posted on December 30, 2000 06:04:50 AM new
I made a sale and shipped an item on October 10,2000. On December 19,
2000 PayPal reversed the payment made to me saying a fraudulent account
was created. I am now out $244.00. THIS COMPANY IS NOT SAFE. If someone
can create a fraudulent account that easy the information you give them
can not be safe. There are national banks that will not even do
business with them. Make sure you have a $0.00 balance with them
because they can just take it. BE WARNED and do your self a favor
cancel your paypal account and if you use any of them keep a $0.00 balance in your account. Go to: (http://www.ygoodman.com/paypal.html)for further info.
posted on January 5, 2001 09:40:56 PM new
Paypal should simply point out how to avoid fraudulent buyers/sellers when you sign up. If they would do that, I (and thousands of other innocent people) would not get screwed by frauds.
Paypal also ripped me off. I received emails from them telling me I received fraudulent funds for a certain high-priced item. Becuase I received multiple payments for the item, and shipped to Indonesia (I realize how stupid that was now...), Paypal reversed all of the money in my account. At the time, I had about $1000. Now my balance is -$950. I did send them proof of shipment, even the address of where the buyer lives, and after two months, they have not notified me of any progress in their so-called investigation.
Paypal the service is great, if you know the buyer and seller protection policies, and follow them exactly. However, from the experience I have had, Paypal the company is extremely sleezy, and is not out to help their customers at all.
[ edited by ben08 on Jan 5, 2001 09:48 PM ]
posted on January 11, 2001 03:38:02 PM new
Congratulations, and welcome to the club of people who have been screwed royally by Pay(nobody's)Pal.
I am a small seller (eBay feedback rating 350+) who has accepted PayPal since last February (remember, that's when it really WAS "always free". I just received a message from PP informing me that my account was now restricted. The reason: 3 months ago I accepted a PP payment from one of their own "Verified" buyers. It turns out now that there is a report of "suspicious activity" on the credit card account that was used to fund the purchase.
Lemme' see... I sell an item, accept payment through PP's "secured" system, ship the product, and then I have my entire account locked up through no fault of my own. What's wrong with this picture?...
I have no idea how long these bozos will keep my account hostage, but you can believe I've accepted my LAST PayPal transaction. I say we drop these guys like a hot rock.
posted on January 11, 2001 06:53:40 PM new
I hope you didn't have any money in your paypal account, because they will take it until they complete the investigation. They did that to me, and it's been three months without any results or updates on the situation, and I have emailed anc called several times.
They do not respond to emails, and you can not reach the account review department by phone. They are a terrible business!
posted on January 11, 2001 08:10:39 PM new
I'm one more PayPutz member. My account restricted for over six month. Six Month ago I posted WARNING! PAYPAL - THEBIGGEST FRAUD!!!
I wish, I can close my account, but the problem is, PayPal likes to keep my money. So they keep it open and restricted. I attached my last e-mail to PayPal so you will have some idea.
LEO wrote:
Hello,
Your suggestion to contact John Kotanek doesn't make sense to me anymore.
As you see I know his last name and I spoke to him about 4-5 month ago.
I have only $82.00 on my account and I spent over $35.00 on long distance
calls to John. He promised even to call me back once and never did.
First he told me that I access my account from Texas but I do live in New York.
Than he told me that i access to my account from Russia, which makes me
think that I'm dealing with insane person. He refuse to explain, he refuse to
send any proof. You people have a security problem, don't run over your
customers, looking to blame on anybody. If someone do have a common sense
than will see, that I have no control over my internet provider and where the
server was located, when I excess to my account. My Internet provider at that
time was located in Texas under name Web America Networks and than
they was sold to Prodigy and this was some time last year in May. Prodigy
just took over my account and keep my e-mail address the same as I have
right now: [email protected] Nothing change except provider and probably
his server was switched around. That what I think probably made all that
mystery with accessing my account from deferent server. If someone just
look my account, than you find nothing illegal in my transactions. And it
wasn't so many transactions, all of them a little things on Ebay I bought
or sold. Anyway it looks to me, like nobody ever seriously look on my
account and tried to come to some conclusion and give me some reasonable
explanation. If you have no time or man power to look in this matter, so
you should close my account and return the money.
Frozen people money without given an explanation - bad
business practice. I'm sure PayPal lost customers and keep loosing. I read
on Action Watch a horrible stories about PayPal. Don't you think its about
the time to do something about your customer relationship before is not
to late. Or you will disappear like so many " Dot Com's " today. Than
someone will look on all of this and will try to figure out, who brought this
company down? Maybe same person, name John, everybody referred to.
If in your company there is no higher authority than John Kotanek, than
I feel sorry for PayPal employees and all PayPal customers.
I will appreciate if someone there will have a courage to reply.
Thank you.
Leo.
PS. Most likely nobody will reply, as always.
Expectations- wrote:
> Dear Leo,
>
> Thank you for contacting PayPal. We apologize for the delay in responding
> to your service request.
>
> Thank you for contacting PayPal. About the restriction in your account,
> please contact John at (650) 251-1141 and he will help you with the problem
> of your restriction.
>
> If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
>
> Sincerely,
> Paypal Accounts Review Department
>
> Original Message Follows:
> -------------------------
>
> Hi Janine,
>
> The problem is , that I did contact [email protected].
> so many times, I could count any more and they never replayed.
> Never for six month, not even ones. PayPal restricted my
> account for unexplained administrative reason. Your customer
> service cannot explain what is the problem. Is there someone
> can give me some explanation finally?
>
> Leo.
posted on January 23, 2001 11:19:48 PM new
Glad I'm not the only one who was screwed by them. I certainly learned a $2000 lesson. But Paypal is a necessary evil.
If you keep your balance real low less then $100
And 2 Use seperate checking account that has small balance.
I use my boyfriends checking account since he is always broke he has less then $20 in it so if there are problems they can't seize all my money as they did before.
Joe B
posted on January 25, 2001 05:56:07 PM new
QUESTION PLEASE can paypal seize money from
my bank account (the one to which they make
electronic deposits)? I think their fees are a rip off for the kind of service they are providing.
posted on January 26, 2001 12:46:27 AM new
I have the same question as alkyholler. Can PayPal take money from my bank account without my authorization?
I know I'm on the late bus here. I'm only learning about this junk recently. Thanks to your warnings I'm keeping my PayPal balance low, and goodness knows my bank account is never a threat to the Rockefellers. Still, every penny in it was hard-earned. I wouldn't want any of my checks to bounce because PayPal had transferred funds from my account without my knowledge. Please tell me they can't do that.
According to the auctionwatch member yisgood, "The minute you accept the first payment directly into your bank account, PP has the right to reverse it. Usually this has to be done within a certain time limit, about 30 days. However, PP has been known to do this even months later and possibly they interpret that little box you check off on verification as "permission" to do so" (see http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=298914&id=298914).
posted on February 4, 2001 11:14:01 AM new
Okay everyone...you have scared the #@* out of me...I have only bought using paypal but am getting set up to sell...Is there another online payment method that is secure and protects the seller as well as the buyer and stands behind their word?
posted on February 4, 2001 05:11:15 PM new
Visit this page and you will find that there are still some good payment services out there and even a few free ones. My top picks:
Western Union's Moneyzap (currently free but they will soon start charging. The fee can be paid by the buyer, the seller, or split)
Achex - they have no plans to charge at this time
Bidpay - they charge $5 on the first $100 and 2.25% one the balance. They are possibly the safest for buyer and seller but due to the fee, are mostly used for for foreign transactions.
posted on February 10, 2001 05:59:57 PM new
Yes, PayPal can screw you. After a careful reading of the PP agreement, I pointed this out over a year ago on this forum. Mostly, my concerns were dismissed ("the risk is small and is more than made up for by increased sales", etc.).
It should be pointed out, however, that there is very little about PayPal _in particular_ that is to blame here. A little known fact about credit card transactions is that the merchant -- that means you -- takes virtually all the risk. That's why the folks at Discover shrugged their shoulders when a fraud ring go hold of my card years back and charged thousands in unauthorized purchases: it's no skin off their back.
The trouble with PayPal is, they make it harder for you to protect yourself against fraud, since they actually handle the account numbers and perform the charge. In a sense, they get to have it both ways. Also, the very nature of online auctions makes them rife for fraud. Have you ever seen any published statistics on the percentage of Ebay credit card transactions that turn out to be fraud? Uh huh. I'll bet you dollars to donuts it's substantial, MUCH higher than in any other business. And I'll bet the incidence of fraud is higher for larger amounts -- several hundred dollars and up. For fraud, the jail time is probably the same whether it's $50 or $500, so why not shoot the moon?
Here's my suggestions re PayPal (and I admit, I didn't think them all up myself):
1) Go elsewhere. PayPal is no longer competitive anyway, what with the limits on free accounts and the high fees on pay accounts.
2) Don't give them your credit card. Link your PayPal account to a checking account with a token balance. Withdraw frequently. If someone tries to make a chargeback, there won't be any money to reclaim.
3) Limit credit card transactions to a nominal amount. I use $75. Anything over that has to be by Postal Money Order.
You will not be yawning if it ever happens to you.
Well after several purchases, that I had made back in November and December... paypal withdraw from my checking account all of the charges made in November and December and ALSO charge to one of my credit cards...A DOUBLE CHARGE, for the same items, I am still dealing with them,
now they have restricted my account for for an unknown reason, restricted means, that I can't send or receive any money, but sure enough they receive a payment for $75.00 and kept the $75.00 because my account is restricted...frozen...such a banking business they are! ...what a shame, that we can't trust not even a bank!
Which bank will be safe or can we trust after this?
I want you to know that your support in these difficult times is extremely important to me. I cherish every letter and never lose sight of you, my fans!
posted on February 12, 2001 11:03:17 AM new
It won't ever happen to me 'cause I'm smarter than the average bear. There is no way I will ever sign up with one of these so-called 'free' services ...
posted on February 22, 2001 07:48:15 PM new
Been using Paypal since I discovered it last year. I always request a check when the balance reaches around $100. Never had a problem. I would NEVER put my bank account online-seems like a pretty STUPID thing to do regardless of what you're doing it for. Never had a problem with my NON VERIFIED status as some claim they have. Really can't see what the hoopla is about regarding them.
...what a shame, that we can't trust not even a bank!