My name is Georgiy and I am vice president and co-founder of Maryland state LLC - ShopPharmacyCounter.com that started operating on November, 4 2008.
Our main business is to sell USA produced (only) pharmaceutical grade dietary supplements online that are legal to sell over the counter in all 50 US states and worldwide.
Right from the start we began to experience problems associated with accepting payments online. Problem is that some of our supplements may sound like restricted medications and that security people working in payment processing companies can't tell the difference about products that are not allowed to sell according to their policies or US laws (stupid).
For example:
Fastin Fastin used to be a drug with amphetamines to help people with real weight problems and Fastin used to be prescription only medication. Until late 90s, name Fastin was glaxo's patent and after glaxo re-named it to phentermine and dropped patent for name Fastin, company Hi Tech Pharmaceuticals picked up that name and started producing food supplement that is legally available for sale in any vitamins store in all 50 states in the USA. Go to GNC.com and search for Fastin.
Supplements with Ephedra Extract Lipodrene, Stimerex, ECA Xtreme, Hydroxyslim, Hydroxycut and many many more. Ephedra extract is not the same as banned ephedra with ephedrine alkaloids in 2004. Companies keeping name ephedra extract and to comply with US laws removing ephedrine alkaloids from ephedra plants which is perfectly normal and allowed in the USA. Keeping name ephedra extract is great marketing strategy because lots of people are searching for ephedra on the Internet.
For example google does not allow us to pay for click and bet on keywords Fastin, Ephedra and many more. Google Checkout asked us to put their hosted images on number of pills that says "not allowed with google checkout", which we did and still allowed us to process payments. Pay Pal and Ebay gave us most of the problems and ripped us off.
Around the time when we started in November we applied for Pay Pal merchant services under our business to accept payments on our shoppharmacycounter.com web site for supplements with ephedra extract and the rest.
We got approved and received the following message from pay pal:
10/21
Dear Georgiy,
Thank you. We received your application for Website Payments Pro.
Application status
Your account is pending. You'll receive an email within 2 business days with the status of your application.
Products and services
You applied for the following products and services:
Name Monthly fee
Website Payments Pro $30.00 USD
Total: $30.00 USD
Getting started
While we review your application, you can learn how to integrate Website Payments Pro with your website.
Online integration demo
Technical overview
Need help?
You can search PayPal's Knowledge Base for answers on integration, troubleshooting, and much more. Support is also available toll-free at 1-888-883-9770.
Thank you for choosing PayPal.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Later on that day we got another email from Pay Pal approving our application. Great. So we paid few thousand to someone to integrate Pay Pal in our web site and started accepting payments via pay pal:
10/21
Dear Georgiy Kharchenko
We are pleased to inform you that your application has been approved on the condition that PayPal keeps a payment reserve on your account.
Payment reserves are funds that belong to you, but that we set aside in case you owe money to PayPal or a third party related to your use of PayPal.
Your reserve will be set at 10% of the processed transaction amount each day, and will be released on a rolling 90-day basis.
We will provide you with 30 days notice prior to any adjustment to your reserve terms.
What's next?
Go to the Overview tab within your PayPal account. From there you can review the Accept Approval Conditions & Billing Agreement. Read the terms and conditions and click Agree to accept the terms.
After accepting the billing agreement, you can integrate Website Payments Pro and start receiving payments. Once you start transacting, we will verify your website to make sure it includes:
Your business name.
A list of products and/or services.
The price for each product and/or service.
Please note: You can't withdraw funds until your website is verified. This usually takes between 1-2 business days, but may take up to 10 days if we request additional information.
Getting started
Learn how to integrate Website Payments Pro with your website.
Online integration demo
Integration Page
Credit report
We reviewed your credit report as provided by:
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA30374
(800) 685-1111
Note: The reporting agency did not make the final decision and cannot provide specific reasons for it. If you dispute any of the information in their report, you must contact them directly.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right to obtain a free copy of your credit report within 60 days by contacting the reporting agency. You also have the right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in the report.
Need help?
You can search PayPal's Knowledge Base for answers on integration, troubleshooting, and much more. Support is also available toll-free at 1-888-883-9770.
Sincerely,
PayPal
OK. I process credit card transactions with first data via wells fargo bank and google checkout and never heard of 10% reserve, but fine. We trusted pay pal and its OK. I wish they told us prior...
We were so happy that we can accept pay pal on our web site because there so much fraud going on and we were able to send transactions that we were not sure about to pay pal since they have state of the art fraud prevention tools and we felt very safe, especially accepting international orders.
On 11/7 we started ebay account and listed Fastin and some other supplements we sell on the ebay. We immediately got our account suspended and ebay and pay pal started investigation where they asked us submit paperwork about our company (articles etc.), prove of bank account and agreements with our suppliers, confirm our location, provide my Social Security Affidavit and more or they will not allow us to continue to use pay pal and ebay. Suppliers is our confidential information and we did not feel comfortable showing it not to ebay or pay pal - to nobody, but we did submit EVERYTHING that pay pal requested, even we did not violate anything. Message we got from ebay said that we were selling illegal drugs or drugs parifanila (!?!?!)... Later, we got the following letter from pay pal:
11/07
We appreciate the fact that you chose PayPal to send and receive payments for your transactions.
However, your account has been limited for violating PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. Under the Acceptable Use Policy, you may not use PayPal for the sale of prescription drugs that violate applicable laws or industry regulations or for products that present a risk to consumer safety. PayPal considers the marketing of a product and may restrict transactions for products marketed to act like or function the same as a prescription drug. PayPal also may restrict transactions for recalled drugs, unapproved drugs and dietary supplements that have been banned by governmental agencies.
The complete Acceptable Use Policy can be found at the following URL:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr? Cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside
To learn more about the Acceptable Use Policy, please refer to our Help Center page here:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/helpweb? Cmd=_help
To appeal the limitation on your account, you will need to:
1. Remove PayPal as a payment option, as well as all references to PayPal,
including the PayPal logo and/or shopping cart, from your website (s),
http://shoppharmacycounter.com ; and
2. Submit the online Acceptable Use Policy affidavit.
This is not intended to be an all-inclusive review or list of your Internet sites in violation. Furthermore, the violations of the Policy described above are not intended to be an all-inclusive list. It is the
responsibility of the user to ensure that all transactions comply with the Acceptable Use Policy.
For more information about the status of your account and for instructions on how to restore full use of your account, please login to your PayPal account. We encourage you to log in and restore full access as soon as possible. Should access to your account remain limited for an extended period of time, it may result in permanent limitation.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please contact the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department at [email protected].
Sincerely,
PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department
PayPal, an eBay Company
Question is, why pay pal approved our application on the first place, allowed us to process tens of thousands of dollars worldwide, and later decided that we are selling illegal drugs and decided to limit our account? Case: PP-578-000-463 and Case: PP-578-014-629
I got so angry, I sent them email with about thousand of products that are the same (with ephedra extract) on the ebay and on our web site.
We sell lipodrene with ephedra extract. Lipodrene is one of the most popular supplements with ephedra extract. For example go to ebay and search for "lipodrene" - you will find hundreds of ebay stores selling lipodrene with ephedra extract (look at the labels) accepting pay pal as method of payment. Same goes for Stimerex and ECA Xtreme.
Lipodrene, Stimerex and ECA Xtreme was the reason why our account was suspended. What do you call that? Double standards? Discrimination?
After I sent pay pal numerous of angry emails to their [email protected]. I got email that my ebay and pay pal account is restored!!! No apologies, just F* Y*, go ahead and use it now:
Original Message
Subject: Your PayPal Account Access Has Been Restored
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, November 13 1:34 pm
To: [email protected]
Dear Georgiy K,
Thank you for making the necessary changes to your website in order to comply with PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this situation has caused. We are not
arguing the legality of ephedrine alkaloids, we have, however, determined that they are a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy.
After a recent review of your account, we have found that you have completed the requirements to remove the limitation and have granted an appeal. Please note that your use of PayPal for any other violation of our
Acceptable Use Policy in the future may result in a permanent account limitation. We appreciate your cooperation in resolving this matter.in the future, if you have any questions regarding what items are prohibited under PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy, please see the following URL for the complete text:
Https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr? Cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside
Thank you also for contacting PayPal regarding sales that potentially violate the Acceptable Use Policy. We will investigate the matter and take appropriate action, if necessary.
Again, we thank you for your cooperation in resolving this matter. If you have any further questions, please contact the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department at [email protected].
Sincerely,
PayPal Acceptable Use Policy Department
PayPal, an eBay Company
OK fine, we started using pay pal and ebay again. When 1 day before Christmas someone from ebay network went on our web site and placed fake order with someone else identity.
We use live person and live person shows real time stats where we can see network where visitor is from and pages that are accessed on our web site. That pay pal employee bought metabodrene and selected express shipment to FAKE ADDRESS!!! I have google analytics that proves that as well as stats on live person. That employee used the following address:
Order Number: 100507
Customer ID: 60765
EMail: [email protected]
Date of purchase: 12/24 11:01: 49 AM
Coupon Entered: None
Locale Setting: None
Payment Method: PAYPAL
AccountBilling Address Shipping Address
Name: Laceyjohnson Laceyjohnson
Address: 2504 ave a 2504 ave a
City: Omaha Omaha
State: NE NE
Zip: 68154 68154
Country: United States United States
Phone: 7122567288 7122567288
ProductQuantitySub Total:
Metabodrene 356 90 Caplets
SKU: Hi-Tech26
1$39.95
Subtotal: $39.95
Tax: $0.00
Shipping (Express Air Mail Guaranteed Overnight With Tracking Number - 1 business day):$27.95
Total:$67.90
Question is why pay pal would commit fraud???
That same day we received another email:
Dec. 24: In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy, we have closed your account. Your funds may be held for 180 days from the date of your last transaction. After 180 days, you will be able to access your funds by requesting an online bank transfer or, if applicable, a check from PayPal. Please update your address or bank information as we cannot be held responsible for checks issued to an incorrect address. We do ask that you please remove reference (s) to PayPal from your site.
(Your case ID for this reason is PP-606-373-658.)
Selling illegal ephedra one more time. That made me feel so angry that I wrote rip off report and I wish that I can get some attention because we live in the USA and companies like pay pal and ebay can't treat people this way!!! Another really disappointing factor. Why pay pal did not file a police report if they suspecting us of selling something illegal? They not supposed to do that???
I just wish that companies that do business this way in our great democratic country will get noticed and get removed from the US market for STUPIDITY, DOUBLE STANDARDS AND DISCRIMINATION!!!
Georgiy K
ShopPharmacyCounter.com
Zhorakiev
Gaithersburg, Maryland
U.S.A.
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