Paypal is holding my 75k indefinitely, suggestion?

[sbl2014]

My account is 15 years old, fully verified with real personal information. It has been a while since I sold anything on eBay using Paypal. I rarely had any claim filed against me in the past and has never been found at fault by Paypal.

I had some extra cash laying around last year so decided to purchase a batch of those self-balanced hoverboard from China to sell it during Christmas shopping season. The hoverboard meets US's new safety requirement and is UL certified.

Two months into selling the hoverboard on eBay, Paypal contacted me asking for product documentations (purchase invoice, UL certificate and etc). I provided everything they needed and my account limit was removed. However, they imposed a 100% rolling reserve (payment released after 90 days). They said it is due to the high risk associated with this type of product.

The last hoverboard I sold was on 11/24/2016 and stopped selling all merchandise on eBay. So all fund should be available for withdrawal on 02/24/2017 according this rolling reserve term. I called Paypal sometime in January, 2017 to see if they can lift the rolling reserve requirement on incoming payment since I am planning to sell a few used personal items. I also told them they can keep the 100% reserve on the all hoverboard payment until 02/24/2017. Paypal customer service AGREED and said I will be receiving confirmation email after she submit this request to their merchant review team.

Here is when everything went terribly wrong. In the confirmation email, Paypal decided to transfer the 100% rolling reserve to 100% jump start reserve. Basically it means they will keep all the payment from my hoverboard transaction indefinitely. I called the customer service a few times, asking them to simply reverse the reserve back to original term since obviously the original agent miscommunicated with the merchant review team. But the merchant review team is not willing to reverse the decision.

Now, it has been over 90 days since the last payment date. The fund should be release by any standard. Any suggestions on how to get this resolved? Thanks

[slokor]

I can only think of contacting a lawyer about this.
They misrepresented the way things were going to be done and outright lied to you. If this decision is not reversed I see no way around having to get this to litigation. A letter from a lawyer will do wonders for this situation.

[sergfro]

Simple letter from lawyer will get your money back. Case closed - Next.

[duffrageous]

Wow. I had wanted to sell these hoverboards, but I'm glad I didn't. I had an offer to purchase 200 of them for about $200 last year(before the ban), but I couldn't get down to the warehouse to do that. I guess I'll stay away from them now unless it's on a stealth backup.

[sbl2014]

Originally Posted by slokor

I can only think of contacting a lawyer about this.
They misrepresented the way things were going to be done and outright lied to you. If this decision is not reversed I see no way around having to get this to litigation. A letter from a lawyer will do wonders for this situation.

Thank you for your input. When I told them I was misinformed by the first customer service agent, Paypal said it is not up to the general agent to decide on the reserve. The general agent simply pass the request to merchant review and they will make decision accordingly. So they are implying the first agent could never told me it can be done.

Furthermore, they said the user agreement allow them to hold the fund up to 180 days. I was told to call back in another 90 days.

[sbl2014]

Yes, I could pay a lawyer to draft the letter. But wouldn't this put you on their blacklist? The entire process could take months and they will probably close your account at the end.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by sbl2014

Yes, I could pay a lawyer to draft the letter. But wouldn't this put you on their blacklist? The entire process could take months and they will probably close your account at the end.

I'll say this much, Ebay and PayPal couldn't care less about anyone in particular, they have banned honest selling people on a whim....Why worry about getting Blacklisted, this forum is all about getting back online and selling. You could also spend days, weeks calling and hope someone allows you to get that cash. You said they are holding $75K, which would you rather have.....the cash or the account? because they may not allow you to get both back.

[sbl2014]

Originally Posted by MM78

I'll say this much, Ebay and PayPal couldn't care less about anyone in particular, they have banned honest selling people on a whim....Why worry about getting Blacklisted, this forum is all about getting back online and selling. You could also spend days, weeks calling and hope someone allows you to get that cash. You said they are holding $75K, which would you rather have.....the cash or the account? because they may not allow you to get both back.

Thanks. I am pretty sure PayPal has to release fund within 180 days. I am just hoping to find a way to persuade them do this sooner. If there is no other option, I would rather to wait than risk my real account. The fund PayPal is holding doesn't affect my business's daily operation. It is just some extra personal $ I had on hand during last Christmas. Otherwise, I would definitely get lawyer involved to resolve this immediately.

With all due respect, stealth account is good for what it is. Especially the information you learn along with creating them. But when your business are in the 7 digit quarterly, stealth account(s) just won't cut it. Also, it would be a lot harder to explain why you need stealth account if ever being questioned by IRS and etc. Not to mention the money laundering suspicion.

[MM78]

Originally Posted by sbl2014

With all due respect, stealth account is good for what it is. Especially the information you learn along with creating them. But when your business are in the 7 digit quarterly, stealth account(s) just won't cut it. Also, it would be a lot harder to explain why you need stealth account if ever being questioned by IRS and etc. Not to mention the money laundering suspicion.

Not sure where you read all that but Stealth works, the problem is that you "Think" you only need 1 account to make it work, I know people on this forum making or exceeding so called 7 digit quarterly.....if you aren't open minded then stealth isn't for you. Also as far as IRS is concerned, there are plenty of ways to make things work without problems.

[sbl2014]

Originally Posted by MM78

Not sure where you read all that but Stealth works, the problem is that you "Think" you only need 1 account to make it work, I know people on this forum making or exceeding so called 7 digit quarterly.....if you aren't open minded then stealth isn't for you. Also as far as IRS is concerned, there are plenty of ways to make things work without problems.

I purchased the Stealth Book back in 2013 and paid for subscription multiple times (not on the same user ID). So I am fully aware on how to create and maintain stealth account(s).

The problem with stealth account is the amount of payment each account can receive before something inevitable will happen. Yes, you can choose to administrate 100 Paypal and 100 eBay account simultaneously.

But keep in mind that if something happens and PayPal can legally keep all your money because you are "NOT" who you say you are. And if you ever gets audit by IRS, which is not uncommon for small business that generate few millions of $ sales but only has 5% net profit. Good luck on explaining them where your sales is coming from. Worst case scenario, money laundering. Best case scenario, illegal accounting practices = fine

Bottom line is stealth account is good for what it is, selling high risk merchandise at low to medium volume. What is important is the knowledge associated with how to create a stealth account. It helps legitimate account avoid trigger suspicion which could lead to other problems.

[yotano211]

Doing stealth accounts is not money laundering, I make sure to talk to a lawyer every year about the same subjects. Takes them 15min to answer all my questions and they get paid for the hour. Its a grey area of the law.
But managing many ebay accounts is much harder than managing 1-5 big ebay accounts.

[rsot]

@OP, why would you leave 75k in your pp account (just wondering)?

[shootemup321]

Originally Posted by rsot

@OP, why would you leave 75k in your pp account (just wondering)?

I'm wondering the same thing

[empirestate]

I would not leave a single cent in Paypal if I can help it....

[MM78]

Originally Posted by sbl2014

Bottom line is stealth account is good for what it is, selling high risk merchandise at low to medium volume.

Sorry, completely disagree.......So what do you plan to do if your legit account goes down?

[dallis]

75K? Agreed! Big time lawyer time. ASAP!

And your State's Attorney's office.

And anyone else you can think of, register a complaint against their money transfer license, and with your state board of financial regulation.

And, just as a note, as soon as you found out they were going to start holding the funds, you should have stopped selling them on this account.

[unkown5454]

Originally Posted by rsot

@OP, why would you leave 75k in your pp account (just wondering)?

op said it was stuck in reserve...cant do much there

[shootemup321]

Originally Posted by unkown5454

op said it was stuck in reserve...cant do much there

Ya but he still let it add up that high could of withdrawed like once a week

[xakche]

I think you have to contact a lawyer now ! Its a lot of money

[BaggaDonuts]

You may be sitting on a pillow of cash to think waiting around and hoping 75k is gonna come back to you. That is a large wad of cash to have doing nothing for that long. Definitely get competent legal advice. Its worth a few grand to be a squeaky wheel and get your money. The PP 6 month queue is probably full of people who just say **** it and wait it out.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by shootemup321

Ya but he still let it add up that high could of withdrawed like once a week

Apparently the reserve period was 90 days according to the initial post

[empirestate]

Phake news is all over this....