze my real account and want me to pay for someone else's crime. Paypal failed to go after the person committing fraud. Instead, they are looking for someone else to pay for their own mistakes. Beware of these policies. I will not be using Paypal or eBay in the future.

I sell homeschool books from home and I use PayPal. Well, in August, I sold a book and mailed the book with proof from the post office. About 3 days later, I have a "case" opened on me, saying the seller got the packaging but no book! I contacted my post office and her post office, and they both told me if the package looked like it had been opened or tampered with, the post office would have let both parties know. The seller even said that it did not look like it had been tampered with. I got scammed!

After speaking to PayPal and telling them what the post office had said, they told me that they normally side with the buyer! What? Where are the sellers' rights? Well, in my case, they sided with the buyer and took money from my PayPal account which put me in the negative and froze up my account! PayPal are crooks and get away with way too much!

I have been selling on Ebay for the last 2 years, having had my Ebay account since 1991. I had auctions that ended with the money being paid into my PayPal account. I was informed via email that my funds were being held for 21 days or until confirmation was received via Ebay that the items had been received or positive feedback on my Ebay account. This is when I learned that Ebay and PayPal are the same company or under the umbrella of the same corporation. Being unable to directly contact anyone, I called the 888's for both companies, was given a PIN and finally spoke with their representatives, one whom I could barely understand. Both obviously reading scripted answers, I finally asked where they were (physically) and one replied India, the other Asia.

Neither of the customer service reps could answer a single question. Both telling me that I should immediately ship the items and once they had confirmation of receipt, positive feedback on my Ebay account and that there were no disputes,yada yada yada, my money may be released earlier than the 21 days. Are they going to be paying me interest on the money they're holding? As they are definitely earning interest on those funds, not only from me but from these post I am reading and a lot from others whose funds are being held.

But another concern I have is that these are supposedly American companies and they are outsourcing their customer service to Asia and India. This during a time of economic hardship, where the people are trying to earn enough money to feed their families, keep a roof over their heads, and pay their bills. Having lost their jobs, or seen substantial decreases in their income, they turned to selling their stuff on Ebay to survive. Yet Ebay/PayPal arbitrarily decided to hold these funds for reasons even their customer service folks can't fathom. Yet, they have taken jobs that could have been made available to the US public and sent them overseas, where they could pay a smaller wage.

So they not only are saving money by doing this, they are now making more money by holding legitimate funds that belong to others, are drawing interest on, off the backs of the American people. Now to another debacle from PayPal/Ebay. When I received the email from PayPal, holding my funds, being told that I must ship immediately, I printed the shipping label online on my Ebay account, only to receive a call from my son asking why the shipping fees were taken from HIS PayPal account? Inept ringing any bells for anyone here?

My son sold some items under my Ebay account and had the funds sent to his PayPal account in the past. I have since shipped from my Ebay account and had the funds deducted from my PayPal account. So where's the answer? They can't answer it at either customer service venue. If and when this is resolved, I will not be doing business with either entity.

PayPal and eBay now ripoff sellers. I've been using eBay for years, with 100% positive feedback, never any complaints. I sold an item on October 11. The buyer paid (via PayPal) and I shipped it 2 days later. USPS confirmed delivery on October 18. PayPal refused to release my funds until sometime in Nov. This has got to be a scam to let PayPal (and eBay) use the float on the money they hold. It's bad enough that they charge such a high fee (eBay for selling, plus PayPal for handling the funds. You know they are the same company, right?). Both eBay and PayPal said that this policy is for the buyer's and seller's protection. Yeah, right. It's for their greed. I'm filing a complaint with the FTC and signing up with an alternative payment company. No more PayPal.

I purchased an online credit/background check from a company. The company failed to send the credit check portion of the package. I needed it to determine the status of a rental unit. I contacted the online company by email and telephone twice and nobody ever got back with me. I scanned and supplied the online company with the authorization signed by my tenant and my information for the credit verification portion. Still no credit check supplied. I opened up a claim against said company and asked for a $20.00 refund of the $29.95 charge because the most important portion of the background check for me was the credit portion, not verification of previous addresses and or criminal history. I have free sights available and do not need to pay for said information, but it was a package so I paid for all. I was willing to pay the $10.00 for the information I did receive because it had some value to me.

PayPal refused my claim and paid the online company in full, even after the company already offered a $10.00 refund for failure to supply the credit portion, is that not an admission of guilt? How can PayPal pay in full to a company when they never supplied the services advertised? I am tired of this as it has happened to me before when service has not been given and PayPal has paid the vendor in full.

I have always held eBay and PayPal in high regard, although I do not sell often nor have a lot of eBay transactions. I liked having PayPal to pay for items I buy online; however, I was shocked to find that any funds I do receive into my PayPal account will now be held for 21 days for being "high risk". How can this possibly be legal? I have had no complaints against myself as either seller or buyer.

I don't trust either eBay or PayPal anymore. I can't believe this has suddenly occurred as I like selling items from time to time on eBay. I've never had a problem, not ever. I suppose all these complaint sites are designed to allow consumers to let off steam, and so I have. I am having the worst time understanding this new and possibly illegal "policy" by eBay and PayPal.

I sold my stuff on eBay. The money went into my PayPal account. I withdrew it but there is no evidence of my withdrawal. PayPal account is now 30 pounds lesser. My contact number won't fit into the box above and the no. is as follows **

The cabal of PayPal and eBay have united to rip-off all sellers. I sold $650 earrings on October 6. The buyer paid immediately through PayPal, and I shipped the items--had it insured, with signature required. USPS confirmed delivery on October 10 and they refused to release my funds until October 25. This is ridiculous. PayPal gets to make money on the float, and I get to twiddle my thumbs wondering where the ** my money is. Both eBay and PayPal stonewall are saying that it's for buyers protection. I have a 100% seller rating but "not enough feedback" out of my control. To hell with both eBay and PayPal. They are crooks!

I sell on eBay to make money to live on--eBay and PayPal steal the money to use for up to 25 days for no reason. In the meantime, I borrow money to live on. There has to be some kind of class action lawsuit.

I have just had a listing removed because I asked not to use PayPal. I am selling a surfboard for a friend and would prefer the item to be picked up, as it can only be delivered locally anyway. So, the payment would be cash on pick up, giving the buyer a chance to check out the board before they hand the cash over too. I tried to take the PayPal option out. I was told that I had to provide at least one 'safe method' of payment, the only 2 options being PayPal and merchant credit card. They are basically forcing you to accept PayPal and consider cash on pick up unsafe-crazy, as that is how most shops work and have done since trading began. I know, as a buyer, that I would consider picking it up safer than PayPal. They use totally corrupt, subtle way of third line forcing.

I sold an item on eBay and everything was going well, except the buyer was acting a weird, asking me a lot of questions like how I send it and "Please leave feedback now" (so I would not leave it when he tries to fraud me). He paid for the item and I sent it my usual way, standard international shipping. Once I sent it, I received a message from another eBay seller saying to be careful of that particular buyer because he seemed to be acting a weird. I told him I already sent the item and to let me know what he finds out through eBay and PayPal. I called eBay that day and notified them of my concerns, and they said that as long as I sent it to the address listed, I would be covered.

Unfortunately this is not true; last week, this man opened a claim on me though PayPal saying he did not receive the item. I provided PayPal with my customs form number which has his address on it, and I told them I have the receipt for the shipping as well, since I did not send it with tracking. This did not do anything for me; the guy received a refund for the money he gave me and he got the item I sent him. This means I have lost over $1,000 for PayPal not investigating this case correctly.

There are many bad ratings on this buyer now. He is a new account holder on eBay because he already got caught doing this to others on his last account. I looked up his name on a Google search, and he comes up and it says he is a fraud and he buys internationally and then files a claim on PayPal to get his money back on top of the item, and that is exactly what he did to me. I understand that the members at PayPal are not investigators, but this should not be allowed. I am so angry and I know this has happened to may other people. I want to fight this. They need to change the way they work because I have lost a nice amount of money and I am sure other people have, too.

I used PayPal service for my online business and I trusted them to protect me, my business, and my money, but they did not. They went in favor of the buyer who then requested a refund stating that the TV was not as described. But when my TV was sent back from buyer, it was broken the screen was completely off its casing and showed numerous signs of negligence. I called PayPal on the day it came back, which was 9/29/11; I spoke to a rep and explained. She stated that she was opening an appeal on this case so that it can be further investigated but after waiting 2 + weeks on there response, I logged into PayPal and no such request for appeal was made I was not ever contacted by any rep at PayPal and now I have a TV that was destroyed and PayPal is doing nothing to protect me as advertise when they offer their services to you.

I have been selling on eBay and Etsy for a few months, and it has been great up until PayPal decided to limit my account. I have 100% feedback on both my accounts. I can receive money, but I cannot touch it. PayPal is working with my money, while I stress out and try to figure out how to pay my bills. Without my money, I don't have the funds to pay some of my bills and definitely none to pay for shipping out of my pocket.

I have sent over 15 emails asking for answers or at least some sort of advice as to how to fix it. As of now, I have not gotten a single answer or a legitimate reason why my account got limited in the first place.

After 15 years of selling on eBay, PayPal has now decided to hold monies received from our buyers for 21 days, claiming they want to be sure the buyer has received the item and writes a feedback. Problem is, most buyers don't leave feedback and as a seller, I can not afford to operate a business without working a capital. Several people from PayPal made up excuses why they are doing this. They told me that my shipping costs are too high. I list exactly my cost plus handling for boxes, bubble wrap, & popcorn. Buyers know exactly what the shipping costs are before they buy. They have the option of bidding or not. Most of the time I lose money because I weigh the items prior to packing and I insert the weight in the shipping calculator on the eBay listing. However, after packing and protecting the item, the weight is more than expected. After the auction closes, I can not tell the customer that it actually cost a little more. PayPal's actions have now affected thousands of sellers. I pay them to collect the money from my buyers and I do not authorize them to hold money. This should be illegal!

I have 100% feedback with PayPal and eBay, and they are holding my funds. The best that the 3 different agents there have told me was to "just keep selling" and it would eventually get taken off. This is unacceptable. I've been using PayPal for years without issue.

I am unable to sell anything using PayPal if it requires shipping. Plus if I ship international, there is no tracking and it's non-eBay so I'm damned either way.

I sent $90,000 (original price) worth of studio photography equipment to my friend to sell on eBay. He made over $20,000 on the sale of my equipment. A day after the sales, they closed his account and threatened to hold all of the money for up to 5 months! This is my money. I have called PayPal. They told me that they had the money and had documented my call. They said, "Go ahead and fight it with your friend." Is this a scam on PayPal's part? This must be illegal.

I have been a eBay/PayPal customer for over six years. I have been selling on eBay for about three months and buying for six years. I sold 13 items on Sunday, October 9, 2011. PayPal said that eBay has placed a freeze on my PayPal funds for the sales. I have to send out all the products without the money to pay for the shipping charges and in 21 days after I proved that the customer received the items and that they will release the money. I am very upset over this situation. I have 100% feedback no complaints ever on eBay and this is how they are treating me is stealing my money.

PayPal said that they would be holding my money for 21 days on future sales for no reason. I called PayPal. PayPal said it was eBay. eBay said it was PayPal. eBay then told me that PayPal said I did not have enough feedback and then I was a high risk seller. I have 100 percent positive feedback. This is not right. Please help with this situation. Thank you.

I am a small-time/low-volume seller. I have had an eBay account for over 12 months, have no known buyer complaints against me and a 100% customer satisfaction rating. As soon as I receive payment, I mail the item within one day.

I was very satisfied with both eBay and PayPal and had no complaints against them until (like the previous people documented below) they capriciously put a 21-day hold on my account.

PayPal gave no advance warning and no reasonable explanation - just an email that a hold will begin forthwith.

I contacted PayPal and spoke to an intelligent, polite representative who apologized and assured me that this action was not initiated by any complaints against me, that there were no complaints against me, that I had done nothing wrong, and that this was just a new PayPal policy. (However, I do fit the profile explained below that "Accounts which don't complete at least six eBay transactions in six months will automatically have their PayPal funds held and inaccessible for 21 days ". But this explanation was not given to me by PayPal in any call or communication - I only read it in another consumer complaint against PayPal).

The PayPal representative also promised me that my money can be available in less than 21 days, that once the item has been confirmed delivered, the payment is available immediately. But that was not entirely true. What I discovered yesterday after calling PayPal again (and iterated below by a previous complaint) is that the payment is not available immediately unless I personally call in and request it. In other words, I had to call in, again, and literally "beg" for my money. Otherwise, it takes three days.

What the PayPal representative also did not tell me (and that I only discovered today) is that PayPal does not even use the funds that the seller provided for shipping to pay for the shipping!!! Those funds are also held. PayPal requests the shipping funds from my bank account! Wouldn't such additional steps and transactions cost PayPal more money? Well, maybe PayPal makes enough in interest from our accounts on hold to more than cover that cost in increased inefficiency.

If PayPal does accumulate additional funds from this new policy, PayPal certainly should be sued. After reading the previous complaints, I know PayPal certainly has created financial havoc, distress, and ruin to numerous faultless individuals (See: **, and **). At the moment, I have a $15.00 late fee on a bill that would not have been late if I had received my money from PayPal in the time I had expected from all previous transactions.

I hope we join together in a class-action suit against PayPal. I do not know where to begin, but would happily assist anyone who did. In addition, (1) I have surfed the web for PayPal alternatives and would like any suggestions; and/or (2) propose we develop a credit union-like PayPal alternative for sellers and buyers (again, I do not have the expertise or funds to do this); and (3) like a previous writer, also encourage Google to launch better auction site and better PayPal alternative as soon as possible!

The 21-day hold for Paypal on Ebay is nothing more than a form of a Ponzi scheme. They keep your money and collect the interest for 21 days. It's as simple as that.

I have sold on eBay for five years. I recently sold a bunch of items and Paypal is putting a 21-day hold on my money. I use this money to ship items that were sold on eBay. I can't get to the money until 21 days, after the sell. It is hurting my business. I think it is illegal for a company to hold your money. They have also been charging double for fees and I don't know how to correct it.

Although I've sold on eBay and used Paypal for over two years, Paypal recently started holding my payments for 21 days. I am unable to access any of my own funds that were paid to me for eBay purchases even though I provided tracking information which shows items have been received by the customer. This is an illegal holding of funds so that Paypal can accrue interest for themselves on my money. Also, why has nobody filed against eBay for having a monopoly with Paypal?

I placed my eBay store on vacation hold. I stated that I was leaving the auctions, viewable as a catalog only. I went on to explain that during the time, my store was on vacation hold and that no shipments would be made. During that time, customers continued to purchase items. When I did not ship them as the auction stated, but as the vacation hold specified, they left negative DSR's. This led to a 21-day hold being placed on my account. What bothers me is that people are being shipped the items, they are getting them and they are leaving positive feedback. eBay and Paypal continue to hold the funds for the full 21 days. How can this be legal? They know that they have the item, but refused to release the funds until the 21 days is over. I feel like they are using my money for free for this period and not allowing me access to funds that are clearly mine.

PayPal held my money and did not release the money until I have called them. This is ** on their end. I am asking them why they accumulate interest on sellers and hold their money. Think about it, they have millions of sellers and buyers on PayPal. They can make tons of money on interests by holding your money. Let's get them, sue them, and bring them to court.

Let's get together and sue them you guys. Who's with me? Please respond.

Overall, my experience has been okay, except that I tried the Virtual Terminal and found out about the "rolling reserve" after the fact. I justified it and moved on until getting sick of the $30/month fees. I canceled the service last night and assumed the "rolling reserve" would transfer to available balance. It didn't. I specifically asked the customer service representative what would happen upon cancellation (I did so before applying for VT) and was told the money would be added back to my available balance. When I called to cancel last night, the customer service rep also said the money would be put back into available balance. Today, I was told that it will continue to stay in "rolling reserves" for the full 90 days. **. I'm so mad I'm considering canceling my account altogether.

I just sold $245.00 worth of merchandise on eBay and the shipping was $63.00. I received payment instantly from my buyers. I shipped out my merchandise right after payment and put a confirmation on the three items. PayPal is now holding my money until it's delivered. I believe that this is illegal and will be contacting a lawyer. I am only responsible for the package until I drop it off at the post office.

After I get confirmation and the package is gone, it is no longer my responsibility--it's the post office's. So, once that confirmation is posted, then my money should be taken off of hold and deposited in my account. I believe that they are illegally holding my money. And if anyone want to file a class action suit against them, let me know because I will do that.

Plus, I had to pay out of my pocket $63.00 in postage and can't access that money either until the package is delivered. If anyone is reading this and is a lawyer, let me know if I have a case. I am done with eBay and with PayPal. I am finished I will be closing my accounts as soon as I get my funds. This is so wrong. I am not responsible for what the post office does. The post office is not me and I shouldn't be penalized and have to wait for my money after the buyer paid instantly and I shipped instantly.

I have all the money paid by customers and PayPal is holding my money until I ship out the package. I am tired of doing business on eBay and PayPal, these people kept jacking our money as sellers. I even disagree with their $0.35 cent holding from seller every time we do a refund. We should all together sign a petition to sue PayPal in a class action law suit or something? Let's open a forum and get our name and signature together and sue them for doing business this way, they are keeping your money in an illegal way. This is scam from PayPal.

EBay put a 21-day hold on my money by way of PayPal. They are currently sitting on my $240 for twenty-one days or more. At the same time, eBay is sending me to collections for around $80. I attempted to pay them before they sent me to collections from my PayPal account, but eBay rejected my payment. There sole premise and reason for implementing the 21-day hold is because of possible charge backs from buyers, where the seller may not have the money to refund an item. This is the reason that they have the feedback system. If a buyer or seller is a problem, it will be reflected in the buyer or seller feedback.

This 21-day hold tends to effect smaller sellers more than the bigger stores. Again, another hit on the middle class. Money is tight for me now, but I would never put myself in a situation where I could not refund the money. I have been an eBay member for eight years with a 100 percent rating, and no refunds or charge backs as a seller or buyer. What I wonder is, if they are collecting interest or some sort of additional revenue on all of this money they are holding for 21 days.

In the past, I usually paid them in advance of receiving an invoice. The fact that they are so quick to sanction me for a questionable action on their part is a big red flag. I have to walk away from them. It is not worth the stress. If there is a class action lawsuit, I would like to join. This is not something I usually do, but I am fed up with bad banking behaviors. Yes, I know PayPal say they are not a bank.

PayPal is arbitrarily "holding" their customer's funds for a period of 21 days. There is nothing we customers can do about it, and they will not allow us to use, transfer, or touch our own money for that period of 21 days. They tell us they are holding our funds "in case someone files a dispute about a sale" from which the funds came. They are also "automatically" deciding for us, in collaboration with eBay, to give buyers refunds and we, the customer and seller, have absolutely no say, no control, over our money and how PayPal is handling it.

I sold an item worth $400 dollars on eBay and the buyer paid at that moment. I sent the item the same day. In the next 2 days, the buyer opened a non-receipt claim. Even when I provided the tracking number from the USPS via the PayPal website.

These idiots decided in the buyer's favor. What a joke of a company. Sellers don't have any Protection at all. Any scammer who knows how the system works, can make a living just scamming people with PayPal.

I have been selling and buying on eBay since 2004. I can't say there have never been problems as sometimes, shipments don't arrive or something breaks. I have a strict "no return" policy on most purchases that makes it easier. However, recently, a friend asked me to sell 4 race tickets he had for the Richmond NASCAR race on 9/10/11. I listed the tickets as I thought I was supposed to, noting that I had 4 of them and assuming that eBay would ask the buyer when they bid how many they wanted. The tickets had an $80 each face value and I started the bidding at $80.

The winning bid was $117.50 but when I checked, it appeared he only wanted 1 ticket. I am not a NASCAR fan so I have no idea what races are hard to get tickets for and which ones are not. I had requested that the buyer pay a higher shipping fee because the race was within 2 weeks. The buyer sent me an eBay message that said that he didn't want to pay the expensive shipping because there was plenty of time to get the tickets to him. I was not at my computer and answered him from my phone, through email, confirming that he knew he bid on one ticket and asking if he wanted more than one. He had stated in his message that he would be "checking his email all night".

The next day, I checked my Paypal and found he had paid for one ticket. I took all the paperwork that shipped with the ticket, copied it and mailed it to him Priority Mail and promptly re-listed the other 3 tickets. 2 days later, he contacted me wondering why I re-listed the three tickets. I explained that I had contacted him to clarify and since he didn't answer, I figured he wanted 1 ticket. He stated that I should have "known" he wanted all four and I stated he should have "known" I wasn't selling four tickets valued at $320 for $117.50. However, since I don't sell these things, I told him I would gladly refund his money, less shipping, if he got the ticket back to me before the race. He said he wanted his shipping as well, so I decided not to quibble over $5. He wanted his refund immediately and I said "you can't get a refund at Walmart if you don't return the merchandise. The day I received the ticket, I will refund you". He did not mail the ticket back. He marked it "Return to Sender". The race was 9/10. The ticket was delivered to me on 9/12. My friend decided not to sell the other three but to give them to a friend who left for the race on Thursday, 9/8. I had no alternative but to pay my friend for the ticket.

After selling on eBay and taking payments through Paypal since 1998, now Paypal has decided to hold my funds for up to 21 days due to my transactions being deemed as "high risk".

I sell full time on eBay, and this policy is pretty much going to put me out of business. I have a 99.1% feedback, but I have had a few claims from buyers that were settled in the buyer's favor. If the buyer gets a refund from me, why am I considered a bad seller?

I guess Walmart must be the worst retailer on the planet because they issue refunds all of the time. Luckily, I sell on Amazon and am looking into other sites (Google, please start an auction site!) to sell on. Ebay and Paypal are making millions off of the interest on my held money, so this sure seems illegal to me.

Today I received a notice from PayPal informing me they are imposing a 21-day payment hold/restriction (limitation) on my business PayPal funds. Really?

I immediately contacted PayPal to find out what is going on. I was told, "Accounts which don't complete at least six eBay transactions in six months will automatically have their PayPal funds held and inaccessible for 21 days."

What? My PayPal account, which I have used for around 10 years in good standing, indicates I made 30 transactions since Jan. 2011, of which only three were eBay. I have a 100% credit status with no complaints or bad transactions. I see this move by PayPal as an unjust and unacceptable control tactic. I will not allow PayPal or any other financial institution to have this kind of influence on my business and therefore will be closing my account.

I was in shock! What nerve.

We manufactured and sold some books to a small publisher. She had a complaint about the Smyth sewn stitches protruding in some areas. We picked up the books and rebound them. In the meantime, she stopped payment with her credit card through Pay Pal. After we agreed to repair the books, she reversed her claim and the matter should have been closed.

However, PayPal insists they need 75 calendar days before they will credit my account.

In August 2011, I sold some 14K and 18K jewelry on eBay. The winner was a man from the UK. The item was paid for via Paypal and mailed to the UK. The buyer contacted me a couple weeks later to complain that he had to pay customs fees when the item entered the UK. The eBay listing clearly mentioned customs fees, as being the responsibility of the buyer. Next, the buyer contacted me to demand a partial refund because he claimed some of the gold items were 9K, rather than 14K. The items were all as stated in the auction, stamped and tested 14K. It was fraud on his part. He also demanded that I refund the weight of the gemstones in the jewelry, even though the auction clearly showed the intact jewelry items on a scale in the photos.

When I refused a partial refund, he threatened to Tweet about how terrible a person I was on Twitter. I told him I did not care what he did and I refused to be bullied into paying him for something I did not owe. He filed a complaint with Paypal and they put my account into negative numbers. Initially, I was able to call Paypal and plead my case, and the hold was removed. It seemed obvious from the email string that the buyer was simply trying to get me to pay for the customs fees. Also, I had pending transactions on eBay at the time and I believe Paypal did not want those transactions to go badly, so they released my account, pending their investigation.

I was able to complete the other transactions on eBay and used the local ATM to immediately withdraw the cash because I no longer trusted Paypal. Good thing too! Paypal sent me an email about a week later saying that they had decided to rule in favor of the Buyer and my account would be back charged. They gave no reason, no proof, nothing. I had already emptied my account because I was wary after their first funds seizure, but now I had to close my bank account and associated credit cards due to this fraudulent eBay buyer and Paypal who produced no evidence, no proof of his claims and no merchandise back to me (as of this time). I was told that the buyer is sending the merchandise back to me, but I hold little hope of ever seeing it.

The buyer sends threatening emails to me and Paypal and eBay do nothing. Paypal is judge and jury and sellers have no protection at all. I was a lucky fool for not having been ripped off sooner. I've been a 100% positive eBayer for over 10 years, but no more. I am finished with eBay and Paypal since they are virtually one and the same now. There are only two types of Paypal users, those who have been ripped off and those who will be ripped off. I hope someone starts a class action lawsuit against Paypal. The fact that they can seize your property without proof or evidence of any wrongdoing, should be illegal. With Paypal, a seller is guilty until proven innocent, and they have no interest in allowing you to prove you are innocent.

PayPal started holding my funds per their policy. Their policy states that they will hold them until 3 days after confirmation of delivery, you receive positive feedback or 21 days. Well now it is over a week after confirmed delivery and positive feedback and they are still holding my funds. They refuse to give me an answer to my emails other than copying and pasting the policy; that they themselves aren't following.

Even though my account with Ebay is in good standing and I've only ever had positive feedback, Paypal has decided to start holding my money for 21 days. This includes the money I'm getting for shipping as well. I have to fund the shipping myself and wait to get reimbursement from Paypal. This can cause a delay in getting items shipped to customers.

I listed a welder on eBay, and it sold for $1025.00. The buyer messaged me and told me he only lives a half hour away, just in a nearby city. He asked if he could pick up the item personally because he wasn't that far away, so I checked my Paypal account and the funds were shown, pending verification of sale. So I met the gentleman a few miles away and delivered the welder to him at the half-way point. He was very happy with his purchase and went on his way, saying he would notify eBay about the item, and that it exceeded his expectations, which he did.

The next day, I checked my Paypal account and it stated that I must wait 21 days for payment, unless I had a a "shipping number"! How do you get one on a buyer pick-up that only lives a short distance away? So I called eBay and explained the situation to them, but it fell on deaf ears, and I was told to contact Paypal as it was their problem. So I called them and went in circles with a lady who could not answer my question, other than, "This is why we don't encourage customer will-call sales". Bull**, that just means they don't get to draw interest off of my money if they paid me after the buyer told them he was satisfied with the purchase. Nowhere on eBay or Paypal, does it state if a customer picks up the bought merchandise, you will have to wait 3 weeks for your payment! The lady from Paypal kept telling me I needed a "shipping order" to transfer my money into my account, but how the ** could I have done that? The buyer notified eBay of his transaction, and told them he had possession of the said item, and that he was 100% satisfied! What else does eBay/Paypal need to verify it?

I'm sure there aren't a lot of transactions where the buyer lives down the street, but in those instances, they should help you get your money faster. But no! They act like they could care less on the phone, so I think their way of doing business is flawed, and needs to be addressed. So now, the guy has the welder, making money with it, he is out of the $1025.00 which Paypal has had for 10 days, I have a $95.00 payment to eBay for the sale, and Paypal has already taken $35.00 for transferring the money to "their" account. I have no shipping number, no welder, and no money! It's gotta be against the law to treat their customers in such a "3rd world" way, I'd like to see a lawsuit against them!

I have been selling on eBay for 3 or 4 months now. Everything was going smooth. I have a total of 34 feedback now, all 100%. The buyers have been making payments through PayPal. I print shipping labels through eBay. I automatically use the funds that the buyers pay me with to cover for the shipping cost. Just recently PayPal, out of nowhere, put a hold on the funds that were paid to me by the buyers. Recently, I sold some items on eBay. As a good seller, once I see the payment is received on eBay, I print out my shipping label asap, so I can get the item shipped out as soon as possible.

But then a couple of days later, I saw that my bank account has 4 overdraft fees. Instead of Paypal letting me use those funds from my buyer to pay for shipping charges, it charges my checking account which has no money in there. It caused me to have an overdraft fee of $136.00! PayPal even admitted that it is their fault, but won't do anything about it. They said that because I am a new seller, they are putting a hold on my account. If they would put a hold on my account in the beginning for all the funds I have received, which is about $800, I would have known to have money ready in my checking account to cover for shipping. I am furious with how they are doing business.

I run a 10-year-old legitimate business with an A+ BBB rating and Paypal just hammered us! They are crooks in my eyes and they sat on $4,000 for over two weeks because of suspicious charges. They then refunded the customer and charged us reversal fees. The charges were legit!!

I have closed my Paypal account and warned anyone who is thinking about opening an account with them.

I listed a GPS system on eBay and opened it up to international buyers, with the instructions that the international buyer needed to contact me for a price for shipping if they should win the item. A buyer from Spain asked for the cheapest shipping information, which of course, was first class through USPS. The buyer from Spain won the item. He took over 10 days to pay for the item, which should have been a red flag. He finally paid and I shipped it the next day. The shipping was First Class USPS and cost $30.00 with no tracking information. This was a big mistake. So now, the buyer claims he never received it. Whether he did or not, there is no way to tell.

I sold a 4-month old tablet on Ebay for $400. The buyer lives 15 minutes from my house. He purchased the item and asked me if he could pick it up. He did an immediate transfer of funds to my PayPal account as the Ebay listing specified. He came to my home and picked up the tablet. I have a document with a copy of his drivers license stating that the tablet was in perfect condition, working and completely acceptable. He signed it and received it, there were two copies one for me, one for him.

PayPal is holding my funds for 21 days claiming that unless they have a tracking number for the item that was shipped they will not release my money. I tried numerous times to explain to them what I had but they didn't care and will not release my money.

I am a new seller/buyer to eBay. I have recently increased my transactions by selling more items. My first several hundred dollars in transactions went through PayPal without "holds". Two of my recent transactions, $122.00 worth, are being held for 21 days. When I called PayPal, getting a human was a chore in itself. The rep told me that because I did not provide a tracking number and I was "new to PayPal", there were holds placed and there was nothing anyone can do. I asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told they could not do anything as well. I asked for the supervisor's superior. I was told one did not exist.

I am perplexed how a large company as PayPal has no means of solving customer issues. It is strictly the principal of the matter. I have had no negative transaction scores. I have 100% satisfaction score for over two years. I have sold and paid for the shipping. The buyers got their item. PayPal took their portion (fee), but I can't get access to my money for 21 days. This is the poorest customer service I have received in a very long time. PayPal makes it clear they do not care about the people who use their services and bring their company income. When I purchase items, I am expected to pay in a reasonable amount of time, two to three days. It doesn't take me 21 days to pay for an item. When I purchase an item from a store, I can't tell them I will hold the funds and come back and pay in 21 days. At this point, the public needs a class action suit against PayPal to get them to change their "policy".

I sold an HP TouchPad on eBay. I received the payment from the buyer ($266) and shipped the item with a tracking number. The item was shipped on 8/31 and was confirmed delivered on 9/2 with no indication of any problem from USPS. On 9/6, I received an email from PayPal stating that the "buyer" was claiming that I had sent him an empty priority mail box and that they were holding my money until they could investigate the matter. I immediately contacted PayPal, eBay, USPS and the Dunwoody, GA police (where the buyer had opened a case claiming "larceny through mail"). In order to prove that I had fulfilled my end of the contract with the "buyer," the following is what I was able the get:

1. a receipt from USPS confirming the weight of the package, 3 lbs. 12 oz. (which is the weight of a medium flat rate box with a brand new sealed HP TouchPad, not the weight of an empty medium flat rate box the buyer claims he received), and tracking information which says nothing about the package being damaged;
2. a signed and sealed statement from the USPS employee who packed the item for me stating that the HP TouchPad was placed in a medium flat rate box, weighed and sealed; and

3. a copy of the police report from Dunwoody, GA police department stating that the detective-in-charge had received the above mentioned receipt and a statement that he was convinced that there was no wrongdoing on my part--the case would be closed and charges will be dropped.

I informed PayPal that I had the three documents listed above and would get them copies by whatever means they thought were quickest in order to help them in their investigation. A PayPal dispute expert directed me to to fax the document so I did it that same night. The next day, I received an email from PayPal saying that they had ruled in the buyer's favor, taken the money out of my account and placed it in his.

I immediately called the PayPal dispute center and spoke with an associate who told me that they had not received the documents but that I could fax the documents once more to a different number and open an appeal. I immediately faxed a copy of all documents and also emailed copies of the documents to complaint-response@paypal.com.

Once again, I called the PayPal dispute center to confirm that they had received my documents but they would not return my money because they had already ruled in the buyer's favor! How does PayPal settle a dispute without receiving all the evidence from both sides? How is the evidence I provided enough to prove to the Dunwoody Police Department that I fulfilled my end of the contract but not enough for PayPal? PayPal claims to facilitate transactions between "buyers" and "sellers" and claims protection for both, so where is the "seller" protection? Where is my protection? Where is my money?

On 9/8/11, same as others I see here, PayPal had a $500 per month withdrawal 'limit' on my account. I sold an item for a friend that was over that amount. I had to call PayPal and give them my SS# in order to get the limit raised. It was over labor day weekend so I had to wait until Wednesday for the money to move to my account. That same morning I received an email letter from PayPal stating all further deposits would be subject to a 21 day hold. I have a perfect eBay record. I closed the account, including deleting my bank account -- you can not delete a credit card account -- changed my address to a bogus one because I do not trust these thieves.

I sent a letter by return email stating I would file a complaint and that I would never do business through them again. It was not 'deliverable'. Also, I received a notice that my billing account with eHarmony was closed. I only used that service one time eight years ago. Now I have to review my bank records and find out if eHarmony is in cahoots with PayPal. This is an obvious ploy to get interest for 21 days on money they have no right to. And they say that I should still ship an item while they hold the money -- why would anyone do that? I plan to notify every person I know and through every social media of their fraudulent behavior. I'm still worried they will try to hit my bank account for something not owed to them. I also told my customer the shipping delay was due to PayPal's illegal actions.

All of a sudden, Paypal decided to put my payments on hold for 21 days despite my account with eBay and PayPal being 100% in good standing. As a result, there was a serious delay in my business operation to pay vendors, etc.

I sent a brand new cell phone to an address from a buyer on PayPal but it was a fake buyer and I don't know where my cell phone is! I really need help! I got scammed! I was supposed to get $320 for the phone but the fake buyer has been stalling and making up excuses about the payments. I really need that money.

PayPal is blackmailing me for my Social Security number by holding $700 in my account. Either I give them my number or they continue to keep my money. Without sufficient notice or 30-day allowance, PayPal changed the terms and agreement I had with them prior to them holding my money. It is not legal to demand a Social Security number for any service, let alone hold money hostage today when the rules were different yesterday.

My understanding is that there needs to be notice on the change of terms before any consequences are carried out for no response. I have called them for almost two weeks every day. Their compliance department will not call me back, yet I have received another letter today demanding my Social Security number. Contractual law, based on my understanding, says that I would have to agree to the change of terms and have a chance to opt out of the service before I am given consequences.

On PayPal, I am not a seller; I am a landlord and I use PayPal to collect personal payments for exactly what they are, intermediary. In my understanding of the tax law, PayPal is not accountable to produce any tax documents to the IRS for me. I am not a foreign entity. I am already confirmed by my bank and my personal payment transactions are exempt from IRS law.

Additionally, because the tenant's bank and my bank send and receive the money, by IRS law, I am confirmed. PayPal does not need to get my Social Security number because I am a known customer. The money in my account came from personal payments" and not from sales. Not only does the IRS recognize this, PayPal also recognizes this and has verified me by its own rules. My payments are personal and not revenue; thus, not requiring my Social Security number.

This is 100 percent illegal and I believe that it's time to put a limit on PayPal on when they have the right to hold money. In the United States of America, only the IRS has the right to seize accounts and assets. Class action lawsuit is the only way to get a message out.

I signed up for Virtual Terminal in April so I could accept credit cards from my clients. Before signing up, I went through the policy, which never mentioned anything about them holding 30% of all my transactions as a "Rolling Reserve". After reading about rolling reserves, their explanation was that it was there to protect my account from over drafts. So I decided to continue using the service.

On Saturday, I closed my virtual terminal as my husband has become ill and will not be able to work for quite some time. I assumed that the reserve would become available on the next business day. So I transferred the available balance. On Monday I called customer support, who informed me they could not release the funds that they would be released 90 days from the transaction date. I asked to speak with a supervisor, Matthew, who told me the same thing. Well I didn't sign up for a 3 month CD and this is my money, so since the account had be closed the money should be released, I told him. To which he replied that it is their policy. I read the policy, nowhere does it say this. I'm not sure why they need to hold my lousy $137.64 but I do know I could use it to buy food today.

I sold an item on eBay and received payment from the buyer through Paypal. Immediately after paying for the item, the buyer tried to negotiate a lower price for the item (A brand new still shrink wrapped sealed iPAD2). This communication went through eBay messaging. After stating to the buyer that he already purchased the item and paid for it, I would not lower the price of the item and that I did not force him to buy it. He then kept messaging me and complaining about my no returns accepted policy that was listed in the auction. I explained that the item was new and still sealed in the box and that the item carried a warranty from Apple if there would be any issues with the item. I decided to add insurance at my cost due to the buyer acting really strange. I shipped the item with insurance and signature confirmation per eBay/Paypal seller protection policy. Before even receiving the item the buyer started questioning if the item was defective would I take it back. It seemed as though the buyer was determined one way or another to get out of the sale and get his money back.

Well big surprise when he received it, he claimed that it was not as described/defective and even internally damaged. He said that it was not damaged in shipping. I referred him to Apple technical support. All of this is being done through eBay messaging. He claims that the item is registered to someone else and that I have to return it. After he filed a complaint with Paypal, they instructed him to return it to me. Well I got it back and the packaging took a little bit of a beating. Not to my surprise, the item connected to iTunes and worked perfectly. He claimed that trying to play videos or music made the item turn off. I called Paypal and they instructed me to take it to Apple and get them to certify that the item is not defective. Actually Apple not only gave me a service report showing the item was in perfect condition, they also said that it was never registered to anyone and that they never had a service call on that item before.

So my view is that I listed a brand new iPad2 that the seller decided he did not want after purchasing. He lied as proven by Apple and was allowed to return an item that was sold with no returns accepted in the specifics of the sale. They refunded him his money. Now I am stuck with an item that is not in its original condition in a banged up box. It is commented on eBay that this item is defective and Paypal tells me that I should just list it as brand new and sell it again. A couple of the representatives that I talked with said that Paypal may reimburse me the difference if it sells for less. I delivered that I was to and the buyer lied (proven) and I am the one to suffer? Paypal said that the only way that they would rule in my favor is if the buyer outright says that he lied. I have written proof of it! I do not understand why the buyer gets a refund and that I was not given the opportunity to get the problem resolved or have the item replaced if it was defective.

I now no longer have a brand new item that is sealed from the manufacturer. I paid listing and sales fees to eBay and Paypal. I also paid out shipping fees of around $20 which I am not reimbursed for. I have spent hours getting the proof that Paypal required from Apple and they did not even use the proof to make a judgement that the buyer lied. I have all the communications and written proof of my claim.

I sold five vintage Zippo lighters to a buyer in Italy last month. I did not purchase a tracking number and the buyer said he never received them. There was no way to confirm he got them, so PayPal refunded his money. All we could prove was that the package was tendered to USPS. We were out $150.00 sale for the lighters and we are out of the lighters.

We tried to work on this with Paypal, but they said that Italy's customs was notorious for losing items, so there wasn't anything they could do. We thought that was it, until Paypal started to freeze our money for 21 days. We called them numerous times, explaining what happened but they continue to hold our money. We are at the point where we can no longer sell items and use Paypal. We have to front the shipping cost for 21 days. We list approximately 20-25 items, so this could turn out to be more than we can afford. The buyer pays shipping charges so that their items can be shipped out.

Paypal has no right to hold the shipping money the buyer pays. They do not refund the shipping charges when a buyer wants a refund. After selling on several auction sites for seven years, with a near perfect record and feedback, we are being treated like criminals due to a dishonest person in Italy. Makes no sense!

We are going to discontinue selling on Ebay, due to the fact that Ebay makes us use Paypal. We cannot accept money orders or personal checks on Ebay. This is going to cause a loss of revenue for us.

I recently sold a camera on eBay for 1,542. The customer was not happy with the purchase and wanted a refund. He contacted PayPal and PayPal took the money out of my PayPal account and refunded the customer.

They took the money from my PayPal account without my consent. I actually had no problem with that. The problem is, they are trying to retrieve the money from me that they have already taken from me.

I sold an item through PayPal and never received payment. Amount of the item (rings) was 950 Canadian dollars. I have been in touch with PayPal and they told me too bad I was scammed by fraudulent emails and I have no recourse. So much for seller protection.

I will never deal with PayPal again!

PayPal placed a hold of 21 days on all of my funds from my eBay sales, stating the reason as I had little activity on my account. Now that I started selling items again and have had an increase in activity, I was put into a "high-risk" category.

I called customer service twice to explain that I have no income. I am currently unemployed and that I need the money from the sales to ship the item. I was told that once I ship the item, the money would be released three days after it arrives, and I receive positive feedback. They also told me that if I use the print shipping label option, the money for postage would be available.

This was the first time I called, so I tried that. I printed a shipping label for one transaction, which the money came out of my checking and not my PayPal, and released the cost of shipping the item from the money on hold. When I tried to purchase the second shipping label, it said insufficient fund. So I called customer service again and was told that I have to purchase the label before they can release the funds. I can't do this with no funds available.

Now my checking has $1.34 in it and I can't do anything! I have no way to purchase the second shipping label until the funds are released! I asked if they could just release $13.25 for the cost of shipping the item, and they said no. I told them the last person I spoke to told me that it releases for the cost of shipping and he said they lied. I asked for a supervisor and he said they can't do anything for me.

What good is this? So now I am most likely going to get a negative on my item, as I have to ship it to Australia but I can't! Something needs to be done to correct this issue...and soon!

I sold five, sealed IPhone4 through Paypal to this person and he received the items by USPS (with a tracking number). After he received the items and checked the serial number he told me that he was happy with the items.The only proof I have that he was satisfied with the phones was the text messages he sent me after they were received. After a few days he opened a dispute against me through Paypal and lied to his credit card company that the phones were no good. Paypal and his credit card company put his money back into his credit card account and left me with a negative balance in my Paypal account. I am now left with a $2,000 negative balance in Paypal and without the five IPhones I shipped to him. I have made several complaints to Paypal and explained the situation and as of today they didn't try to help the situation. They have put me through their collection department and have failed to help me as their customer even after I have provided the proof that I am not at fault and have been completely honest to the person I sold the phones to. I will never use Paypal again. They are the worst site and they have the most unprofessional people I have talked to.

I sold 3 shure wireless microphones to a guy in France (Maurice Porreye), the customs tracking form indicated that the item arrived and was delivered, the guy claimed that he didn't receive it and paypal took $875 from my account. The guy totally screwed me up. Paypal always goes in favor of the buyer no matter what, but never for the seller... the reason paypal gave me was that customs forms tracking are not reliable since it doesn't track every step on the process and I should ship in a way which every step can be track and with signature, thats why I use now DHL for overseas.

Another time I sold 5 sony bluray players to Andrew Hamilton in Australia and ship USPS Express International insured with signature...(just how paypal requires) the weight of the package was 18 lbs. which was the 5 bluray plus packing material, I took pictures of the items inside the package and after I sealed the package (I always do that in case of claims and for insurance) The guy claimed he only received 1 bluray and want the rest of his money back (he was intentionally lying) So after I showed all the proof to paypal including pictures and facts like 1 bluray weights about 2.5 lbs with packaging will be about 3 lbs...but the package weighted 18 lbs with 5 blurays not 1???

Paypal again favor the buyer, it got me so irritated... Later i learned that the same buyer registered all 5 blurays for extended warranty on sony's website (i was following this with a contact I have in Sony's fraud department and he alerted me), so I called paypal and show them proof of the serial numbers I sold to this buyer and the serials that were registered by the buyer who claimed about 20 days before that he received only 1 bluray.... His name and foreing address in Australia matched his paypal address and the address on the extended warranty registration for the 5 bluray players... You know what paypal did?? NOTHING! They told me that the case was closed and there was nothing else to do... Honestly I just use paypal for Ebay transactions because is the only way... but i rather use something else for other deals.

I recently opened an eBay account. PayPal is the company they pretty much suggest that you use to accept payments. As of today, I have sold over $700.00 worth of merchandise. These are sales ranging from $30 to $50. So, I have sold a good amount of items. After a customer pays, I pack the items and provide eBay - PayPal with the tracking info. I tried to withdraw the money into my account that I have linked to PayPal. A message on PayPal read I could only access $33.56. I called PayPal right away. How can they do this? They have my bank account and a credit card for security, just in case a seller does not follow through on a sale. The reply I received was because I was a new seller. They had to hold my funds until the merchandise was delivered and the tracking number showed that. I went over 6 transactions with the person from PayPal that I had tracked myself and the USPS had stated delivery. PayPal claims that info was not in their system as of yet. When it does show up in their system, it takes 3 business days for me to receive my funds.

Well, it is now 4 business days. I keep selling merchandise and it is getting delivered. I'm checking the tracking info myself. I still have the same $33 in change available for me to withdraw. When I was on the phone with PayPal, I asked if I will also receive the interest that my money has earned. "No," the rep stated. "Well, who does?" I asked. There was just silence. They did not know. This is legalized robbery. When you become a member of eBay, there are really no other payment options other than credit cards. They have even put limits on what you can accept money orders for. Not for what I am selling. I don't know what to do. I have bills to pay. I even purchased something on eBay and I can't pay for it. So, the seller opened a nonpayment case against me.

After viewing several consumer complaint websites, I am fully convinced that PayPal is conducting business that is criminal in nature by "holding" people's funds for varying amounts for various, bogus and at times undisclosed reasons. I sent a $900 payment to an individual for some merchandise via PayPal. The money was transferred from my bank account that same day, through PayPal and to the individual. The seller realized that the item I ordered was out of stock and called me to inform me that he had revived my payment and was sending me a refund via PayPal immediately.

I went to check my PayPal account several hours and it showed the payment and refund as complete, but My $900 was not reflected in my PayPal balance nor my bank account balance. I waited until the next business day to give it some time to clear and still had no refund in either account. When I called PayPal customer service, I was told it would take 3-5 business day for the refund to show up in my account.

Why??? (1) I sent CASH from my account to his and he sent that same CASH back. Since when does CASH need time to clear? (2) I have yet to see an any disclosure that it takes 3-5 business days to process a refund. Very, very unethical if not totally illegal. Three customer service people (one posing as a supervisor, none that spoke english well enough to keep me from constant saying "huh? could you repeat that?") regurgitated the same canned responses that all skirted the issue of crediting my account immediately. This company is getting away with holding other people's money for indefinite periods of time for their own gain.

I have been a paypal customer for over a year now. Recently I have applied for and been approved and issued a paypal debit card. As per the user agreement and terms of use, I am able to make purchases both online and at any retailer where MasterCard is accepted. The card may also be used to withdraw funds from my paypal account using any ATM as long as I use my 4 digit security pin and accept any associated withdrawal fees. As per paypal, I can add funds to my prepaid card in two ways which is either a transfer from my associated and linked bank account or via Green dot MoneyPak, which is a separate entity.

On July 20th, my mother, in Michigan, had purchased a MoneyPak card to set funds owed to me deposited directly into my paypal account. I later that day had withdrawn a part of those funds after doing a little grocery shopping using my paypal debit card. (First time ever withdrawing funds)

Later that evening, I received an email stating that my paypal account has been shut down and closed and funds released due to improper usage of the Green dot MoneyPak. I then called paypal to inquire further in which I was told by the representative that no further details were available and to call back later. I called back the next day, July 22nd, and spoke to yet another representative who basically told me that I violated federal laws with the use of MoneyPak and that I cannot load money using the MoneyPak to my paypal card then withdraw it. After careful review of all of paypal user agreements and terms of use and service of the account and the debit card, I could find nothing that states that I cannot withdraw funds that were deposited via MoneyPak. In fact, it clearly states in their policies and user agreements that I can withdraw funds from my debit card at any ATM using my PIN number and agreeing to any associated fees in doing so. Nothing is mentioned about the MoneyPak terms.

I then called back to paypal customer service to bring this to their attention where, once again, the representative informed me that I violated their terms of use of the moneypak. I asked the representative to refer me to the section in their policy on their website that states that and he could not find it. He also said that it is stated clearly at the back of the Green dot MoneyPak card. I just so happened had a Green dot MoneyPak card that I purchased a few weeks earlier on hand and read the back and informed him that it says nothing about withdrawing funds being a violation of terms. I also read him back exactly what the card states. He was speechless! I was then informed to contact the compliance department who's only means of contact is through email as they do not have a direct phone number? So I did, I just explained my case and the unfair and misleading tactics they used that resulted in the closure of my account and also mentioned no prior knowledge of this such policy that is not stated anywhere in their legal agreement or terms of use. To date, the only response I got was a computer reply of the original computer generated message sent to me.

I called again today and spoke to another representative who basically told me the same thing about me violating the terms of use. I again asked where or what section of the terms of use I can find that as I read the terms of use thoroughly and I cannot find it. He then tells me it's in the Green dot MoneyPak's terms of use. I then proceed with him on the phone to go to the Green dot MoneyPak's website and look into their terms of use and find nothing in reference to what or where he says it clearly states in their terms of use. Before I can bring this to his attention, he then retracts his claim and said that it doesn't exactly say it but that I can't do that.

I then called Green dot MoneyPaks customer support department to verify PayPal's claim in which they assured me that Green dot and PayPal are two separate companies with different policies and according to Green dot policies it is not illegal to withdraw funds from your debit card that was loaded using a moneypak as long as your card has cash withdrawal capabilities it is fine and legal! Then the call was ended. I then received a call from the PayPal supervisor who basically told me Green dot misinformed me and that PayPal does not need to list all of its policies for users to see and

although it's not stated in the user agreement it is just! The call ended.

My point is how is this just and how is this legal? As per the advertisements and user agreement I was completely in the right and in compliance with the terms of use and the user agreement of both paypal and Green dot. and it was paypal who approved a debit card for my use and CLEARLY stated in their terms of use that cash may in fact be withdrawn from the debit card when available up to $400.00 per day.

Can someone please help me with this as I feel this is outrageous and unjust!

EBay and Paypal are being allowed to scam their users. They unfairly close accounts with positive feedback. They are closing accounts that have money in them and are not returning the money. They expect you to send out your merchandise to a buyer but they hold your money which you may never receive.

They have several class action lawsuits and are still being allowed to rob and steal from people.

Well I was a seller on Ebay, And I had my Ebay account since about 2005 the paypal account I had even longer, at LEAST 10 years or more..

However paypal unlike alot of other companies do not really care about thier older customers. I doubt they really care about customers at all.

We had been selling dolls on ebay and our business was doing ok, then some of the orders became delayed arriving from manufacturer to distributor. That set us back alot. And we had to do some refunds before those items arrived. That I understand and is not my complaint.. the following IS

What made it bad was when one day they decided we had multiple accounts. This happened right about as all the dolls were coming into the supplier and we would finally be able to get the dolls to our buyers.

they wanted id, bills, they wanted invoices from our suppliers, and their address, phone numbers ways to contact them. they wanted our social security numbers.. we gave them all of that..

mean while I had managed to sell a few of my personal belongings on ebay to help pay for things.. And I mistakenly told someone at paypal on the phone that I had done so.. the records they had showed the account in negative.. until they saw I sold something for $200.. Well within the next two hours no one could pay for anything on auction that we were selling to pay for refunds or incoming dolls.. And the money that had gone in there? Close to $480? Paypal had held..

they said they needed more info send them more faxes.. so we sent the articles of operation for the business.. the license for the state of florida.

never heard anything back.. I finally got an idea to have my husband call since it was his account they had linked..

when he called they said they still had it down as multiple accounts OR that the business was seen as a risk so they had actually shut the accounts down back on the 24th of June.. So the whole time we were playing the fax game it was for nothing..

I sold an item on ebay.. It was an iphone, that was sold for $360.. I posted the item express post with a tracking number..
Paypal said that the item wasnt delivered to the right place, and refunded the money back to the buyer..

Paypal then told me that I could contact Australia post and if I could get written proof from them that the item was delivered that I would get my money back.. I got the documentation sent to me, and faxed it off to paypal, and now they are telling me that the documentation proving the item was delivered isnt good enough..

PayPal's policy of holding funds from sales made thru eBay: they hold the funds for 21 days, even after the item has been shipped. I do not give credit to customers and PayPal has essentially forced the issue. They hold our money. This should be outlawed. I sell a car for $4000.00 and am forced to ship and then wait 21 days to see my money while the buyer drives my car and PayPal plays with the funds. This is an outrage. This should be outlawed. I am out equipment and the only proof of payment is a number on my PayPal account. Reminds me of Bernie **. It has caused me money that I do not have access to. How in the world do these people get away with this? And this is forced on eBay users. We need action on the part of the offices of Consumers Affairs. I only want an attorney to contact me if there is a class action law suit.

How does Paypal get away with holding money they aren't entitled to? It's bad enough that by the time we pay eBay and Paypal their "fees", we end up with nothing. They then hold our money that we are entitled to and expect us to ship our packages out using our own money. They are holding my account now and stole the money from my last sale, claiming they didn't get their eBay fees from the last month when my bank records showed a withdrawal. In addition, I have a negative balance that can't be explained because they got the money. I should have a small balance. In the meantime, I have 3 packages to ship for their buyers and can't access my funds. I don't sell on eBay to have my money on hold and inaccessible so that I have to use my own money to ship these items with no sight of when I can get my money.

I had transferred my money to my bank account and they stopped the transfer and really expect that I will ship these items with no means to pay for the postage. Oh well, they are wrong. I am not putty in Paypal's hands and their buyers will not get their packages if I can't access my money. What's worse is that one buyer has a claim open for non-receipt and they won't even resolve this so they can get the shipment. If I don't get paid, I don't send out free merchandise. Ebay and Paypal think they are so great that everyone needs them and will put up with this **. I was simply trying to get rid of some old items that I don't need and am primarily a buyer, not a seller. I have practically given my items away because of the enormous fees. I certainly am not now losing my piddly sale money because they want to put it on hold for some indefinite amount or steal from me rather is what they did by claiming they weren't paid when they were.

Sellers have no rights with eBay or Paypal with all this "buyer protection". A buyer can say anything and get their money back even if they received the merchandise. No seller is going to risk not being paid and also being subject to refunding money as a result of Paypal's ** up antics. They aren't even polices. I got no warning or message about any negative balance and I also got no indication of any overdraw they are claiming occurred which didn't because I have evidence that they were paid. They screw people over to sit on money for interest and it is total crap. I would join any class action against Paypal. I now will lose my eBay account over this and I simply don't care anymore. When they do this to sellers, they lose money. They also lose buyers. They are totally wrong. Please, someone sue these people.

PayPal refund my money back to the buyer even after they sold item which is a gift was used. And they told me the charge are not reimbursement. I had follow their protection policy but they still don't protect me as the seller. $500.00.

I had been selling items on eBay and accepting payments through PayPal for over 4 months. All of a sudden, they said that the CC on file was expired and to update it a.s.a.p. Since this was my business of course, I updated the CC right away. A day later, I logged in and found out that they put a limitation on my account. They were saying that in order to re-store the account, I just needed to verify some information.

They wanted 5 tracking numbers of the last products that I had sold (I gave them tracking number for all of my 150 sales). Then, they wanted to verify my address with a utility bill, and I sent that in. They wanted invoices, receipts, and proof of supplier. I was told during all this process, which took 3 days of stress, and while my purchases funds where on hold as well as my business, that once I gave them all this information, my account would be restored. The next day, they tell me that I am a security risk and they have decided to part ways and my account would be closed! I was furious!

Not only were there a lot of funds in my account from my buyers but also from my profit money. They said I would not be able to withdraw the funds for 180 days and did not know how I would do that once that time period was met. I am furious and have read that this has happened to so many of us who depend on this money to eat and feed our family. This money is essential for us to live. This was not just an extra $500 or $5,000 lying around somewhere. I, for one, am not going to let them do this to me, and whoever wants to join me when I file a class action lawsuit against them, let me know!

In January 2011, PayPal suddenly and without notice held all the funds in my account (about $20k). They demanded proprietary and confidential documents, bank statements, etc. saying they are my business partner. They were my credit card processor. Under duress, I released some of the documents withholding the ones with my customers personal information. They released about half the funds. I have never had a dispute or complaint.

According to terms of use, they can hold your money if there is a dispute but I have never had any. The rest of the funds were to be released yesterday, May 9. When they were not released, I contacted PayPal customer service and they released some money but are still holding around $2300 for collateral. Collateral for what? Not sure as I no longer use the account. I'd like to close the account, but they will not close an account with a reserve. I asked to speak to the supervisor of the risk manager that did this to me. After speaking to several people, they gave me the address to PayPal legal department. Apparently there is no appeal mechanism or any supervisors in PayPal.

PayPal's holding this money has caused a significant burden to my business. I had to personally work excessively to the point of illness and exhaustion in order to make up for that money. I had to quit using employees for the work. I potentially lost customers because I was sometimes late with services, because I was so busy and then ill. What they are holding is roughly equivalent to my house payment which I will not be able to make. I have reported the problem to my state senators, the SEC, FTC and the CA and CO attorney generals. No help so far.

I was selling items on ebay and the buyers were paying me using a service called PayPal. On 2/25/11, PayPal limited my account. This meant that I could not access the money I had in my Paypal account. They said that my account would stay limited until I provided tracking numbers for 5 buyers whom they chose at random. They said after I provided the information they would immediately remove the limitation. I provided tracking number for not only the 5 buyers they chose at random but for all 100+ buyers. They then said that they were permanently limiting my account. They have my checking account information on the account and refused to let me close the account.

I have tried to appeal their decision to limit my account, but all I keep receiving is a response that my appeal was denied and to not respond to the email because no one checks that email address. I have called several times trying to find out exactly why they will not remove the limitation from my account and keep getting the same canned response. This had become extremely frustrating. They said that they are going to hold my money for 180 days without interest. They are doing this to hundreds of thousands of their customers. They are holding our money without cause and using our money to make money.

PayPal limited my account for no reason at all. The claim that was given was that they want to check with me to make sure that no one has logged into my account without my permission. This check is unnecessary as it is clear that I am the only one who have access to my account and always have.

My account has been low usage and still is. Besides rather high activity in March and now in April due to donations. After the account has been restored and my funds transferred to my credit card, I am going to close it. The account was restored as I did write this complaint but that in itself might not prevent this from happening again.

I could have lost money if the account had not been restored from its limited state.

I had Sports Tickets auctioned on EBay. Buyer bid and won tickets. Buyer contacted me saying" payment made using PayPal" and requested delivery of tickets. Paypal verified the authorized payment.Tickets were sent and Buyer acknowledged receipt. Later Buyer disputed payment made via personal credit card on PayPal as "unauthorized". PayPal claimed to arbitrate on my behalf. I was informed that the decision went in favor of the Buyer. I was not properly represented. (PayPal Dispute *****)

I sold items on ebay in Jan and Feb. These items were shipped (confirmed) and I received the necessary "feedback" from buyers verifying that purchase, receipt of merchandise and payment by them to PayPal to my account. I have attempted for weeks to get my money from PayPal to no avail. Not only can I not get my money, the employees that work in customer service don't know any more about why money isn't paid than I do. It's only a total of $377. Not a lot of money unless you're like me and living on a fixed income and really need it. I have paid fees to ebay for listing, money to PayPal for handling the transactions and money for shipping of the products. I know they are a large corporation and I'm small potato but I've reached a point where I see no alternative but to ask someone for help or go to the courts for satisfaction. Can you shed any light on the possibility of this working favorably for me in obtaining my money?

I have sold for years on eBay and Paypal was a major payment processor. My eBay record is exemplary but suddenly due to my account being high risk, I was given thirty days notice that there would be up to a 21 day hold on payments. A payment was made to me that day and held! The first business day later, I cleaned out their ears a bit, defended my performance, and my account was quickly cleared of any hold actions.

That was a proper response. My thought: who do they think they are to cause such stress and waste of time to people who use their service in an honorable manner? Is that what they think they are due as a result of my agreeing to pay them 50% more for processing payments than my regular merchant account?

This pseudo-bank owned by eBay charges egregiously high fees. I sold an item on eBay for a total of $71.77 including shipping. The buyer paid PayPal with an "eCheck". PayPal charged $2.38 or 3.3%, for this. PayPal took no risk whatsoever. They cautioned me not to ship until they confirmed the eCheck had cleared.

Kent was planning on buying my car but he resides in the U.K. A lot of things aren't adding up the way they should. I already gave him $500 to pay for the courier expenses. But he is trying to get more money from me to pay for the insurance, claiming that he will pay me back through PayPal and that the money is on hold until I send the insurance money to him. Most of the contact has been through email so I can provide those details to you. I believe the PayPal emails he was sending me are fake as they have many grammatical errors, similar to the ones he makes when emailing me.

My account (**@vazgsm.net) was blocked due to stupid rules and the lack of people to solve the question. I had a dispute, and money was returned to sender. My balance was negative. All funding in my account were always by credit card, but they don't take it to solve the negative pending.

I sent 9 emails, but none replied; I tried to call at least 5 times (Brazilian and US numbers), and no one knew nothing, and they can't do anything. Support tickets are always answered the same default useless answer; no one even read what's inside it. I mean, how can someone contact a large company so many times, trying to pay, and that company simply doesn't care. It's the worse customer support I have ever seen. It seemed that no one works, because everyone knew nothing about anything. And so, nothing got even discussed.

PayPal has installed a policy where money due me from sales completed on Ebay are held for up to 21 days. I am not alone in this fight against PayPal. PayPal said that they need this hold in case the buyer has a complaint or needs a refund. This is ridiculous as I was required to provide a checking account number and credit card number for backup funding. Backup funding is put into use if the balance of the PayPal account is less than the dollars needed to satisfy a customer's needs. I pay PayPal and Ebay seller's fees separate with automatic withdrawal.

I am retired and in order to process the sale and deliver the package to the customer, I must pay postage; I need the money from the sale to do this. Otherwise, as of right now, I am having to pay shipping postage out of my pocket.

Currently, I have paid over $100 just for shipping of three items. I needed money to use and I am still waiting on from PayPal. I provided tracking as requested and communicated this information to the customer, as I have done for several years. I am not a casual seller. So, it is vital that this policy be eliminated so that I can afford to continue.

In closing, it is important to me to note that after funds are released, it is without interest. Thus, PayPal get free use of my money for up to 21 days.

As mentioned before, I am retired. Money is very tight. I sell on Ebay to help make ends meet but not getting the funds from my sales for up to 21 days and having to process the sale within two days, causes me to pay out of my pocket for shipping. Let alone getting the money due me from the Ebay sales to help pay my bills.

First issue - I made use of the eBay and PayPal selling system fairly regularly, about five years ago. Recently, I had something to sell, so I went to eBay and PayPal and made sure all of my information was updated in both accounts. I was told that my PayPal account was frozen. I wasn't surprised since it had been a while since I used it - not a problem. I went ahead and cleared this issue and sold my item on eBay. The buyer paid me via PayPal. No muss, no fuss, right?

When I went to transfer funds to my bank account (mind you, the same account that I've had since I first used eBay), I was told that again, my account had been frozen for security reasons (I have seen no one trying to hack into my account/no notifications from my bank). PayPal told me that they needed me to verify my address. They gave me a fax number where I could send a copy of my driver's license. Despite my attempts to fax yesterday and today, that number in India has been continuously busy. As I have gainful employment, I don't have 24 hours a day to spend on a fax machine, trying to send over 2 pages.

Second issue - Another item I had on eBay was sold. The high bidder never paid, never came through, nothing. Allegedly, this buyer had a score of 100%. I have been trying to lower that score to warn any potential sellers that this person is a complete flake. I can't do it.

I have been using PayPal.com services for a long time. Well, in the last 3 weeks, I have earned $2000 (not once), which have been sent to my PayPal account. After I got my first $1000 in the first week, I have been limited by PayPal and couldn't use my balance (I can only receive payments). In the second week, I've done all they were asking me for and verified my account. In the third week, I also got a big payment. Then, they just closed my PayPal account with more than $2000 in it!

I called customer support. They told me that PayPal decided to do this because I was sort of a threat. I asked for the reason. But he told me that he don't know because of security issues. So, I asked for his manager's number or someone I can talk to, who can help me or get more info about my payments so he could lift my account. But he refused to give me any other information. So, I asked what's about my money. He told me that in 180 days, I may receive a mail with details on how I can get my cash out of PayPal into my bank. I asked him how will I do that. He told me, "I don't know." That is how the call ended!

Now I don't know why my account was closed. Is it because of the high payments? I've got customers who can prove that they paid me for services. PayPal doesn't even want to hear my side of this. And this is my money. The support guy also mentioned that in this case, I cannot do anything because this kind of decision cannot be appealed. I have worked hard and earned my money honestly and I can prove it! Why do I deserve this?!

I won an auction and paid through Paypal. The seller revised the auction while I had the winning bid and made 9 other violations. When he returned my call, he requested $350 to pick up my item, which was already paid for. Then he refused to sell me the item even though I won the auction for $25 and returned my money. I resent the money which Paypal still has and filed a non-receipt complaint and was told that eventually I might get my $25 back. I entered a contract when I bid, the seller entered a contract when she posted, and I completed my contract when I paid. The seller does not null and void a contract by returning my money and has had the second payment for days now. I want the speakers I purchased or the funds to replace them. I have spent hours with eBay and Paypal with no success and arbitration was refused me even though it is in eBay's policies, which I agreed to when I signed up to sell and buy on eBay. Customer service refuses to place me in contact with a supervisor as my issue is not on the list of reasons to refer me to a supervisor. The seller has 5 negative feedbacks this month for the same reason and has a 94% seller rating, and I have 100% rating with twice the number of feedbacks.

I am a disabled veteran 100% and suffer from anxiety and panic disorder and OCD and have been going insane and over medicating to survive.

Being sent to collection agency again for charges made by somebody that they gave my account information to. I have spent well over 160 hours of my own time clearing my good name and credit history along with having to close my accounts and open new accounts (some of which I have had for 25+ years).

I opened a PayPal account to buy something online. I transferred $455 into my PayPal account from my checking account. When I purchased the item, I used a PayPal eCheck. And an error took the money out of my linked checking account rather than my PayPal account (and overdrew my checking account). I tried to transfer the $455 back to my checking account, but PayPal has now restricted my account. Even though I sent them a bank statement and a photo of my driver's license for proof of identity, they refuse to transfer my money back and do not respond to emails or phone calls.

I transferred $485 from my PayPal account into my checking account several days ago. PayPal listed the transaction as "pending" but today in my PayPal account it says it is "completed." However, the money has not shown up in my bank account. My bank told me to ask PayPal for the tracing number. They would not give me one, but gave me some ** story about the money going into my bank's "federal reserve" account where it can sit for days. I called my bank back and they informed me all transfers are posted to accounts within one hour and there is no record of PayPal transferring any money. PayPal has the correct account number because they deposited verification amounts of 3 and 17 cents (and it did not take days to do so).

Now I don't know where my money is and PayPal says they cannot give me the tracing number for 7 days. Originally, they tried to convince me that the transaction number was the tracing number, but when I wouldn't bite, then the customer service person said I couldn't have it for 7 days. PayPal insists the money is no longer with them, but my bank does not have it.

PayPal changed my primary paying method without my authorization and without a notice. They tried to charged my bank account instead of my credit card over and over and over. For each time, they tried to charge my bank account I had to pay $35 NSF charge because my bank account didn't have the funds.

When I informed them about the problem, they said there's nothing they can do about it because it's in the system and they can't modify anything in the system. So, the system kept trying to run it over and over and over again. Before I could deposit $13 into that account, they tried to charged it 7-8 times leaving me with $250+ NSF charges on my bank account. Their explanation was "We're sorry that's how the system works." I'd rather bury my money in the back yard and send checks in the mail than using PayPal again.

I had to pay $250+ overdraft charges on my bank account for an item that costs $13 because PayPal tried to charge my bank account over and over instead of my credit card.

PayPal has authorized Proactive Solutions to collect money for a product I did not purchase or received. I have contacted PayPal several times to stop any payments going through my PayPal account to Proactive. On 12/10/10, I spoke to a PayPal representative and he helped me deactivate Proactive Solutions from my PayPal account. He assured me that no payments would ever come through from Proactive again. PayPal has charged my checking account twice for $19.95, each time causing my checking account to be negative $71.95. Also, PayPal is charging me another $19.95 for unpaid funds. I would like to cancel my PayPal account and to be refunded $91.95 that PayPal has caused me in financial stress. PayPal is responsible for authorizing payments to Proactive since I contacted them several times and requested to cancel any payments. I have been unemployed. Now I'm depressed because of this matter.

PayPal has not responded to my two good-faith letters of 10-14-10 and 11-6-10. They have rather preferred to simply send me more bills with added interest and late charges.

The two good-faith letters were sent to PayPal immediately after they finally sent me two sets of written statements for the specific charges made on my PayPal card. I include the two good-faith letters here. On 7-19-10, three months before the two good-faith letters were sent, my husband, Dwight **, had issued an electronic withdrawal check to PayPal, in the amount of $87, immediately after receiving a phone call from PayPal stating that we were in arrears on the account.

I requested during that phone conversation that we be sent a written statement indicating the charges in arrears and that my card be cancelled. PayPal failed to send any written statement until three months later, on 10-13-10. PayPal' s first written statement sent since May, dated 10-13-10, indicated that there were two charges still owed by me for a total of $103.49 (see response of my first good-faith letter included here, dated 10-14-10, that included a check for payment of the amount I thought I owed on my account). On 11-6-10, I sent PayPal the second good-faith letter (also included here) immediately after finally receiving all the statements issued for my PayPal account #**. The last statement indicated charges pending between 5-7-10 and 6-8-10. This was the first time I had been sent a written statement concerning these charges. The only pending charges I was aware of were the two they had sent me notice of, for the first time, on 10-13-10.

My response in the letter of 11-6-10 represents my present position: I am in no way willing to pay for any interest charges or late fees accrued since May of this year, 2010. In a nutshell, PayPal wants me to pay, $301.68 in interest and late fees because they decided to switch me over to online statements and payments without my permission and without giving me any written notice or sending me any more written statements. Their latest unilateral move has been to change my account to PayPal Extras, transfer a new amount of $1,170.17 as purchases/debits, and to assign the account a new number of 5218 5310 1928 2103.

My husband, Dwight **, had been faithfully paying the entire amount of the balance on my PayPal account every month, without fail, from the beginning of my account until the last written statement payment he made on 5-14-10 in the amount of $449.42. If PayPal makes any claim of sending us written statements from that date until October 13 and November 6 of this year, it would be a false claim. Between July and November we have received numerous harassing phone calls from PayPal. After each one my husband would always say, "Send the written statement!"

My husband issued you an electronic withdrawal on 7/19/10 for: $87.00 (Reference #**) Balance: $16.49. We accept the above two mentioned transactions and include a check here for the $16.49 balance of our debt with you. If you have any more proof in the form of a statement listing a transaction summary of the charges for the Previous Balance in the amount of $927.78, which you claim exists, please send it to us through regular mail.

We will then be happy to consider it just as we have considered this statement you sent us yesterday and which is addressed in this letter. If not, we consider our debt with PayPal as paid in full. Also, I notified you at least three or four months ago by phone that I wanted to cancel my PayPal card. I destroyed the card then. Please make sure that this card and account have been cancelled. Thank you.

Congratulations for finally sending me a significant document concerning the charges I have been asking you to document in written form since June of this year! I include a copy of your significant document here and would ask you to calculate how much I really own you. Please take into consideration in that calculation my last letter to you, dated Oct. 14, 2010, a copy of which I also include here.

I am in no way willing to pay for any interest charges or late fees accrued since May of this year, 2010. That is because of PayPal' s complete irresponsibility in handling my account. I will not get into the more than fifty harassing phone calls I have been receiving from PayPal since May, nor concerning the details of PayPal' s incompetency.

Please return a written statement addressing the issue of how much you really think I owe you. Please do not include all the wasted twenty five pages I just received from you which were postmarked Oct. 28. 2010. One page, like the one included from you here should be enough. I appreciate your immediate attention in this matter as it appears that I may owe some money. Once again, please take into consideration my letter of Oct. 14, 2010 in your calculations. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.\

PayPal needs to be seriously sanctioned for their policies and for being the source of my ongoing frustration and low credit scores. Because of their inept handling of my account I have been unable to refinance my home and save $300 a month in lower interest payments. PayPal also claims that I owe them $301.68 fees and interest for the year of 2010. What can I do about these damages?

On Dec 10, 2010, as funds were being transferred from my PayPal account to my bank account, an automatic charge was also processed. PayPal did not take the money from the PayPal account, instead they charged the associated bank account. This action caused the bank account to go over and an overdraft fee of $32 was charged to my account.

After speaking to the bank representative, this overdraft charge was refunded. As it was clearly evident that PayPal had funds being held at the same time the automatic payment was being processed to my bank account. On Dec. 13, I immediately changed the primary bank account associated with PayPal for payments/deposits and made sure that the associated credit card was also active. On December 16, another overdraft charge was noted in the bank account. After speaking to two PayPal representatives, "their system" would not check for new account information nor use the backup credit card on the account but it would instead try to use the same account again. Doing so caused additional overdraft fees of $32, which PayPal refuses to reimburse me for. As of December 14, PayPal was still using the old bank account information for automatic payments as evidenced by a new charge of $4.95 and the second overdraft charge for a transaction that was later charged to my credit card.

I was trying to re-list something on eBay and I was not able to do it because I got a message that I need to get verified to my PayPal. When I called PayPal, they told me that the only way to get verified by PayPal was either to open a PayPal credit card or to add a checking or savings account to my PayPal account. I don't think it is legal to be asked to open a credit card or to be asked to link my personal banking accounts with Paypal. This is an abuse! I would really appreciate if you can investigate this matter.

I sold a camcorder to a person in California. I believe it was when I went to get transfer my money from the sell. PayPal said my account had been suspended. I have no clue why it was for $50.00 plus like $15.00 for shipping.

Pay Pall says what they will do to verify a bank account is deposit one penny into it. Instead, they withdraw a dollar as many times as they want to. Within the first 5 minutes of verifying' my account, they took a dollar 3 times. I have to shut my bank account down to stop them from stealing money.

I sold a used cellular phone on ebay.com. Mr. *** bought said item so I sent it to him. When Mr. *** received the item and tried to connect the phone, Verizon told him that the phone was stolen. This was my fault because I did not transfer the line to another phone when I sent the phone to him. So in return *** contacted PayPal.com and put out a dispute against me. He also contacted me through ebay.com and told me the situation. So I immediately contacted Verizon wireless and fixed the problem hopping that he would take back the dispute claim.

He never did take back the claim. Long story short, I gave him a refund for the cellular phone and he never gave me back my cell phone. He kept both the phone and the money and I don't think that is fair. He even had the audacity to leave me negative feedback on ebay.com saying that I sold him a stolen phone! PayPal.com doesn't help me because they said I didn't answer to the claim in the allotted time frame. Please help. I am very upset.

I wanted to buy a piece of software and decided to use PayPal. When I clicked to "pay", it refused to do so until I had added my credit card to the information. Why? I don't know! I had previously added my bank and having had a change of heart after hearing of information being "lost" online, I changed my bank. It seemed the easier thing to do.

At any rate, PP would not allow me to purchase the software without the addition of my credit card. I decided to not purchase the software, but rather withdraw my funds from PP. That is impossible to do unless you "confirm your address". To do so, you must add your credit card number. Why? I don't know! Since my address is listed on their site, both my box number which is the only way to reach me via the mail system, and my house number which is the only way to reach me via box delivery. Why this should be so at this late date is truly beyond me, but any of you brave souls who has been thinking of using PayPal, don't! Your money in your account will be held hostage unless you add your credit card or your bank account as collateral. Why? I don'tknow!

I woke up this morning to an email from Paypal informing me that $165 had been removed from my bank account and put on hold. A buyer on Ebay requested parcel post shipping to California. I mailed a copper roasting pan from New Jersey and after only 4 business days, Paypal allowed her to put the amount in dispute even though the USPS estimates 10 business days for delivery.

When I called Paypal, they told me that even though parcel post is traceable by the post office, it's not traceable online. I called the woman's post office in California who told me the package is at their sorting facility and probably won't be delivered until this Tuesday and the Paypal claim is scheduled to be closed on Monday if she hasn't received the package. I will never again accept Paypal and advise anyone else dealing with Ebay/Paypal to never accept Paypal if you don't want to be ripped off!

I do not have nor ever had any disputes with PayPal, I am customer since 1998.

I am a software developer who makes the living by selling his software online. Normally, I log in into my PayPal account twice a year just to withdraw my money. When I logged in on August 9th, 2010, there was a message from PayPal informing me that my credit card on file has expired September 2009. Immediately, I updated that information. Soon after that (few minutes later) I have received email from PayPal saying that my account became "limited" and I do not have right to withdraw funds.Their requirement to remove that limitation was for me to submit my photo ID and proof of address.

I am not willing to do that, because I do not see any valid reason for PayPal to request that information and I consider that invasion of my privacy. They do have my valid MasterCard account on file and they do have my Canadian bank account and the address (confirmed address). Beside that, I am long time PayPal customer with "confirmed address" status. On October 1st, PayPal tightened the screw and disabled my account completely.

I am a photographer/book publisher with an online business where I accept credit card payments through PayPal. PayPal stopped accepting payments on my account for "security" reasons without my authorization or notice. (They sent emails asking for my bank account# which appeared to be phony, so I did not respond to those). They did not call me when they stopped accepting payments for my services/product. I only learned of the problem when a motivated buyer contacted me and told me that my website was giving them, "We are not accepting payments for this product at this time."

Is this practice by PayPal legal? Customers should be entitled to personal (by phone) notification when holds are put on accounts. I have phone/fax/answering machine. I could easily have been notified and answered their "security" questions, which basically was a repeat of the information they already had (my bank account #) originally and a new password. They even had a charge on their "questions".

Update your credit card information and they charge your credit card for that. I would be happy if someone notified PayPal that these are not acceptable business practices. I asked that if they cut off accepting payments on my account in the future, if they would call me. I was told, "That is not our policy." Unfair and unethical. Plain and simple. The whole process seemed fishy to me. My account was immediately restored when I contacted them, but never should have been cut off in the first place.

Sometime in August 2000, I sold an item on eBay to a customer overseas. I blame myself for having used a shipping service that was not traceable, so I cannot verify if the person ever received it. I got one and only one email from the buyer about 1 week after I had sent it stating that they had not received the item and they feared the package lost. I sent numerous emails and physical snail mail in an attempt to ask if the client wanted a refund. I even sent them whatever paperwork the postal office had given me in an attempt to try to find the package.

I received zero response! Time passed, weeks went by, months passed and years passed, I was only ever left wondering, "What Happened?" The client had apparently filed a chargeback with their own bank - which of course, their bank is going to favor them. Paypal left the chargeback amount in my account, I never saw it! I was never informed of it! The account was closed some months afterwards and the email address used with it was abandoned.

I moved 4 times in the course of the ten years that followed! I get a call sometime in August 2010 from an outside collections agency. The woman on the phone is less than polite. She is irate with me and will not tell me what this collection is about other than to say "Paypal and Ebay, August 2000". In fact, this woman is so irate with me, that rather than answer my question as to whether this is real or fraud, she just threatens to file a mark on my credit report for it and say that I'm not paying it.

I then proceeded to call Paypal's customer service # directly. It takes me nearly an hour for me to even get a general idea of what this $120 chargeback is all about. Between being tossed around 4 or 5 representatives, and them claiming they need me to provide the phone # at the residence ten years ago, and/or the email address used, this was a freaking nightmare. I tore apart my entire filing cabinet just to find some itty bitty information to prove that I was me and not someone else!

It's not that I hadn't been willing to resolve the matter directly with the client! It's the fact that this took ten long years to resolve, and Paypal was less than helpful (although a bit better than the irate collections agency). I requested the Paypal representative who finally could resolve the issue to please send me a confirmation to my current address/email. Thus far, I have yet to receive it, and all my current inquiries of it go unanswered.

All I have is a charge on my current bank account, and no response from Paypal! I am keeping the statement that I have, but I have no faith whatsoever that Paypal has indeed closed the file on their end! I want solid proof of it, and until I do, I leave warning to anyone who uses Paypal to be extremely careful or not use them at all!

There also ought to be a "Statute of Limitations" as to how long something like this can go on for. Because ten years is a long time! A person can die during that time frame (you never know if someone is gonna be ran over by a car and dead the next day). Makes me wonder how many collections agencies are chasing dead people for money that cannot be recovered.


Quantcast