PayPal PSA: Be Careful Trusting PayPal

[MICHAELSD]

I've reached the tip of the iceberg with one of the companies I used to believe had some integrity. Firstly, they've closed a ten-year-old account with no warning after I get one case on eBay over a $10 item (which I should mention is a case the buyer already closed) -- locking me out of $250 of my funds for 180 days.

But more alarming is that human responses are non-existent. I've also recently opened a business account that's done very well but PayPal keeps requiring more hoops and requesting items I can't provide despite how I've explained that via email a dozen times. I.e. They request tracking information but I keep telling them I need to pay the supplier and purchase shipping labels with funds in that account. For the past few days I've been locked out of a hefty amount of funds for more than a few customers and have received ZERO non-generic responses. It's crucial that I get these orders processed for Christmas but PayPal is making business very difficult to conduct.

I really need to find an alternative to PayPal that customers alike trust, and I recommend you do too. They have no respect for your funds: a bank would be ten times better in that regard. Nor do they care enough to have a human-responsive support even for customers in good standing for ten years nor customers that have already paid them exorbitant fees. PayPal is going downhill quickly, and is losing all my trust as a seller.

 

[TheJae]

Paypal is known to be doing this since 1998. Their 180 days policy is the make sure there are no chargebacks against your transactions.

They are also known to be using canned response.

 

[maflynn]

I was never a big fan of Paypal, a necessary evil when dealing with eBay or some internet purchases (which I don't do very often). I don't know why people are using them more and more for stuff that could normally be used with a debit/credit card.

 

[S.B.G]

As they say, YMMV. I've been using PayPal since the late 90's and haven't ever had a problem with them. I recall I had to email them once for something, don't recall what anymore, but I remember it being a positive experience.

I don't use it a lot, but when I have the option to on a site, I will. I prefer a lot of the time to pay with them rather than signing up at a website for an account where I probably won't be back to ever again.

 

[Meister]

I made a thread about this a year ago.

In europe paypal is an extremely dubious "bank" and they have had countless legal cases in germany alone. Their business practices are borderline criminal, but they get away with a lot, because of european law.

Others on here have written that there is no problem in the US. I'd advise anyome to stay away from paypal if possible.

Funny example: Paypal told me on the phone, on several occasions, that they block payments to macrumors. They are obviously not telling the truth, but at least I am not able to pay.

 

[wordoflife]

I don't know why people are using them more and more for stuff that could normally be used with a debit/credit card.

One of the main features/functions of Paypal is to process debit/credit card transactions.

Say you have a website and you want to sell something your making... how exactly do you process someone's credit card? Paypal.

I haven't had any really bad experiences with Paypal yet (though, I mainly buy stuff) but it would be good if there were a few more good alternatives. I think Google has something but I'm not sure of that.

 

[rdowns]

I only use PayPal for sites I don't want to give my credit card number to. I keep a credit card on file with PP but no way in hell do they have access to my bank accounts.

 

[mobilehaathi]

My sympathies, and I'm not sure I can offer practical advice for solving your problem. However, you should carefully learn from this experience and prepare yourself for more just like it. You will always have to battle gatekeepers, and it'll only be getting worse.

 

[MICHAELSD]

My sympathies, and I'm not sure I can offer practical advice for solving your problem. However, you should carefully learn from this experience and prepare yourself for more just like it. You will always have to battle gatekeepers, and it'll only be getting worse.

Although I told myself to withdraw the money before this happened, I have definitely learned to not keep a balance in a personal PayPal account: withdraw it immediately. They're not like a bank. Although I did used to hold a lot of money at a time with no issues, I could not do this again. eBay and PayPal are both being needlessly restrictive and have practically useless support.

The funny part is eBay sent me a coupon for my ten-year anniversary yet with no negative feedback ever I can't even sell at the moment.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Something doesn't add up. I am not defending PP as a whole, but they ask you to provide tracking for items sold and you cannot? I don't get your reason why you cannot. You sell an item that you should have on hand and you ship it. Tracking is provided. Seems simple to give them what they're asking for; there must be a way. Unfortunately, they will strong arm you into doing what they want you to do.

I've never had issues with PP, but most of my activity is paying someone for something who cannot accept funds any other way. It doesn't mean that PP doesn't have a ton of snags and funky rules just because I don't have issues.

I say you give them what you want to get your money back and as for PP keeping your funds, they can't do that so don't back down on that. When this is all done you can do a write up on how to use PP without issues and market it to those who will become millionaires too.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Something doesn't add up. I am not defending PP as a whole, but they ask you to provide tracking for items sold and you cannot? I don't get your reason why you cannot. You sell an item that you should have on hand and you ship it. Tracking is provided. Seems simple to give them what they're asking for; there must be a way. Unfortunately, they will strong arm you into doing what they want you to do.

I've never had issues with PP, but most of my activity is paying someone for something who cannot accept funds any other way. It doesn't mean that PP doesn't have a ton of snags and funky rules just because I don't have issues.

I say you give them what you want to get your money back and as for PP keeping your funds, they can't do that so don't back down on that. When this is all done you can do a write up on how to use PP without issues and market it to those who will become millionaires too.

I sold items with an arrangement that they were shipped by the supplier to customers, which required me to have access to funds to pay for the inventory. I did end up personally funding the first couple orders then the restriction was removed long enough to pay the supplier for all inventory... Then the restriction was re-added so I couldn't use PayPal's shipping tool and spent ten hours generating labels .

That being said PayPal gives off a convincing illusion of protection... It's yet to be seen how much I trust them with seller protection but buyer protection is pretty decent.

 

[MyiBill]

I know American Express has their "Serve" line which is like paypal where you can send payments between people, but I don't believe there is protection at all so I don't know if buyers you don't know would be willing to use it.

 

[bobr1952]

Amazon has a pay service. Not sure how easy or hard it is to set up to receive payments but it is very easy to use as an Amazon customer to make payments. Used it the other day to make a donation to Wikipedia.