PayPal has "permanently limited" my account

It probably is a flagging system. They then realized the only flagged item they had wasn't one they could ban me for and went fishing for another.

I did, they sent another form e-mail.

You can get your money but they have the option of holding it for 180 days which is why I always elected to not leave any funds in the account.

Which would suck if lost in the mail.

I replied to PayPal's latest form e-mail with "See you in court". I got a reply an hour later with very different wording including the clear option to appeal an incorrect decision. I'll be digging into what they said after I speak with my BLAW professor today. I don't think they seem to understand that not every customer will roll over like a dog. There is also wording that suggests you can have multiple PayPal accounts and wording that says my current bank account can never be used on another account again.

I was kinda looking for a reason to switch credit unions. The closest branch to the one I use is 45 minutes away.

 

paypal and ebay only ever go after people who aren't actually doing anything wrong, it's stupid..
could always make a new account

 

I'm glad your fighting it. People shouldn't have to settle for 'being screwed' by big companies as being normal.

 

screw them, the word flagging system for Ebay is horrible also. kept taking down my vintage multi cart auctions because nintendo was in the title. well once i removed nintendo, they all sold fine.

 

I too have had my fair share of run in's with PayPal.
Just remember that ANYTHING you have ever done with them is going to be at their disposal if and when you take them to court.
All's they would have to show is evidence that in the past you have done activity using their site, that would cause a jury to find you guilty.

I'm not saying your in the wrong.
I'm just saying to think about what evidence they may have against you is all.

My new PayPal rule is to provide NO information in the payment what so ever.
If any information other than address is supplied to the payment processor, your payment is instantly refunded.
I do not require them to make gift payments so they are still protected on the return.

Keep in mind however, if any deal goes south with any customer, they can and will roll over on you and you could still have PayPal issues.
It sucks for sure.

Keep in mind, PayPal is only finding you guilty of breaking their terms of service.
That doesn't mean you have done anything illegal. It just means you broke rules that PayPal created, and that you agreed not to break when you sign up to use their service.

Once PayPal broke off from ebay and became their own company they started to crack down more on acticity like this.
I personally can confirm that PayPal will surf websites and document forum conversations, etc to keep in their own notes as evidence against you as well. Which is why I do not allow my customers to put URL's or their user alias in transactions at all.

The more information you give to a payment processor, the more information they have to use against you.
This is also why setting up online pages with nice "Click Here to Buy" buttons is a bad idea as well.
That passes thru IP addresses of the pages where the button was clicked, and gives them all they need to get the skinny on what item was sold, the description, etc.

I've personally also gone to giving customers incentive to pay via money order in the form of a discount.
In the long run it's less red tape for you and them, and you don't loose the fees.

Google Wallet is just as easy to setup as PayPal, and Google takes 0% on every exchange.
You can't invoice customers like you can on paypal, you can just exchange money.
Honestly... in the long run for potentially modded items, I think Google Wallet's model is better and less likely for trouble.
You can even get a Google Wallet Card for free so you can access your funds from anywhere Visa is accepted the day payments arrive.

I know this sale wasn't a modded item, but as you stated, you are ABSOLUTELY being found guilty by association.
What PayPal is saying is that your type of transaction(s) is to risky for them to participate in so they are not willing to do business with you anymore.

In summary...... PayPal Sucks!

For the record, I even setup my own website to take payments with another online credit card processor, and I had my account closed with them for the same reason within 3 months. This one is going to be hard to avoid as payment processors are getting wiser.

All hail Bitcoin..... if everyone could just understand how bitcoins work.....lol

Good Luck with your endeavors.
I'll personally be keeping track on your status updates to see what comes of this.
I wish you the best.

 

Perhaps the best way when selling items outside ebay, like modded items, etc is by bank transfer into a bank account rather than PayPal? Someone only needs your sort code and account number. It would certainly be cheaper as PayPal take a large percentage of money you get, which means one could charge less for the item, be in the same position and customer gets cheaper price as a result. Any downsides or issues with that method?

 

Less buyer protection (maybe, as I can only speak for banks in some European countries) and more expensive than PayPal for international money transfer, especially for small amounts as there are minimum fees.

 

Agreed...
Most consumer free checking accounts don't allow for free bank transfers. There are minimum amounts and some hefty fees to do them.

From my 5 years of online sales history good old western union or a Walmart money gram is about as easy as it gets.

Cash in the mail even works too, you just have to do a little work at hiding what it is. If I'm sending cash, I normally put it in a small USPS flat rate box so it looks like a package and not an envelope full of cash.

Yeah... It costs $6 to ship, but it's better than it not getting there. Obviously the post office does not recommend this method however.

Money order or cashiers check is safer.

 

The banking option is free in the UK

I suspect we have some regional differences with the options people are discussing. This is why PayPal was helpful, same everywhere and likely why it took off in popularity like it did.

 

If someone asked me to send a box of cash to pay for something it rings bells to be a scam. Not saying you are though... Same with Western Union. Majority of other methods is, once you send your money... it's gone. PayPal, just reduces the trust issues that online payments have. With a chance of you seeing your money again.

Banks vary but I doubt any bank will do anything if you say you've been scammed out of x amount of cash that you've deposited into someone else's account. Probably depends on the amount, I've never had to deal with such a problem.

Really PayPal is only great for the buyer, it always has been. As there's more buyers than sellers, that use it.

 

I couldn't agree with you more.
With Western Union, Cashiers Check, or cash the buyer gets 0 protection on the order.
I get my money, you get your stuff, and we part ways.
Or to your point I get my money, and I keep your stuff, and you get screwed. If the seller is a crook in fact.
Hence why PayPal and the other sites offer a legit service to a majority of their customers.

Also why it's more important than ever to do business with someone that is reputable, both from the seller and buyers perspective.
I can't even begin to tell you how many first time buyers ripped me off. So many scams and so many ways to get around them it's really a crap shoot with online sales like this.

 

Keep fighting it.

Paypal is slow and monolithic. Most of the front line will robotically spout policies out of a golden book without having any idea that there are many exceptions to the rules in the golden book.

 

The first like 3 people you talk to also won't be able to do jack. They just exist to weed out people who don't have the desire to keep fighting it and the people who are incompetent.

 

I had to abandon Paypal for accepting UltraHDMI orders, since they even limit the amount you can transfer out per month at a hilariously low amount, in addition to holding order payments hostage for 21 days.
Appears that nobody at Paypal understands the concept of business...

The good news is that with a decent cart + card processor (like Stripe) you gain a huge amount more flexibility and aren't subject to stupid rules. I've recommended this approach to at least 2 other guys in the retro scene and they've switched over no problem.

 

Off topic Marshallh but just wanted to say your skills with what you did on the HDMI and other stuff have been top notch. You're a clever chap.

"with a decent cart + card processor (like Stripe)" - what's that about?

 

You set up a site and take payments like most company's who don't use PayPal. It's actually a good idea and I have a store in progress but was stuck on payment options, so I will be looking into stripe too.

 

Couldn't agree more. It's getting to point where PayPal isn't worth it anymore.

 

Isn't Yahoo checkout a thing anymore? Believe it was a plug for websites which had credit card payment options for a private webstore.

 

In terms of fees and upkeep, it's almost to PayPal what PayPal is to a traditional merchant account.
This is a good alternative.. Thanks for the recommendation marshallh.

Braintree looked promising, but it was bought out by.. guess who.