I Hope You All Can Help Me

[drakehound]

Hi,

I am new here and this is my first post. I found this place out of desperation.

I have had a PayPal account for twenty years and used it only to make purchases on eBay. A few months ago PayPal permanently limited my account with the stated reason being that I had violated their Acceptable Use Policy (I hadn't).

I phoned and emailed PayPal about it, and they repeatedly told me that the decision had already been made, and that there was no way of reversing it.

That was fine with me. PayPal has been nothing but a pain all these years, but I couldn't live without eBay. (I knew that I could buy on eBay without a PayPal account.)

After that, I made a purchase on eBay using my credit card directly and it was fine. When I went to make a second purchase several days later, I received the error message:

"We can't process your payment. Try again, or select a different payment method to check out."

I changed to another credit card, and the purchase went through fine.

Another few days later, I went to make another purchase with the first and then second credit card, and I received the same error message.

I changed to a third credit card, and the purchase went through fine.

I'm sure by now you can see a pattern emerging.

To make a long story short, I have now burned through all seven of my credit cards, and I now have no way of buying anything on eBay.

After a little reading, I realized that eBay is still using PayPal to process my purchases even though I don't have a PayPal account. PayPal is letting me use each new (to them) credit card number once (and only once) -- for some reason known only to them.

As far as I can see it, my only option for buying on eBay now is to apply for and be approved for yet another (eighth) credit card. Even then, I will only be allowed to use that credit card for one eBay purchase.

I don't see any other options, though.

Are there any?

[phaz0rz]

Once all sellers are enrolled in managed payments this shouldn't be an issue since Paypal will no longer be the credit card processor. If you can find sellers who are already enrolled in managed payments, and buy only from them, you may have some luck with that method.

As far as I'm aware the only way you can tell if a seller is using managed payments currently is to look for the Google Pay option in the "Payments" section of a listing, like this:


Some other not very good options :
- When you use a credit card through Paypal again, use some name other than yours since the name is not checked when credit card payments are processed.
- Create or buy a stealth account and use it to make purchases with your bank account as the funding source (may or may not work )

[drakehound]

Thanks!

I did manage to find one vendor who was using managed payments. I bought from them, and the transaction was as smooth as glass. Unfortunately, vendors with managed payments seem to be a rarity so far.

I can hardly wait for PayPal to leave the scene entirely.

[e2free]

Open new account its quite easy to open ebay buyers account

[drakehound]

Thanks for you reply.

I just opened a new eBay buyer account and tried to make a purchase with each of my seven credit cards. It didn't change a thing. I still receive the same error message every time.

[RichardCard82]

How the heck do you get banned on paypal by simply buying items on eBay? What are you buying? And why do you need to keep buying items on eBay?

[drakehound]

You bring up excellent questions.

How do you get banned on PayPal simply buying items on eBay? I would love to know the answer to this myself. All they will tell me after dozens of phone calls and emails is that I have "violated their Acceptable Use Policy." They refuse to provide any further details. Personally, I don't believe that it has anything to do with their Acceptable Use Policy. I took the time to read it carefully in detail, and I am certain that I haven't violated it.

I believe that their computer system must have raised a flag on me for some unknown reason, probably involving usage patterns, IP address, or whatnot. No one there seems able to have an adult conversation with me and sort this out. I get nothing but scripted responses.

What am I buying? ...just about anything; the last thing I bought before they banned me was a $7 mobile phone part.

Why do I need to keep buying items on eBay? It's going to break me buying them anyplace else; that mobile phone part that I bought on eBay is around $50 locally.

[RichardCard82]

Originally Posted by drakehound

You bring up excellent questions.

How do you get banned on PayPal simply buying items on eBay? I would love to know the answer to this myself. All they will tell me after dozens of phone calls and emails is that I have "violated their Acceptable Use Policy." They refuse to provide any further details. Personally, I don't believe that it has anything to do with their Acceptable Use Policy. I took the time to read it carefully in detail, and I am certain that I haven't violated it.

I believe that their computer system must have raised a flag on me for some unknown reason, probably involving usage patterns, IP address, or whatnot. No one there seems able to have an adult conversation with me and sort this out. I get nothing but scripted responses.

What am I buying? ...just about anything; the last thing I bought before they banned me was a $7 mobile phone part.

Why do I need to keep buying items on eBay? It's going to break me buying them anyplace else; that mobile phone part that I bought on eBay is around $50 locally.

Just seems incredibly strange you'd get banned for simple using it to buy items, I've been running 8 stealth accounts for the last 4 years with no issue, i only use them to receive money and withdraw and never have I ever heard of someone being banned for just simple buying products on ebay.

Getting payments and selling on eBay is a different story, there's hundreds of people that get banned and dont get their money back after 180 days, some people have had hundreds of thousands of dollars just stolen by paypal after the 180 days....... But banned for buying items on ebay? That's a new one!

I use my business paypal for only buying clothes on different retailers (which is my legit LLC). I never get payments on that account, but I do use it to pretty much buy anything online, lately mainly clothes lol. Its concerning that this can happen to me as well. Also the fact that you've been using paypal for 20 years! They don't seem to care about their long term customers! mind boggling to say the least. If I were you I would email the president of paypal, im sure you can find his email online and explain your situation as clearly you're not at fault, and also submit a complaint on the BBB website, I hear that's helped others in the past. Only guess is that you bought something that is prohibited, but if you buy used items like a cell phone part then it just doesn't make any sense. Best of luck

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by RichardCard82

Just seems incredibly strange you'd get banned for simple using it to buy items, I've been running 8 stealth accounts for the last 4 years with no issue, i only use them to receive money and withdraw and never have I ever heard of someone being banned for just simple buying products on ebay.

Getting payments and selling on eBay is a different story, there's hundreds of people that get banned and dont get their money back after 180 days, some people have had hundreds of thousands of dollars just stolen by paypal after the 180 days....... But banned for buying items on ebay? That's a new one!

I use my business paypal for only buying clothes on different retailers (which is my legit LLC). I never get payments on that account, but I do use it to pretty much buy anything online, lately mainly clothes lol. Its concerning that this can happen to me as well. Also the fact that you've been using paypal for 20 years! They don't seem to care about their long term customers! mind boggling to say the least. If I were you I would email the president of paypal, im sure you can find his email online and explain your situation as clearly you're not at fault, and also submit a complaint on the BBB website, I hear that's helped others in the past. Only guess is that you bought something that is prohibited, but if you buy used items like a cell phone part then it just doesn't make any sense. Best of luck

Yes, it is very strange indeed. Luckily for me, I didn't have any money stolen by PayPal, because I always bought using a credit card; there was no money sitting in my PayPal account.

It irks me that I don't even rank an explanation for the ban, seeing as I think I was one of their seven original customers. Haha

Wow, you are right: I did find an email address for Dan Schulman on Google. I might give it a try, but probably not. I would expect all sellers to be switched over to managed payments before I could ever expect to get a response from anyone in authority at PayPal -- especially now with the pandemic and its associated staffing issues.

I didn't buy anything prohibited, by the way: most items were new, but some were used.

You seem genuinely curious as to the reason for my ban, so I will let you know what my gut is telling me:

I think the prime suspect is an IP address issue. I have logged in to PayPal from a number of different places in Canada where I live, and also from the USA. I also log in when I am travelling in Asia sometimes. In this case, the ban came approximately twelve hours after I logged in from Asia for the first time in about a year.

Also, as I was scrutinizing my recent past activity, I noticed that I had filed a surprising number of item-not-received disputes. These were eBay disputes, though, not PayPal disputes. They were not bogus claims, either: I had genuinely not received these items. I don't know how or whether these could have raised any flags with PayPal; they don't seem to have done that with eBay at all.

At any rate, logging in from different locations and/or filing an unusual number item-not-received claims do not violate PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy.

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by agent006140

if you are using your Paypal account to buy and not sell and now they tel you AUP violation.
-do you have other PAYPAL accounts which were limited or owe money?
or have you been linked to a bad account?
Or you made payment to buy product A when in fact you bought something else?
or you file too many disputes?

I have two PayPal accounts: one is a personal account and one is a premium account. I have had them both for about twenty years. They were both permanently limited at the same time. Their balances are both zero and I don't owe PayPal any money.

As to being linked to a bad account, that is a good question. It had occurred to me that perhaps someone I bought something from was linked to something bogus and that had dominoed onto me. I would have no way of knowing that, though.

Did I make a payment to buy something when in fact I bought something else? No, never.

Did I file too many disputes? I don't know how many is too many, but I did file a surprising number of (legitimate) item-not-received disputes recently. They were all filed with eBay, not PayPal, and eBay has not given any indication that the number was excessive. At any rate, there is nothing in PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy regarding disputes.

[rsot]

Welcome to the forum - all the best as you master stealth

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by agent006140

filing too many disputes could be one reason,you become a high maintenance account for both Ebay and Paypal.
EbAY has policy to protect seller,one lady in rural Mexico buy cheap trinklets from Ebay sellers who mailed with no tracking,many are stolen or lost,Ebay banned her buying privilege as she becomes a hazard to the seller community.
Paypal has similar policy not to protect the seller,but itself ,one buyer filed 19 INAD on same day minutes after she bought the items,she was banned by Paypal.
Not sure if this is why you are banned as it is not in Paypal AUP policy,but reps often do not know what they are talking about.

Yeah, I hadn't noticed the number of item-not-received disputes until I looked back at the history after I was banned. That begs the question, though: should one generally just swallow the loss on items not received? ...in order to avoid being banned?

My number one suspect is still that it was an IP address issue, though. Why? ...because I was banned approximately twelve hours after I logged in from an IP address in Asia for the first time in about a year. It had been a number of months since I had filed an item-not-received dispute (that is still my number two suspect, though).

Hell, it could even be both: perhaps logging in from an Asian location triggered a closer look, and then all the item-not-received disputes were noticed. It doesn't matter now, though, does it? I just want PayPal to get out of my way so I can buy things on eBay again.

I have actually just now placed a bid on a must-have item on eBay. If I win, I am going to have to figure out in a hurry how the hell I am going to pay for it lol

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by agent006140

Logging in from Asia is not AUP violation.
If a buyer files too many INR,it could be his receiving address is not safe,and the buyer should remedy such by using a different address like using a PO BOX or setting up some way so his shipments can be delivered safely.
I think Phaz suggestion is good,buy from sellers who accept MP payment.
As to the one you have bidded on,you can email seller,explain your situation and arrange a different payment method,ask him to cancel the order and then you send him a money order or postal order

My receiving address is safe. The problem is that 80% of stuff comes from China and there seems to be a serious disconnect between China Post and Canada Post -- I don't know why.

It would have been nice to get some kind of warning about this.

Phaz suggestion is great, but it won't have any real bearing for months or maybe years. I guess time goes by quickly, though.

You know what? If I win the auction in question, I will try as you say and ask the seller whether they will accept a different payment method. I guess they can say Yes or No. If they say No, then I guess I will have to scramble.

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by agent006140

Have you look into Google Pay?
Canadian post office sells postal order denominated in US $,he can take it to his local post office and cash it with ID,it is free.
But you get no buyer protection if he does not ship or ship you an empty package,but most sellers are honest and anxious to turn inventory back to cash

That is an interesting thought, but Google Pay is only available with Managed Payments. If the seller is accepting Managed Payments, I can just use any of my existing credit cards without problem.

I managed to do that once so far.

[drakehound]

I think I found a temporary solution: all of my credit cards offer free supplementary cards for friends and family members. I am ordering a bunch, using the names of every friend and family member I can think of. Haha

We will see how it works.

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by drakehound

I think I found a temporary solution: all of my credit cards offer free supplementary cards for friends and family members. I am ordering a bunch, using the names of every friend and family member I can think of. Haha

We will see how it works.

It works like a charm. As long as it is not my own name on the credit card, PayPal does not seem to have any problem with it -- for now. I hope this gets me through until managed payments are firmly in place.

[cafonabob1]

Just contact your credit card company and tell them you "misplaced the card" and they will cancel it and issue a new one with a new number. They don't check the name on the credit card, only the billing zip code and maybe the numbers in the street address.

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by cafonabob1

Just contact your credit card company and tell them you "misplaced the card" and they will cancel it and issue a new one with a new number. They don't check the name on the credit card, only the billing zip code and maybe the numbers in the street address.

PayPal is clearly checking the name on the credit card, because if it is in my name, the credit card is banned within hours. If it is any other name (even with the same billing address) the credit card is not banned.

[SaiJin]

That's very unusual. Have you tried a VCC from one of the sellers in our marketplace?

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

That's very unusual. Have you tried a VCC from one of the sellers in our marketplace?

I had looked into VCCs earlier, and it was my understanding that they were not available in Canada. I just now looked at the ones in the marketplace that you mentioned, and I do see that they claim to work worldwide. Thanks.

The problem is solved now, though: I am using my own credit card account with a supplementary card that I ordered under the name of a family member. It works flawlessly. ...strange, but I am glad for it. It cost nothing, and hopefully it will see me through until managed payments are firmly ensconced.

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by drakehound

PayPal is clearly checking the name on the credit card, because if it is in my name, the credit card is banned within hours. If it is any other name (even with the same billing address) the credit card is not banned.

AVS only check street number and zipcode,the data base all merchants including Paypal access for AVS does not have name of the card holder.
Ebay will restrict a person buying privilege if he is a risk to the seller community,like filing too many INR,INAD.

[drakehound]

Originally Posted by agent006140

AVS only check street number and zipcode,the data base all merchants including Paypal access for AVS does not have name of the card holder.
Ebay will restrict a person buying privilege if he is a risk to the seller community,like filing too many INR,INAD.

Yes, I understand that the cardholder's name does not form part of AVS. eBay must be giving the cardholder's name to PayPal, though. Otherwise PayPal would have no way of banning the card numbers associated with my name and not banning the card numbers associated with the family member.

As for filing too many INR claims, I totally hear you: I ordered ten items on eBay in April. Four of them have not arrived yet, and I am reaching the deadline for filing INR claims on them. I don't dare do it, though.

By the way, what happened to all of the other posts you made in this thread? They are gone now.