Quote:
Originally Posted by pod  I know they tend to have free range to do as they please, but is this even legal? I know little about the law, but can a private company fine its customers? One would think not in reality. But there it is in their agreement.... |
If they have access to your money, then YES they can get away with it. At least until someone sues them.
Back when eBay first started, I used Ameritech as my ISP. At the time, PayPal did not exist and most individuals could not accept credit cards, so it was mostly checks and money orders.
One day I had 3 dutch auctions end, and I had just over 200 winners. So, I sent the winning bid notices via email.
Ameritech charged my credit card for $1,000. I called to ask them why, and they told me it was in their user agreement that sendig SPAM was against their rules and violators would be fined $1,000. I pointed out that these were auction winners, and not unsolicited commercial emails.
Their response was that it made no difference, since their definition of SPAM was sending more than 150 emails in any 24 hour period that contained substantially the same text.
Of course it was the same text! Who would write INDIVIDUAL emails in this situation? It took me three months to get my money back. They only relented after an attorney called them and pointed out that legally, these people had an existing business relationship with me and that she couldn't think of any judge who would rule in their favor.
Even then, Ameritech wouldn't admit they were wrong. The morons actually sent me a letter warning me not to do the same thing again in the future - even though I closed my account with them weeks earlier.
I can't imagine that ANY reasonable person who looked at the facts would think I was sending SPAM. But some idiot at Ameritech decided to apply the letter of their agreement to me, even though the result was absurd.
What scares me is that eBay and PayPal are like this as well. Once the first monkey at eBay makes a decision, the entire company seems to stand by it, no matter how unreasonable the decision is. We all know that using logic and reason to argue with eBay/Paypal is futile.
Just a couple of weeks ago, someone posted that their friend sold a purse on eBay that was real. They buyer claimed it was ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and PayPal decided in his favor even though they had "burned" the purse (yeah, right). So this poor woman is already out $500 AND her purse. So what is the next step... PayPal claiming that selling counterfeits violates their AUP and takes another $2,500 from her?
PayPal User Agreement allows $2,500 FINE for Violating their AUP 
Their grounds are complex and not for open discussion
