Reading this site made my hair stand (now I have a short hair, so actually it was already standing ;). Anyway all jokes aside, this is a topic that all paypal accont holders should be aware of.
eBay Sellers
Most of the people that had serious issues with PayPal were eBay sellers. The case is usually like this, seller gets the money, ships the item, then PayPal takes back the money. Seller lefts with no money and no item. PayPal tells the seller that the funds were from fraudulent sources, therefore it was refunded to the bank.
Taking back your money from PayPal can be very long process, it can take months or even years. PayPal’s communication with its customers is very poor. We have noticed that in the recent problem of international users being not able to accept incoming funds.
Frozen Accounts
Another problem was people’s accounts being suddenly frozen by PayPal. In this situation, user cannot withdraw the funds until their account is cleared. This can be a very long process and in some cases your account can be closed indefinitely.
Unauthorized Charges
Some people report that their bank account that were linked to their PayPal account, was charged multiple times. In some cases it totaled up to few hundred dollars.
Vanishing Funds
And yet some users claim that their funds were taken by PayPal, part of their money simply disappeared. I am not sure how true this claim is, but in case if it happens there is no way of proving it that PayPal is stealing from you. Because balance is not shown for each transaction, but only for the total. So you wouldn’t know, where the stealing occurred (after which transaction). The only way to prove is to screen capture your PayPal account after every transaction you make.
Recommendation
All these while, I have never had a problem with PayPal. But being safe won’t hurt you, therefore you need to take basic precautions. Here are some of the recommendations:
- Don’t keep too much money in your PayPal, if your account gets frozen or worse suspended, you might not be able to recover your funds.
- Don’t link your main bank account to PayPal, instead link debit card bank account if possible, or open a separate bank account specifically for PayPal. And keep limited money in this account. This way if it gets charged, you won’t loose much.
- If you want to know if you are not loosing any funds, do a routine screen cap. You can do this after every transaction or once after few transactions.
- Lastly keep your password changed/updated frequently. And do not click on any paypal related links in the emails.
So be alert, and be safe! This was a reminder service from AdesBlog.
Yep. There are so many horror stories on the net in regards to PayPal. There is even a website dedicated to PayPal hatred called paypalsucks. Well, like you said, do not keep too much funds in PayPal..
In any business that big(#1), your are bond to get unhappy customers and bad errors in the system. I’m sure that if PayPal was second/third in the market, you would had xyzWarning.com.
PayPal is the #1 because of eBay. When Google take over the market, like everything now days, maybe they will have learn from them and not make the same mistakes. Wishful thinking on my part :D
I would like to know the percentage that they represent. I did not say numbers because it’s relative. ;)
I’ve never had good luck with PayPal. It’s always 10 phone calls to correct any issue. It’s amazing how little sense some of their policies make.
- Mike
It is pretty scary. To play safe, it is better not to keep so much money in PayPal.
Yes, Steve I agree with you, in any business there will be some unhappy customers. But in PayPal’s case, they have a great task to improve their customer service. Because at the moment, it’s like there is one robot sitting sending out pre-written emails.
Btw, the telephone, cable/satellite or internet companies in Canada all have troubles with system errors. People make too much a big deal because it’s PayPal. It’s a good ideal to keep low money in the PayPal account anyway. They all have to improve the support to clients but it’s money first and clients second now days. :-(
Hi, My house mate also has huge problems with PayPal. He has USD 12,000.00 on their accounts and they are frozen. Communication with real humans is impossible at PayPal all your receive is pre written e-mails. I have set up this article to find some help. Please everyone who reads this and wants to help link to it: http://paypalproblems.wordpress.com/2007/06/23/paypal-and-ebay-just-about-to-destroy-a-small-and-prospering-business/
Thank you
André
I used Paypal to give and receive cash gifts from family members and close friends and to make an occasional sale on ebay. However, recently my account went under investigation status and the only explanation is that I am selling something that violates their TOS. That is not true. The only things I have sold are TEXTBOOKS and a camera. I emailed customer service asking them what was going on, and the response was this:
“Thank you for contacting PayPal. We believe we responded to your recent inquiry either through a call into our service center or through another e-mail from you.”
I tried calling them but was constantly put on hold and given the run around, and the same response that they already answered my question… WHAT?!
Now, I have received an email saying that I am selling sex products. Again… WHAT?! They are demanding that I fax the address of the website and receipts for all my sales and purchases (I don’t have any of that because my transactions were from family to help me pay for college expenses – they thought that would be the most convenient way to forward money).
Now my account is frozen because of my sexual adventures with paypal. My sexual transactions that never took place. Paypal is a piece of shit.
Hi Everybody.
This is the second time that I get my account suspended.
For me it is enough I will look for another payment alternatives, and velieve me there are good ones.
But if there are so many people who have problems with PayPal “Dictatorial Actions” why not join efforts and make our own car processing
a card processing I mean that you sell whatever you want. let stop crying about PayPal the best way to destroy “Business Goliat” is just funing another card processing.
The Other card processing available in the market (that does not require a Merchant Account lack of features such as shopping card etc.
The crucial point to my undersating is that people prefer a US card processing, but US government enoforce some restrictions about products and services so if there is another card processing it must be in another country where free trade is possible.
But who will guarantee the Card Processing busiens….nobody….. so as I see there is no strong PayPal competitors only small companies who are trying but are not so sucessfully.
For example SafePayprocessing, looks great but ihey like to keep some mopney for a long time before release that funds, the card processing charges are high and they do not provide a shopping cart.
2Checkout it is a nice card processing, expensive but they act and thinks like PayPal, when they decide to suspend an account you will not get a reconsideration so they close your account and freeze your money.
Again I make a call the the Internet community to start a crusade against PayPal, actually for me the “Devil” the new God of Money who decided what is god and bad, klets fight against that.
Any body interested just email me to start a crusade with all our web sites
I always was pro America but now never again.
paypal robbed me 41 euros .
Now I undestand all whose hate America.
Yeah, it’s not hard to see why people hate America. I could write a whole book on the subject myself. Paypal is horrible too. They stole money from me and gave me so much stress.