My Paypal limited permanently? What now? :(

[Daioujou]

I'm an idiot, I left far too much of my earnings in my Paypal account without withdrawing it, and after changing my stock from clothing to electronics (and earning more money more quickly), they asked for invoices which I provided... and then they limited my account anyway.

After 7 years of trading, this makes me feel like dying - I have no income and they're holding a ****load of my money.

I just need to find out a few things from you guys, who seem knowledgable about these incredible fraudsters. To me, it seems like some kind of interest scam for them, but I just don't know.

Please allow me to ask a few things, I hope you can help:

1: My ebay store is still open and active (I've put it on holiday currently to make the listing invisible.) Does anyone know why this is? What happens after 180 days, does my paypal account get re-instated to normal use. I just can't figure out why they're still allowing me to sell, but not allowing me to withdraw money for 180 days?

2: Some idiot buyer has opened a dispute over nothing, currently active on my account. I expect it to be resolved shortly, but will this harm my chances of getting my money back in any way?

3: Some people suggest hounding people on Paypal (over the phone) regularly to get my money back - does this work?

4: After 180 days, do they kill my paypal account for good? Will I ever be able to open another paypal account in future, or will they shut it down. I'm thinking of opening a website now (got no choice!) but Paypal will be important on there - does anyone know if this will be possible in my situation?

5: If my ebay account is still active, can I link my partners paypal account to it to keep selling - or will they shut that down as well?

6: Is there any chance at all that those *******s will attempt to keep my money after 180 days? They said they would contact me with details on how to retrieve it, but if there are horror stories I'd like to know about them.

Thanks so much for the help, my heads spinning and I'm just in a state of absolute shock. Apologies for so many questions, I'm just very confused about this and not sure where I stand.

[ebayerOG]

REAL TALK man i was in the same boot a month or 2 back i was in a bad way but thanks to a few people on here im started to get back to where i was all thanks to this forum,YOU HAVE GOT TO buy the ebay Stealth Book do that before you do anything else !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im in the uk as well as you can see and this forum is where you wanna be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GTB]

ouch!its hard to take i know..........how can they treat you like this? its beyond belief,its pointless feeling sorry for yourself even though its hard not to,get the stealth,if ya need help look around the forum and ask questions,we know what your going through coz weve all been through it one way or another,get your head into the workings of stealth and then get back on it! spread out your inventory between numorous accounts,that way if one goes down your still earning your bread,as for the limited pp,its best to forget about your money for 180 days,
they must of had a reason wether it be justified or not like buyin from china,dropshipping,poor seller ratings or you may of been linked to a banned account,if you can find out why you were limited you can avoid them problems in future,your paypal account is gone for good too,they do the 180 days when they no longer want your business(b*******),
anyway ya in the right place,chin up m8

[ebayerOG]

Originally Posted by MR GTB

ouch!its hard to take i know..........how can they treat you like this? its beyond belief,its pointless feeling sorry for yourself even though its hard not to,get the stealth,if ya need help look around the forum and ask questions,we know what your going through coz weve all been through it one way or another,get your head into the workings of stealth and then get back on it! spread out your inventory between numorous accounts,that way if one goes down your still earning your bread,as for the limited pp,its best to forget about your money for 180 days,
they must of had a reason wether it be justified or not like buyin from china,dropshipping,poor seller ratings or you may of been linked to a banned account,if you can find out why you were limited you can avoid them problems in future,your paypal account is gone for good too,they do the 180 days when they no longer want your business(b*******),
anyway ya in the right place,chin up m8

TOP INFO right there for you

[jeffweico]

1: My ebay store is still open and active (I've put it on holiday currently to make the listing invisible.) Does anyone know why this is? What happens after 180 days, does my paypal account get re-instated to normal use. I just can't figure out why they're still allowing me to sell, but not allowing me to withdraw money for 180 days?

Your eBay account has not yet been limited. It COULD still happen. eBay accounts without PayPal don't work very well anyway

2: Some idiot buyer has opened a dispute over nothing, currently active on my account. I expect it to be resolved shortly, but will this harm my chances of getting my money back in any way?

No. You will still get your money eventually, but if the buyer is refunded, the amount of the refund will be deducted from your balance.

3: Some people suggest hounding people on Paypal (over the phone) regularly to get my money back - does this work?

Sometimes. It really depends. You can certainly try it. But don't get your hopes up.

4: After 180 days, do they kill my paypal account for good? Will I ever be able to open another paypal account in future, or will they shut it down. I'm thinking of opening a website now (got no choice!) but Paypal will be important on there - does anyone know if this will be possible in my situation?

No. Once you lose an account, you are PERMANENTLY BANNED. There is no opening a new account with your information. Stealth is the answer. Get the stealth guide. It really does work!

5: If my ebay account is still active, can I link my partners paypal account to it to keep selling - or will they shut that down as well?

If you do this, your partner will definitely lose his PayPal account, and most likely his eBay account as well.

6: Is there any chance at all that those *******s will attempt to keep my money after 180 days? They said they would contact me with details on how to retrieve it, but if there are horror stories I'd like to know about them.

I have never heard any CREDIBLE stories about PayPal just outright keeping money after 180 days. I cannot tell you that it has NEVER happened, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Thousands of people are in your situation. Most of US experienced this in one way or another with eBay and PayPal. One day you are a happy seller, making money and not even thinking that anything can go wrong. You think because you are honest and sell legitimate items that you will be OK, that the stories you've heard only apply to scam-artists and other lowlifes.

Then, one day, BAM! You are limited and/or suspended. You are in shock. You cannot believe this is happening to YOU. This is not supposed to happen! It only happens to counterfeiters and crooks, NOT to honest people like yourself.

IT JUST HAS TO BE A MISTAKE, you think. So you call or email PayPal. All you can get are canned generic anwsers that really don't answer any of your questions. Dumbfounded, you do a Google search and find this forum.

Just like the thousands of people before you.

The fact is that most people who experience this are honest sellers who would never even consider scamming a buyer or selling counterfeit merchandise. Many of them had been selling on eBay for YEARS with no problems. It happens to Power Sellers, Top Rated Sellers and even to people without a SINGLE negative feedback. In PayPal's zeal to get rid of the scammers, they don't mind if they ban 9 legitimate accounts for every one scammer account. You are just "collateral damage" to them. An acceptable loss.

Get the Stealth Book and get back to business.

[GTB]

btw you will get your money,just keep all info etc as proof,ya never know!
as for the problem with the buyer,that wont cause you not to get all your money back,only the money of the transaction between you and the buyer is at risk,
about linking your partners pp to your eb account,,,im not sure on that one.
i suppose it wont hurt to hound them on the phone if you can deal with that sort of thing,get answers at least!
best thing for you to do is open more accounts and look at other ways of sellin too,amazon maybe.....spread it out and lesson the risk
good luck with the paypal anyway,you will need it!
hope this has helped you and not confused you even more

[Daioujou]

You're all really lovely people, honestly. It's funny how when all the little people get stamped on we really find we only have each other to lean on.

****ing Ebay. Seriously. Over seven years making them ****loads of money and then all of a sudden they destroy everything overnight.
One of the biggest problems for my partner and I is that we sort of built a brand out of that ebay store... it had a recognisable name to its customer base and after 7 years a fair amount of repeat customers.
I will be buying stealth ebay definitely (too many good recommendations not to), but if I have to sell all this damn stock sitting in my flat by splitting it down across different accounts it won't be as easy without the store name.

I really appreciate the support, it puts me in a better mindset (honest, I felt like... well, I won't say, but really messed up when I got the email from Paypal tonight.)

Couple of things confuse me though. As mentioned, Ebay will ban 9 accounts for every 1 possible scammer as 'collateral damage' - how can they do this though. There are thousands of people on this forum, those losses have cost them a lot of money...
Then again, thinking about the interest they'll make off of my money for 180 days makes me think it's worth it for them. I'm sure they'll be playing stocks and shares with my cash in that time.

Ohhh.... man.
Such is life I suppose.

Perhaps this will spur me on to get the website sorted that I always meant to do and get rid of those tyrants for good.

One final question: If I open new accounts using stealth ebay guide and Ebay find and shut them down (maybe they think the products are similar) will that harm my chances of getting my money back after 180 days? No ****, I'm afraid of pissing them off - it's not a small sum. :(

And do you know what the real pisser is?? They'll be deducting £800 worth of sales fees from my credit card next month, and I have nothing left to pay the balance...

[jeffweico]

By all means, put together a website. Use professional shopping cart software (there are a TON of options) and get a REAL merchant account. Get a domain name that is the same or similar to your eBay "brand". Send emails, or even snail mail to your customers with your new website and maybe give them a coupon or something to motivate them to go there.

A real merchant account means they will want to see your website and will also want some financial data from you, but they will tell you UPFRONT if there are any limitations on your account. You will know from the start what you are dealing with. Unless fraud is committed, it is MUCH HARDER to lose a real merchant account than it is to lose a PayPal account.

Look into other venues, such as Amazon.

Go stealth. Have 10 accounts, or more if necessary.

Set yourself up so that no ONE venue or payment processor can kill your business in one hissy-fit.

This may even turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Certainly, you are going to face a lot of challenges in the near future. You won't get back to where you were overnight. But once you put these things into place, your business will be MUCH STRONGER, and that is a GREAT THING! I sleep pretty well at night knowing that maybe I'll lose an account here and there, but each account represents less than 10% of my business. So it is unlikely that I will face another huge DISASTER. Peace of mind like that is PRICELESS.

As to "how can they get away with it" - simple. They are a PRIVATE company with millions of customers and millions of sign-ups each year. They have crunched the numbers and made a business decision that the damage they are causing is OK if it helps to stop the scammers. There is no "right" to sell on their website or use PayPal. So, they can do whatever they like. Fighting the system is pointless. Working it is PROFITABLE.

[Daioujou]

You're a wise man indeed Jeff, thanks for the inspirational words and support. In the morning light I'm feeling a little more driven to get back on my feet and get on with doing what I should have done a long time ago.

My biggest worry is, if I buy the stealth guide and use it to start selling again, if ebay somehow manage to twig it's the same person and shut it down, will this affect my chances of being able to withdraw the balance in the limited account? I mean, I really don't want to annoy them - it's no small sum they're holding and I need it back desperately.
If it's safer to wait 180 days before getting back on, I can always go out and find some menial labour job for 6 months...

[GTB]

dont worry mate,they will contact you in 6 months,they cant just keep your money,even if they cancel some of your stealth accounts,the money is yours and if they keep the money it is theft,dont worry man,just see it as a bonus in 6 months time,
but if you have alot of stock spread it out over other places to sell and multiple accounts,maybe add some small cheap items to get your feedback going,something that wont have you out of pocket,selling just the same one thing over multiple accounts may raise suspicion,dont worry man,like i said ya in the right place
do the website aswell if possible,and like jeff was saying
Set yourself up so that no ONE venue or payment processor can kill your business in one hissy-fit

[rsot]

Welcome to the forum Daioujou.

To put the purpose of the stealth guide plainly: you will learn to setup new accounts WITHOUT any link to previous accounts. Done well, this process leads to unlinked accounts so if one goes limited, others still exist.

If you follow the steps well (and also read+contribute around these boards), you will be back to full operation soon with no link to your old accounts with money in them. That money should not be in jeopardy and will be available to you in 6 mos.

[Daioujou]

Thanks guys for everything. I will be getting the stealth guide. I actually don't have $40 to spare at the moment, but it seems like the best possible investment I can make so I'll have to scrape it together.

[rsot]

In the meantime, you can read around the forum and get ideas - or do that trialpay option for Stealth Guide.

[jeffweico]

PayPal won't keep your money. They really can't. If they started doing this, they would face a TON of lawsuits.

If you end up getting linked (and you won't if you are careful!) eBay will shut down your new account, and any money in the new PayPal account will be held for 180 days.

[Daioujou]

Hey again folks. Spoke to a guy on the phone at paypal and even though it's a long shot, he suggested based on my story to send an appeal message to paypal. I tried 'appeal' and 'appeals' @paypal.com and both messages bounced?!

Does anyone happen to know the correct appeals addy?

Thanks guys!

[waterproof]

Just a quick thanks to "jeffweico" for really taking the time to break the questions down (above^^) and answering them in such detail! Great job!

[mofetee]

By all means, put together a website. Use professional shopping cart software (there are a TON of options) and get a REAL merchant account.

VERY wise advice!

Man, we all feel for ya! We have all been there! I know I have SEVERAL times.

We are "all" hoping to see the fall of Ebay & Paypal (at least I am) so that we can have another venue to sell on that makes us money. Just like Ebay USE to.