I refused to disclose my annual income to PAYPAL and they froze my funds !

reply to post by tauristercus


PayPal HQ is literally a mile or two up the freeway from me, we should go in for a visit
I've been using PayPal for probably 10 years, never had to do any of that but I can see them needing more info for security reasons. What I don't understand is that you are receiving money, they are stealing your money!

Originally posted by CAELENIUM

CONSUMER RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED BY PAYPAL

In my opinion PAYPAL are first and foremost primarily interested in providing a safe service to the buyers of your products. It is because you are the seller of a product, that is why the money in your PAYPAL account is being held back from you for the required 180 days, or more, so that the persons who buy your products can be reimbursed if they subsequently might decide that the product that they have bought from you is not completely to their pleasure. In my understanding this 180 days, or more, delay procedure is necessary, but obviously upsetting for you as a trader. My advice to you as a trader is that you should continue trading via PAYPAL, but with the understanding that the funds are not going to be transfered immediately, like as were your original expectation. My advice to you is provided simply as a friend and has no legal status.

If you actually read the OP, you need to re-read it. PayPal closed his account so he cannot use it. It was his first PP account. He is not allowed to open a new account, so he cannot trade using PP.

The OP's Buyer left Positive feedback because he received the goods and was happy with it.

It is not normal for PayPal to hold money paid for a successful transaction for 180 days.

PayPal is not responsive to inquiries as to WHY his account was closed.

Paypal has a terms of service, just like ATS has a TOS. You broke their TOS. It's funny how you act like you know their TOS, and are saying you didn't break it, yet I highly doubt you actually read it. You don't like it you don't use their service.
These are the types of things you read BEFORE selling something on Ebay.
Or you list a banking transfer as the only form of payment you accept when selling the item.

You have no one to blame but yourself.

I want to tell you this..

I dont like bad business... They give socialist a leg to stand on..

I will assume that you are being honest...

Remember, where you are does not matter... the company's headquarters location is paramount...

Here is how to proceed, and remember normally I charge two hundred dollars an hour for this business advice....(business consulting)

Paypal- wikipedia

On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay.[4] Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California, United States at eBay's North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Nebraska, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, in the United States, Chennai, Dublin, Kleinmachnow (near Berlin) and Tel Aviv. As of July 2007, across Europe, PayPal also operates as a Luxembourg-based bank.

with this in mind

California Attorney Generals office

file a complaint for theft of services... (against ebay) raise a big stink... ask about filing a police report against the CEO of Ebay... Transfer of funds and they charged you for it, but did not deposit it...

of note get the receipt that they took the eight dollars... you will need this

outline everything that happened in the order it happened...

So far what you have outlined, is that they have kept the money....


Better business bureau complaints -

again have an outline of your full complaint and full set of correspondents...


Bank regulations- wikipedia

One example of Office of Thrift Supervision preemption begins with Section 550.136(a) of the OTS Regulations, providing that “...OTS occupies the field of the regulation of the fiduciary activities of Federal savings associations...Accordingly, Federal savings associations may exercise fiduciary powers as authorized under Federal law, including this part, without regard to State laws that purport to regulate or otherwise affect their fiduciary activities, except to the extent provided in 12 U.S.C. § 1464(n)...or in paragraph (c) of this section.” 12 U.S.C. § 1464(n) authorizes fiduciary activities for federal savings associations, and specifies certain state law requirements that are applicable to federal savings associations. Section 550.136(c) lists six types of state laws that, in certain specified circumstances, are not preempted with respect to federal savings associations.

you need to dig out these organizations and contact them... with your complaint...

make sure the banking oversights have the amount of time (since this initially occurred) that has passed. Point out plenty of time has passed to verify who you are. Your ID as an Australian should prove it.


Give this about a week

if no results...

go to your local politician.. outline your complaint against an AMERICAN company (I would advise your version of a state governor or federal congressman

find out if he can file a complaint... after all how many citizens of Australia have been ripped off by ebay- the owner of paypal...


If you win, make sure this is done... Contact the California comptroller and each of the state comptrollers listed. (where they have locations- brick an mortar) Tell them your little story and then the reason your mentioning it.

Make sure during these conversations you find out where they(Ebay) are running your customer service issues from


Inform the comptrollers they are holding cash of a lot customers.Are they paying the state taxes on the money... Refer to Amazon dealing with Texas, and the taxes...

Make sure they are getting there taxes for it

(500 dollars could cost them millions and Cali is broke)



btw, no I am not advertising...

Good businessmen do not like crooked ones... (trust me I turned down a lot of money recently over an ethical issue with a company)

Paypal will close your paypal account if you purchase a gun and they will cancel your eBay account. I'm not sure if it was mentioned in this thread, but it's definitely worth mentioning again.

That's pathetic that this company operates like this and they are still in business. It's sad it truly is.

Time to go back and finish reading the op.

Originally posted by AuranVector

Originally posted by CAELENIUM

CONSUMER RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED BY PAYPAL

In my opinion PAYPAL are first and foremost primarily interested in providing a safe service to the buyers of your products. It is because you are the seller of a product, that is why the money in your PAYPAL account is being held back from you for the required 180 days, or more, so that the persons who buy your products can be reimbursed if they subsequently might decide that the product that they have bought from you is not completely to their pleasure. In my understanding this 180 days, or more, delay procedure is necessary, but obviously upsetting for you as a trader. My advice to you as a trader is that you should continue trading via PAYPAL, but with the understanding that the funds are not going to be transfered immediately, like as were your original expectation. My advice to you is provided simply as a friend and has no legal status.

If you actually read the OP, you need to re-read it. PayPal closed his account so he cannot use it. It was his first PP account. He is not allowed to open a new account, so he cannot trade using PP.

The OP's Buyer left Positive feedback because he received the goods and was happy with it.

It is not normal for PayPal to hold money paid for a successful transaction for 180 days.

PayPal is not responsive to inquiries as to WHY his account was closed.

DOES THE TRADER HAVE A GOVERNMENT ISSUED LICENSE TO TRADE ?

The traders PAYPAL account has been shut down, presumably because PAYPAL do not like the tone being set by the particular trader. PAYPAL have the legal right to do that if they suspect any "dirty business" on the part of the trader. PAYPAL are not obliged to transfer the money immediately or even at all. Consumer rights law is being respected.

I am a trader myself and as such my government issued license to trade is on condition that I continue to respect consumer rights laws that prevail in which ever country it is that I operate. All my trading is global via the iTunes Store and I operate through my music industry agent [Phonographic Performance Limited] who will be deducting their fee. I know that up to this point in time I have sold hundreds of copy of my album already, but due to the system, consumer rights, I might not be paid until a few years yet. Thankfully I am not operating via PAYPAL. I operate solely via iTunes Store as MP3 digital distribution. Anyone wanting to buy my product "SHIMONO" must sign up with iTunes Store using a regular creditcard or debitcard issued by a regular bank account. VISA or MASTERCARD. I have no intention of selling my album as hard copy. Thus if anyone is selling any hard copy of my album they are doing so illegally and will have problems in due course of time as the law will close in on them without mercy. Personally I do not want to buy or sell via PAYPAL. So I stay well away from PAYPAL.

My advice to the trader is as follows. Establish a non litigational relationship with PAYPAL such that PAYPAL will of their own free will re-open his PAYPAL account, to then allow the trader to continue trading via PAYPAL. Then as the amount of money outstanding, that PAYPAL owe to the trader increases, and as time passes, I am quite sure that PAYPAL will eventually transfer the money into the traders regular bank account. Getting litigational is expensive and counter productive. Just relax ! "Giving is better than receiving".

SHIMONO

VAMPIRES

P2P Streamer

PayPal might have saved my life. They held onto a large payment (over $5000) because the buyer complained about the item sold. In reality, it was a setup and the buyer had done it because he was mad at the time it took to ship. The item had to be shipped freight and the delay was actually caused by the shipper. Anyway, PayPal does not care about the reasons, as they only care about the positive feedback. PayPal froze the account after actually putting the money into the account. Buyer got the item he paid for. PayPal then "removed" the $5000 from the paypal account after the bank appeared to receive the money. Next day the bank shows overdraft on the account because the paypal cash never hit the account and we were expecting cash in the account.
So now there are bank fees and a missing $5k. Meanwhile the original purchaser says he will return the item and later saying he will redact his negative feedback. Both never happened. Never got the $5k. The shortfall led to many compounding issues including my ability to get not get paid. Living paycheck to paycheck at the time so not getting paid led to missed rent which led to having to move out.
So how did PayPal save my life? All the above happened about a month before Katrina. I was living in NOLA at the time and decided to move the family out west. I stayed in NOLA up to about a week before the hurricane hit.
So if PayPal had never held the funds, I might have been stuck in NOLA during Katrina defending my family from nature and looters.
So that is about the only good thing I have to say about PayPal.

reply to post by tauristercus


oh my good god, that whole mess of a story I just read is infuriating. I am also an aussie, and have had a few issues with paypal but NOTHING anywhere close to what you have described. I have however been taken on similar rides with other companies (APPLE!!!). When I signed up for paypal many years ago (I don't think it was even owned by ebay at the time) I didn't have to do any of that stuff. I'm pretty sure the only thing they did to secure my identity was subtract a small amount of money from my bank account and have me send in the exact amount so they could confirm I had control over the bank account (I think it was like 12 cents or something - needless to say I never received that 12 cents back, which pesonally doesn't affect me but if they did the same with the hundreds of thousands of other users, well they would soon have a small fortune of ill-gotten funds).

I really hope you manage to work this out because "customer service" is non-existant these days. I really also hope anonymous messes them up good n proper because these massive global companies give me the sh**'s. The last time I had an issue with paypal was after buying from a fraudulent seller of ebay. It was like $45 or something but it still managed to take them the better part of 4 months to return the funds into my account.

reply to post by staple


that.. is an amazing story.

the definition of serendipity.

I've been through this. Legally the money is yours.
I had my lawyer (it was actually me) send them an email requesting my money or
I would be filing a small courts claim and also did the same over the phone with paypal and it got settled.
It might not be so easy for you but if you take them to court sue them for legal fees and the amount of $$$ they owe you. More than likely they wont show up and you will automatically win your case.

reply to post by tauristercus



BITCOINS!!! Everyone look into this. It costs me pennies to send money anywhere. No big banks, use a credit union!!!

Originally posted by apoc36
I have used paypal for over 10 years , yes I have had a few issues but mostly my fault. I get my payday thru paypal every week and I never have any problems. If you do not set up your account correctly it will get flagged. You have to make sure you verify your bank account properly before you decide to batch out money. Paypal provides an awesome service so they do deserve their fees they are not screwing anyone. They are the largest online banking in the world. Everyone always blames the company when they have done nothing wrong,, if your account was not setup correctly and you tried to batch out money they probably flagged it to make sure it was ok, they do this to PROTECT your money.

Paypal has actually returned money to me when Sellers try to screw me over, so they have saved my money numerous times. I would rather use paypal any day then a CC online, cause for one you can get your money back if something goes wrong, two you do not have to put your CC details online. So convenient and truly and awesome service. If you do not know how to use such services , its prolly best you stick with cash only.

I have had a PayPal account for over 12 years.

A few months ago, I tried to buy something online at a legitimate webstore using PayPal. I did NOT receive an email confirming the order, so I called the company within a few hours of placing the order to find out what was going on.

The webstore NEVER received the order. That's when I KNEW the store's PayPal link had been hijacked by a hacker. That meant the hacker had my PayPal password and all the info in my PayPal account which includes my Social Security Number.

First step in a case like this is to CHANGE your PayPal account password immediately.

Next I called my bank and reported the hacking which killed both the credit card & my small checking account. (If you can, do NOT use your main checking account for something like PayPal. Some people use only one credit card online to limit damage.)

I called PayPal customer service and got a live American who spoke excellent English. He was helpful in making sure I did NOT have to pay for the transaction.

Next step, I called my ID Theft Protection service -- my credit was frozen for 90 days, so no one could open a new credit account using my ID.

I did not have to pay for this transaction either with my bank or with PP. This was about six months ago, so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have not used my PayPal account since. I'm wondering if I update my banking & cc info if they will ask all kinds of invasive questions under the new laws. My account was set up before 9/11. I guess I will find out.

Over the many years I have bought things online (& over the phone), I'm not sure how many times I've had to kill my credit cards because of compromise -- maybe four times. I had my BidPay account hacked into years ago. I don't think BidPay exists anymore.

American Express had the best customer service as far as disputing charges, But then about two or three years ago, AMEX turned into a bank. All their rates went up.

Things have changed over the years, and doing business online or over the phone has become increasingly dangerous IMO. I have never sold anything online -- with horror stories like this, it doesn't sound attractive.

Paypal is a mess, but it goes beyond Paypal. Wait until you get into the backwards schemes run between eBay and Paypal, which are part of the same company. I'll give you a hint: eBay is the arbitrator of any disputed transactions on their site, and Paypal can freeze and or seize your funds with impunity. So whenever the dispute would end up in eBay losing money--like via their purchase protection guarantee, for example--they rob the seller instead. I had one case where the buyer CUT THE POWER CORD on an item when we was opening the box. He admitted in official eBay communications that he did so. Yet eBay awarded him a full refund, including what I had paid on shipping, and stole it all from my account via Paypal. Try and call in and complain? Ha! I was "accidentally" hung up on six times during call transfers, then finally told a supervisor would have to call me. Three times I was told that, yet I never received a call.

So, you know, draw your own conclusions there. It's preposterous that eBay is the arbitrator of disputes in which they have a material interest, but hey, you want to know why? Just look at the political connections eBay has established. They can do anything they want to anyone that uses either of their services, with impunity, even when it would be illegal for a traditional retailer, and the same goes for Paypal vs a traditional banking institution, which they most certainly are, despite their reputation as a payment service.

Ultimately, I don't blame Paypal and eBay, though. I blame our beautifully corrupt government and all the unjust power they hand out to greedy corporations. A corporation exists for profit; while I'd like to believe in ethics and integrity, Im not naive enough to think they exist in corporate America. Unfortunately, the government is supposed to exist to serve the people, and it is that purpose which has been corrupted and perverted, and so, to me, that is where the blame lies.

Pissed about Paypal, or any other shady corporation? Hit them where it hurts--lawmakers and lobbyists.

lol @ explaining this point to make yourself look even more like you're ashamed of being poor than the petty US$302 would imply!

i sympathise for you and hope you eventually get it resolved. i personally have never had a problem with paypal, but these things happen to the best of us , i have had trouble with big companies like this before though such as the post office LOL where i had to pay ~£8.50 for a passport to be checked before sending, and i was sent away 3 times for not having the correct documents, when on the final attempt all i actually needed was my old passport which i'd taken all along. Just shows how useless there staff and policies are.
i've had my share of quarrels with of indian/ malaysian helpdesk employees that bearly speak english aswell. not fun to say the least. least they get a job out of it though.

reply to post by revmoofoo


Ha, similar thing happened to me. I attempted to purchase a $17 aud software package online, not thinking at the time and found it declined as I had insufficient funds... So I was never sent the software...

I then get emails from paypal telling me I owe them $17. So I replied I didn't receive anything, I don't owe anything.

They sent me more emails telling me I'd be contacted by a debt collector.

I told them to sod off and shove it where the sun don't shine, sop they canned my account.

Never heard from them again.

They are scammers. Pure and simple. The longer they hold onto your money, the more they make off it. That is their game.

And in cases like this, made up legal issues, they get to keep it for 6 months.

Never trust them. Never use them. So I avoid ebay also, like the plague as it's just as shonky. Shady criminals.

Not to mention if you deal with different currencies they shaft you for at least 5 cents in the exchange rate.
Op, If i was you I would try and have a phone call with the buyer. ask him if he is willing to submit a Paypal dispute saying he never got the goods. The buyer should then receive the 300 back from Paypal and can transfer it to you in a different manner.
May be worth a shot if he's an honest ebayer.

I am shaking with anger reading the OP.

Thieves hiding behind a p*ss thin veil of laws and policies. I hate the fact that we need banks to get through everyday life, gone are the days when we'd receive a pay packet full (well not quite full) of notes at the end of the week, oh no siree, every man and his dog have to get their cut before I get my dregs.

Now we have to pay for the privilege of having our money handled, like we have a choice !

Originally posted by musashi9
I had a PP account 4 or 5 years ago, then one day they sent me an email saying something about they were freezing my account (over 4000 pounds inside) because of EU tax rules and I had to prove to them how I was getting my money, I basically had to show them all my auction sites I visited and sold my second hand goods on.
I got my money back eventually but closed my account the very same day. It was a little too big brother for me.

Your story creeps me out. I would have been breathing fire. Freezing your money, forcing you to prove your income source before allowing you access to your own money, all because they wanted to make sure they were taxing you enough.

I don't know what country you're in, this hasn't hit the US yet -- but it will. Give it time. The NWO net is closing in on us tighter & tighter.

well im all for fighting the man, but , um i usually do it after i get my money lol, have you ever had problems selling home refined precious metals before? i would just download a mailbot spammer and spam them all day get my 300 bucs back in entertainment lol