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Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congratulations. Once again, I am envious, because *nothing* worked for me.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Guys!!! I can't believe this!!! I am over the moon right now!!!

PayPal just unlimited me!!!

This is what happened:

I couldn't let the issue go. I went back to the BBB site. More than two weeks had gone by since I got my last response from PayPal (basically telling me to go to hell), and so the case had already been closed by the BBB. Nevertheless, I sent one final message via the BBB:


__________________________________________________ _____________________________

Thank you for providing a little bit more clarity.

I have looked over my past transactions once again, and I see absolutely no items that I sent payment for which are prohibited under PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. I can only assume that there has been some unauthorized activity in my PayPal Account. If you can supply the associated transaction number(s), then I can investigate further and perhaps supply additional information.

At any rate, I would like this matter escalated to the highest level and submitted to your back office for secondary review. Please consider the more than twenty-year history of my Premier Account and Personal Account, and the fact that I have never been involved in a dispute of any type whatsoever in all that time.

I would very much love to be able to begin using PayPal again, as I always have since nearly the very beginning.

Thank you,

drakehound

__________________________________________________ _____________________________


Bang! Almost immediately (in less than a day) I received an email from PayPal:


__________________________________________________ _____________________________

Hello, drakehound

Your PayPal account has been restored


We reviewed the information you provided for Reference ID - PP-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx and have removed the limitation placed. You’ll now be able to access any feature that was limited before.


We appreciate your patience in helping us resolve this issue.

__________________________________________________ _____________________________


I couldn't believe it until I actually logged in to PayPal and saw that the limitations were gone!!!

What is the takeaway from all of this?

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GIVE UP

It took me over two years to get a resolution. I had given up. NEVER GIVE UP.

For me, it was that last, final, seemingly pointless kick-at-the-can that did the trick.

I would like to profusely thank everyone here, especially HangInThere, for all the help over the years. Clearly without all of you, I would have had no idea what to do and none of the encouragement to do it!

Peace out, brothers...

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Very happy for you mate!
Never give up with PAYPAL!!
=}

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Thanks, man!

Now I am afraid to use the account, because I don't want to get limited again! Haha

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congrats mate! Unless someone can prove me wrong, I'm going to say you've set the world record for longest PayPal resolution... :noidea:

Don't be afraid to use your account as normal, but definitely try to avoid logging in while abroad next time, especially if it's just to check your balance :rolleyes:

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congrats to you both, and thanks for sharing!

Not sure what you mean about your funds on hold after being restored, but I reckon that it's just a temporary phase of getting withdrawal errors. Whatever the case, PayPal should be at your disposal to provide an answer or solution.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

HangInThere! I was hoping that you would pop by so that I could thank you personally!

Yeah, I'm sure I have set the record for longest PayPal resolution too. I am going to blame it on COVID, but the truth is that I kept delaying the BBB option because I knew that after that there were no further options open to me.

The BBB are actually very helpful. They accepted my complaint even though it was past their six-month deadline, and then they accepted my rebuttal to PayPal's response, even though it was past their two-week deadline and they had closed the complaint.

I would never dream of logging into PayPal from anywhere other than my house now. I'm even nervous about that, because I recently changed ISPs. I would never check my balance, either, because I have never had one -- and boy, am I ever glad of that now!

It wasn't the IP/geolocation issue that got me limited though, according to PayPal's response. They quite specifically said that I had sent payment for items prohibited under their Acceptable Use Policy. I guess I will never know what those items were.

I have one more possible tip for others: Keep things short-and-simple! Since PayPal would not come out and say what the problem was, my emails to them and the BBB complaint were long, multi-page documents outlining every possible little detail that I thought there might be even the slightest chance that they would want an explanation of. Once I had a response to my BBB complaint, I just replied with just a few lines directly targeting their response, and that was what worked. Honestly, in retrospect, I think there is a good chance that no one ever bothered reading the multi-page documents that I sent them.

Thank you again, to HangInThere and everyone else.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Guys, PayPal permanently limited me again! I can't believe it! I'm *shaking* with rage!

What did I do you ask? I didn't do a damned thing!

All I did was log in to make sure that I was still not limited -- always from the same device at the same IP address. I didn't send or receive any money, or add any bank accounts or credit cards.

After over two years, I was only un-limited for ten days.

I'm speechless and disgusted.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Don't try to understand Paypal. They're doing this since years

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Thanks, man. I'm trying to decide what to do next, but frankly, after over two years, I am exhausted. Perhaps that's what they want.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Hi HangInThere. I have recently got banned on PayPal and funds held for 180 days. Would you be willing to assist me.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

This is the best post on this platform. I will call it the gold standard and the most altruistic post ever.

I will appreciate if you can share the letter privately so i can start from there.

Abby

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

THere's nothing you can do but wait the 180 days.

Make sure you have a bank account in your PP already so you can withdraw when the time comes

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Hi all!

OP here. Just a quick update.

As of last week, we've now had our account limited three times - two of them resulting in permanent limitations (and 180-day holds). While we were able to recover from all three (on the same account) and are currently in good standing, I am now finding it totally ridiculous how disruptive and unreliable PayPal are for business.

Getting limited and banned once? Okay fine, mistakes and misunderstandings happen - that's why there are dedicated Appeals & Executive departments. Getting limited and banned a second time? Well, that's an utter joke, and you've probably never heard of it - it's proof that they have no concern for loyalty, prior limitations, or the severe impacts on a business. But after that point of being reinstated (again), should there even be trust or risk issues? Well apparently yes, and they still choose to freeze the flow of payments on your account while they wait for answers. This is our treatment after 3 busy years, with no change of business activity...

I've learned that temporary limitations are completely pointless (unless regulatory), and just as some people have described it across the forum, the questions they ask are simply to gather more data about you and your business so that it's easier & quicker to catch you in the future. You know this is true when they only allow you 1000 characters to save your business, and you know it's pointless when they're always asking the same questions (e.g. "upload your ID", "confirm your bank", "explain your business", "explain your transactions" etc). I've now adapted to the PayPal flow to the point that whenever we get hit with a limitation, I'm already drafting an appeal letter, as the ban is imminent. The "temporary" limitation is the con that catches almost everyone (unless for regulatory purposes); the undisclosed process that follows is the only way to get out of it.

I'm aware that there's an ongoing lawsuit against PayPal for this exact reason, and by all means, they very much deserve it. I hope something will come out of it, as the current solution - although viable - is almost not worth the effort.

In summary, I can't stress enough to not put your full faith in PayPal. Undeniably, they are a great solution for your customers but try to avoid a position where they're your exclusive payment processor, as you can never know what to expect (clearly from above). As a matter of fact, they've wiped out every other business in our industry, and as already mentioned, they made 2 attempts to take us out too, but that's what to expect when you allow monkeys to dictate your future with PayPal; there is so much power in an appeal, but only if you do it right, and only if you are in the right.

The guide I originally posted is still what I go by, although I am in the process of drafting a simpler & more informative version from scratch, based on everything learned from our own experience, as well as the hundreds of messages and experiences from other users on the thread. I feel like my original post had way too much waffle, and didn't give enough attention to what matters most, which is writing the appeal - this will be the focus of my next revision, which I intend to be a future-proof resource.

I remain forever grateful to this forum and owe much to its users for the inspiration, guidance, and outcome it led to three years down the line. I can only pay back this debt by helping others in the same position, which I hope I have done already, but will conclude with my next and final revision.

Thanks for reading!

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

HangInThere!! Thanks for dropping by again!! It's somewhat comforting to see you still around.

I agree with everything you say: I am a proponent of small government, but in this case I think the government really needs to step in. This is exactly the kind of thing that antitrust law was created to deal with. PayPal is a *de* *facto* monopoly in much of the world. There are no real alternatives. There is Venmo, but PayPal owns them too! (Seriously?!)

I have no idea why the situation has been allowed to go on for this long. I have no idea how PayPal executives thought that there was any chance that they could get away with this. If there were a viable alternative, I'm sure customers would be running for the doors by now. What nonsense!

After my account was restored, it was permanently limited again ten days later. I hadn't used the account at all during that time. Indeed, I have not used it in over two years. That was December 17th that I was permanently limited for the second time. I opened another BBB case right away this time. They just replied with the same response as before: something that I had bought had violated their AUP. I know that that is completely impossible. Anyway, I can't prove a negative. As far as I am concerned, these limitations were caused by some kind of glitch, and no one at PayPal has any desire to dig into it and try to sort it out.

This company needs to be regulated, broken up... They should be made to pay PUNITIVE damages to all of us.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

...looking forward to your updated guide.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Morning guys.

After some advice. I have read every page on here, and must say it is one of the clearest threads ive read in terms of how to attack.

I have a fixed business in the UK, a workshop for motor cars. We have used Paypal for 10 years including using Paypal Here card reader.

We got hit with temporary limitations, answered everything and uploaded the correct documents (including tax return and bank statement which Im not 100% comfortable with).

We then got permanent limitation this morning.

I wrote an email today and sent to:

ppelce@paypal.co.uk
ppelce@paypal.com
europeanservices@paypal.com
executiveoffice@paypal.com

I did not get an auto response from them, wondering if its because it is a Saturday or do I need to email a different email?

The only thing I can think of why we got limited was we recently had a customer spend £13,000 and they had to do several transactions due to card limit. This was an accumulation of invoices over 3 months. And compared to our usual card traffic I suppose got flagged.

I provided invoices for everything via a google drive.

Im praying we get re-instated as Paypal is integrated heavily into the business.

Many thanks

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Welcome to the forum GJC - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:


I would wait for weekend to pass and keep trying - you might have to call as well. It's hard to fight against a permanent limitation but perhaps you will have a sympathetic and competent agent.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Why are not using payment processors like STRIPE for your card payments?

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

I believe that's all the emails you need, and I also don't recall there being any auto-responses, which makes the matter even more frustrating.

Just a heads up that any responses are now probably going to come through the Message Center on your PayPal account, so you could literally be speaking to the Executive Office through a PayPal chat (although not instant). If the right department doesn't respond, ask them to forward it to the Executive Office, and they surprisingly will - this is what happened with our last limitation (out of many), which resulted in success.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Howdy, I sent an email over to executiveoffice@paypal.com and got a response less than 24 hours later of:

-------------

"Thank you for contacting PayPal in regard to the issue.

To ensure that you have money in your account to cover any new payment reversals, the funds in your account will be held for a period of up to 180 days. We'll contact you by email around 2022/08/27 with information on how to withdraw any money in your PayPal account. Once you receive the email, you may log in to your PayPal account and click 'Withdraw' to receive your funds.

Thank you for choosing PayPal for your payment needs. Please feel free to contact us if you require further assistance.

Sincerely,
Rokky
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal"

-------------

A background on my situation, I started a dropshipping store on Shopify last week, we did about $25k in sales over the weekend and PayPal wanted more information on our account. We provided them with everything except "Proof of Payment to Supplier" since our store is still only 5 days old and we haven't actually paid our supplier yet and now weren't able to since... our PayPal account is on hold! Called PayPal twice over the weekend to see if it was okay that we didn't have that information and the customer support reps said that we should be fine and the final rep submitted my account for review for me with "a note on my account" explaining why we don't have "Proof of Payment to Supplier" on Sunday afternoon. Well, Monday (yesterday) at 6:00am (less than 24 hours after the customer support rep submitted our account for review) we got a message saying that our account is permanently limited with over $5,000 in it.

Submitted a complaint to the BBB at 8am yesterday and sent an email to executiveoffice@paypal.com at about 6pm, to which we got the reply that I put above. Anyone have any recommendations at to what I should do? Wait for the BBB? Send more emails?

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

What kind fo suspension did you get from Paypal exactly?

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

I'm sorry for what happened to you.
Unfortunately, if you submitted already a complaint to BBB and they replied with this answer, there is actually not much you can do apart from waiting for the 180 days. The good thing, you can be sure they will not "disappear" with your funds for AUP reasons or such. Make sure you keep your phone number active on the account til you remove your funds.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Welcome to the forum majorflv - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

The suspension is a permanent limitation on the account, holding the funds 180 day

Luckily I haven't heard back from the BBB yet, the response that I put in my original message was the response to an email I sent to executiveoffice@paypal.com

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

I doubt you'll be getting that account back. A dropshipper taking in thousands of dollars per day on a brand new account is the highest possible risk scenario Paypal can be exposed to. You really have to take it easy at first and build up, otherwise you're just showing Paypal that you're a huge liability.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

The account wasn't new though, it was opened just about 1 year ago and has done over $10-20k in transactions since it was opened including $3k+ in the month prior to this suspension. The only thing that was new was our Shopify store.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

OK then let's wait for the result from BBB.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

I also make complaint to BBB, waiting for it.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

If I were you I'd not expect much and move on

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

This account got unlocked about an hour ago, looks like the BBB complaint did it! Thank you guys in this thread so much, I love you :)

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congrats :thumb:

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congrats! And thanks for sharing - it was starting to get a bit pessimistic over here :)

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Congrats! Well done! :cheer:

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Very nice! Aleways nice to hear one of us gets a win.

What did you say in BBB and you sure it's due to BBB?

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Well PayPal responded yesterday through the BBB even though I was unbanned a few days ago, but I can see that they usually respond a few business days after they unban people. I'll attach below essentially what I wrote, leaving out any personal details and stuff. I should also note that my account was put on information hold the day after (where they ask you for proof of supplier and everything) but I was able to remove it by calling them, it was literally cleared up on the phone :) anyways, here's the BBB message.

"My business's PayPal account was permanently limited after we provided proof of tracking for our orders. I launched a new business on --------- which has caused much more orders/money to come into our PayPal account than usual. On ---------, PayPal put my account into an information hold (which is completely understandable as my account went from receiving $----/month to $----- in a day). In this information hold, I was asked to show proof of my driver's license, my business (LLC), tracking numbers for 8 of our orders, and proof of payment to our supplier. I was able to give PayPal the first 3 of those 4 things, however, we were not able to pay our supplier since our PayPal was on hold. After calling PayPal's customer support twice about the issue of us not being able to provide proof of payment to our supplier because they won't let us send money with our account, PayPal's customer support assured me both times that we could submit our account for review without that information and the second support agent submitted it for me. Before this happened, we were given a limit to how much we could receive per month before funds would be held ($------). We met this limit early on Saturday morning. I would be completely fine with this limit being lowered to $0 so all of our orders need to arrive at a customer's door before PayPal releases the customer's funds to us. We run a Shopify store where we sell a singular product to people. When someone buys our product, we then contact our supplier in China and he provides us with a tracking number, once we pay him, our orders are shipped out to our customers. At this current time, we have $------ stuck in our PayPal account, this is money that we are supposed to be using to pay our supplier so we can have our orders shipped out to customers. We are more than happy to provide more information about our business, sales, shipping, tracking, or anything else that PayPal/BBB may need to resolve this case."

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

Thanks for sharing. You nailed:

• the tone (specifically avoiding desperation or anger)
• the acknowledgment of the cause
• your explanation for the cause
• your understanding of the limitation
• the summary of your business
• welcoming further safeguards for PayPal's sake

I'm assuming you also explained exactly what you were selling in the letter, but just omitted it from the post. I would also have provided a link to a Google Doc, with at least the same docs you submitted, plus more to cover your sales & expenses for the past 30 days; even if they don't open it, it's another gesture to increase the appeal. Just advice for anyone reading.

But more importantly, congrats once again, and many thanks for contributing!

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

So I'm at a bit of a loss here, last year out of nowhere Paypal permanently limited my account. I called their support, but they were completely unhelpful. They would not tell me anything and actually said I needed to take them to court to find out why I was banned. I've emailed several email addresses I found for support and the BBB but to no avail.

Here's the weird part, I don't run a business, I haven't sold anything on eBay in years, and I hardly send or receive money through the account. The main thing I did was make purchases on sites like eBay, and others that accepted it. The last transaction had to be disputed due to the seller never shipping the item. Beyond that, I'm at a complete loss of why they banned me. I suspect it was an automated process that falsely flagged my account and had little to no human oversite on it, and Paypal simply won't take the time to actually check it. If there are any resources that anyone knows of please let me know.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

welcome to the world of paypal and eBay..... it's just how it is with them since the beginning of days.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

That is almost *exactly* what happened to me.

Re: [Guide] [Account Restored] Permanent Limitation (with 180-day hold)
 

7 Months after our limitation, we got our account restored.

We went and only did all our communications through our lawyer, and after completing some arbitrary step of getting a "license" to sell our product from the producer - which we produce ourselves, duh - we got the account back. Structural incompetence is a real problem with PayPal.