I would strongly discourage anyone from using PayPal to operate any kind of business on the internet. For that matter, you cannot count on PayPal to buy or sell items on eBay. This has been my experience with them.
I started with PayPal a little more than one year ago, and it seemed like a great way to buy and sell items on eBay. I satisfied all of their security measures by providing my bank info, address info, credit info, etc. They welcomed me as a partner, and I thought that things would go smoothly. I was wrong, very wrong.
After selling a few items on eBay and doing a lot of research, I decided to quit my job and open a store on eBay to do it full time. I worked long hours opening the store and invested money and numerous tedious hours uploading pictures of the items and descriptions for each item, as well as investing in website development and research. Just around the time when my store was completed and I was ready to open my virtual doors to customers on eBay, I received an email from PayPal stating:
"due to regular security measures, my account was blocked! And to resolve this matter I needed to visit the resolution centre"
To resolve this issue, they demanded that I supply them with all receipts for any and all items that I had sold on eBay (5 items) as well as a list of all of my suppliers. They then demanded that I provide them with a utility bill in my name as proof of address, or a bank account statement. This was completely unexpected, and I had to put my entire business on hold and spend hours running around to visit my bank and try to acquire a bank statement to prove my address. However, I was unable to provide any receipts for the items I had sold on eBay, since I had no reason to keep them and had not kept them. I had to walk away from my internet store and lost all of the money and time that I had invested! I also had no income and no job. They did not care, and speaking with them was like talking to a wall!
Six months later they lifted the block on my account with no explanation and apologized for the inconvenience, but by this time I had walked away from my eBay store and the internet altogether, totally discouraged by this experience. I was still skeptical about PayPal, and I had not bought or sold anything on the internet for almost one year due to my lack of confidence in this company as a merchant account. A short time ago, I refunded a man in Spain $160.00 via PayPal for an item he had bought from me on eBay and claimed that he had never received. I collected the insurance for this item from Canada Post and forwarded it to the man in Spain via PayPal, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I then transferred about 100.00 to my PayPal account to purchase some items on eBay for Christmas. Guess what? Last week I received another email from PayPal telling me that once again my account was blocked due to regular security measures.
Beginning of email...
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account.
For your protection, we have limited access to your account until additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.
End of email...
I did not use PayPal for one year and my account was never blocked. Then I transferred money from my bank account into my PayPal account and it was blocked. This time they blocked my account asking me to link a credit card to it. I had cancelled my credit card, and this came up on their radar as a reason to block me. I told them that I cannot comply with linking a credit card to my account, and they told me that they no longer wish to have me as a customer.
Beginning of email...
We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least disruptive to your business.
Funds disbursement can be handled in one of two ways:
Your remaining account balance can be used to provide refunds to your buyers (if applicable).
OR
Your remaining account balance will be held in your PayPal account for 180 days from the date your account was limited. After 180 days, you will be notified via email with information on how to receive your remaining funds. If you choose to provide refunds to your customers, please log in to your account and contact us with a list of transaction IDs for the buyers that you would like to have refunded for you.
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Kathryn
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.
End of email...
My account has been blocked 2 times in one year, and I have only used PayPal maybe 7 times to receive or send small amounts of money. Thank God I did not try to use them to start a business again. Please find another merchant account to use. They are completely unreliable, and when you speak with them on the phone you get one answer, and then when you receive an email you get a different answer. You get a different answer every time.
It has also come to my attention that there are a huge number of people buying items from honest businesses on the internet and then claiming that the item was not received or was damaged. They get a full refund from PayPal and then keep the item, ripping off the small business owner.
So now, once again, my PayPal account has been blocked, and they are holding onto my money ($146.00) for the next 180 days. I have no way to retrieve my money to buy Christmas presents, and they do not care. Please read the email that I just received from a lady named Kathryn who works in the appeals department. And keep in mind that I have not sold anything using PayPal in over 1 year!
So please learn from my experience and do not use PayPal as a means to buy or sell on the internet. They will freeze your account whenever they want and hold your money, and there is nothing that you can do about it. I was an extremely honest eBayer, my score is 100% positive, and I refunded one of my customers more than the amount he had paid for an item he had bought from me and not received. This is how PayPal has negatively affected my life. If anyone has any advice on a better way to buy and sell on the Net, I would like to hear from you.
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