PayPal Inc
Parent support group account limited and will not be closed

PayPal is the number one online payment processor. It offers secure payments by credit card, check, and direct account withdrawal. Whether for a small, one-man eBay business or for industry giants like Facebook and Microsoft, PayPal is always on the list of payment options and in many cases the only option. This gives them a lot of power over who can and cannot shop on the internet.

This is where my story comes in. I recently started a support group for parents who are involved with CPS/DHS, or Child Protective Services. I am only a little familiar with the laws surrounding non-profit versus not-for-profit organizations. We are not a non-profit, and we cannot give out tax receipts for donations received. That is not to say we cannot receive donations, just that they are not tax deductible. I am not saying we will never get our non-profit status, just that we do not have it now.

We were building our website and needed a way to accept payments and donations securely and without a huge upfront expense. PayPal seemed to be the logical answer to our problem. Little did I realize it was just the start of my problems.

In March I opened a PayPal account in my organization's name. I will be the first to admit that I made several mistakes, starting with the application. But rather than try to help me, PayPal was almost unreachable, and when I did get someone live, it did not help much.

Mistake #1: While filling out their application for business services, one of the questions was "Type of Business," and regardless of where my brain was at the time, I put down Charitable Organization.

Mistake #2: I used my personal credit card to validate the account.

After I created the account, I got an email from PayPal saying I needed to provide more information to have my account taken out of "Limited" status. I had not even had a chance to test the connection between our site and PayPal's, and my account was "Limited"?! They said they needed several things from me:

1. My bank account information and routing number. I am never comfortable giving that over the internet, especially to a company that thinks it is a bank without FDIC backing.

2. Proof of our tax exempt status. Again, they have already been hacked once, so even if I had the papers they wanted, I would question giving them to PayPal or anyone on the internet.

3. More information about the type of organization. (Well, go to the website, silly.)

I called them immediately. After three different attempts in their website's help section, I finally got a phone number. The 800 number sends you into an endless loop of voice prompts. The number I got through on was a local California number. Once I got through, the voice on the other end was a warm welcome.

I explained to her that we were not a tax exempt organization and did not have tax exempt status, so we could not give them what they requested. I also told them I was not entirely sure I wanted to give our account information to an internet company that had already been hacked once. I then requested that all funds withdrawn from the account be sent to the organization by check. Then I started to explain what exactly it was that we did. She seemed not the least bit interested, but hey, it is not for everyone. What I was doing, though, was fulfilling the third request in the email. I tried to tell her as much, but I don't think she got it.

Aside from that, I was quite satisfied that I had explained enough to have the "Limited" status removed from our account. The woman at PayPal did change my account status from unverified to verified, but that was as far as it went. I received a second email saying they still wanted tax papers and a more thorough description of what we did here. At this point I was quite fed up with all the nonsense, so I decided to make it easier on everyone.

I changed our company type to Sole Proprietor. I gave them our bank account information, and for a credit card (because the organization did not have one) I used one of my personal cards. I also sent them my federal EIN so that they had something on file for taxes. Really, that should be all they need. I can open a business checking account in any real bank with all of that and ID.

But it was still not enough for PayPal. To this day I cannot use this account. It is still "limited." It has limitations on it that do not allow me to do anything but deposit money (of course). I cannot even transfer any back to my bank. It and everything in it is completely locked up (not that there is anything in it really).

My own personal credit card is a different story. It is the one I use for parts for my own business. Yes, I know I should not have used it, but I did. Now it is locked to a useless PayPal account and cannot be removed, nor can it be used with any other account. That means I cannot buy the parts I need on eBay with that card or, for that matter, buy just about anything on the net. That card is dead until this mess gets straightened out or they close the account.

I have called and emailed PayPal on several occasions requesting that they just close the account and release my personal credit card. Their only response was that they could not do that. The system will not allow them to close the account. This effectively locks up any chance I have of purchasing eBay items unless I get a prepaid card every time I go shopping, which is what I have been doing since March.

You cannot tell me that a system that handles so many financial profiles does not have a delete key, or that there is no way to remove a credit card from an account manually. That is either shoddy programming or just poor planning. I have been dealing with this since March of this year and I am quite fed up with the whole thing. Just close the account, PayPal, since you will not let me do it.

I have my own PayPal account now. If PayPal wants to be a "bank wannabe," so be it. But I think someone needs to educate this 12,000,000.00 net a year giant about the ins and outs of freezing assets for no reason, and about customer service. I mean, without our billions each year their millions go down the tube. Smile, the customer is always right. Just delete the account, PayPal.

Company: PayPal Inc
Country: USA
Site: paypal.com

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