I have been so blind. I trusted PayPal with processing my transactions and boy was I a fool. I awakened one morning to find a large butcher's knife in my back with PayPal's name written all over it. I tried to use my PayPal debit card on Friday 2/22. My card was denied. I was really baffled because I knew I had at least $2,300 in my account. I called PayPal to try to find out what the problem was. It took two days for a rep to tell me PayPal had restricted/limited my account. The reason they gave sounded fishy if not bogus. They stated that my account had "recent suspicious activity" because I normally only keep a monthly balance of 1k in my account and recently it increased to 2K. Ok, punish me for increasing my profit.
I literally fell on the floor when they told me I could not have access to any of my funds for 6 months. This is the first time I have ever heard of a company withholding funds for such a long period of time. I was told they had to do this because they were closing my account and they had to keep the money for 6 months to cover possible chargebacks. What? I had my PayPal account for a year and used it frequently. I never had any customer complaints or chargebacks. My feedback rating on eBay was 100%. I think I was in shock for a couple of hours.
I picked myself up long enough to get myself together to call and try to get my funds released to me. Over a period of 4 days, I spoke to approximately 10 people including reps in Account Resolution and Executive Escalation. I sent two emails to the CEO and immediately got a phone call from Gabe in Executive Escalation. He only reiterated the fact that my funds would be held for 90 days. Oh, I forgot. I spoke with Paul in Account Resolution on Saturday. I think he was really forgiving, but his hands were tied. He told me that they would review my account in 60 days to possibly release a portion or maybe all of my funds. I was sort of okay with that, but I lost sleep wondering how I was going to pay my bills with my funds tied up. I had to get my money to pay my mortgage and cover my other bills and expenses.
I sent an email to Meg Whitman (CEO), and that is when I got the response from Gabe in Executive Escalation, who stated they received my letter to Meg, but their decision would still hold. He stated Paul had no right to give me the 60 day guarantee and that he (Gabe, the "almighty one") makes the final decisions and would not even think about reviewing my account until 90 days, and then there are no guarantees they will release my money at that time.
I could kick myself for not reading that user agreement. It specifically states that if they close your account, they will hold any money left in the account for 180 days. If this is how they treat good customers, I squirm at the thought of what they do to their "bad" customers. I really, really need my money, but I'm being realistic about the fact that I may not get it for a long, long time. I feel like fighting this to the end, but legally they have every right because I signed that user agreement allowing my money to be locked away and the key thrown away until such time as PayPal deems it wants to release my money.
No one ever files a chargeback along a 6 month time period. If someone is going to complain or file a chargeback, they certainly are not going to wait 3, 4, 5 and definitely not 6 months. They are going to do it within the first few weeks after the transaction or somewhere within that first month. Keeping customers' money for 6 months seems like a shady way to earn a lot of extra interest off of that money. I wish I had been more aware of all the PayPal complaints earlier. Everyone needs to think twice before using or continuing to use eBay or PayPal, because you can't have one without the other. They will close your account for some bogus reason and then hold your funds hostage. I can't believe the number of people complaining about the exact same thing happening to them. There has to be some other unbeknownst reason PayPal is doing this, but it is so unethical and unfair.
A word of caution for anyone who wishes to continue their relationship with PayPal: empty your account balance down to $0 every single day, because you never know when this may happen to you, especially with the newly implemented security system. I am in the process (tonight) of scripting a letter to be sent to national news stations and publications. I am hoping someone will be willing to pick the story up about PayPal holding customers' money for 6 months and let the public know what they are up against. I just would like everyone to be informed. There have to be over a million complaints on complaint sites and probably lots of other sites. I hope this goes over well.
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