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Paypal are .... (insert expletive)

oimate

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E-commerce Rant against Paypl.

I had a personal account with paypal and have been mostly buying using their platform as a payment way.

A couple of months ago I designed a website as a part time way of making a few extra quid. I put my items on ebay and sold 2 items (both over £1200). This put me over the paypal 'fraud limit' whereby they require additonal information..which is fine.

I also heard about paypal now app (which would enable me to take payments immediately if I was with the customer). I entered the website address here which I didnt totally understand put my account as a business account(my ignorance so cant blame paypal)

So paypal limited my account, called them and sent them the ID information requested-They then lifted the limitation.

Fast forward 3 weeks (and no further transactions) and the limitiation was back on. Called them and they said it was because the driving licence ID was dark/bad scan and to upload a different ID form (PS: Yes I called Paypal and spoke to 2 agents-so I wasnt being scammed by someone looking my ID HA)

So I gave them all the info requested, was polite with them and explained the situation and told them if I have messed up here with the personal/business acount I will upgrade. They said no this is all we need.

1 week later I received another email from them saying I was a high risk to them and they want to end ' our relationship'.

Called them again and requested it be escalated to the appeals board and also supplimented this call with an email explaining the completely innocent perceived 'mistake' I may have made.

Received email one week later saying it had been reviewed and their decision stands.

COMPLETE WANKERS!

They have effectively cut off various payment and sales revenues for me- i.e my ebay account is effectively useless now as i cant sell using it.

My woocommerce website had paypal as the main payment source. I know there is google wallet as an option but my customers are familiar with paypal and feel more comfortable using this method.

Has anyone else had this issue and if you encountered the same as the above and were able to get the paypal reinstated I'd love to hear how.

Its amazing how 1 decision can affect your business (which I guess is what MJ says about having control.

I do want to offer paypal on the website but I also admit that i'l tempted to never deal with them as from reading elsewhere its reasonable common for them just to freeze an account and you have to wait 180 before it can be retreived.

I am also uncertain if this decision actually affects my credit rating?

[HASHTAG]#paypalwankers[/HASHTAG]
 
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nradam123

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Bitcoin and Stripe are good alternatives.
Yeah man, I have heard a lot of PayPal horror stories. I heard people even transfer money that they get from paypal to another bank account so that Paypal does not take it back lol. Similar experiences are quite common with UpWork and Fiverr as well. You really do not get a lot of control when you hitchhike.
 

oimate

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Bitcoin and Stripe are good alternatives.
Yeah man, I have heard a lot of PayPal horror stories. I heard people even transfer money that they get from paypal to another bank account so that Paypal does not take it back lol. .

Cheers. Bitcoin isnt a valid option for my. I am looking into stripe at the moment.

As soon as I receive money into my paypal account I always withdrew the money- If this isnt sorted quickly I am also going to cancel the card I had on their system and request confirmation that as they no longer wish to deal with me that they sent me confirmation that all my ID has been deleted as there is no reason for them to store it(I know thiswont happen however in reality in all likelyhood)
 

townhaus

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Ye i hear this all the time. Unfortunately they have a monopoly (pretty much) on e-commerce payment processing.

I fear that my Paypal account would be blocked one day (it would affect receiving payments for online business).

Say you are director of multiple companies, with different paypal accounts. Does anybody know If one of these got blocked, would they all get blocked since they are related to the same person?
 

sWALK90

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I have 5 figures froze , i cant do anything with it, its in a hold, so it shows up pending, this has been over 4 months, if that makes you feel better lol....

They told me it was to protect them if something goes wrong... and there is nothing i can do about it... its sad because i worked pretty hard and started getting results and I basically had to start over using my slowlane money because they only left $300 in my available balance ..right before the hold i transferred 3k for a order and they basically withdrew it out of my account and put that in holding also..

Word of advice to anyone...always keep a back up plan....do not depend 100% on anything...they can do as they please at any time...
 
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devine

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First, over 3 years PayPal has approved illegal transactions worth of thousands of dollars, taking money from my credit card attached to my PP account, which my bank returned back each time after I called them, but in my Paypal account these transactions are still under review.
The last time, they approved a transaction for services I wasn't provided with, which I cancelled within grace period, more than a year ago.
I'm sure they will get completely out of business within 5-7 years, no doubt.

But that's not why I even respond to this post.
The real problem is not with PayPal, it's just an instrument, which you either use or skip, the problem is that it's what you base your business on.
If your business relies on PayPal - you made your decision to make it that way.

Nobody forces you to use PayPal, you can always use bank payment processing solutions.
Not only our online sales have doubled in the first month after we stopped driving our customers away from our e-store (we still let our customers use PP, YM, Stripe and other gateways, but it's not the main and not the only way to make a payment).

"But my customers prefer PayPal!"
Why so? Because they have no money on their credit card? Because they're lazy to type in their credit card info? Because they don't know how online payments work and are afraid of typing in their personal information right on the website?

Or because you have decided to target poor people?

Or maybe it's because you offer casual shopping, hence why your customers are lazy?
Yesterday I transfered money directly to a seller's bank account, because their checkout wasn't loading at all. This is how bad I wanted to purchase their stuff.

Or maybe it's because your website looks so questionable and explains nothing about the way you process payments?

Think about it, whoever reads it.
Nobody makes you run your business the way you do.

___upd
How to sell on ebay without paypal: https://arbd.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SetUpPaymentGatewaySignupPage
But in case you ask, it means that you missed the whole point of this post.
 
Last edited:

sWALK90

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I heard they keep your money in holding and collect interest on it...lol

Also there was some guy that started collecting money for a fundraiser for paypal, he made like 200k in a week and they froze his account, and he couldn't deliver ...talk about angry people...lol

Its their playground ,and they make they rules....your just a kid playing in it
 

DrkSide

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"But my customers prefer PayPal!"
Why so? Because they have no money on their credit card? Because they're lazy to type in their credit card info? Because they don't know how online payments work and are afraid of typing in their personal information right on the website?
Show me a way to sell on ebay without a paypal account. Now, I know that buyers can use a check or money order but they won't.

While I have stopped accepting paypal on my website I still sell my items on ebay. It doesn't make up much of my sales but it is still a few $k a month and it would be zero without paypal.

Or because you have decided to target poor people?
So people that use paypal are poor?
 
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miked_d

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I have found using PayPal is like being in an abusive relationship. They do whatever they want - cheat, steal, etc.

There are a few things to do when they close you down:

1. Setup a stealth paypal account. A new account that is not cannected in any way to teh old one. Different name, address, IP, bank account, cresit card, etc. Search the interwebs for more info.

2. Contact everyone you can at PayPal -


Not the same situation but close. The people on the phones can only handle the most basic stuff. You need to get around them.
 

BlakeIC

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Your personal account is a lost cause

You could open an LLC, get new computer, new IP address that is not associated with your current place of business nor home.

Your shipping and receiving address will now have to be a PO box

I too was once blacklisted from paypal (again I never did anything, it was the fault of another family member). After being blacklisted for 3-4 years I decided to make an account on the same network and all. Have not been banned/suspended for the new account in over a year.
 

mjblackwood

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E-commerce Rant against Paypl.

I had a personal account with paypal and have been mostly buying using their platform as a payment way.

A couple of months ago I designed a website as a part time way of making a few extra quid. I put my items on ebay and sold 2 items (both over £1200). This put me over the paypal 'fraud limit' whereby they require additonal information..which is fine.

I also heard about paypal now app (which would enable me to take payments immediately if I was with the customer). I entered the website address here which I didnt totally understand put my account as a business account(my ignorance so cant blame paypal)

So paypal limited my account, called them and sent them the ID information requested-They then lifted the limitation.

Fast forward 3 weeks (and no further transactions) and the limitiation was back on. Called them and they said it was because the driving licence ID was dark/bad scan and to upload a different ID form (PS: Yes I called Paypal and spoke to 2 agents-so I wasnt being scammed by someone looking my ID HA)

So I gave them all the info requested, was polite with them and explained the situation and told them if I have messed up here with the personal/business acount I will upgrade. They said no this is all we need.

1 week later I received another email from them saying I was a high risk to them and they want to end ' our relationship'.

Called them again and requested it be escalated to the appeals board and also supplimented this call with an email explaining the completely innocent perceived 'mistake' I may have made.

Received email one week later saying it had been reviewed and their decision stands.

COMPLETE WANKERS!

They have effectively cut off various payment and sales revenues for me- i.e my ebay account is effectively useless now as i cant sell using it.

My woocommerce website had paypal as the main payment source. I know there is google wallet as an option but my customers are familiar with paypal and feel more comfortable using this method.

Has anyone else had this issue and if you encountered the same as the above and were able to get the paypal reinstated I'd love to hear how.

Its amazing how 1 decision can affect your business (which I guess is what MJ says about having control.

I do want to offer paypal on the website but I also admit that i'l tempted to never deal with them as from reading elsewhere its reasonable common for them just to freeze an account and you have to wait 180 before it can be retreived.

I am also uncertain if this decision actually affects my credit rating?

[HASHTAG]#paypalwankers[/HASHTAG]
Good to know. Thanks for the warning! Hope you figure out an alternative soon. Good luck
 
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DaRK9

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I got screwed over big time before by PayPal. I use Stripe now.

I have set-up Braintree for a few clients and they have not had any issues with them so far. (PayPal bought them)
 

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