posted on December 18, 2000 05:40:31 PM
Jake - Happened to me too this afternoon. My wife called up PayPal customer support (888-221-1161) and talked to Cynthia there. She says it's a system problem on their side, and they are working on it. It's not really a restriction, as I understand it. We can still receive $$, but can't request or withdraw, either.
Hope Cynthia is right, and it gets back on line soon! We've got a bunch of business to do too!
posted on December 18, 2000 05:44:12 PM
Ours too!!
We are so upset, first our dog dies this morning and now this with PayPal.
People were right- PayPal stinks!
Their phone says they are having "unaccustomed amount of inquires"
Linda
posted on December 18, 2000 05:45:41 PM
Same thing happened here. Just now, made a payment, and then recieved a payment, logged back in and then found out the account has been restricted. I have sent them a letter, and will now open my email to responses from AW customers. I will not idly sit by and wait for their phone to answer. Below is the email I sent them.
This is totally outrageous. You give nothing but a form email with no explanation at all. You are now holding up Christmas shipments to many of my customers who trust you with their money much the same as I trust you with mine.
Enough small talk. I have heard far too many complaints from other users to tolerate this for any length of time.
You will answer this email within 24 hours with a detailed explanation of why this has happened or:
I will proceed with legal action that may or may not include the following:
File a formal complaint with the IRS, and the FBI.
File charges of misappropriation of funds
File charges of false advertising
Contact the appropriate authorities regarding FTC guidlines for proper banking practices
I will be contacting and filing a lawsuit against Travellers Insurance
I will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of myself and ALL my paypal customers against you for any violations my lawyer may deem are applicable regarding punitive and and other damages resulting from this restriction.
Lastly, I will be writing letters to all major periodicals, newspapers, television, media, and all of your sponsors, explaining the situation, and gathering OTHER CLIENTS who have been hurt by your "inexplicable efforts" to restrict other accounts. This, of course, would result in a CLASS ACTION SUIT not only for the funds themselves, but related damages as well.
You now have a choice. You either lift this restriction IMMEDIATELY or I will pursue this furthur with all means at my disposal. This is not a free service any more. I now PAY for this. Big mistake, because now you are a BUSINESS, and are subject to legal proceedings AS a business
I sincerely hope that this has been a misunderstanding on your part and a mistake. I have used paypal reliably for quite some time with no problems. The problem here is the notice that is given with this restriction. THERE IS NO NOTICE. I hope you find the time to answer this, due to the holidays, you will make some very unhappy people and you will find yourself on the end of my litigation; not to mention ANOTHER lost client.
Thank you for your time
OK AW USERS
This is the ground floor to add your name to a list of plaintiffs that will be filed. My email account created for this sole purpose for anonymity is:
What are the two numbers that are floating around for Paypal CSR? I will need these. One is a toll-free, the other is a long distance call. Please post below.
Once these numbers are posted, I encourage every one to ram their phones, what this means is that you will completely tie up their lines. 500 incomings at once will cripple all but the biggest companies. If you have a computer that is online but not used, do an infinite redial on their number, with no hangup until a recorded message occurs.
This is the first and LAST time they will be doing this charade.
damon@paypal IF YOU ARE LURKING HERE I SUGGEST THAT YOU FORWARD THIS TO LEGAL AT ONCE.
AW members who are lawyers? Forward tips and help to
posted on December 18, 2000 05:49:59 PM
I just logged into my account and transferred money with no problems! Maybe it's fixed. Of course, mine was a small amount, I don't leave ANY money in there.
posted on December 18, 2000 06:03:25 PM
just happened to me as well! i just posted here to get some sort of advice and saw your post and in reading am glad it might be some kind of e.error. unacceptable though when you are dealing with a persons $.
posted on December 18, 2000 06:07:19 PM
What really angers me is that the CS number just rings and rings and when you email to find out why, you get an email back directing you to the "appeals" department. When you email them, you dont get any response. Helluva way to run a business! If I did it that way, i would have negative feedback and ebay would NARU me!
posted on December 18, 2000 06:07:52 PM
PayPal makes me nervous, but with so many buyers using their service, I'm sure it would hurt my sales if I closed my account. I would much prefer seeing PayPal go under so buyers would start using Yahoo's PayDirect or Billpoint or any payment service
that was more trustworthy.
posted on December 18, 2000 06:11:17 PM
That is the end of PayPal for me. I always heard horror stories but someone avoided any issues until now.
PayPal should at this point PAY for all the lost business due to this "glitch" especially since everyone is making payment for Christmas gifts like someone mentioned earlier.
I think this will be last straw and result in PayPals disappearance like X.COM did earlier.
If they are in fact getting swamped with calls can you imagine how many people will CLOSE their account after this??? It will be 100s if not 1000s of people.
posted on December 18, 2000 06:15:02 PM
I went into my account to send money and received the same message. Emailed and received the same canned response to contact appeals etc.
I just got off the phone with Paypal ~ spoke to Lynn ~ and she said they did a systems upgrade today and a 'few' people are receiving the restricted message. That it should be corrected in 2-3 hours. We'll see.
posted on December 18, 2000 06:17:54 PM
We have talked to PayPal- our account was restricted in error. Why couldn't they have said this at the start. Everyone makes mistakes but I think it is better to admit them and not cause people all this needless worry and fear! They are hoping to have it repaired in two hours.
Linda
posted on December 18, 2000 08:53:35 PM
My account was restricted on 10/24 and they still haven't fixed it. Got $800+ in there also.
I finally got my first reply to any email I sent about a week ago and I faxed them all sorts of documents like my DL, Visa Statement, etc, and still not a word.
Yes. It took them 7+ weeks and calls to their non 800 number phone support to even get that much.
I advise everyone to stay away from PayPal.
I'm no theif and there has been no fraud.
I've done like 5 transactions in the past 5 or 6 months so I cant even begin to think of what they are investigating or what fraud occured since the transactions were all with friend I know.
I sent an email to them every 3-4 days or so over the 7 weeks, and never got anything but "we're looking into it" reply. Got about 6 of those generic form letter replies they do. The last one I got requested that info and it's been over a week now and they still haven't done anythign with that.
posted on December 19, 2000 12:04:27 PM
My Paypal account has been restricted since 11-20. Their customer service # is (402) 935-7733. Yesterday I dealt with Cindy and that was like talking to a fence post. The managers first name is Artez, she wouldn't give out his last name. This office is in Omaha NE, about a 3 hour drive from my house. If you email me your name and your Paypal horror stories I will gladly drive down there and have a little face to face chat with Artez. I want to be loaded with ammunition, so the more names and complaints I have the better. ([email protected])
[ edited by goodwillhunter on Dec 19, 2000 12:07 PM ]
posted on December 19, 2000 12:57:27 PM
Goodwillhunting: Feel free to deliver my previous email to them. As an update, my problem was fixed rather quickly, I might add. Seems that as usual, some folks balk at playing hardball.
If there are any of my customers here watching these posts, the 17 Christmas deliveries from Sunday's auction have been sent last night at 23:45EST. Lucky to have a USPS hub here in Orlando Airport. Open until 23:00. I apologize for the scare.
Those of you who have requested shipping for Christmas before payment arrived, have been included in this shipment.
TO THE AW USERS who sent email to [email protected], Your confidentiality is secure, this information will NOT be divulged without your consent. You will be emailed with progress as soon as I know something.
Thank you for the immense response to my post earlier in this thread. I was right, and there are quite a few incidents here that need to be looked into very closely.
GOODWILLHUNTING: Please let me know if and when you decide to take the trip into Omaha, It might be helpful to establish a direct link with paypal to get some of the complaints ironed out. There are much more useful ways to use this board, and there are far too many complaints for them to ignore this.
Thank you all for your cooperation, and Have a WONDERFUL holiday season.
