In December of last year I sold some software on ebay and recieved the payment through PAYPAL. It totaled a little over $400. I shipped software through UPS and it was hand delivered to recipient and signed for. Buyer submitted claim through PAYPAL that he never received item even though I had tracking info. Paypal decided in my favor. So one month later I get notice that a chargeback was debited from my account leaving me with a negative balance. So the buyer ended up with software, his money and I get a restricted PAYPAL account and a -400 to take care of. I contacted the law enforcement in the buyers area but was told it was a small claims issue and I would have to pursue it that way. Too much hassle. Long story short... I did not add the funds to my PAYPAL account to clear up negative balance in time, so they sent it to a collections agency.
This is where the story gets CRAZY!!! In July of this year my 21 year old brother whom does not live with me or share any info (phone number, email address, etc...) sold an amplifier on Ebay. Total sales price $960. The payment was made via PAYPAL. My brother has had this PAYPAL account for two tears and never had any limited access, but had also NEVER received any money it was always used for making payments. He initiated a bank transfer, and three days later got an email stating the transfer had been reversed and he needed to verify some info, so he complied and assumed that took care of the issue. Another few days passed and he recieved an email stating that his account had been linked to an account with a negative balance and it needed to be resolved before his funds could be released. PAYPAL customer service would not release any info as to who he was linked to. A month had gone by and we found out it was linked to my negative account. They linked us through IP address I had logged into my PAYPAL account a few times from my brothers computer. So this means that roomates or cousins or co-workers can be held responsible for others accounts simply through IP address. After several emails and phone callls we were told the final decision is to hold the money for 6 months to "review" the account at which time the funds MAY be released.
I find it interesting that PAYPAL only limits the accounts that have a positive balance, they must be earning quite a bit of intrest off of all ther limited accounts. So I paid my negative account and resolved my issue with PAYPAl over a month ago and they have still not released the funds. AND!!! They have not limited my husbands account which he has had for years as soon as he recieved a payment stating it had been linked to an account that was under review for suspicious activity (my brothers). PAYPAL will now not return any of our phone calls and will not respond to our emails.
It is amazing to me that this could happen. If myself and a family member had checking accounts at the same bank and mine was overdrawn they could not debit my family memebers account for my negative balance. If I defaulted on a loan or credit card no one else would be responsible but me or a co-signer regardless of us sharing a phone number, IP address, or physical address.
So I have resolved my issue but PAYPAL is still holding over $1000 of my families money.
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