Thursday, November 03, 2005

TOPIC: PayPal Warning!
If you have a PayPal account, be warned. They can and will steal your money. That may sound outlandish, but it is true. It happened to me AND my wife. I won't go into the sorted details here, but PayPal has basically stolen more than $2,500.00 from us over the past year. I don't want to use the Sope-Bocks for airing my dirty laundry, but I believe Sope-Bocks should know that PayPal is NOT the fine, upstanding company so many people think it to be. For that matter, neither is eBay -- when it comes to how it manages PayPal.
There are HUNDREDS of stories like mine documented at PayPalWarning.com and PayPalSucks.com. Yes, both sites have some idiots, liars and theives on them. However, many of the stories are true -- backed by documentation and evidence (some of it introduced in courts of law).
My Warning: Before you quit your day job in hopes of making a living by selling things on eBay using PayPal, DON'T! You're likely to end up like me and hundreds of others -- out thousands of dollars with little or no explanation from PayPal. FWIW, I'm not a fly-by-night eBayer. I was a member since 1997 (when eBay was AuctionWeb). I was also a Silver PowerSeller on eBay -- with more than 3,300 positive feedback and a 98+ positive rating. At the time, I was having severe recurring lower back problems (and dealing with fibromyalgia). My fault -- I shipped several items late (as much as 2-3 weeks late). Rather than ask me what was going on or warn me, PayPal killed my account. eBay killed my account. PayPal took my money (for items shipped) and never gave it back!
When my wife opened an account in order to sell some of the remaining stock that had been purchased to resell on eBay, PayPal grabbed her account, but said they would allow access to her funds once she proved $600+ worth of items was shipped. She provided proof, but PayPal denied her access to the money -- which caused an additional $1,100.00 loss (cost of goods, eBay/PayPal fees, customers' payments for goods, postage fees). THINK about that! PayPal accepted payments sent to my wife for products she sold. They demanded proof of shipping the items. Positive and verifiable proof was sent to PayPal. They kept the money! No matter how you add it up, that is STEALING!
Folks, my story is NOT unusual. You can read MANY similar stories on the aforementioned websites! Oh, and don't count on the Attorneys General of Nebraska or California to come to your aid when PayPal decides to "limit" your account (that's what they call it, so they can retain access to your checking account or credit card). Nebraska's & California's coffers are full of eBay's and PayPal's tax dollars, so they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. You've been forewarned!

2 comments:

Tragically write said...

There are thousands of people who have been hit by paypal now since the class action law-suit. I agree that there are some scams out there and some people lie, but paypal is killing some merchants when they freeze funds without cause... OR IS IT WITH CAUSE... they can keep the interest even if they send the $$ back it is 180 days later. I have also read the stories atNopaypal.com and paypal warning. Not sure if you have seen it but REBEL101.com actually sued them in small claims court

Tragically write said...

YES YOU ARE CORRECT!!! the numbers support it totally please see href="http://www.nopaypal.com"nopaypal.com