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Why I hate PayPal (why PayPal Sucks)

I've disliked PayPal for quite some time now, but today they really bit it. Extra hard.

Withdraw Money from PayPal - Don't Mess Up!

The other day I closed an account of mine that was the default account in PayPal. Then I went to withdraw some money. It, of course, went to my default account which doesn't exist anymore. I sent in a support request about trying to cancel the transfer which got the great response "withdrawals cannot be canceled". So, now what? Does my money just disappear? No response from PayPal.

Send money with PayPal - Just Kidding!

My wife needed to send some money. So she signed up for PayPal and added a credit card. She then went through the process to send the money and right as the last step in the process was submitted the site said "sorry, you need to be verified before we can process this". If it were going to block the transfer why not block it at the beginning? So now it wants her to do a "credit card" verification process before she can use it which will take about a month for our credit card statement to actually arrive. So, if you want to send money, be sure to sign up months before you actually need to do it.

Fortunately, I've had my paypal accounts for a long time and have been verified in various ways over the years. Mailing things to my house, small deposits to bank accounts or credit charges, etc. PayPal had me verified to a level of "three" (whatever that means). This should mean that when I go to use PayPal to, you know, send money, I should be able to do it. Of course, I forgot my password so I had to go through the password re-request process. After requesting the password I was finally able to send the money for an apartment here in Buenos Aires which is what we really needed to do. A little while later I got an email saying my account had been suspended. That then marked all of my transactions as suspect, reversed the withdrawal to the bank account that had been closed (blessing in disguise, that was), and now my landlord hates me.

PayPal Suckage Overview

The trick of course is that while PayPal sucks, it's the best thing out there. To recap the suckiness in short form:

  • If they are going to block payments the UI should stop you from payments before you complete the form
  • The time you most need a password change is when you need to use your account. So the "security question" process needs to be robust enough that they can trust it immediately rather than sending accounts with recent password changes to the "suspect" bin

And of course I'm not the only one that feels this way. My favorite example is stan the paypal hater. I never understood your hatred before, Stan, but I sooo do now.

Don't Dump on your Partners and then Expect them To Help

And finally from the corporate strategy that made Microsoft and RIAA loved by so many I just got an email from PayPal requesting that I help them by updating any of their logos that I may use on my sites to the new PayPal logo. Yeah, I'll be sure to cooperate on that right away. Except that PayPal's status as a partner of mine just got placed in a "Limited" status.

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Comments

I feel your pain... Our

I feel your pain... Our business gets screwed pretty regularly. Personally, I haven't had a whole lot of trouble as a user, but as a developer it's a major headache. They're relying on folks like me to integrate their system w/ shopping carts so they can get more customers. However, their sandbox system is a shambles, requires all the same account authentication (no simple create me a business account link... you actually have to go through the entire process, down to giving them your SSN or a dummy SSN buried in the bowels of their forums), and logs you out for inactivity just like the customer site. Checking out through the sandbox is extremely slow, too... so a few minor updates with testing took me almost an entire work day.

I understand now why they give out the developers' bounty, but I'm beginning to feel it's not enough...

I totally agree with

I totally agree with everyone!! paypal has put limitations on like 4 of my paypal accounts..meanwhile..i am a work-from-home-mom..and i am running out of bank accounts! Ive started using google checkout and RME to accept payments now.

RME= revolution money exchange..it is 100% free! no fees, no monthly payments..nothing! it takes a little while to get your money from someone (about a day to transfer) but they dont take 3.04% of your money out!

i HATE paypal sooo much! and make sure YOU DO NOT KEEP MONEY IN YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT IF YOU ARE A SELLER! they will take your money if someone wants a refund and you lose out big time!

Paypal special charges

Paypal has a new screw the customer deal. When refunding money, they not only keep their processing fee, but will use your credit card not charging the amount, but 'withdrawing' money from it. That incurs a $10.00 fee PLUS interest from your credit card company! And they act as if it was the banks fault.
To counter that, be sure you cancel the ability to withdraw money from the card you use with these jerks. The credit card company will do it by reducing the amount you can withdraw in cash to Zero (0).

Hey now. I feel your pain. I

Hey now. I feel your pain. I am so pissed. Here's one thing amonst many. They offer us diferent account options. How ever when you say that your personal account dosen't allow credit card payments Ebay will cancel the aunction and tell you that you have to accept all pay pal options. So why don't those F'rrs just say there is one option....There's

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE-PAYPAY/EBAY MONOPOLY

AMEN BROTHER! Ebay owns PayPay(not my Pal) and this post is dead on. Previously, for auction payments you could choose your own payment method. I would only accept USPS Money Orders or Bank Certified Checks. Now they REQUIRE you to accept at least one form of "electronic payment" preferably PayPay which they make money from every transaction. I have never liked the concept of giving ANYONE direct access to my bank account. I don't even like that my employer uses direct deposit and I absolutely will not do the "Online Banking" thing. I tried them and they proved me to be so right. I had $275 that "mysteriously" vanished with no explanation from PayPay. No email response', no return faxes, no nothing! They are NOT A BANK and FDIC does not apply. They are virtually unregulated and can do as they wish with YOUR PayPay account because THEY own it. How does that make you feel? Like crap knowing that I am all but funding organized crime with the tactics that they impose. I enjoyed the early days of eBay(10yr Member) but they have taken on a completely new money grubbing persona. I could rant all day about this but the bottom line is: PAYPAL SUCKS!

Ebay will suffer once the populous realizes they on PayPay.

Disagree

So whats funny about this is I myself have a PayPal account and really what I have learned is PayPal is all user initiated and actually FDIC does apply to PayPal and when you sign up in the terms and agreements it does inform you about all this. You can actually see it on your PayPal account if you dont read it when you sign up at the bottom the page with a blue link that says terms and agreementsl. Paypal doesn't have any authorization to go into your bank account and they wont unless you initiate a transaction and refuse to change the funding source for the transaction you are trying to do it asks you a total of 3 times to confirm your payment and if you refuse to read...well then yea i see how they cant help you....like i said user initiate aka user error if you mess up. The reason they ask you for bank account info is to verify your identity just like you sign up for a bank account. To prevent fraud purposes if they are going to be processing thousands of dollars from you then yea i see why they would ask you to prove your idenitiy no one wants to business with a fraudster plus due to the patriot act they are inforced to abid by law regulations which does infact make paypal ask you to confirm your idenity and if you dont feel confortable adding a bank you can apply for a credit product through paypal because the same info you give to your bank you would give on a credit card application...doesnt mean you have to use the credit card that you apply you just need it for verification purposes.

You dont know jack

I have had a PAYPAL account withdraw from my account which I only use for seller fees, They withdrew 14 times from the same account in one week. Over drafted the account to the tune of several hundred dollars. And when I tried Nicely to explain what they did there response was then you need to keep more money in your checking account.
F*^% them and there BS! Tried to close the account nope cannot due to I need to pay them three dollars. Closed my account associated with them. Now I received a collection notice for over $50. GOTTA LOVE EBAY AND PAYPAL.
Did not even sell the item listed on ebay.
IT SHOULD BE YOU PAY IF YOU SELL NOT JUST TO LIST YOUR ITEM!

rot in hell paypal

Having big problems with paypal at the moment.
Even though i have two sources of funding that are in credit i am unable to complete transactions. There system forces me to pay via echeque. I have spoken to paypal, emailed them as well to express my anger.They say that there security system "randomly" selects transactions it views as suspicious.
If this is so Randon why the hell has it happen twice in one month??? They also say that my card issuer(s) are blocking the transactions. Ive spoken to both of my founding banks and they say that they are not blocking anything.
got fed up, so decided to close my paypal account. guess what, cant do that either as according to paypal there are transaction outstanding. Ive payed for the transactions via postal order because it was blocking my paypal payment in the first place and i didn`t want to write another f@c:ing echeuque.
Paypal truly sucks and gags

Paypal does have the right to

Paypal does have the right to block payments since they are a payment processer. If they feel a transaction is risky or suspicious and it hits the security system they are able to deny it its ultimatly their decision. Maybe you are logging into a different place then normal who knows.

Paypal Removes your Constitutional Rights

PAYPAL is unconstitutional. Not only do the limit or remove your right to free speech and other protections under the law, but they refuse to honor the second amendment.

You can only buy Guns and Ammunition via PAYPAL from Authorized Pre Approved Sellers.

Catch is, They will not Authorize or Pre-Approve anyone to sell these things.

They circumvent the law by claiming it is allowed when approved, but never approve anyone.

PAYPAL has a new service allowing you to create one time use credit card numbers. I think I will buy some ammo online using a credit card number created from them, and see if I get suspended, or the transaction nullified. He he he.

interesting concept of constitutional

I don't think the second ammendment said it had to be easy to bear those arms, just that the right exists...

I'm also curious how they limit "free speech" and what "other protections under the law" they are removing you from.

Actually.....

Actually, the second amendment states that the right to Keep and Bear arms Shall Not Be Infringed Upon.... meaning that my gun rights, whether it be to keep them, or bear them, can NOT be screwed with AT ALL. The founding fathers worded it this way, because they apparently figured some jerks would try to screw up everything by saying you may only bear arms at a certain time, or that "You may bear arms, but good luck acquiring them!", and other such nonsense. So, YES, if anyone tries to stop me from receiving, owning, etc. any type of firearm, in ANY sort of way, they ARE INFRINGING ON MY SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHT!!

who is affected by the constitution

So, YES, if anyone tries to stop me from receiving, owning, etc. any type of firearm, in ANY sort of way, they ARE INFRINGING ON MY SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHT!!

The bill of rights is about protections from the state and federal government. It is not necessarily about what individual companies can do.

Also, using all caps makes your comment seem dumber than it already was.

If there was a like button

If there was a like button here - I would hit it. The all caps makes him sound like a bigger hillbilly than he probably is.

Oh?

That's funny, automatically labeling the man a hillbilly because he wants to protect his rights as a citizen. But i mean hey, that must make all White people racist then too by your line of reasoning. And to the comment above yours, the bill of rights protects those civil liberties from ANYONE who would try and take them away.

Idiots

Your just a city boy who thrives on making others feel inferior to your own intelligence. when really you lake enough testosterone to be considered a real man.
Take it from a former JAR HEAD and man up! Go to a military recruiter, defend the rights of real men and women who live in this country and do not hide behind there college degree.
Pace picante sauce makes nice commercials about guys like you!

Idiot

I hate Paypal too, but you're a damn idiot. The Constitution has nothing to do with companies. It's about keeping the government from taking away our rights. Just because the Constitution says we have the freedom of speech, that doesn't mean that Paypal has to give us freedom of speech. What the hell are you talking about anyway? What does freedom of speech or the Second Amendment have to do with Paypal's policy on guns? Hell, it has nothing to do with the law. If you don't know what you're talking about don't say anything, dumb*ss.

Reply to Idiot comments

The U.S. government (and by formality, the constitution) has the power to regulate intra-state commerce. States also have these rights. Moron.

Kind of but not really

The second ammendment protects the citizens right to keep and bear arms, meaning that the government cannot keep you from buying guns, or arms, in any form or way. paypal is a privately owned company and if it decides it has a problem with selling people guns that's ok. The other reason might be it doesn't want to spend money on purchasing an FFL so it can trade guns but i think paypal just moves the money around. The beauty of the free market system is that if you dont want to use one product send your money to another and it will get better over time. And why do you need to buy guns with paypal, just use a credit card and use gunbroker.com a lot easier. As for the first amendment, do you have a problem with youtube blocking porn? It's the same story except porn is a lot worse than people owning guns.

GUN CONTROL: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley raped and strangled by her own pantyhose is morally superior to that woman explaining to police how her attacker received a fatal gun wound

Paypal stinks!

Here's something from a developer's point of view:
I'm a professional web developer (since 1995). I've implemented hundreds of payment gateway solutions, using technologies ranging from PHP, ASP to J2EE and custom 3rd party products. I have NEVER encountered a system as unreliable, slow, and hideous when it comes to user guidance, as PayPal. The sandbox is by now so slow that I only work on weekends with it. This is old news to Paypal. It's been like this for years. Their own dev forum is full of complaints. My theory is that they encourage live system testing - this way they get a cut of the 'test' money. I acutally do this, too. It is still cheaper than waiting if you're hourly rate is high enough.
The PayPal interface on a regular basis presents me with missing images or classics like: "Our search feature isn't working. Please try again later." or JS errors "error on page" in the browser info bar. Not very reassuring to the users considering you('re supposed to) trust this system with your (and your client's) money.
Trying to set up online payments systems using the PayPal account tabs is - at best of times- tideous, often illogical and always extremenly time-consuming. Even on the production system. Why can't they implement a JS menu that allows access to all functions from all pages? Such functionality is common place in almost any other (payment) system. And it's not that they don't use JS because of X-browser compatibility issues. JS is every where (not always working, but it's there). If you have to wait minutes for a page to load it is extremely annoying if you know beforehand that you don't even want the content of that page apart from the link that is on it to get your where you need to go. What you can get from (almost) every page on PayPal however is a link to download PayPal logos to put on your site which, personally, I wouldn't print on my toilet paper!
Then there is the missing attention to detail. The email-address that is passed to the window from within the sandbox is simply ignored. This has been reported many time by many people, myself included; - Not changed/fixed for at least 14 month.
Or if you miss writing down the cryptic passwords that get issued automatically upon creating a sand-box account you're screwed, too, as there is no way to retrieve them at a later stage. The "hints" it's requesting can't work because you've never actually being promted to enter one. (yet you're promted when you try to receive the password) The issued fake-card numbers return a "no matching account" message. Bear in mind that all these hurdles are set up in a DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT to which you only gain access when logged in in the first place.
Even the simplest of all things, the lenght of input fields are not set up according to their proposed content. Setting up IPN for example. This input field is about ~200px long, not long enough to hold a fully qualified URL. Made a typo? Good luck in finding. You'll need to click the input-field and drag the cursor to the right to see the end. You can never actually see the entire content at once. I mean, how hard is it to do stuff like this? That takes me about 15 secs! Mediocre, annoying, lame, lazy and simply unacceptable! Is there any QA management at PayPal I wonder?
But there are also (even) more serious issues with PayPal. Example VAT settings: It might be common practise in the US to present prices excluding VAT on web-sites and add VAT at the check-out - I honestly don't know. I DO know however that this is NOT common practise in Europe or e.g. Australia. I have changed approx. 8 systems to display different prices on their site than what they post to PayPal to counter balance this. A simple tickbox "passed prices include VAT" in the PayPal interface would save thousands of users and developers a lot of hassle. And this can hardly be news to PayPal...

I could go on like this for a very (veeery!) long time, but I have none (time, that is). It's Saturday and I need to launch a site on Monday. I only used this to blow off some steam while waiting for the PayPal sandbox (again). And no, I doubt this will make a difference. Sad, but true :(

Listen to me well

While I'm sure PayPal is just fine for occasionally sending money or if you're selling "here and there" on Ebay and the cost of the transactions is very low this a warning; do not use them as your "bank" and to not use them for a regular merchant account for credit card or check procession.

If you are a legitimate business owner doing any type of volume it's not IF you'll have a chargeback it's WHEN.

Now, simply having a chargeback is not the issue. They reverse the funds and life goes on. However, they will blackmail you if you choose to fight the chargeback.

This just happened to me. A customer filed for a chargeback for which he was not due a refund. I called PayPal and they emailed me a bunch of paperwork. I filed it out, faxed it back.

Then BOOM - account limited! Now - I'm not a clown - I'm very well aware of PayPal's reputation so I always made daily bank transfers out of my account and made sure I kept next to nothing in my PayPal account (BEST advice you'll ever get by the way - do NOT keep any type of large balance in our account!!!)

So although my account was limited they were only holding a few hundred. However, my ability to process transactions was gone. I called to find out the scoop and I won't bore you with a 30 minute conversation; the bottom line was if I "chose" not to dispute the chargeback my account would return to normal.

If, however, I decided to continue with the complaint to fight the chargebacks they would limit my account "for my protection pending their investigation" - which of course, can take up to 90 days.

So I simply bit the bullet, did not dispute the chargeback and they returned my account while on the phone.

Nice tactic - nice way for paypal to blackmail you into not fighting chargebacks.

Again, I was at least diligent and didn't have a bunch of money tied up. I will, however give Paypal credit due; they answered the phone quickly, were very courteous and helpful and did indeed restore my account.

As a merchant, we hate to

As a merchant, we hate to waste our time and mood with these things.
But as a human, I hate to be toyed with by Paypal.

I really think you should fight back, you can sue a few hundred thousands regardless of what their policy states.

thank you paypal

i hate paypal as i believe it to be the worst ,unfair ,idiotic ,badly made ,poorly monitored site on the internet all of this is acceptable as it is owned by ebay. i have just had £31 .oo refunded from my account to a thieving bastard in australia ,why because he claims he has not recived the goods the cheapskate wanted the item sent the cheapest way which is surface mail and cannot be signed for. even so i had a proof of postage from my local post office dated and stamped .i have had a negative and been forced to give a full refund for my troubles . the thank you paypal is now i can rob other sellers by having goods sent normal post with no signing ,use paypal to pay them then put in a claim for goods not recieved so as paypal always err on the buyers side simple.also why should the seller have to use paypal then deduct 5% charge from your postage and selling price .lets hope richard branson decides to set up another ebay type site

Paypal is unfair to sellers! They are greedy thieves!

As a seller, if you ship Internationally through the Postal service, even Priority Mail, all the buyer has to say is that they never received the item and Paypal will extort the funds out of the seller's account and give the money back to the buyer. Even if all the proof is shown to Paypal that the the item was shipped out, they will still screw the seller. Now you are out your item, all the fees etc. The sad thing about it is Paypal offers Priority Mail International as a shipping option to sellers through Paypal shipping, yet sellers are not protected if they ship using this method. According to Paypal's rules, insurance is the sellers responsibilaty & not the buyers. If a seller offers a buyer insurance and the buyer does not purchase it and the buyer claims they didn't receive the item or it gets damaged, PayPal will always side with the buyer and reverse the funds back to them from the seller's account. Paypal wants every seller to insure because they also make approx 3 to 4% on all the shipping fees. The more money it costs the seller to ship, the more money Paypal makes. So sad they have become so evil and greedy! After January 15th 2009, every Ebay seller should get rid of Paypal and open a merchant credit card account since sellers are no longer allowed to accept checks and money orders. Paypal and Ebay want total control of all the funds, every dollar they can make. All Ebay sellers should get rid of PayPal. Let's see them become an unecessary evil!

paypal

Paypal have refunded £233.00 to this Buyer as they say item not received. I have tracked the item to New Dehli sorting office.

I have outlined the case previously, it all seems to add up now though:-

This Buyer tried to make me offer second chance as their credit card had expired, i said this was no excuse and would give them time to pay. An invoice was sent by me in September (the item was won on 22nd August) stating if i did not receive payment i would have to mark unpaid strike. I had no response so sent unpaid strike. The item was paid on 7th September and an email received from Buyer asking me to mark it gift and value £77. The item was posted 8th September and an email received from Buyer asking for tracking info, this WAS given to the Buyer before they made claim. When you track the item it is in INDIA, which is where the Buyer lives." Further tracking on "http://ipsweb.ptcmysore.gov.in/ipswebtracking/IPSWeb_item_events.asp?itemid=rj575067225gb&Submit=Submit" show the item

9/9/2010 12:45:00 PM UNITED KINGDOM LANGLEY HWDC Send item abroad (EDI-received)
9/11/2010 10:55:05 AM INDIA DIMC NEW DELHI 37 Receive item at office of exchange (Inb)

I have now researched this buyer and find TWO other ebayers who have lost money sending coins/items to this person. One has replied and stated that they have tracked their item and sent me the following emails "I also lost $340 !!! How did he do it ? I think that he is working at the post office and can change the status of the package. But what can we do ?" and "I checked the tracking number and these are the results:

8/26/2010 5:21:16 PM INDIA MUMBAI AIR Receive item at office of exchange (Inb)
8/26/2010 8:46:13 PM INDIA MUMBAI AIR Send item to domestic location (Inb) I send a Complaint to the India post. but have not received any response."

The other two ebayers I have found are hobbytime1998 and Jack2100a.

Ratnika.jewels left them feed back as follows:

hobbytime1998 - "Honest and reliable seller.Will repay if item arrives.Highly Recommended.AAA++"
and
jack2100a - "An honest seller .Refund money for unreceived item." on 21-Sep-10 09:36 but the item is private.

Hobbytime1998 sold a gold coin on the same date that I did. Coincidence that both are missing?

I have done some research but obviously I cannot see the full scale of this buyers activity.

I would be grateful if you could research this buyer and all their claims and get back to me as soon as possible.

paypa.Ebay- 45 days is NOT long enough to recieve ANY mail

Hi, I'm an Auusie (not the one above)who requests surface mail for all but the most lightweight ( e.g.I don't bother with rings) items I buy from the EU or UK by eBay. As mail costs are halved in this method...my mail cocts from eBay would be in the hundreds..maybe thousands even doing this!

here's a buyer's take- postage will cost 16 pound airmail , then another about 6 pound for signed for..all up 22 pound for an item which costs maybe 5 pound!
Now with surface the postage cost is reduced to say 9 pound..making the post cost 9 pound compared to 22 pound, or the total cost all up 27 pound instead of 15 pound.

That gives the seller protection but NOt the buyer..and its not the seller who pays.
Personally I ASK for surface, ask the seller to get a certificate of postage (free at time of posting), and would be happy if I ever didn't recieve an item to accept the certificate of postage as proof os posting..I state this by email to the seller, so they have it in wirting...and still most slellers will insist on prioity pai, internatioanlly signed for...so i just cant buy 9and the item sells for 99p, wheras
the seller could have had some competiton and a higher price . the slller ignores that i havd purchased well over 100 items from the Uk , and ALL have arrived so far (probably <200 over my lifetime!).
Thing is, I can't leave ebay feedback after 2 months..so I sign in before the 2 months (OK I missed with one buy of 2 items(but then again, the seller never left me feedback either) in Oct..but remembered the other 20 or so)..anyway i sign in before the 2 months and leave +ve feedback(even though I havent recived the item..and state thanks for posting surface , will let you know when it arrives. Then when it arrives I dod a followup in the feedback AND email the seller stating it has arrived. I have No way of getting any money back (unless the seller is friendly) if the item does not arrive, or arrives broken (as One teapot did TODAY), or is just JUNK. I have to accept that i left +ve feeedback.
i can't leave feedback as the mail arrives after the feedback cutoff time. i can't do a paypal dispute as the item will arrive after 45 days that paypal leaves for me. I have NO buyer protestion whatsoever with ebay or paypal. but if i have to pay signed for internatioanl and airmal, I cant afford to buy at all..so its all hope that the seller is trustworthy!
Now to Ebay's fault. EBay will tell me I MUST open a paypal dispute if the item doesnt arrive in time (regardless of whetehr it is posted surface or priority mail)..actually a LOT of surface comes faster than priority..about half!(its customs that the holdup is usually). I have just recived a prioirty pai signed for airmail ring from the Uk. it cost me 256 pound. it IS not (the hallmarks) making much sense. It took almost 40 days to arrive!..and that was fast mail . I want to get a expert opinion on it...eBay says i HAVE to open a paypal dispute, but i don't want to, as I think it may be 222ct gold, Its just the hallmarks arent adding up. The ONLY valuer who would be abput the look at this has just gone on a honeymoon and wont be back until february..sorry ueither return the item (and lose 30 pound or so in post both ways), or open a paypal dispute (and get evidence within 10 days--the valuation will cost me $48 even if I could get it)..or try again to reason with th seller that I need time to get this ring valued (or the hallmarks checked out..the Birmingham assay office does NOT recognise the hallmarks, so they will need to rething their registered hallmarlks - the ring DOES look for real , but looks like it may have a red coating over the 22ct gold..). The sller just says return ring immediately if not hapy, but I would like the option of havving it checked and keeping it if it is 22ct gold?
Id paypal allowed 90 days for a dispute or ebay allowed 90 days for feedback, then no probalmes, at least80 % of mail arrives within that time frame, but really 120 days would handle ,,ost thinsg.
Even then after i lodge a dispute paypal only allows 10 days to present docs...even IF the valuer was available and I got an appointment, she may need to take the ring to be discussed ,examined etc..and that could take weeks also...so the whole deal is NOT favourable to buyers

and then today this item teapot arrives (paid for 30th Oct, posted probably next day)..arrives 16th January..way out of ebay (I've left a positive) , or paypal's 45 day policy . paypal syays I should have initaiated a dispute if didnt arruve within 45 days..that's what they tell you. EWbay also tells you to start a paypal dispute if doesnt arrive. I dont think this is fair. the problem is Ebay tells me (probably 80% of transactions as they dont arrive to start a paypal dispute before this dat or I lose cover...nd i cant do that, so no cover!)
A LOT of sellers are friendly and will refund if something is wrong, like it arrives broken.
A lot of surface mail does arrive quick!..the fastest was just 2 days..no idea how that happened, it was faster than I can fly!. The slowest priority paid signed for has been 14 weeks from the US to Aust, but that was with a merchant that i trust!
I have NEVER started a paypal transaction, I just lose money.
Paypal I had a whinge to today..they said I should use VISA as it goives me protection for a year...
I have linked my payl to vis and whenevr I havce a choice from now on will use VISA, and will try to remove my bank account from paypal so it accepts visa,,and no longer put finds into payl. I did that to speed up the payment to overseas, and store funds in foreign currncy(onoy paypal converts and reconverts the money..LOL (and charges both ways..so THAT one doesnt work!)

anyway..froma buyers prospective..and any ideas as to what I should do...eBays amnswer is always (even in reminder emails), to start a paypal dispute..you can see why buyers do this.They tell you you have no other way of being covered.they realise the mail takes longer but it IS the only thing possible-to start o paypal dispute, or lose your ebay cover!.. It all ebays fau;t..they should extend the time allowed to 100days and this would limit the cases to less than 2% of what they now have!(for mail reasons, and give buyers some protection and let them use the cheaper mail.
Also being US based they DONt recognise certificate of posting--which , to me, is far greater prrof of posting than anything else).they also dont recognised Australias mail system (reisgtered mail for insurance as well!)
it is US centric..ain the US I have had parcels go missing..never even made the plane. the tracking is paid for, but usually doesnt function..or they cant find it..parcels disappear off the tracking system. The merchants have always replaced the items..not thru ebay. I have never lost anything from the UK..just this one broken teapot today.
This WAS the seller fault though, not the mails..he wrapped in thick layers of buublewarp and then fashioned a boax out of thin cardboard,The box held up but did not provide enough prtection. bubble wrap alone is not enough. It was just a beautiful teapot..nice than any I have ever owned or even seen, sigh

So the fault is paypal and enay do NOT allow enough time ..buyers need 120 day really to be sure that its not in the post ..and even then I reckon ther'd be 1 to 2 % or items still coming!(Visa gives a year!) Why not just give international items 6 months..the n you'd only get that rare item missing and the cretifictae of postage should cover the loss???

yeah paypal sucks

yeah some wanker got a nice pre-loved guitar signed by two aussie icons and now pp are trying to rip me for 2k i simply dont have , they come knocking at my door , i hope they are wearing a bullet proof vest..

get my drift..

Oh It sucks ,<<< IT REALLY REALLY REALLY SUCKS>>>

as a ebay seller, you can easily (no joke, no exageration - real easy) ended up in loosing your merchandize AND money through paypal. That happened to me twice.
Because a buyer can raise a dispute, claim, or charge back through paypal anytime, no evidence or document of anykind is required, all he has to do is raise his hand !!!!. Once that's initiated, paypal will immediately lockup your money in your paypal account, if you don't have any they'll withdraw that from your bank account. And if you already have dispatched your merchandize - well GOOD LUCK !!! So now you have your merchandize already dispatched to your customer, and the money for that merchandize locked up by paypal. Of course what follows is that long lengthy investigation bla bla bla ..... .
And you'll think that, well you've honestly dispatched your merchandize and you can prove that the customer has received it, so you should be pretty save that you'll get your money back from paypal eventually - WRONG !!!!! Paypal CAN rule in buyer's favour, and THEN it's up to YOU to negotiate with the buyer for the return of the merchandize !!!!!
Unbelievable - it's true and it happened. I'm over 50 years old, and in my entire life, I would never believe that one can loose a merchandize AND the money for it. It happened to me 3 times, one was an experience doing business in China, twice was through PAYPAL.
Now I've stopped selling in ebay and using paypal. Go to hell - PAYPAL.

same experience as you

my experience same as you, and very sad is.. i have to pay 500 usd for ebay seller fee, while my money still stuck in the account!!!

Paypal sucks big time

They have imposed a limitation on one of my paypal accounts just because it has a word "Foundation" or "Fund" in it,
requiring us to sent them a handful of documents (which is even impossible to get, not to mention spending our time - like who are they anyway?) - this account now also have my personal credit card assigned on it which I can't use anymore because of the limitation. WTF? FU PP!

count me in, paypal froze my

count me in, paypal froze my received money, so i can't use it, and buy new stuff to sell, my bussiness is down. paypal is a thief. i wonder why can't anyone sue it to it's knees.

ebay and paypal can rot in hell

i have been a member of ebay and paypal since 2002. I sell a few computer parts and car stuff from time to time on ebay. mostly on forums. tonight i sell a apple isight for $109. shipped. i get a email stating that they are going to hold the payment for 21 days. i have sold 51 items with 100% feedback on ebay and 151 transactions on paypal. I have a paypal debit card as well as back up funding from my checking account. i called them up and they state that the poilicy is listed on ebay before i submit the ad. i never saw it. i quickly deleted the other items i was selling. paypal has made a decent amount of money from me over the years and this is the way i am repaid? i hate to say it but paypal was much better before ebay bought them.

Sarah vs. PayPal - My (Ongoing) Small Claims Lawsuit with PayPal

Hi, I have filed a small claims case against PayPal - the first court hearing was yesterday, November 24th. They did not appear but filed a motion to dismiss and sent a copy of the user agreement - an adjournment was given and the next court date hearing is set on January 6th. I think they have to be there then.

I've created a website documenting the case. Please help me to spread the word about the website!! :)

I've decided to make this website into a blog documenting my problems with PayPal rather than just this one case.

www.sarahvspaypal.com

Your PayPal lawsuit

Sara I am NOT able to get to your Update on the Hearing Site!!! Please, Let me know what is happening! I truly wish you had asked some of US to get involved with your SUIT so we could have had an CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT! Guess what, They have to pay Nearly 6000.00 to eight ex-pay pal members because they won their class action law suit! I have the ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT of the Court Hearing!!!

PAYPAL = CONTROLS YOUR LIFE.

PAYPAL = CONTROLS YOUR LIFE. MY BUSINESS IS CRIPPLED FOR A WEEK BECAUSE I HAVE TO WAIT FOR A PACKAGE THAT I SENT TO BE CONFIRMED DELIVERED. SCREW PAYPAL.

Weekly Wait Conf, Delivery

PayPal lost a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT and is required to pay our at the very least 6000.00 to each of the eight participants/Petitioners and up to 38,000.00 that they had FROZEN on one pay pal members account!!! They are holding ALL of your funds so that they can make the interest% and have the money to pay all of the people who won the law suit! Check It OUT I am SERIOUS!

No protection for ebay sellers!

I just spoke with a Paypal rep who explained to me that there is no protection for ebay sellers when parcels are lost by the post office, unless I could give proof that the parcel was not lost. I mailed an item to a buyer, to her correct address, the item was received by the post office, processed, shipped from Illinois then somehow got lost on the way to Arizona. Paypal decided I was at fault and gave the buyer a full refund, even though the post office admitted they lost track of the parcel. The rep said that getting Delivery Confirmation and mailing to the correct address did not matter because their new policy states that ebay sellers are only protected against lost-parcel claims when the parcels are delivered. This made no sense to me, I had him repeat it 3 times and requested a written copy of this nonsensical rule. I wonder if other ebay sellers know they will be held responsible when the post office loses or damages parcels? Now I have to charge buyers a mandatory insurance fee if I continue to sell on on ebay, because ebay no longer allows cash or money-order payments.

Not really the way it works

Hmmmm.... I agree that Paypal is way too expensive. But I do not think this policy is nonsensical. They are saying if the package is delivered and the buyer lies and says it wasn't, the seller is covered. But I was thinking -- who should pay for the lost package?
Think about it again. If there were not Paypal involved... let's say you are the buyer and you buy from an online shoe store. The company emails you to say they shipped you the package. You wait but it never arrives because it was stolen or lost by some disgruntled postal employee. Who pays? Who should pay? The buyer? No, not at all. The seller pays. If they had insured the package, the post office pays.
Just because Paypal is an intermediary here does not change that principle.
I am no fan of Paypal now that it is so incredibly expensive to use, but I don't agree with your conclusion in this particular case.

Something has to be done.

I have a paypal account since January 2008, I guess. I do remember I linked it with my bank account. I didnt give it too much importance because I only had pennies in that account and besides I was just bored. Anyhow, since then I have only used paypal to buy inexpensive stuff on ebay.
I never liked electronic transactions, never. But as everyone clearly know, Paypal has become something "somehow" necessary that anyone who is going to sell, buy or offer a service has to have.
So, today I receive my first payment through paypal on my website for the amount of $140.00. It was pretty exciting for someone who just is starting a home based business, yeah! very exciting until you click the bloody "accept" payment button and Ta tan!! there it is!.. You surprisingly discover that the fee charged by paypal for that transaction is 5%. This just pissed me off!!
I didnt bother to read the paypal Terms of Service because I didnt think Someone could screw you up that easily.
5% of the money you make by using their service. I think it is way too much what they charge. After finding that out I instantly thought of the thousands of people.. ok let's say just hundreds of reckless of paypal users that get paid through the pay pal way... Then we are talking about millions of dollars that these M*******F*****s (please pardon my language) are making everyday... Unbelievable!!.. There is just one word to define paypal and that is "THEFT"

In conclusion... I think we should start an anti-paypal movement in order to stop this. I, particularly am going to do it using the world-widely used sites like myspace, facebook, hi5 and so on as a way to propagate my "feeling" about paypal and make people aware of unpleasant experience with it.
Amen..

We need an alternate service

The one thing Paypal does well is make it easy to get online and exchange money. If there were an alternate service then people could switch to that, but without an alternate service we're kind of stuck.

It shouldn't take much - just an existing bank with some vision.

Here's an article with some alternatives to Paypal.

PayPal Is Completely Dishonorable

I sold an item on eBay for $211 and the buyer claims they never rec'd it, despite the fact that I had proof from the USPS that it was delivered. Paypal refunded all the money back to the buyer claiming I never delivered it.

Even though the USPS states they delivered it, Paypal sided with the buyer claiming that I never sent it. Now I am out over $200 in coins and Paypal says I would need to get the money back from the winning bidder.

Paypal is evil, Paypal is scum, Paypal is a bunch of cheatin' lying thieves!!

PayPal uses Beacons to steal Your PC data

Paypal Sucks in a big way, they love to freeze accounts so they can use the funds interest free under the pretext of protecting buyers and sellers yeah right!
Paypal and Ebay are scums, they sneak beacons and cookies to track visitors IP and activities, I can not wait to see them file bankruptcy !

paypal is SHIT!!!!

Sorry for my language but FUCK OFF PAYPAL!!!!!
what a night mare they are, I sent a phone in perfect working order, tested it my self the twat of a customer said he could not hear any thing on the phone when he answered it, OK I thought do the right thing and said yes i'll do a refund, keeps my 100% f/back on ebay. The phone arrives back with the sim card holder snapped phone is no use to me, so refuse to give refund. those bastards at pp found in his favour even though i sent countless emails telling them HE broke it and phone call after phone call what a waste of time. After the refund was sent i had a negative balance it took weeks to sort out, all the time i could not use my account, paypal are the only company in the world I could not pay using my card.
I finally get that sorted only to try and pay some one and paypal tell it's sent by e-cheque 5-7 days again account frozen, OK cancel payment, I cant!!! OK company cancel it, they do, pp email to tell me they have, account still frozen because it's in the system 7-9 to clear the fuck heads!!!! told the inept moron on the phone as soon as some one comes up with a system easy to use and fair to both sellers and buyers your fucked.

PayPal

I went to make a payment through paypal but i didn't have the money in the paypal account so paypal automatically added funds from my bank account but i decided to cancel the payment and I canceled it about half an hour later so I could pay a different way. So paypal canceled but my money that was been added through funds from my bank account disappeared from my bank account, it didn't show up in my paypal account and the person who I was originally sending the payment to didn't receive the money either.

So my money virtually vanished out of thin air.

I agree 1000%

The short of it...I HATE PAYPAL. I have been screaming at the same woman on the phone now for about a week trying to get my money that they hold "for my safety."

MY ASS!

This is one of the most horrendous companies I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. They are outright criminals. I will never again do business with Paypal or Ebay.

This whole idea of holding funds from the seller for protection is unbelievable! Who doesn't know that they hold these funds so they can use them or keep them in an account that collects interest. I would LOVE to find a way to sue these greedy pricks or even just get them put out of business.

NO RIGHTS FOR SELLERS WHAT SO EVER!

I have also noticed that damn near everything under the sun is in their "HIGH RISK" catagory. I saw doing business with Paypal is the only thing thats high risk.

These bastards want your money...all of it...and they don't give a shit about anything else. I would love to be a fly on the wall in there boardroom when they come up with every way possible to screw us.

F YOU, PAYPAL!

PayPal customer service

Could not get the rep to listen to me. There were multiple charges for one thing and 2 had made it to my bank. WEhen I asked him where he was he replied "Iraq" jerk was in India. Paypal in times of financial hardship has contracted out to India. Thanks for not supporting the American life!

Paypal Unethical Practices

I've hated Paypal for at least 5 years, back when they messed up my financial information during an eBay transaction. I reluctantly had to sign up again recently to pay for an eBay transaction. What annoys me the most is that PayPal is the ONLY vendor that I've come across that forces you into the "option" of paying a premium for their services. Either make it a requirement of doing business or make it an "option" but don't force me into an "option".

Today I'm trying to collect money from a buyer who purchased a chandelier from me but when I go to PayPal, it tells me I need to "Upgrade to a Premier account and accept payments". I DON'T WANT A PREMIER ACCOUNT!!!! I just want my money. The way in which a company operates says a lot about the management. It's clear to me that PayPal is run by unethical individuals.

Paypal just wants to suck people dry!

I cant beleive how paypal works. They are charging me over $200 on my paypal account and wont umnlok it until then. which is rediculous! Also, i got scammed by a seller who just took my money and Sucky paypal did nothing about it. I know i will never see my money again. They are a horrible company and not trustworthy. They don care \about people safe shopping on the interent they are out to get as much money as possible. I hope people realize and just close their paypal accounts!

did you open a claim??? call

did you open a claim??? call 402-935-2050 this might help might take awhile but you should get some results

monopolistic System EPay and PayPay

What can I add to this forum . Joined ePay in 1998, PP in 2000. I have been quiet until now even after PayPay forced me out of a basic account and into a Premier account. Now ePay orders me to eliminate preferring Money orders and Personal Checks from my description. I am forced to send and receive funds through an electronic service PP I have no confidence in. Lastly the hold on funds must be seen as the last straw. The only way to resolve this monopolistic system is FCC regulation or Class Action Suit!!

PAYPAL REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so discusted with that company, i bought an item from a seller that is no longer an ebay seller now tying my money up for 20 days no items and cant purchase anything else till the credit me back. then it will take days to post to your account then take days to go back to your bank, why cant you pay these people on ebay right from your credit card??????????? this is a f..kn joke i am to the point that i would rather pay a higher price for something than go thru pay pal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

paypal is F....

had balance in my acct.bought item and paypal refused to pay.Says I have to be verified,I closed my bank acct.two weeks prior and I called paypal up and they told me that it was in acceptance when I first applied.what? ten yrs.ago?I was supposed to remember there was a limit of spending money through paypal?its F...... Now I cant pay for an item and the poor seller has to wait.Its getting bad,hope someone starts up a new business and compete.Ebay is also starting to suck,I stopped selling because of dipshits not paying and ebay doesnt do anything.
Talk about a monoply online.Fu ebay and paypal!!!!!!

I hate Paypal

I found your site because I wanted to express how much I really hate this company. Their customer service is a joke. I have been scammed 3 times now through paypal and does paypal care? Well, what do you think?

My latest problem is I disputed a charge because the company never performed the service. They then said they would do it in 5 days. Not knowing that once you close a dispute you're screwed, I closed it and the services were not rendered. Apparently once you close it that is it. Paypal basically told me oh well now you know. Biggest P.O.S company with worthless customer service.

They knowingly allow people that are habitual scammers get away with it. Another time this one guy scammed several people and paypal said sorry it's virtual property you're out of luck. So all 17 people had to pay that stupid a-hole.

I just want them to admit they are stupid!

Ok, So they ¨limit¨your account for no reason and you try to contact CS, they give you the same instructions over and over again. You ask to speak with a supervisor because you think the agents must be the only stupid staff.

When a supervisor replies and give you the same instructions that don´t work, you then realize they are ALL STUPID!!!!!

I just want them to admit they are stupid, and they are a bunch of assholes.

Is that so hard to admit?

Paypal RUINED MY LIFE

A friend foolishly used Paypal to send me $250.00 for an emergency medical procedure I couldn't pay for. Oh wait, did I say $250.00? I meant $237.00, because Paypal took a nice cut for themselves-- something they didn't warn me about until it was too late. Thankfully, I had enough time to verify my bank account before my appointment, and I thought I would be lucky enough to transfer my money-- WRONG! It took an additional 5 days to transfer. FIVE DAYS?! That wouldn't stand in a post-apocalyptic Mafia bank. I couldn't pay for my procedure, and am still waiting to reschedule. FML.

What the hell is wrong with those people at payapl ??????????

I purchased three items in the same week through paypal.
Now my bank calls and tells me that paypal charged one of the items to
an old bank account number that I used five years ago on paypal that no longer exists that I had pay pal take off long ago.
Pay pal must have kept that account number.
But they charged two of the three items to the correct account.
The bank said that I simply can't open another account and use the old number
because they can't chose what number is on a new account.
All I did was click to button to pay, I changed nothing.
I did all three purchases exactly the same.
I have well over 100 purchases with 100% feedback.
It's a good thing that I have a an understanding bank, seems they deal with paypal screwups on a regular basis.
I was informed that technically charging an item to a non existent account is the same as writing a phony check.
Paypal charged it to a non existent account not me.
It's a good thing that I am on a first name basis with the bank or I could end up in court or even jail.
Calls to papal did no good. They blamed eBay and visa versa.
What a bunch of dumbasses ! !

I only have One thing to say

I only have One thing to say about paypal (DON"T TRUST THEM) My wife passed away two years ago now
She was an ebay seller and had a paypal account. I contacted paypal about the bal. in her account.All I GOT
was the run around untill I just gave up. What happensd to her money? I still don't Know.

Paypal can shove it up their A!

Paypal is the most arrogant, customer-unfriendly business on the planet. I had an eBay customer dispute a wildly popular item as not being as described. I offered full refund AND FREE SHIPPING BACK as long as the customer would fill out an RMA form on-line. You know...paperwork you need to keep shit straight.

Customer refused to do the paperwork but good old Paypal granted the refund and will be tracking the shipment back to our warehouse so when we receive it...they will consider it returned. WTF??? Who is the real customer? So....the shipment will get lost in a large warehouse because it came back without a RMA.

I hate Paypal and am looking for other options as we speak.

They suck and will eventually go out of business for their stupid procedures.

Getting even just a little bit

PayPal sucks, and unfortunately since they and Ebay are one and the same company, neither one will go out of business anytime soon. Too many of us are looking for items inexpensively and all in one place... ebay.
So, just a little suggestion for everyone who wants to get even just a little bit... and just think if millions of us do this....

Stop at every payphone you see and dial one of their toll free numbers and just leave the phone off the hook...
I just called PayPal and the automated process tried to connect for about 10 minutes before a person got on the line. That's 10 minutes of 800 phone service that they will pay for before a person gets on the line and tries to talk and then disconnects it. Here are the numbers: 888-221-1161 and 866-643-2959.

If millions of us do this..... it will at least take a little chunck out of them, and every time you walk away from that payphone leaving it connected to them knowing you are costing them time and money.... well, that feels pretty good, I have to say.

my good experience with PayPal

I had a problem with my PayPal account beginning in May 2008. All attempts to get help just resulted in the familiar loop of email, useless advice, emai, same useless advice. I hunted down a couple of phone numbers which gave me an answering machine and never a return call. Finally, I accessed the San Jose, CA Better Business Bureau web site. I filled out a simple form and submitted it. In less than a week, I had a phone call from a wonderful Customer Service Rep named Doris who listened well, asked questions until she could repeat my problems to me (therefore understanding the precise problems,) and asked me to send her a copy of a picture ID. I got an immediate confirmation that she had received my ID and two days later had cleared up everything. I strongly urge any customer who is having problems with any on-line vendor to hunt up their headquarters city and check out the
BBB in that town. Vendors who want to continue in business will work very hard to satisfy problems through the BBB.

Frustrated. Disappointed.

I used to like Paypal in the past, because I would use it for transactions (I never sold things off eBay, I'm just the buyer.) So I never had any problems.

But until recently, I had to rid the old account I used (it was under my grandfather's name, he is now deceased.) Which back then is when I had no problems.... So I attempted making a new account (and did) but found when I tried to complete a transaction, Paypal forces me to "verify" by linking bank account information or signing up for their credit card! I have never been so frustrated when making a purchase, now I'm suffering at the inconvenience with resolving this issue with the seller. I never expected this, I am just very upset and disappointed. I never thought this would happen, hadn't a clue that it would, since I didn't have any problems in the past until now.

I'll miss making purchases off eBay, because there are so many great deals. I'll never do it again unless I can pay directly with a credit card.

Paypal is terrible. :[

Verfied? Oh yeah!

I live in a rural area, and have a PO Box. I don't give my actual street address to ANYONE and if someone insists on shipping via UPS (which can't go to PO Boxes), I have them send it to the UPS terminal held for customer.

Anyhow, I tried to buy a twelve dollar (mostly shipping!) item from buy.com, and it turns out they use UPS. (A related gripe--it'd be nice to know this BEFORE the order is placed.) First attempt: Paypal says I am unverified, apparently, and the money gets refunded. I don't understand this, I log on to Paypal, don't see anything, log back out, try again at Buy.com Second attempt: appears to go through but Buy.com spots the PO box on the address, and cancels the order and refunds my money.

Paypal has a second address for me on file, as it happens: it's the UPS terminal with "hold for" instructions on it. So THIRD attempt is using that address. Rejected again, because it's an unconfirmed address. To confirm it, it turns out... I have to give Paypal my bank account number.

Give these clowns my bank account number? I DON'T THINK SO.

Soooo... I wanted to buy a

Soooo... I wanted to buy a phone off of ebay, however the merchant only accepted paypal so i figured why not sign up for it. but then it said my bank had to be verified first, so i had to wait 3 business days. so WHATEVER. then its confirmed and i can use it. so i decide to transfer money over, 127.99 to be exact. then i accept and it tells me i have to wait 3-5 business days to have it in the paypal account i was like what the hell?! NOOOO. so i go log on to my account for my bank and it shows the money has been withdrawled, however it does not show up on my paypal account. then days later i was charged 25 dollar fee for it. i was so pissed. so im trying to cancel my paypall account but i called and they said that THEY CAN'T. there are 127.99 floating around somewhere, along with my 25 that they charged me, so what the hell paypal how can i fix this shit.

Paypal sucks for buyers as well as sellers

I have a paypal horror story. I have done a little selling on ebay mostly some digital cameras and things like that, everything went fine, I have over a hundred transactions with 100% feedback. (just setting up the premise)

I had been a little more active than usual on ebay the last month gathering some things I needed for my bicycle to get ready for winter. I didn't know that my bank had a limit on the amount of transactions I could initiate during any given month. Luckily I had gotten everything that I really needed from several different sellers and no problems with anything, but, I saw a sticker I really liked that cost $1.00 shipping included. I bought the sticker and low and behold that transaction was one over my transaction limit so my bank denied it.

Without telling me or asking me why paypal shut down my account, is now trying to charge me fines or fees over the transaction, and refuses to do anything but quote policy to me. This has been going on for about a week now, with all my accounts in limbo, paypal launched a supposed investigation and now my bank is starting to foam at the mouth wanting to charge me research fees for all the crap paypal is doing. Over a dollar. That's right one dollar. I don't know what to do, if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

which bank?

What nasty bank are you using? Is it Skank of America? I would contact the bank to get them to allow it then tell Ebay to shove it.

PayPal is a bunch of thieves !!! Holding my money hostage !!!!

I have been selling on ebay for over a year now and had no problems and then all of a sudden i was selling alot of goods and having alot of paypal transactions on a daily basis. Well I was going to start to transfer the funds from my paypal account to my bank account... Well it was too late paypal flagged my account with limitations and i could not send any monies out about $ 8,000 worth.... i have sent documents that they requested from me to lift the limitations and the next thing i know they are closing my account because they think my business is a potenial high risk for them... meanwhile they have my $ 8,000 held hostage for 180 days..... this is crazy!!!! I had asked them why they closed my account and they bascially told because i was importing goods from china and that deemed a high risk..... what the hell!! Don't they know that almost everything is made in china..... come up that's a lame answer.... but i think this tops it though.... during my conversation with one of their senior supervisors she make the comment " oh by the way Ipods are not imported from china " ... and i was thinking what a stupid statement and does she even know what it says on the back of those Ipods... " Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China. " Then how in the heck are these items sold in the US if they are not imported from china then???? I'm really really angry at PayPal big time for screwing with my hard earned money which i cannot get for six months!!!!!! I'm almost broke now and a large portion was in my paypal account...this is so unfair!!!!!!

I had a similar problem,

I had a similar problem, PayPal froze £1500 in my account for 180 days after giving several differing reasons (lies) about why they did this. 180 days passed almost a month ago and they still haven't released the funds! Just tell various different lies about technical issues, they'll release it immediately, they understand my frustration blah blah blah - scum. Will never use them again and would advice anyone to avoid using them as a payment provider. It may be the easiest way to start accepting money online but it soon turns into a nightmare.

Paypal holds your money for interest

Just an FYI that Paypal holds your money because they make interest off of it. So, on top of the percentage that they are taking when you sell something, they are also making even more money off of the interest. Nice, huh? They'll give BS reasons as to why it's being held, but they are lying. Same thing if you don't transfer the money out of your account after everything has cleared... they make interest off of the available funds in your account, as well. I believe they are being sued for this reason.

your all a bunch of whiners

paypal is too successful to be bothered your all complaints; there will be idiots who have no other life,but to complaint about things they screw up themselves, and create more bad events. too bad .................suckers.

PayPAl Sucjs Big Ones. From now on just Postal Money Orders

I have sold on Ebay before and used Paypal before with no problems. This time........ the payment my buyer sent on October 30th will no be released to me until November 23rd. This would not have been such a big deal if Paypal sould have at the minimum released me the 45 dollars needed to ship it!!! What a freaking disaster. If I had requested a money order............. I would not be having this problem right now. So paypal winds up the winner because they can collect interest on that money. My buyer says he paid paypal and doesnt understand the hold up. I told him I had to wiait until I got paid to send his stuff. Well, my check got delayed and I just had to bite it because I didnt want my customer to wiat anymore. So, now I have 86 cents to live one while I wait for my 200 dollar payment form freaking paypal.

I thought about just waiting until the funds were released. Paypal does not care about Ebay sellers of buyers. You should not cut off the had that feeds. So, US postal money orders!!! You get your mail and your money at the post office and the customer gets shipped the item. Every one is a winner ........... except paypal.

I really hate paypal

have never openly complained about a service, but they ask for it/do everything to promote people joining in the hatred of the service....why such a succesful company needs to be so difficult for consumers ....I wish EBay would select a differnt vendor for payments...I am so frustrated I can't stand it!!

Paypal is the crookedest and most corrupt monopoly out there!

And ebay owns them. Now ebay makes money both ways, as everyone on ebay is now FORCED to use only paypal to pay for auctions/purchases, no more checks or money orders. It is a blatant violation of Federal AntiTrust laws. The fascist racketeers at ebay/paypal are robbing us blind!

For more info on the dangers of paypal see: www.paypalsucks.com

I agree 100 percent.

I used to be a ebay buyer and seller, and at first I had no problems with them. They seemed to change the software every so often and when they did the sights both ebay and Paypal got worse. When ebay finally made it mandatory for the seller to use Paypal I quit using the service. I have not sold anything on ebay for about a year and 1/2. I have no plans to use them ever again. I guess I will use Craig's list or Amazon. Paypal would always take money out of my verified account when there was nothing in the account so they caused overdrafts multiple times. I finally cut up my Paypal card so it no longer exist. There is a link on paypal's home page that you can use to cancel the account. But before you do be sure you have told your bank that you will not allow them to make ANY payments to Paypal under any circumstances. Of course you will get the usual warnings about freezing your account. ETC,ETC. After a while you will get a final bill from paypal. Wait 5 to 6 months and then send them a Postal MO for the amount. For me it was under $10. Then after this has been taken care of log on to your computer and go to your favorites bookmark and delete Ebay from your favorites list so you won't be tempted to use them again. Think Craig's List, Amazon or Yahoo.

PayPal frozen

PayPal froze my account in the middle of transaction when I have 3 Power Seller accounts, 100% with the one that I was selling they HELD customers funds in the amount of $25,000 leaving me the account with $14 and 140 open order on ebay to ship. Forget that, I sent an email quickly to all buyers to claim a dispute and get their money back because I was not going to ship a dime without the money on my side. That's not all I could not even refund the customer by my self everytime that I try to make the refund paypal wants to take the funds out of my bank account wtf man you are holding $25,000 customers money and still want to take my???? My business with paypal and ebay is over, I been selling on ebay and using paypal since 2002 and now they call me High Risk after make so much money with my sales. This is a true history and a very disappoint one for customer who doesnt care and doesnt understand what is happening behind the scene leaving negative feedbacks by not getting what they paid for but what else can I do if this situation is totally out of my hands. If there is any attorney that would like to take this to court can contact me any time at [email protected]

Want revenge? I'll take it.

I agree that paypal sucks.
But I am actually managing to trick paypal.
Since they don't support my country. But the fact is that i am running my site on paypal and alertpay.
How I trick paypal???
Easy.
When I earn in paypal I just exchange with trusted people to alertpay(which is 100s of times better and they support my country!!!)
Am i verified?
Yes through VCC-virtual credit card
I try keeping my paypal balance to min to not DRAG PAYPAL'S ATTENTION.
So of curse it's said that other can't get money back but there are people who trick paypal(instead of paypal tricking them).Btw my PAYPAL country is Indian(ofcurse I am not Indian).
I hope I can last long with this.
But it's funny how a 14-year old boy(me) can do well against one of the largest companies on the internet.
Wish me luck.
Btw my name is not Hitgod of curse(that's just a username).

Report Pay pal to the BBB

Much to my dismay, pay pal has an A rating!!??!!! I would guess that many do not know they can report them. Will it help? Only if we do this in mass numbers. Since they have robbed so many people without consequence, simply reporting them makes ya feel better. And, you might get some of your money back. It seems that if you squeak to the right people (the BBB), you just may get oiled. Link below

http://sanjose.bbb.org/Business-Report/PayPal-Inc-210387

gross207 on ebay

yeah i hated pay pal for so long 2 its great to see a site that speaks up for the little people.

i had pay pal for a while then one day they emailed me and said we at this time would not like to do biz with you

so with that said if your sick of pay pal and all there shit look me up on ebay every month on the 3rd gross207 for a seller that don't take no shit from no payment styem like pay pal a seller who sells with money bookers by buying from me your not only getting great deals but your buying from some one that dids not back up pay pal and by leaving 5 star feed back after getting the items you help gross207 stay a round another day

i sell old coins cards and stamps and many other items you don't need a money bookers account to buy from me as long as you got a master or visa card of any kind all you have to do is after getting the invoice just go to money bookers and enter your card info its that easy

so why you ask that you may have never a heard of money bookers before
i could tell you a lot of bull but that shit just don't go good with me so i speak only the turth thats why i do so good in my sells
why you have never heard of it or know very little a bout money bookers is ebay hides it so while on there site but if you look up key words on the help topics page such as payments sellers can take or ways to pay then it shall come up or type in money bookers on the help topics a course pay pal info comes up 1st most time to learn more about money bookers you can go to www.moneybookers.com or find me on ebay at gross207 and ask me
how is money bookers works as a payment system for a seller on ebay you ask
the money gets to you safe how ever its slower then pay pal but to me its worth it just so i dont have to deal with pay pal
as soon as you pay for a gross207 item most of the time the item gets in the mail that day or the next day
so i ask would you reather buy from a seller that only takes pay pal or one that hates pay pal as much as you do if not more and that offers another way to pay as i don't now nore shall i ever take pay pal again on ebay
so i ask you again shop gross207 on ebay every month starting on the 3rd and support the sellers who sell using money bookers on ebay by doing so your making pay pal loose biz
best regards gross207 on ebay again thanks for making a site that works

Who has Paypal's President email Address

I want to email him ever day and tell heim how his company and people on the Executive Staff don't listen and SUCK!

Please some one get me the email

Them have all the people who have/had trouble email him

PayPal SUCKS!

I HATE PAYPAL.

I register for PayPal because it seems some sellers out there ONLY accept PayPal! On the registration page, it simply tells me I need to 1) Sign Up 2) Link my Credit Card and verify it by allowing PayPal to charge my credit card 3) Confrm my address. Simple!

However when I tried to use it, then it tell me my account is limited and NOW I have to submit my Photo ID, Credit Card statement and proof of address! I called the helpdesk (which is outsourced!) and I was told 1) they cannot tell me the reason why my account becomes limited 2) I just have to submit those documents to resolve it 3) They cannot close my PayPal account!

The amount charged to my credit card is "refunded" back to my PayPal account, not my credit card account. And I am not able to close my PayPal account because it is of "limited" status!

It just does not make sense. I wonder how many forced inactive accounts there are in PayPal now!

hate paypal

I think all need need to start reporting this to the ftc and the bbb, there very unfair to the sellers, i had lost so much money its almost unthinkable. sending of packages for money that was there. And ebay is a big part of paypals business, you cant walk into walmart, get what you want> walk out of the store and then say the moneys pending,and should clear in 24hours ,end pay pal. start reporting them now, ftc an bbb before its to late

I hate paypal

I been limitation from stupid PayPal because i was accredited open two account and i call them up to solve the limitation but they said no we can't solve it this is because of Term and Agreement you can't open two account with different email address and now i been limitation forever and i have to waited 180days to withdraw my money from them and some of my money been missing!!... PayPal are useless... Hate it Hate it Hate it!!!.....................

PayPal sandbox wont send me a

PayPal sandbox wont send me a verification email to test the API. . Waste of time sandbox, should be called sh%tbox

Paypal as Big Brother

I am an art collector. I buy hundreds of pieces a year. I tried to pay for a cheap (less than $20.00) sketching of a nude from an artist in England. Paypal would not allow transaction as they SENSOR content !!!!!! I hate them with a passion and will now reappriase whether I will buy from anyone who won't take a direct credit card.

Alternative

I can't even begin to get into how annoying the last two days have been. But i am done with paypal. I found other ways to get paid by my clients through my site or otherwise. The new Amex version of paypal will surely end up being terrible too, but for now, I'm happy to give them my money rather than Ppal. http://www.serve.com/

I have to give it to Ppal, tho, they ARE genius in the ways in which they get you with fees on transactions that are denied. $1 a pop for doing nothing is indeed awesomely evil. Anyone know of a good class action i can get in on?:)

PayPay is Mafia

I don't have time to tell you my long conversations and headaches I had w/ paypal. Similar scams people above talked about happened to me.
PayPay closed my account without an explanation, stole my balance and ruined my life!!!
I did no wrong and they are thieves!!!

I had to rant somewhere, but

I had to rant somewhere, but Paypal SUCKS! All I wanted to do was order a measly twenty dollar item online, THAT'S IT, and their making me confirm my home address. And the site that sells the item only works with Paypal so my card is blocked until I confirm my location. So I have to wait however long it takes them to mail me some shit before I can buy it. Yeah, fuck you paypal.

My account they Suspended

I lost around $1k because they closed my account permanet!! I hate paypal and im not use paypal again and forever!! I create pages at Facebook and get many people hate paypal..
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paypal-Sucks/167475876638789

I agree....

I agree that paypal sucks... Paypal hold my money for 180 days without any interest... no option to withdrawl.. very funny. Will not use paypal anymore

paypal criminals

I have used paypal and ebay for years and have a stellar track record. Now, out of the blue, they want to place a "hold" on funds that are paid to me when I sell something. I have to rely on the mercy of the buyer to post positive feedback in order for the funds to be "released" so I can transfer it to my bank. Sometimes I have to wait 2 weeks or more for payment because the buyer forgets to post feedback or once the feedback is posted, I still have to wait for paypal to release my funds, then wait an additional few days for the money to be transferred to my account. In a world where money transactions are finished in an instant, they hold up the works, I believe, intentionally. I believe that they are receiving interest on your money as long as they can hold onto it. This company is a criminal organization and I am getting rid of my account asap. Ebay and paypal are partners and ebay forces you to use paypal for any transaction. eEbay nails you with seller fees, then paypal hits your with fees to use their service. I hope that paypal goes under. They are rotten, filthy, criminals. F*ck off paypal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

paypal suck go to hell

paypal is the criminal processor payment.they close my account without warning
i hope someday there is processor payment change paypal monopoly.
sucks!!!

paypal suck go to hell

paypal is the criminal processor payment.they close my account without warning
i hope someday there is processor payment change paypal monopoly.
sucks!!!

I HATE HATE HATE HATE PAYPAL

They tried to withdraw funds from my bank account WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION. All transactions had been covered by credit card, before AND after this transaction. There wasn't even any $ in the account, so I incurred a $42.50 NSF charge because of them. This was the last straw, so I've just closed my PayPal account (gave them a nasty earful in the process, and I'll admit, it felt really good!)...... now I'm off to the bank to close the bank account (and open a new one), since my bank says that this is the ONLY way that they can guarantee that PayPal won't be able to try anything else.

Earlier this year, during my off-season I had suspended my own business account with PayPal, yet monthly fees ($35) kept being charged to me until I called them TWICE to get it to stop. They did refund the money that time, but I've been suspicious ever since, and I see by all the above complaints, rightly so. I've filed a complaint with the San Jose BBB, joined the "I Hate PayPal" page on Facebook, and will now make it my mission to sway as many people as possible to use any competitor of theirs. I will be throwing a party on the day that their bankruptcy is announced. I ABSOLUTELY HATE PAYPAL!!!

PayPal's a DISASTER

Just because PayPal is #1 doesn't mean they give #1 like service! You can count me in as one of thousands who used PayPal to receive money for goods and then got shut down overnight for no reason at all -- and add insult to injury by having the pleasure of having my money frozen for six months, too.

I hope people spread the word and start to wake up! PayPal is NOT YOUR PAL!

Hey folks, I sympathize with

Hey folks,

I sympathize with all these neg comments. Yet I have to agree PayPal is the only 'trusted' source there's out there. 'Trusted' in the sense that people trust it.

I have a question. I have been using PayPal as a regular Buyer so my PayPal account has a negative balance of (say) 100 dollars.

Suppose I sell an item for 20 dollars plus fees and everything. What will happen? Can I withdraw my 20 dollars?

What happened is a person bought another item from me but then he wanted a full refund. I agreed because the amount involved was petty (20 say) and the buyer had a valid point. I tried to refund him through the refund button in PayPal but this did NOT work! Since he sent 20 why can't I refund him his 20? Apparently PayPal insists I have a negative balance totalling 80?

Email suspended my account

They did the same thing to me yesterday. Suspended my account after jumping through all the hoops all week, proving identity, sending in utility bills, my driver's license, proof I was filling and sending orders with tracking numbers proving my customers received them. So over this and my business will surely suffer. Then they send me a customer service excellence survey that says my account was reinstated. Called them and said, "that is automatically generated and sorry for the inconvenience but my account was stll permanently suspended" They really f*** with your mind!

I started hating Paypal when

I started hating Paypal when Ebay banned sellers from choosing their own payment methods they are willing to accept. Now I really hate them because as a seller I have to fork over money for the shipping because Paypal thinks it's a good idea to put my funds in a pending status for up to 21 days for the buyer's protection, despite me having a 100% positive feedback rating. They say things like "get your money faster by printing labels through Ebay or Paypal", or "You can get enough funds to cover the shipping by doing this, this, and this". The problem is, I have to ship freight. I don't know that you can choose anything besides, USPS, UPS, or Fedex. Even if they offered freight, it probably wouldn't be as affordable as I've been able to find it on my own.

F*ck Paypal!

Pay Pal voted worst web company for 8 Years running

Pay pal and its employee's consider themself Better than all.

Pay Pal custermer satyisfaction rat is well below 50%. The sad part is that its management thinks this is fine. Their belief is that due to their size, We control over 80% of internet credit card processing so we have no need for customer satasfaction.

Get Back

Monopoly - the government knows it's a problem and we can all see it with eBay owning PayPal and BillMeLater.

Willing to do something about it?

PayPal holding your money? Get an account with BillMeLater, an eBay company, run up a balance and when it's time to pay;

Explain to BillMeLater that you want to pay and have the money to pay as it's sitting in your PayPal account, another eBay company.

Let BillMeLater know you will pay the moment PayPal releases your money.

It's not a perfect solution as a negative hit on a your credit report will more then likely result, but if we all do this, PayPal will have millions and millions of dollars floating in unpaid BillMeLater accounts. Cash-Strapped companies tend to be willing to make changes.

When companies feel the need to make there money dishonestly and they are close to untouchable due to there size, the public needs to find creative ways to confront the problem.

Our government missed this one and should have never allowed eBay to purchase these other companies as they have a conflict of interest allowing them to steal money from customers as they skim interests from frozen funds.

Have the government force PayPal to only hold frozen funds in non-interest bearing accounts and see how quickly they return the money!

Spread the word, open a BillMeLater account today!

PayPal doesn't honor it word

My situation is not as bad as many of these, but I wish to add it to the complaint against PayPal, if I may.

I bought aromatherapy bottles on ebay, they arrived broken. I contacted the seller about the breakage, requested another shipment and a return shipping label for the broken bottles. The seller did not respond. I waited a few days and tried again, still no answer.

I contact PayPal for help, since they offer “buyer protection.” They sent an email to the seller the seller through them offered a $25 credit. I did not think the offer was fair, and I did not take the offer. The wording by PayPal was strong, in 'advising' me to take the offer, that they 'may not approve a refund,' I questioned the wording and later the refund was approved. So, I finally got an email stating that a refund would be issued. All the seller and PayPal provided me with was a PO Box and I had to go though the postal service to return the package, which was more expensive than UPS would have been, $24.59.

Prior to sending the package back, I emailed PayPal and asked about the return shipping, they told me ‘not to worry’, to fill out the form online, at their Resolution Center. I took them at their word, a based on the statement 'not to worry,' assumed that I would get a refund. Plus I got another email which indicated that I would get the shipping cost. I had to find someone, to take the package in to town and mail for me, the cost of the driving the 50 mile round trip alone was over $7.00.

I am on Social Security and cannot afford the mailing or the gas money that I gave the driver. I just don't have that kind of money. But I was told ‘not to worry,’ so I figured it would all work out and I would get the money back shortly. The package was sent and I waited for confirmation that everything was finalized and that my account would be credited for the broken bottles and the return shipping, when I heard nothing, I emailed PayPal to find out what was up.

They then told me, that the shipping was my responsibility and I would NOT get a refund. They told me if I had question that I was to see their policy.

Well regardless of their policy, if someone tells you ‘not to worry,' after they are questioned and asked about getting a refund. One would take them at their word 'not to worry,' which is what I did. But as it ended up their word does not mean much. (I got two emails indicating that the return shipping would be refunded.)

I feel that I was lied to. I feel that the seller screwed me over, and so did PayPal. Yes they say that they were refunding the cost of the bottles (which I have yet to see on my credit card) but the return shipping was nearly half of what I spent to begin with.

I had something similar happen with another company online, they added my return shipping to my account with them, which was fair and a good business practice. Anyway, I contacted PayPal and told them I wanted my account closed and my credit card info removed from their records. Their response was that I should not close my account because any moneys in my account would be lost; if I ask to have a check sent for those moneys, they said they charge to do so, $1.50. I know that is not a lot of money, but you would think that after screwing me over, and at the request of an unhappy customer, they would write off the $1.50 and just refund the money. I want nothing more to do with PayPal; I don’t believe they can be trusted. Their ‘word’ means nothing.

In my opinion PayPal protects the seller, I mean that is where their money really comes form in the long run, isn’t it. One buyer mean little to them, when they have a seller who sales a lot on ebay. But I believe that they should have some control over a seller who wants to do business with them, whereby processing their payments through them. I believe with that control, they should be able to make a seller do right by a buyer, but they don’t. I believe they don’t because they would lose the money they are making off the seller’s sales, if the seller was to move to another site to do business.

This seller should have had breakage insurance. I should not have had to pay for the return of broken bottles. It was not my fault that they were broken. But in the case if this seller, they got money back on the breakage either though insurance; OR their manufacture return of broken stock coverage; OR though UPS for breaking the bottles during the shipment; and I, well I got nothing as far as the item(s) I bought, and I got NO refund for return shipping. On the other hand I spent money on my credit card (interest) for as long as the charges stayed on the card, I had to pay for the return shipping and I had to pay someone (gas money) to take the bottles to the post office to be mailed. (And again, the shipping would not have been as much as it was if the seller and PayPal had given me a building address and not a PO Box.) But mostly I just got a lot of frustration.

I think this is a very poor way to do business and to earn customers. It is a good way to lose customers, especially if others hear what we have to say about PayPal’s way of doing business.

Thank you for letting me share my frustration.

PayPal is Hell!

I'm sure my story isn't bad as others but its still my hell.

My PayPal was hacked and someone made purchases for a several thousand dollars over the weekend. When I checked my email on the following monday I see about 20+ transactions take place.

I contacted PayPal since I'm sure they can resolve this and file a dispute. I called the seller and no answer or reply when left a voicemail. The type of purchase was for digital goods, which happens to be against PayPal's terms of service. Then a few days later I check PayPal see they couldn't get in contact with the seller too. I received a notification the next day by PayPal and they DENIED my claim.

I couldn't believe this so I escalated this to a higher level and refiled the claim. All the details remain the same, they couldn't reach the seller still. After a few days they denied my claim again. When I called they were rude to me and even hang up on me too. I'll admit I was a little upset when I called but I was frustrated.

So I contacted my bank and they reversed the charges and investigated the incident too. I then found out the sellers address (Lucky they were close) and drove to the place of business. The seller spoke with me and I had explained I've been trying to get in contact with them too. They said the number I called is a generic which they never check. The seller said since the charges have been already reversed my bank they couldn't do anything till the bank completes their investigation. However, the seller did say they would work with the bank to make sure my funds were replenished.

About a week later my bank found no wrongdoing on my end and approved the claim. Not sure why PayPal gave me hell though.

I didn't feel comfortable using PayPal after this and wanted to close my account but couldn't. They said I need to submit an official ID and provide other documents to verify who I am. Yeah let me just give you more information, yeah right! So I called them again and a supervisor removed the restrictions off my account so I can close it. They also told me I couldn't do business with Ebay too.

Since my my emails and cards were on my account they would be denied even signing in as a guest to pay for goods or services. I asked them how can this be if my account is supposed to be deleted and they said its never deleted and they keep records of the accounts but only block out the information on their screens.

So my information is still accessible then if the system can readily identify my email and cards at all time? They didn't answer the question and became rude.

I don't recommend PayPal at all.

PayPal won't let me close my account

I also hate PayPal! Somehow I got a PayPal account while buying some stuff online and now I can't close it. PayPal support refuses to help me but they keep sending me emails about this account. Thanks for nothing PayPal!

I though I was the only one frustrated with PayPal...!!!...

I was trying to recover my password and my email doesn't appear now, it says unregistered Email, how comes if it was the same, gave me the option for entering up to 3 Emails, non of them found, then what, try to open a new account, and comes out that my Email is registered with another account then what, it got me crazy I almost hit my laptop, damn man I can't believe this shit man, I found this site and surprised me with all the comments, Wow, am not the only one...and I feel you too.
Then am still wondering how to create a new account, if my personal info is there and won't let me create an other one, bull shit, I believe Paypal is doing a bad business and the software they using are the worst ever, in issues...I can't believe that such an important site as (eBay) uses this company for their transactions as a partner.
anyone agree with me..?

Ridiculous and disgusting...!!!

pay pal

pay pal put a stop for me paying for my items.because i had kept trying send it through and it wasn't going through.i almost lost my items.my friend paid it i paid him back.pay pal told me next few days i cant pay for my items.because of me try push it through.wasnt my fault.the bank rejected pay pal.i had get another bank..this really sucks.i wish i had another way i could pay.the employeess at pay pal.been really rude and snotty.ebay get a better payment systems.