Allegedly, I am reporting this for self-protection and legal matters. I was a formerly successful, enthusiastic, long-time seller (app. 5 years) on eBay and PayPal, and I am extremely outraged and hurt in every way I can imagine by this company!
PayPal and eBay are one, although they told me otherwise during extremely frustrating, grueling hours, days and months of trying to negotiate with them, to no avail, to keep my business afloat. This was after they decided to "review" my account. Prior to this review, my account and business reputation were immaculate.
I'm a stay-at-home mother because I am crippled, among other health issues. The state deemed me disabled. I used eBay and PayPal to supplement the tiny income I receive from the state, which is aware of my business with eBay and PayPal. I would much rather be working a full-time job, however circumstances don't give me that option.
I turned to eBay excited and enthusiastic, and I would do anything to please my customers! There were cases where I ate a lot of money just to keep the consumer satisfied. Sometimes, although I felt they were wrong, if they insisted I would refund to avoid negative feedback. I always resolved the extremely few customer disputes successfully on my own, to the customer's benefit. My friends told me I was crazy to refund in most cases, but I refunded regardless.
In the spring of last year (app.) I was stunned to sign on and see my account suspended! What could possibly be wrong after all these years and a solid, excellent track record? There are many details to this, but I will try to be brief so you don't endure all the heartache that I did. I'm warning people to be careful when using these companies!
They seem to govern themselves and do whatever they please to people. They have the power to ruin your life, reputation and business, and wipe out your bank account and even credit cards! Then, as if that's not good enough, they can report you to a collection agency (after telling the collection agency that they've made no progress in resolving issues, when that's a lie!). In turn, you then have the collection agency harassing you and threatening to ruin your credit! All because eBay and PayPal said so!
I was recently contacted by a collection agent, and this is the first time in my life I encountered a nice collection agent. After she heard my story, we were both in tears! I asked her if she could send me an itemized statement of the charges I was being asked to pay, as I had left thousands in my PayPal account to cover any costs that I thought might be incurred, still in hopes of regaining my business access. She placed me on hold and replied that she has no list of charges.
Last I checked, there was an amount PayPal was claiming I owed, although I left money in to cover charges. By the time this reached the collection agency, the charges had doubled! I never got credit for the transactions that didn't go through. Some items returned to me were broken, and I was still charged. I also never received some of the remaining items involved in the transactions that were in dispute. At first there were only a few, but then, after PayPal employees started filing disputes, all I can say is that it's extremely suspicious, especially the one guy who had 3 disputes. I could tell he was from PayPal from his name, address and email addresses.
The short version of my nightmare is that they decided for no good reason to "review" my account. They sent out derogatory letters to every customer I had for at least the last 30 days to see if they had any complaints. They pretty much opened a can of worms, because if I were the consumer on that end I would assume something was wrong (depending on how they actually wrote the letters). Or if I had an item that I was pretty much pleased with but saw an opportunity to be refunded, I might decide to take advantage of this, especially if the item was of high value or quality and had been used and was no longer new as received.
Fortunately, out of all those customers, only a few people responded to eBay wanting a refund because they assumed that the most recent item they bought, which in some cases hadn't reached them yet, was defective. I received an email from an extremely satisfied customer stating that eBay contacted her and said she needed to file a dispute. She responded that she didn't need to file, so she told me that eBay filed it, not her! She was very upset and happy with her product. I soon encountered a domino of filed claims, resulting in the fiasco eBay had created. I was fighting as hard as I could to resolve things, and each day I remained on the phone trying to make things right. They made a mess of my accounts!
Just yesterday I was informed by the collection agent that they would negotiate with me and give me a discount, which is still in the thousands (it makes no sense, as I never had high enough sales to owe that much money!). However, if I chose not to pay in full what PayPal says I owe, with no itemization, I will never have access to PayPal or eBay again! Which at this point is a great idea!
I informed the agent of all the times I tried desperately to work these matters out with eBay and PayPal myself. According to her records, they stated I was noncompliant and that they had tried to work out the situation. This is very untrue. I have records.
I also noticed that PayPal inquired on my credit report in May, and I did not give them permission. I told the agent they must have seen how important my credit is to me, and that's when they obviously decided to harass me with a collection agency. My credit report is clean and I rely on it, especially since my options aren't as large as others with large incomes.
I'd like to add that I found out three of the complaints filed were from a PayPal employee. Also, the normal time according to their rules to file a claim is/was 7 days after the auction ended, and this wasn't happening in my case. Also, when I called PayPal and eBay, they asked me extremely personal questions, like who my suppliers were and the exact email info on how to reach the people. I became suspicious that they were literally trying to steal my business, which is ultimately, in a sense, what happened!
In closing, I haven't revealed all of the details in this case because it would take too long. However, nothing about it is fair and just. I want it resolved. I even offered to work for free with the items I have in storage that I purchased just to sell, which are sitting there rotting. I told them I would sell, and they could keep the money until my debt was paid. No go.
I refuse to allow this to go on my credit record because it is wrong! Their records are wrong, they should never have picked on me in the first place, they should have allowed me to resolve the issue as hard as I tried before going to a collection agency, and they've never credited my account for the items that were stolen from me!
eBay and PayPal, you may be one big fat scam and I'm only one little tiny disabled person, but I have enough faith in justice to know this will be made right! Hear me now, because I will not give up until this is resolved fairly! I'm tired of the little people getting taken advantage of. PayPal and eBay need to be governed or exterminated!
Please contact me, any media, attorneys or anyone wanting to file a suit against this evil company!
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