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Furious With PayPal!!
 

Hi everyone. Many thanks for allowing me to register and share my story.

I recently decided to start selling some of my music memorabilia collection due to how the pandemic has impacted on my finances. I’ve had an eBay and PayPal account for a while but only used it for purchases.

A couple of weeks back I listed my first item which was a rare pressing of an LP. I sold it for just over £500 to a buyer in France. When the buyer paid, eBay requested a hold on my funds because it was my first transaction (I understand this is common and usually the case with first time sales)... anyway, I shipped the item using DPD and supplied the tracking info on eBay. Fast forward a few days, the buyer receives the LP and is happy. Leaves me positive feedback. My PayPal account still shows the money on hold by eBay until the next day. As soon as eBay released the funds, PayPal placed a restriction on my account. They asked me to provide proof of my identity, which I did, proof of fulfilment (which I did) and for invoices from a supplier. I explained I couldn’t show invoices because the items I am selling are generally things I have had in my collection for years and were often obtained at fairs etc.

The next day, they permanently limited my account, holding over £500 in MY money. I was in dire need of this money because of financial difficulties. It was to help pay for things for my child. I have now lost a rare LP and the money for it. They won’t give a reason for the restriction. They refuse. I have called them and sent messages in the message center.

It’s having a bad affect on me. I desperately needed that money and now I am totally screwed.

Is there ANY way I can force them to reconsider or release my money? It seems totally criminal what they have done to me.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

what reason did they give for limiting your account?
Did they say you can have your money after 180 days?
Have you contacted Ebay and ask if there is any reason Paypal would do this?

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

They told me I have to wait 180 days to have my money. When I spoke to them they told me the account has been limited to protect PayPal from chargebacks and losses and Incase the buyer was to file a claim. I argued with them that this is my first transaction and the buyer left positive feedback and I proved the order was fulfilled.

They could not give me one logical reason for doing this. I argued with them that it was very suspicious that they didn’t just limit the account right away as soon as the payment was received. This would’ve at least given me the opportunity to cancel the order and refund the buyer and still have hold of my item (if they really wanted to block my account for no reason).

The only logical conclusion I can come up with is that they are doing this on purpose to hold peoples money.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Ohh and I forgot to mention about eBay - they said there is no issue at their end. This is entirely PayPal related.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

So, I just spoke to PayPal USA who told me that the issue is related to an IP link with an account that is permanently limited. It is somebody who lives in the same building as me but is not linked on my account AT ALL. So, PayPal have permanently limited me purely because someone else who has a limited account used the same IP address.

Surely this can’t be allowed. My account has nothing to do with someone else in my building.

My argument for this is why not flag the account as problematic prior to money being received and ask for verification that I am a separate person to the other account that is linked by IP. They wait until money is in the account and released by eBay until they limit the account. It seems like they hide being a cloak of “security measures” in order to hold funds and generate the interest off it

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

You're correct, PayPal is evil and is holding your money just because they can. You need to accept the fact that you have to wait 180 days to get your money.

Or keep poking the bear and see how that turns out for you...

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Make sure you have a bank account attached already. If you don't, after 180 days, PayPal can still give you problems .

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

another victim of evil paypal =(

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

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


Sad story OP - many of us feel you.

"The next day, they permanently limited my account, holding over £500 in MY money. I was in dire need of this money because of financial difficulties. It was to help pay for things for my child. I have now lost a rare LP and the money for it. They won’t give a reason for the restriction. They refuse. I have called them and sent messages in the message center.

It’s having a bad affect on me. I desperately needed that money and now I am totally screwed." - Sadly, PP has heard all of this and these reasons alone aren't going to help you to get the money owed.

You're going to have to keep pushing with PP. Try and see what you can do to be prepared for 180 day policy to remain though :(

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Both Ebay and Paypal use bots roaming its sites,when Paypal catches on with your transaction,it finds your account linked to another account which is banned.
But how can 2 persons in the same building sharing the same IP?
(LP is considered a high risk item prone to scams/chargeback,comics are also high risk)

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

"But how can 2 persons in the same building sharing the same IP?"

Wi-fi included with the rent. Just like having 27 devices on your home wi-fi, they all use the same IP.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Exactly. They shouldn’t be doing this.
I’ve sent them so many messages and they respond each time with the same message which is :

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

My argument is - why not limit the account immediately as soon as the IP addresses match, pending enquiries (Which in my case would be instantly because I registered this PayPal account using the connection in my building). Why wait until there are sufficient funds in the account before permanently limiting? Interestingly, I had 20 pounds in my account just sat there sent to me by a friend to cover shipping for an item to the USA. they didn’t limit the account when that money was in there (when the IP link would’ve already been apparent), they waited until a larger amount was in the account before limiting.

This has to be done on purpose by them

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

So I called PayPal again. I told them I am not going to stop and that they are holding my money unlawfully. They told me they are getting someone from their back office team to call me tomorrow. I was previously told that the back office team didn’t have phones and they could only answer queries via the messaging area.

I am going to keep pestering them.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

they all use bots ,and there are too many activities going on each day,the best time to take note is when the account has activity and in your case,you received a payment !
you better link a bank account so you can withdraw the money after 180 days.
In the mean time,ask your landlord for a lease agreement which state WIFI included and his wifi bill for the entire building,

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

To the thread starter

I feel the pain you are in, my advise to you is this
If you are using real details and all is genuine then try taking pp to court or something, I am not sure if you can approach financial ombudsman or some other regulatory authority.

The thing you can do is if you have legal expenses cover or something just speak with solicitor, papal needs some threatening letter and you will get your money.

Pp is very cruel and stubborn, will not do anything otherwise.
They are there to make money not loose.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

If you desperately need that money, speak to your buyer. Tell them what has happened. Plea with them that if you were to issue a refund via paypal could they bank transfer £400 instead of £500 so they are £100 up themselves.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Hopefully you get the call and the PP agent wasn't just getting rid of you

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

There is no need to go to court,it costs money and she needs money to be released,not spend more money .
gather all the documents to show the building has multiple tenants using the same IP and it is included in the rent- copy of your lease agreement,his WIFI bill,any document which shows the building is multi family structure,even picture of the building showing the address like street number which matches his utility bill .

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

They didn't call me today but I have kept the pressure on by sending them messages. I've told them that they are wrong in doing what they are doing because they didn't even give me a reason as to "how" I violated their terms of service.

I managed to get a reason out of the Paypal representative i spoke to over the phone when I called the US paypal (at the suggestion of a user on this forum) and the USA representatives are actually FAR more helpful than the people I get put through to here in the uk.

I told them that she informed me that the limitation happened because a link was made due to me using the same IP address as a previously limited user. I told them that me sharing an ip address with someone else is not a violation of their terms of service.

It certainly isn't cause for them to hold onto my money for 6 months.

I tried contacting the buyer to request that they accept a refund and then send the payment via bank transfer or to one of my friends... but she was unwilling to do that. So frustrating.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

be patient,did you get the bill from your landlord?

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

I’ve got a letter saying that the WiFi is shared and to show I am in a shared building.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

I’ve submitted it on the message area but they literally don’t seem to care what I submit

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

keep appealing,you cant be the only one .
There are places like hotels,library,mail stations,where different people log on and off.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Exactly. I’m still waiting for this illusive call back. He told me it could be up to 72 hours but would probably be within 24 hours. It’s been 48 hours almost and still no call. If the idiots don’t call me back by tomorrow I will phone them with all guns blazing.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

please keep us updated.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

THey rarely call people back.
So be ready to call them tomorrow

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

72 hours,24 hours,etc are what they posted from days gone by,there is just huge backlogs of disputes ,inquiries they have to tackle.
You are in a low priority queue,you are guilty until proved innocent,Paypal has a seller forum,some Paypal reps do show up ,go see if you can ask question or get a rep.
The reason I said you are guilty until proved innocent is because their software caught you with the same IP address,there is no way to tell if you are the previous offender as far as their current policy is concerned,so you have to prove otherwise.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Well, they never called back. I have called them 3 times since then and stay on hold for around 30 minutes each time and then the line goes dead and disconnects me.

They ignore all messages on the message centre now. But I’m not giving up.

I have proven to them I am not the other user because my PayPal information matches my passport and the other user in question was apparently male. I’ve sent them screenshots of feedback, proof of delivery, a message from the buyer saying they are not going to start a dispute at any point. I have every bit of evidence for any logical human to remove my account limitations... but this is PayPal. I will not be giving up.

I need a list of email addresses for PayPal representatives. I found an old list on this forum but many of the emails are no longer working and the email gets returned by outlook.

As far as I’m concerned, they’ve stolen from me. They’ve taken their fee and stolen my money without a valid reason. My passport and proof of identity should’ve been more than enough to remove my limits.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Go to paypal seller forum

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

I spent 2 hours on hold this morning to talk to those PIECES OF **** - I got a snotty pompous representative who tried telling me there’s nothing that can be done... after I got finished grilling him, he agreed to get a manager to call me back... then all of a sudden PURPOSEFULLY DISCONNECTED THE CALL.

I am raging.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

yo may want to have your own ISP in the future,it could happen again

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Have you considered at all the very real possibility that you're just going to have to wait out the 180 days to get your money and that you would be better served finding something constructive to do with the time that you are spending on this most likely futile endeavor?

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

The problem is she cant sell more on Ebay as her Paypal account is restricted,she would have to find other venues to sell,or find someone she trusts to sell for her,I know Liveauctioneer reaches buyers worldwide,you can go to its site and find a local dealer and ask them to sell for you.
Some dealers would allow you to upload picture and description yourself
I did that years ago,a dealer in NYC and their fees are competitive.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Of course I’ve considered this. If this was a stealth account or an account that wasn’t 100% legit I would be more accepting. But this is a 100% legit account, matching ID, good feedback and my first transaction selling. They’re also holding over £500 pounds that belongs to me.

If we all just accept things and let corporations push us around then these sorts of situations will continue and become even more widespread.

I’ve never known a company be so completely unwilling to listen to reason and logic and be down right underhanded in their actions.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Yeah this is true - plus, I really needed that money. I sold something precious to me in order to generate funds for Christmas. Covid has affected my work and my income so I have to supplement it by doing other things like selling items. PayPal has literally screwed me.

If I was to create a stealth PayPal using ipburger and use that new PayPal to sell on my existing eBay - would they link the account because of the eBay connection? Or does it not link because they aren’t the same company anymore (eBay and PayPal)

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Raging and Furious. Throw some fast cars into the mix and I can see this turning into a very popular movie franchise.

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

You do also realize that these same PP reps that you expect to help you can also flag your account for an AUP review and guarantee that you never get any of your money.

If you're working them into a state that they are risking their job by purposely hanging up on you, it's only a matter of time until one of them flags your account

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Let me help you here... have the mindset that PP will almost never do anything for you.

Whenever they ban you , your best bet is just create some new stealth accounts and start selling again.

Otherwise it's usually just a waste of energy and time

Re: Furious With PayPal!!
 

Yeah, I'm beginning to think like this. My best bet is to try to convince the buyer to help me out...but they are being really awkward about it.

I could just take a risk, refund them and then ask them to send me the funds via bank transfer...but its a big gamble.

I personally don't think paypal will release these funds after 180 days, so many people have issues like this with them.