Forum

Originally Posted by gavenchen (Post 1090223)

hi there, i have a personal account at paypal, they limited my account too and holds 4690 USD for 180 days, never had this before, may i get some help from you on what to do against this?

Originally Posted by bobbyboucher (Post 1090601)

Guys if Paypal has limited your account for 180 days then you ARE NOT going to get it back until the 180 days end of story.

Originally Posted by bobbyboucher (Post 1090601)

Guys if Paypal has limited your account for 180 days then you ARE NOT going to get it back until the 180 days end of story.

Originally Posted by TimTimmington (Post 1090737)

99% of the time this seems to be the case but there are reports on here of some people getting them back.

Originally Posted by TimTimmington (Post 1088551)

HanginThere,
Thank you for creating this thread, it's extremely informative and whilst I have spent a couple hours reading through it all I am going to start again from the beginning and maticulously take the steps you have outlined in excalating to the executive level.

I am in a similar situation as popek1990 but before I go ahead and present my case in letter form I was hoping if I give just a brief outline of my case if you could shed some light on if you think I might stand a chance in getting the 180 day PP limitation lifted.

UK PayPal, UK eBay, legit documents, my own personal account since 2008. Spent time in the US and just before the pandemic came back to the UK. Started to stock up on some Face Masks and had them sent to friends in the US. I sold them at auction starting at $0.99 and never allowing them to end at an extortionate rate, I did list allot of them though. The most I was making on a mask was $3. My goal was to distribute these at a fair price, i sometimes took a loss. I imported from China and only KN95 not N95 so that it did not put a strain on the health system they are also not intended or allowed for medical use.

No issues with eBay. at $10000 PayPal triggered a temporary limit. I provided all the requested documents. Tracking, passport, supplier invoices, proof of address. 10 days later I get the 180 ban on Acceptable Use Policy. I can't find anywhere in the PP policy that i have violated. Am I Missing something? I sold at fair prices distributing a much needed product. I have messages of thanks and praise from buyers. 100% feedback rating.

Any insight most appreciated. I am also reading instances where 180 days and at the end of it PP take your money and do not let you remit it to your bank account. Paypal to Paypal payment.

Thanks in advance, popek, as your situation is similar please keep us updated.

Originally Posted by gavenchen (Post 1090223)

hi there, i have a personal account at paypal, they limited my account too and holds 4690 USD for 180 days, never had this before, may i get some help from you on what to do against this?

Originally Posted by ilgiorgetto (Post 1090371)

we can help me with my italian account have 12 years, suspended from yesterday with 2000 euro
:(

Originally Posted by Sebecaa (Post 1091187)

I am also having similar situation.

Account is stealth. Everything is new (Ip, phone number, bank account, etc..)

Last 2 weeks after payment has been sent to my account, paypal asked me (Immediatelly) for documents (like ID, proof of supplier and description of goods which I sold).
I sent it to them as soon as possible and from that time, I was also waiting for their reply.
Next day, my account was back to normal. I was so happy to hear that!

From that time, I did not sell anything new. (I sold 5 items each 30gbp – unbranded clothing - tracksuit)

Yesterday, they have limited my account again – and again asked for same documents but for different item( same item but for different buyer).
Can you please let me know why they limit peoples accounts more than 1 time?

I think I have not done anything wrong. If there will be a problem with buyer, I would be more than happy to refund him.

Please let me know your opinion. Because I sent them everything and I really dont understand why I must send them everythin again. I am just worried they will limit the account for ever like they always do....

Thank you

Originally Posted by HangInThere (Post 979972)

Hello everyone,

Although a new user, I've been absorbing as many threads on this site as possible over the past few weeks, in an attempt to overturn a PERMANENT LIMITATION, made brutally clear by the unexpected email, titled "You can no longer do business with PayPal" and having your funds held "for up to 180 days".

.

Originally Posted by PeaceAndLove (Post 1048436)

Good news! Both of my PayPal accounts were fully restored! I had to hire a lawyer to get it done... but it worked! :dance:

Originally Posted by PeaceAndLove (Post 1048436)

Good news! Both of my PayPal accounts were fully restored! I had to hire a lawyer to get it done... but it worked! :dance:

Originally Posted by solefoodbk (Post 1111342)

I've contacted and used aup@paypal.com before with Paypal. Though I haven't since 2018 to get a "un-appealable" suspension appealed. I'm not sure about this email you mentioned, or the thread to be honest but thanks for the update. I'll be reviewing it just for some guidance and knowledge that maybe I hadn't known prior.

You mentioned something and I think its important for everyone to know...

Usually whenever you find yourself with a serious limitation, or restriction and get that removed by internal teams, your account becomes unbelievably strong. All my accounts that have faced some sort of crossroads related to limitations (both eBay and Paypal) and I got them to remove it manually it from my experience removes a lot of internal security flags that could be triggered on the account. Every deep limitation or restriction I view it as a positive that once I fix it my account will just be that much stronger and with that mindset I always prevail. Even with a SSN limitation on a business account under stealth info (real ein etc) I got that appealed almost by luck but still happened.

I have one account on eBay where they did this and its practically untouchable. Someone manually removed the limitation I had, and I even recall asking him back in early 2018 "What if I get this triggered restriction again" He literally told me thats easy, I can flip the switch and prevent that from ever happening again. And since that happened its been like a diamond for me.

Originally Posted by jal1995 (Post 1111473)

Yaay I got my paypal account reinstatedd from permanent limitation, but not yet for my ebay account.
Could you please help me with that?
I contacted you several times, I know you re busy with your issues, but I really need your help
Thank you

Originally Posted by jal1995 (Post 1111473)

Yaay I got my paypal account reinstatedd from permanent limitation, but not yet for my ebay account.
Could you please help me with that?
I contacted you several times, I know you re busy with your issues, but I really need your help
Thank you

Originally Posted by cizzla7049 (Post 1111758)

How were you able to do this

Originally Posted by HangInThere (Post 1111336)

:cheer: 30,000 view update

:d Has it worked for other people?

YES! Many users have shared their success stories on this thread and via PM, which confirms it's still effective in 2020. Last confirmation was just this week!

Originally Posted by HangInThere (Post 979972)

Hello everyone,

If you've recently joined the club for permanent limitations, I most certainly know how you feel - rest assured that you have found the right site for advice. Once I received the dreaded email saying our company could no longer do business with PayPal, I could not be in a lower place at the time; I had literally created a company (in London, UK) just for PayPal's sake, to provide further confidence and assurance in order to "guarantee" a long and healthy relationship for our growing business. Well, it turns out that a registered Ltd company (in one of the most regulated regions in the world) doesn't do the trick in keeping PayPal happy. More to the point, I just felt like closing the company, even with knowledge of alternative payment processors. Although PayPal are absolute thieves and destructive when you least need it, they are indeed the most popular payment processor and thus the most attractive to your customers. If in like our case PayPal was your only payment method (for both sales and purchases), then you may feel like your life is over and no longer have the confidence to carry out any business, or perhaps fulfill your dream of working for yourself, even if it's just a hobby.

Well don't give up just yet, as long as:
1) you are not in the wrong (according to their User Agreement)
2) you are theoretically able to prove every payment in or out (e.g. supplier invoices and extensive proof of fulfillment, as the idiot who closed your account is just a human and may not even know of your industry/service)
3) you don't have a history of limited accounts on your name (as there's a clearly stated policy about this I'm afraid)

:surrender: What caused the limitation?

Account limitations are usually triggered after one of PayPal's algorithms detect a spike or abnormality in your account activities - this will flag your account on PayPal's system for essentially an emergency review, which is why limitations usually happen a few short hours following a spike. In our case, it was increasing our withdrawal amount by 50% for the first time, compared to a fixed amount that we had been using since we opened the account. It seems kind of understandable, but that also means all of PayPal's users are either under stress to keep to their exact pattern, or else are inviting PayPal to limit their account and most likely close it due to "risk". Our particular limitation requested the following:

- Upload a photo ID
- Provide your business information
- Provide proof of fulfillment
- Provide purchase receipt from your supplier

Our account was banned the next day.

=} File a complaint in the US

Before I even proceed, if your PayPal account was created in the US then there is no need for you to suffer, since you already have a dedicated portal to the most prestigious department at PayPal HQ, which is through the Better Business Bureau (or BBB). Be grateful - you are the only ones with this privilege to get a super helpful (and not to mention, guaranteed) reply from a boss. The Office of Executive Escalations will handle your complaint with priority and literally conduct a thorough review just to address your matter in the most helpful way. I know this because I tried it anyway, even though our account was created out of their jurisdiction; you can also view most of their complaints along with PayPal's response to each of them (which is where I saw - for the first time - PayPal explaining their reasons and observations about limited accounts).

I was truly jealous when I found out about the BBB - even if they weren't going to restore my account, I would be over the moon to find out why it was closed in the first place! It would at least grant you the opportunity to "get it right" the next time, if possible, depending on your case. One policy of theirs which I can't really challenge is their right to suspend an account on the basis of having previously limited accounts - it's a fair rule, but it also means you would need to fight for yourself when your account runs into trouble (assuming you done nothing wrong or that can't be proven), instead of the "give up and go stealth" approach, which a lot of people on this forum prefer understandably (as it's quick and easy). In our case, as a registered company, there's not really much of a solution to "hiding" from PayPal if we were to open a new account, hence our attempts to get our account restored.

Enough talk - here's the steps for US victims (but feel free to try it if you're non-US based, as it will likely be forwarded by PayPal HQ to a department that must surely be able to help - it's one extra hope, so why not):

1) Start at https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-jose/p...nc-1216-210387 (you can view some of their complaints and responses if you wish, so you know what I mean about them going to great depths unlike any other means of contact)
2) Click "File a Complaint", then "Start your complaint".
3) Where it asks "Is the business in the United States or Canada?", always select "Yes", even if your account was created in another country (as they still have no choice but to respond and in our case, they forwarded our complaint to PayPal's North America Executive Escalations office, but I can't confirm whether this helped in any way)
4) Where it says "Your complaint involves a:", select "business's product or service (other than a vehicle or cell phone)".
5) On the next page, you'll have to search for the business; just type "PayPal" and hit 'Search'. Clicking 'Select' on the first search result will prompt you to specify which of PayPal's offices to file the complaint to - unless you have a reason to choose a specific address, select the San Jose one (2211 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131)
6) The rest is up to you to explain your matter to PayPal (see below for crucial tips on how to address them). After submitting the complaint, wait a day or two for them to respond and you should be able to find out everything you wanted to know. If not, you should be able to continue exchanging messages as deemed necessary.

:uk: File a complaint in the UK

So what's the UK equivalent of the BBB, you may ask?

That would be the Financial Ombudsman Service! It may look like it's built by a 5-year old, but it's all we got...

Here's the link: https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/help
When asked to provide details of the business, just write "PayPal" and they will handle everything else personally; in our case, they eventually reached out to us by email with "PayPal Europe Sarl & Cie, SCA" in the subject, so it was good to see a human was dealing with it, even though it takes a lot longer to process. The email we received was asking for the formal complaint letter that was sent to PayPal, however, we got this email just 2 hours after our PayPal account was suddenly restored, so we didn't proceed any further.

I honestly don't know whether it was a coincidence that PayPal and the Financial Ombudsman Service emailed us at around the same time, although I have already enquired about whether they took any action prior to their email and will update this post, if possible, once I find out.

:comp5: Addressing PayPal

Despite reading advice not to beg or make threats, it's really hard to do anything but that, especially when the news of your account limitation comes as a shock to you - even I, could not help myself at the start but keep making threats of taking legal action and expressing frustration to their Facebook and Twitter teams. Well, here's what I learned from that (while getting my Twitter account suspended in the process):

1) Don't let anger hinder your chances. At the end of the day, the people you message at PayPal are the only ones who are going to help you - don't give them a reason to skip your message. You have to assume every email or other form of contact is going to be the key to unlock your account because one of them will be, if successful.

2) DO NOT beg or show desperation. PayPal could not care less if you or someone's life is on the line, hanging by a thread or has annihilated your business. They exist to please shareholders, not customers (although, pleasing customers is just something they have to do to achieve that).

3) Hang up the phone. Calling PayPal is not going to get you anywhere other than where you started. I was so hopeless about their call centers, that I never called once during this whole process. The easy options are the least effective because they are the ones used most by customers. Don't forget, PayPal employs bots and monkeys to handle the majority of their queries (especially when using their 'Contact Us' form), with limitations being a very common query. If you know what they're going to say, there's probably not much point even trying (not more than once at least).

4) With higher powers comes higher standards. Your best bet at getting your account restored is by emailing a more serious department at PayPal, which unfortunately means you have to prepare a really good email for them to take you seriously too. You'll want to take note of the following things as best you can:

- You are potentially talking to someone who's going to hear you out and determine if there's any point reviewing your account. In most cases and for good reason, you'll need to provide something more than just words, which are documents (that you haven't already sent them). Even if they don't open them, they will know you took the time to address your concern(s) and haven't just pasted some template you found on this site (which they surely know about).

- Speak the truth and cut the waffle. PayPal banned you due to perceived risk, so now it's time to go beyond the word counts and file limits from their limitation page - PayPal's mail server has a size limit, so consider uploading to Google Drive for example, then attaching a link where appropriate in the email. The documents I would advise on giving them are: ALL supplier invoices billed to the address on your PayPal account (helps if they were paid from your account), proof of fulfillment for as many orders as possible (easy if you use databases or spreadsheets) and finally, a business registration certificate is always golden if applicable (as they did not ever actually ask us for this - only the registration number).

- Structure your email. I won't provide the template which got our account restored and you should neither use any template that you find online if you want your account restored too. I have, however, attached an outline of the structure if you need one:

*** Start your email ***
{Express your understanding for the need to limit accounts, especially with digital services. Let them know you are familiar with the User Agreement and point out you have not violated any policy or law}
{Indicate that the account limitation didn't give a fair opportunity to explain your business model or provide adequate file space to upload "ALL" (<- important) the documents that were requested}
{Explain your business model in layman's terms (inc. website)}
{If you have any big, reputable customers (specifically companies), spice up your email by bringing them up (by name and PayPal email) to show they have been affected by the limitation}
{Tell them in order to fairly review the account, they should inspect the 'Order fulfillment proofs', 'Supplier invoices' and any 'Official business docs' you have attached (because the limitation page didn't provide sufficient space - anything to make it seem PayPal are to blame, without directly blaming them)}
{Time to wrap up the email, but by first being compliant, saying you are happy to provide any further documents or perform any steps if required}
{Something experimental we tried, is telling them that if "risk" is still a concern, then feel free to place a fixed or proportional amount of sales in the "reserve account" if they believe this provides the assurance they need (in cases of disputes). I'm guessing this is better than nothing for you, so why not - they already have the functionality to implement this on any account}
*** End your email ***

Recovering your funds early I would consider a less major goal (as it's just a matter of time, not a decision), so word-for-word templates may work for that, as mentioned below in the next point.

- If you're only looking to get your funds released at best, you might want to mention the legal options that you have "planned" in case of no resolve, but do it in a formal way, as suggested below:
UK: https://www.aspkin.com/forums/paypal...90-result.html (Confirmed in 2015)
US: https://www.aspkin.com/forums/625303-post8.html (Confirmed in 2014)

:boink: Mailing List: Where to send your formal emails

Once you've written a formal, concise email/letter, you've done the hard part and now it's time to send them out. You've probably already found the mailing list that literally every website copies and pastes, which you can find here: https://www.aspkin.com/forums/370291-post5.html.

Although this is the list we used, we only sent it to selected emails, so given that our account was restored, it may help if we narrowed down the list for you (as it's not recommended to make them all recipients of the same email at the same time). As we notice a lot of people on this forum asking about the response times from PayPal, we have also calculated the time period since the email was sent and when the account was restored. Although none of them provided a direct response, the timing hints at one winner.

aup@paypal.com | Day 1 | 19 days before restoring
appeals@paypal.com | Day 1 | 19 days before restoring
executiveoffice@paypal.com | Day 14 | 6 days before restoring (4 working days)
webform@intl.paypal.com | Day 15 | 5 days before restoring

webform@intl.paypal.com is a mailbox which simulates the 'Contact Us' form on PayPal's site as far as I know, which is reportedly handled in India with a range of template responses, meaning they have no authority over your account. They always answer you, but I don't think typing is part of their job description - you will always get the same response (being that their decision is final). I am not sure if it's just a preference of the agent or something relevant, but sometimes they reply with a longer template mentioning "Your right to appeal" that can be done through the 'Contact Us' form, however, our letters were a lot longer than the accepted character limit, so we never took this route.

So as that email was ruled out, it seemed kind of obvious that our account was restored as a result of our email to executiveoffice@paypal.com, which I should mention is not listed on the mailing list at the link provided - we only found this email from reading PayPal's responses on the BBB website, whereby they welcome anyone to send their complaints to that department.

:amen: To conclude

So that's where our story ends - we received an email from service@paypal.co.uk this morning saying that "We have completed our review, and as you have completed all the required steps, we have restored your account", which appears to be another template response!

I really hope this thread gives some hope as well as options and clarification to those who have run into the same issue. Don't be too negative if you have done nothing wrong and it's your one and only account - humans make mistakes, but with PayPal, it's just a tough one to undo. One formal letter is all that stands in your way, so I wish you all the best with preparing it and getting your account back despite what you may have been told - "permanently limited" is not the end of the road, even if you can't get your account back.

Originally Posted by jal1995 (Post 1111473)

Yaay I got my paypal account reinstatedd from permanent limitation, but not yet for my ebay account.
Could you please help me with that?
I contacted you several times, I know you re busy with your issues, but I really need your help
Thank you

Originally Posted by HangInThere (Post 979972)

Hello everyone,

{Explain your business model in layman's terms (inc. website)}

Originally Posted by combosaiyan (Post 1120140)

Hi I have a question. If someone residing in the same household as you opens up their own separate ebay and paypal account on another computer would they too be blacklisted from paypal if my account is limited?

Originally Posted by solefoodbk (Post 1111342)

I've contacted and used aup@paypal.com before with Paypal. Though I haven't since 2018 to get a "un-appealable" suspension appealed. I'm not sure about this email you mentioned, or the thread to be honest but thanks for the update. I'll be reviewing it just for some guidance and knowledge that maybe I hadn't known prior.

You mentioned something and I think its important for everyone to know...

Usually whenever you find yourself with a serious limitation, or restriction and get that removed by internal teams, your account becomes unbelievably strong. All my accounts that have faced some sort of crossroads related to limitations (both eBay and Paypal) and I got them to remove it manually it from my experience removes a lot of internal security flags that could be triggered on the account. Every deep limitation or restriction I view it as a positive that once I fix it my account will just be that much stronger and with that mindset I always prevail. Even with a SSN limitation on a business account under stealth info (real ein etc) I got that appealed almost by luck but still happened.

I have one account on eBay where they did this and its practically untouchable. Someone manually removed the limitation I had, and I even recall asking him back in early 2018 "What if I get this triggered restriction again" He literally told me thats easy, I can flip the switch and prevent that from ever happening again. And since that happened its been like a diamond for me.

Originally Posted by meedx (Post 1124796)

Has anyone been successful in this without filing a claim before the court, as I cannot do as I am located in the UAE. If so please let me know with what you did.

Originally Posted by jal1995 (Post 1111473)

Yaay I got my paypal account reinstatedd from permanent limitation, but not yet for my ebay account.
Could you please help me with that?
I contacted you several times, I know you re busy with your issues, but I really need your help
Thank you

Originally Posted by Rajforever (Post 1125499)

Need tracking number for etsy