Complain about a product or service

PayPal - Complaints from Sellers

Cindy of Alvin TX (10/04/08)
I am so upset with Pay Pal. I recently was selling an item and was going to ask the buyer (from another state) to deposit in my checking account through a bank near him. Someone said, Pay Pal will have your money to you same day. I signed up for pay pal and have not seen my money since. They are making it nearly impossible to obtain my money.

Phone calls seem to go in circles. After 25 minutes on this latest call, the customer service rep told me exactly what I told her in the first one minute on the call. Everything they tell me is you have to wait anther 3-5 business days. Well, that's a week. So far we are up to 3 weeks before it MIGHT be resolved and I MIGHT have my money. I would like interest on my money they are using during this time. When I asked who can I contact to complain, they said go to their contact us link. Well, that's a bunch of garbage too. It allows you to ask a question. Nothing more.

Economical consequences???? I'm now overdrawn in my checking account because Pay Pal funds did not hit. Pay Pal should have to re-imburse me.

Sharon of Stanhope NJ (09/30/08)
They make it impossible for you to withdraw money from your paypal account. They keep you on hold forever if you call (20 minutes or more); they can't help you when you do call. Their live chat is useless online; I have been trying for 2 weeks to link my credit card and verify my bank account with paypal in order to withdraw money above my limit of $500.00. They can give me $500 in the form of a check, but they charge a handling fee. Not fair....

I have had to wait over two weeks to get some of my money. They are requiring too much red tape for people to verify their identity and take too long to correspond back to their clients. They need more phone help and better live chat online assistance.

Larry of Holbrook AZ (09/24/08)
I manage a Vacation Rental Property. Since I have had a PayPal merchant account for 8 years I decided to use PayPal to receive electronic payments for deposits and advance payments of rent. An individual made a $1000.00 payment via PayPal for the deposit and advance payment of rent. PayPal received the funds the next day from his checking account. PayPal then placed a hold on the funds, stating they were investigating the transaction for possible fraud. After 10 days I started asking when they were going to release the funds. After 2 weeks, they reversed the payment without giving any reason. The renter swears he did not do or say anything to cause them to reverse the payment.

PayPal just decided to screw me over because I questioned their actions. I have since come to an arrangement with the renter and he paid me in cash once the funds were back in his account. PayPal had no reason to freeze my account, nor any reason to reverse the payment other than the fact that I questioned their actions. I have requested that my PayPal account be canceled and I will never again trust or use PayPal.

Lost use of my PayPal account for over 2 weeks and I must find a real financial institution to process credit cards and electronic payments as I can no longer trust PayPal to perform this critical function do to their proven unreliability.

Alisa of Lake Charles LA (09/07/08)
i sent a item to a [man] mexico. he claimed that he did not get the item, so i did a tracking number. my paypal account is frozen, and if i sell anything on ebay, they will take that money to deal with the negative balance in my account. they will not restore the account until the [man] receives the item. i cannot ship any item out cause paypal have made my account minus. i have talked to them a bunch of times, but have gotten nothing.

Christy of Corinth TX (08/28/08)
I have had the worst experience with using pay pal lately. They hold your money, because they have new policies that state they have that right to hold your money that your customers pay you. What I think is really unfair is how they take their fees out of the money you are paid by the customer and then they hold the funds so you can not with draw or have any access. Ebay takes their fees out of the money as well.

You get very rude treatment when calling pay pal customer service to ask questions about this or you get hung up on. They keep changing their policies on me everytime I call or email them to find out when are they going to release my money. First they told me to pay through pay pal to ship item so I did and they got the confirmation that my customer did receive the item.

Next when I call asking why isn't my money released yet they say because I haven't received positive feedback yet. This is very very unfair for the sellers and also let's not forget ebay is what they are today because of people selling on there and paying all of the ebay and paypal fees. If pay pal holds peoples money they should not be aloud to take their fees out until releasing the funds, because what do they care since they already got paid. NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THEY CHARGE $1.00 everytime you their shgipping through pay pal. There should be another law suit against them because they are not even following their new policies and they make it extremely hard to get in contact with their customer service. When you email them they just send an automated email about their policies.

I have spent alot of time on this,I am very stressed and I am out more on shipping charges then what I charged my customers.

Christy of Corinth TX (08/27/08)
I have been selling and buying on Ebay for over 1 yr and I use to enjoy doing this plus it helps me so I can stay home with my autistic daughter. I recently sold 3 items on ebay and when I went to withdraw the money from my pay pal account I was declined so I came home logged onto paypal and they decided to hold $115.00 of my money.

I called them several times trying to find out why is my money being held I was hung up on then another customer service rep I could barely understand stated that I had 2 charge backs from 2 customers over 1 month ago and that they have new policies that state when you have a charge back they will hold your money for 21 days or until a positive feedback is left or until you provide proof of delivery of merchandise.

I was furious because they never warned me and I have to pay out of my own pocket to ship items because they are holding my money the customers paid. I went on ebay and paid for shipping through pay pal and sent them the confirmation numbers and tracking info. The merchandise has been delivered to my customers and PAY PAL still comes up with other reasons why they are going to hold my money.

One customer service rep I spoke with flat out told me I have no clue why they are still holding your money. I have seller protection through pay pal so if someone does a charge back on my account it is covered under pay pal seller protection.

Tom of Sacramento CA (08/22/08)
I am very dissapointed with my paypal service. I dont know what gives them the right to withold my recieved payments and expect me to ship the items! I generally will only ship items once payment has been recieved. I was never told prior to receiving payment that my payments were going to be held. If I would have known this I would have certainly used a more reliable form of payment other than Paypal. I Shipped the items anyway and even after they have been recieved my payments are still being held. I appreciate they are trying to protect buyers interests.... however as a seller I have given up my goods and not recieved payment! I am pretty sure ebay is breaking some form of rule or law and I intend to follow up with this and will be posting my experience on various boards. This is rediculous!

Shalini of Aldie VA (08/22/08)
They are charging excees postage from me and all other sellers who are completely unware for printing shipping labels on their website once a sale has been made on ebay. They claim to give you discounted shipping while charging us not only extra but also the discount part has been pocketed by them. They blame usps but its not usps. Leave alone the discount, they charge at least 70 cents for the smallest package of once once extra. It multiples with the size of the package. I have personally verified this at the usps website and usps store. The charges for the same weight on usps website and store is same and is lower than what paypal charges us.

I sample checked on 8 items and all cant go wrong had it not been paypal scam. Their corporate veil needs to be lifted. I do want a lawyer to contact me

Millions of sellers on ebay are being cheated by the minute. Millions of sales takes place on ebay and each seller is being cheated on it. Millions/Billions of dollars are being by the minute pocketed by them.

Billie of Midway TX (08/21/08)
I wish to file a complaint against PAYPAL, INC whose headquarters are in California. I sold two motorcycles via EBAY online and the buyer paid for them through PAYPAL. The buyer came to my home, took delivery of the motorcycles without riding them or even looking them over, took the titles and a paper where I said the motorcycles were sold AS IS, NO WARRANTY and once at home, 1000 miles away in another state, he began trying to get his money back. He tried for a refund from PAYPAL, who refused him. Then he tried for a refund through Ebay's Vehicle Buyer's Protection Plan, which refused him. Then he did a charge back on his credit card, which he received despite my protests and evidence there was nothing wrong with the motorcycles and that he had possession of them.

Now he has filed a charge back on his credit card for the Second motorcycle sold to him by us, and meanwhile PAYPAL is doing nothing to solve this dispute, PAYPAL is not standing up for me the Seller, and PAYPAL has let this person steal my motorcycle by allowing him to get a charge back via his credit card, and PAYPAL will probably now allow him to get a second charge back for the second motorcycle.

Now PAYPAL has a negative balance in my account online and wants me to fund it, effectively putting in the money in the account the buyer paid for the motorcycles, which he has for free. This means I would be out my motorcycles and my money for the motorcycles. PAYPAL would have their money, the buyer would have my motorcycles, and I would have had my property stolen. Please look into my case with PAYPAL and force them to protect me, as per their service agreements, against a buyer who is trying to steal from me. Something has to be done about PAYPAL and their buyers who try to steal from sellers on Ebay. Thank you.

Lacy of Wentzville MO (07/03/08)
A customer purchased an item from me and paid me by paypal. She lived in Canada, and ask that I send it to a P.O. box No. in Michigan. She did not want to pay the extra money shipped to her Canadian address. She did not purchase insurance either. I sent her package on 4/5/08. Around a month later I received a letter from the Detroit Bulk Mail Center in Allen Park, Michigan telling me they had found an empty wrapper (it was actually a box) with my address on it. I filled out a long form and sent it to St. Paul, Minnesotas Mail Recovery Center. They said they would try to find out what happened to what was in the package.

I contacted the buyer of my package and let her know what was going on. I even sent her a copy of the letter the post office had sent me along with a copy of the shipping receipt and delivery comfirmation receipt. I told her that it could take a while for the post office to find out something. She didn't answer for two days. When she did answer, she wanted me to send her money back. I told her that's not the way it works, that we have to let the post office handle the matter first. She contacted Paypal, and paypal sent me a complaint form with her complaint on it.

They allowed me to tell my side of what happened. They sent me another e-mail and told me to click on their complaint department. They gave me a file number to use when I went to the complaint department. They gave me ten days to work this out. But when I went to communicate with them, I could not. The only thing they allowed me to do to work it out was to give them permission to send her the money back she had sent through them. I would not allow them to do this because I was waiting on a answer from the Post Office. I have sent them numerous e-mails telling them she did not purchase insurance to cover the package.

So Paypal gave her the money back anyway and charged my account which put it in the negative. Now they have turned it over to a collection agency wanting that money which I did not authorize them to send. This is going to run my excellant credit. Can you help and what should I do. The amount is only $41.75 but thats not what bothers me. Its what they did and the way they did it. I don't feel they did me right.

They are ruining my credit.

Gilda of Winton NC (07/01/08)
An email address was submitted informing me that a person had made a paypay purchase for an ebay product and pay pal wanted to know if I had authorized it and if not to click onto my paypal account to dispute it and that charged amount would be returned. Everytime I try to log on to the paypal account and dispute the purchase, I can not get through I keep getting an erro message.

Tana of Rancho Cordova CA (06/25/08)
I have also been noticing the discrepancy in total $ received. However, I go by the total amount shown as received on the email PayPal sends me (this has always been the same amount shown on my account page as well). The discrepancy is near the top of the page where I'm paying for postage.

If the email from PayPal does not show that insurance was paid for, then I do not pay for insurance. This discrepancy shows for Priority Mail, but (as of 6/24/08) not for Media Mail or Parcel Post.

Also on 6/24/08, I called PayPal and asked about this problem; they said it was a known issue and would make sure that my account gets top priority (yeah, right). So pay attention to the emails you receive from PayPal!!! If your customers aren't actually PAYING for insurance, there's no reason you should be buying it for them (unless that's your usual practice, of course).

It's a major annoyance!

Merial of Grand Prairie TX (06/18/08)
I sold an item on ebay, used software with license key. After 42 days the customer emailed me to let me know that she can not register it and I told her that the software is used and she can install it and I did not have a returned policy. So she filed a claim with paypal and paypal had her to returned the item and they are going to debit my account.

My complaint is that I didn't do anything wrong and the customer was able to install my program on her computer and/or copy my disk and return my items. Paypay did not get in touch with me regarding this resolution.

Dena of San Diego CA (06/18/08)
Discrepancies in total $ received. One screen show shows extra $ was received from the buyer for shipping insurance. Another screen shows a different total $ actually paid by the buyer.

A loss of $2 per shipment.....60 listing per week.....over a $100 per month. I cannot possibly be the only one this is happening to.

Dina of Santa Ana CA (06/17/08)
I sold a Coach bag and shipped it using Priority Mail international flat rate envelope to Malaysia. I have the receipt showing the post office received it on April the 25th at 5 p.m. He never received it. I went to the post office and they told me there was a huge transportation riot in Malaysia, maybe that was the problem. Paypal decided to reverse the payment. Took all the amount from my account including the fees they charged and did it in a way that I can't even recover the Ebay fees because it took them exactly 45 days to decide. I am supposed to have expanded seller protection where is it?

I paid for the bag, shipping, Ebays Fees, Paypal fees twice, all a loss out of my pocket with nothing back other than a huge disappointed on the system.

Crystal of Sandston VA (06/09/08)
I sold an item on Ebay.com. Auction terms clearly stated as is and final sale. As per ebay's tos, bidding implies compliance by the buyer. Buyer decided he wanted to return the item after receipt; I declined. Buyer instigated complaint with Paypal, who didn't do any research whatsoever and decided to debit my account and give my money to the buyer ($75).

Paypal's email states that this has left my paypal account $75 in the negative and they intend to debit my personal checking account to retrieve the funds. I wrote them and expressly stated that they are NOT authorized to do so. Their email stated that if they could not retrieve the funds, they will send me to collections and damage my credit.

$90+ loss (including funds taken out of account and given to buyer, cost of shipping and all fees associated, plus loss of functional item).

Shawn of Mableton GA (05/28/08)
On Ebay I paid $425 for an item titled 16gb iPhone. I received an item in the mail from the seller which was not an iPhone. The item was not an item that Apple iPhone has ever made. The item actually said HiPhone on the back. I sent it back to the seller and filed a claim with Paypal.com (the way to pay for an ebay item). Paypal has decided not to refund my money even though I provided written testimony and I also have pictures to prove it was not an iPhone. Now I'm stuck without an iPhone and less $425.

I have lost my $425 and the shipping costs to send it back with signature confirmation. I never received the as advertised 16gb iPhone.

Sherry of North Syracuse, NY (04/28/08)
Paypal froze my account, and they froze it due to suspicious activity. I never had any complaints and my feedback for selling on ebay was great, but then paypal contacted my customers and me saying the transactions might be fradulent. I don't know what to do.

My mortgage is past due, I have people who have gotten product but cannot pay me, I have no money for groceries or anything. I have people who are still waiting for product but I cannot buy it.

Greg of Concord NH (03/15/08)
I sold a computer motherboard on an Ebay auction where I stated that the item was not eligible for return due to the sensitive nature of such electronics. The buyer complained that the item was defective and without asking to arrange for a refund or return, he filed a complaint with Paypal. The email address used on the payment transaction was not my primary email address so when Paypal attempted to contact me via email, I did not respond within the 10 days they require. Paypal refunded the purchase price with shipping to the buyer without ever having communication with me. I responded on the 12th day but it was too late. I have appealed this case twice yet Paypal has still not rectified this. The buyer has not responded to my emails requesting payment or return of my item. Now I am out the item and my money and Paypal is not helping at all. Paypal needs to review it's policies when an honest seller (99% positive feedback) gets the short end of the stick because of an unscrupulous buyer.

$75.90 which is the item price with shipping that was refunded to the buyer.

Angela of Portage MI (03/02/08)
I was limited by Paypal for no reason on my account which is ruining my online sales on ebay and on my drop-shipping site that I use to raise funds for my nonprofit organization. I have told Paypal this, and they keep telling me to login and go to the sentence on the page where it says how to unlimit the account. I click on it, and it just says the account cannot be unlimited. All information they needed from that, I faxed to them and has been received, but they still won't unlimit my account. They keep saying I can only have 2 accounts with them which is all I have--a personal account and a business account.

However, they keep making my personal account my business account, and then they keep changing my information on it and limiting my account. Three years ago it was finally fixed; then a month later they limited it again. I have been trying to get my account unlimited for 3 years now. I am losing many sales by them doing this to me.

Toy of San Bernardino CA (02/22/08)
 My Paypal debit card expired in August 2007. Paypal never notified me of its expiration. Paypal made no attempt to send me a new card. I finally had to request a new card in September. I AM RECEIVING ALL MY MAIL. September the card did not arrive so I requested a second card. In October the card did not arrive so I requested a third card, etc. In December I changed my address and confirmed my new address. I added a new credit card, verified/confirmed everything, and I requested a fifth card. In January the card did not arrive so I requested a sixth card. On February 22 the card still did not arrive, so I called and asked to speak to a manager. I was told I never applied for a card, and the woman operator hung-up on me. Called back and spoke to Melvin in Midwest call center who transferred me to manager Joey Dublin in Ireland. Manager Joey said the card was sent to my old address again instead of my new address. I completely removed all my old information from the Paypal system and requested my seventh card. I AM RECEIVING ALL MY MAIL; NOTHING IS WRONG WITH MY MAIL

This has absolutely hindered my business as I am unable to access my money immediately or make reservations. Cost me hundreds of dollars in time and money.

Johnathan of Avondale AZ (02/06/08)
Last year I sold numerous used cellular phones on ebay that were once my personal items. Paypal came to me and told me that my activity was suspicious and they froze my account asking for copies of my social security card, identification, contact information for my supplier, and receipts for my items. I explained to them that the items were old and I no longer had receipts and that they were personal items. I emailed them my ID. I was told that this should not be a problem. Then they suspended my account indefinitely and froze my funds. Unfortunately those funds were to pay for the shipping of the items. 6months later I was sent an email stating that my money was available for withdrawal and my acct was eligible for closure. I withdrew my funds and requested an account closure BUT my money market acct deposited an interest payment of .20 cents but I can't withdraw any less than a dollar. I called them today and told them that I no longer wanted any affiliation with their company and I wanted my account closed. They refused. I told them that my social security number is attached to that account and I no longer wish for that account to be in existence. They refused again. I do not believe that paypal has the right to FORCE me to have an account with them wether limited or not. Can someone please help me?

I was forced to pay for shipping out of my personal money. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time arguing with customers that were sent emails stating that I was not allowed to receive money. NOT TO MENTION that I was forced to pay the ebay fees for items that I was not able to collect funds on.

Amy of Cocoa Beach FL (02/05/08)
My sister had an internet business and she transferred money from her paypal account to my paypal account to hold it temporarily until her dropshipper notified her to pay because they didn't pick up the money within the 5 day time line. She transferred the money back to herself once the dropshipper emailed her. Then they flagged our account for suspicious activity. I'm clueless - now they charged back the $759.00 back to me and told me to pay it out of my checking account. I had nothing to do with it, it was my sister, she transferred that money without my knowledge. I refuse to pay them. I had a PayPal account so a man from Canada could pay me for cleaning services I do at his timeshare. All this was just a temporary money transfer between my sister and I and somehow they cannot figure this out!

They are trying to take this money out of my checking account. I don't owe them any money and I don't know what they are talking about. I want to sue them

Robert of Spartanburg SC (01/07/08)
Paypal flagged a payment transaction between me and a client and hassled my client by asking him to verify his home address, alledging the trnasaction was possibly unauthorized This has created an embarassing situation for me professionally. My client simply wanted to pay his bill using paypal...and what he got was an invasion of privacy and a questioning from paypal about his personal affairs.

I chose paypal because it supposedly protected the privacy of my client as well as being convenient. When i called paypal dispute resolution I got a cheeky response with corporate double speak and excuse making, tellimg me it is for security purposes. By the way, this was a simple $600 transaction for services with no goods or shipping involved. Paypal has just lost a FEE PAYING customer. And their attitude was, who cares.

James of Louisburg NC (01/04/08)
I placed two orders for $850 each (Order 2216 for $850 placed on Nov 21, 2007 and Order 2232 on Nov 30, 2007 for $850) for gasoline gift cards through website www.ediscountgascards.com and paid through PayPal by EFT from my personal checking account. The above business address is, as per website, but is actually a UPS store box. Business phone number is as per website, is apparently registered to Laverne ____. Seller discontinued contact with me (Buyer) shortly after second order was placed, and has not returned phone calls or emails. Dispute was filed with PayPal, concluding in a claim with Seller but was notified by PayPal that none of the funds could be recovered from the Seller's account. I have been notified by PayPal that contact info for this company cannot be provided without a subpoena or warrant.

For now it appears I have been defrauded of $1700 from this seller.

Bud of Briarcliff TX (12/30/07)
Paypal seems to be engaged in a policy of passing liability/costs for unauthorized use of accounts onto seller-victims. I recently sold an item on Paypal and was later told that the buyers payment may have been an unauthorized use of the account. The holder of the account told his credit card company (from which the funds were deducted) that the withdrawal was unauthorized. The CC company issued a charge-back to Paypal pending investigation of the withdrawal. Paypal requested from me information regarding the transaction. When questioned, Paypal said that if the CC company decides the account usage was unauthorized and the buyer is refunded his funds, then Paypal will expect me to refund the money paid me, although my goods were shipped and would be unrecoverable. Paypal policy claims to allow charge-backs for any reason, which would allow them to shift the cost of recovery from (a) the person who surrendered his account information to (b) the seller to whom Paypal transferred the funds. The CC company's investigation is on-going, but Paypal wants the funds returned.

Lost $1300.00 in goods and $117.00 in shipping fees.

Jewell of Jesup GA (05/22/07)
thirty days ago I sold some merchandise totalling 249.99 including shipping and handling. I sent Via DHL and the shipment was recieved by a very happy customer. Thirty days later I check my paypal account because I am expecting another 200.00 payment from another customer and find my account negative 249.99 and the pink issue banner at the top of the page. Well I went and looked at the issue and called paypal.

They said they sent an email, which I to this day have never gotten nor the next two they said they sent. I have since talked to them four times on the phone and gotten very tight lipped poor customer service. Four different stories about what is going on. The third time I called I finally found out that it was not the customer that filed a complaint or even was trying to reverse charges, IT WAS PAYPALS DOING all by themselves.

They decided thirty days later that the transaction 'did not look right to them'. Mind you that I have had over seven years of selling and buying using paypal even prior to their being bought by ebay and never had a problem. I have sold the same type of merchandise the whole time and for amounts up to 1000.00 so this sale was not something new for my account.

All I can get out of them is that it looks fraudulent. I asked if it was my account or the buyers account they told me no, that it was the funds used to pay me. What ever that means.

Edson of London, England (05/08/07)
Posted an item that was bought on ebay and paid through paypal. a week later the lady complains to paypal saying that she never received the item. I posted this item through the royal mail's special delivery service so she should of received the item the very next day. I also kept the receipts which had a tracking number. If you check this tracking number you will see that the item was delivered and signed for.

I provided the tracking number to paypal using their resolution centre. I even phoned them twice and provided the tracking number on both occasions and they checked the number over the phone and then said that it will be fine.

Despite me providing them with this evidence they never took the limit off my account and never contacted me to investigate the situation. They did not contact me before they decided to limit my account in fact all correspondance i have had is down to me going out of my way to contact them. That includes ringing them on a premium rate phone line.

Today i have received a letter from debt collectors stating that I owe paypal money and that I must pay it to avoid a visit from the bailiffs. This is out of order mainly due to the fact that I am innocent. I have contacted royal mail to investigate this. It is obvious that i got scammed. What do I do now? what are my legal rights?

Bruno of Corona NY (05/06/07)

I sold an item on Ebay. The buyer paid me and Paypal put limitations in my account and hold the money for 180 days. I tried to lift the limitation providing everything they needed to lift the limitation but nothing worked. They said my account was a high risk and they had to keep my money there for 180 days.

The consequences about this whole thing is that I had to paid for that item out of my pocket I didn’t see a dime from that money and I got both my Ebay and Paypal account suspended.

Donald of Burkeville VA (04/09/07)
I sold under the seller's name Goodwar on Ebay. In May of 2006 items were sold to buyers and the items were listed as is. One was a watch certified by jewelers to be a Cartier. The watch was listed as being for repair which means as is. We listed it as being no return and no refund. The buyer waited over thirty days to try and coerce a refund. They refused to send the watch back and then collected a refund out of PayPal. PayPal violated their own rules by not making the buyer return the item for review.

We filed a fraud complaint since watch was appraised at over $3,000.00. We made every effort to notify them that the U.S. Postal Inspector considered this fraud. They then turned it over NCO Collections Agency which is now calling every day, including Saturadays and Sundays. They refuse to give their address, and we told them to stop calling.

Tracy of Reidsville NC (04/09/07)
I sold an item through ebay to a man in Switzerland. They paid for the item with Paypal. The guy from Switzerland used his credit card to pay through with Paypal. Anytime you list a card with paypal, they do a verification process before the card can be used.

I mailed the item off to this guy who I didn't realize had an unconfirmed address with Paypal. After I notified the man that his item had been shipped, he immediately called his creidt card company that he has listed with Paypal that they're supposed to verify and stated that he didn't make that charge and that the card had been stolen. I called the guy in Switzerland myself and he said he paid it. Yeah, he paid it but then called and reported his card stolen.

Paypal refuses to give me my money that I've lost on this guy because they say his address is unconfirmed but yet the credit card was supposed to be verified by Paypal themselves.

I am out my software which is valued at 499.00 but was sold to the guy in Switzerland for 239.90. Paypal refuses to help me through the seller protection.

Anatoly of Woodburn OR (03/10/07)
On December 21, 2006 I sold a laptop computer on Ebay I was paid thru Paypal and shipped the laptop as instruced by the buyer. Four (4) days later, paypal informed me that there is some descrapancy about the payment and suggested that I do not send the merchandise at this time. They said this would be a temporary situation.

After 3 weeks they informed me that they felt they needed to refund the buyr their money and that I owe them $415.00. Several times I replied to them saying that they will not get a dime from me until they return my computer. I sent 11 emails to the buyer and never received a single reply. Today, I received the thrid call from a collection agency telling me that Paypal has referred me to them for collection of $415.00. This situation is the most ridiculous I have ever been in. Is there anything legally that can protect me from such highway robbery ?

Hassle on the phone by a verydetermined collection agency.

Bill Smith of Lake Havasu City AZ (03/07/07)
I sold and item on ebay in January of 2007. They collected the money from the person that won the bid. They gave me the address to ship the item and I ship it to him via ups. Last Thursday I went to my paypal account to find that they reversed their payment to me and gave it back to the Purchaser witch has the item, that was verified by UPS. They still have not gave me reason for thier actions. All I know is that my account is in negative balance, and they should of not taken that money back.

They Locked up my account without notice

Zhen of Brooklyn NY (02/27/07)

I am a Ebay seller and a Paypal user. Paypal put a limitation on my account twice in 2 weeks. They lifted the first limitation off last Wednesday after i have provided them with my bank account number, credit card number, and tracking information for the items that i have sold on Ebay. Today, Payapal place a limitation on my account again. The limitation froze all of my money in my account and asks me to provide more private information such as Social Security number, proof of purchase of the items that i have sold, and tracking information. I was told I need to provide all the information they want or the they will not lift the limitation. Now, I cannot withdraw my money, I cannot do business on Ebay, and I have shipped the products to all buyers.

Edwin of Norwalk CT (12/21/06)

I was selling Playstation 3's and Nintendo Wii's online on Ebay, who by the way owns Paypal. Please keep in mind, I have a good feedback rating in Paypal after 5 years with them and I have a 100% rating for 6 or 7 years with EBAY with over 120 feedbacks. There is no reason to suspect whatsoever that I would suddenly start scamming people.

On my third item I sold on Ebay I did a transfer of funds to my checking account. To my surprise, Paypal reversed my funds back to my Paypal account without prior notice or warning. Paypal restricted my account from transferring funds and even reversed my last transaction because the items I sold were “high risk“. They asked me to provide all sorts of information after 5 p.m. on a Friday including tracking numbers, and requested I fax a copy of my license. Once I did all that, they had my status in review.

I called to find out what was going on and they again asked for the tracking number. This I found to be a ridiculous request because the tracking number they were requesting was in their very own transaction data they provide you when your checking the details of the transaction. After giving them the tracking number numerous times, they said they were going to hold my money for 180 days!

I call them and they said once they can verify that the customer has received the items, they will release the money. On day 6, the FedEx tracking showed the customer received the item. The customer even e-mailed me to tell me they got the item. Now Paypal's excuse was that the item was not signed for, even though the customer signature was on file. The customer service person said they would call the customer to verify they received the item. Apparently Fed Ex tracking is not good enough for them.

They have ruined my Christmas as they have now locked up $1300.00 of my Christmas money in their account. They are delaying my bill payments and are causing interest charges on my part all while they float my money. I have spent countless hours trying to get them to release MY money.

Brian of Yale OK (12/11/06)
My item that was sold on eBay was paid for with a stolen credit card number from a hijacked eBay account. Paypal is currently holding me liable for the funds because the real buyer issued a chargeback through his credit card company and I did not ship to a confirmed address, according to Paypal (It was shipped to the Ukraine, per the hijacker's request, for his friend's birthday).

Paypal notified me that they are working on a resolution, yet I received a letter in the mail last Saturday from a collection agency stating I owe the $530 that was stolen from the eBay buyer. I sold an item on eBay to make money, not lose money.

None yet. Paypal states they are working to resolve the issue, yet I still get a collections letter.

John of Santee CA (11/29/06)

We have a vehicle repair facility and use Paypal to process our credit card payments. Paypal froze our account and has kept what money we have while a "dispute is being reviewed". Paypal says this is due to a customer filing a fraudulent claim with the credit card company AND giving a fraudulent check in order to avoid a lien against the vehicle.

We have ALL the documentation and $6000.00 is involved. The customer never requested his money back from us. In addition, the customer is driving around in his perfectly fixed vehicle.

When we contacted Paypal, we were assured that Paypal would not attempt to take ANY money from our bank account until this was resolved AND it was proven we were at fault, which would take a minimum of 30 days. We are not able to delete our personal or business checking account information in Paypal in order to prevent them from taking our money "while our charge-backs are in review". We haven’t been able to accept credit cards since 11/17 and have fees on top of the balance. We need help. We’re a small family owned business and this could literally ruin us.

It’s bad enough that we have had to file a small claims suit against our customer for the bad check, but we also have to figure out how to get our $6000.00 from Paypal. Paypal has even blocked us from getting our own money that was in the account prior to this problem!

Joann of Rancho Cucamonga CA (08/30/06)
I sold a pocket pc on ebay and sent it insured getting a signed receipt. I also got a letter from the United States Post Office claiming that they delivered it and it was signed for. This guy says he couldn't track it online so paypal gave him the item and his money back. I am out both pocket pc and $77.50. They will not protect there sellers. I want my product back or a refund of $77.50. I did appeal the case but they won't even respond to my emails. I get an auto response saying they recieved the email and will get back to me but they haven't.

Loss of $77.50 hurts alot especially when I have bills to pay.

Barry of Savannah GA (2/13/04):
Paypal decided to close my account and FREEZE my cash because a buyer had a questionable login name and inferred that I was selling adult material. Prior to this excuse they said I used their logo on my website (DO NOT HAVE A WEBSITE) then they said I changed my credit card too many times (DON'T USE CREDIT CARD - USE CHECKING ACCOUNT) then they finally decided to slander me with this complaint. I have contacted Paypal by telephone and by email but have yet to get a consistent response.

Further they will only tell you they will SEND YOU A CHECK in a "few" days but will bot quantify a "few" nor will they tell you the bank name that the check will be issued from. The funds are frozen and they ALONE are reaping the interest off of the money. I caution you about complaining to the BBB of Silicon Valley (bbbsilicon.org). Despite that Paypal has over 2,800 consumer complaints, the BBB of Silicon VAlley keeps them in GOOD STANDING.

Fred of Orlando (1/26/04):
I sold merchandise to an individual and she paid me through her paypal account to mine for the goods. When I went to withdraw a money transfer this individual sent me for some merchandise I could not do it. When I went to my paypal account, it asked me to confirm my identity by giving them my Social Security number. They said there was a transaction that was done on the 25th that made them suspicious so they need more info.

I called them on the phone after looking at my account (which had no transaction for that date and challenged them on it. They told me they froze the account because a person I was selling to had problems with some of their buyers so they decided to hold it aganst me because I sold them merchandise. I cannot send the merchandise to another buyer because his money is on hold. The money the person who is having the problems is long gone.

Lee of Lee NH (1/22/04):
Over a year ago I sold a used Leica M6 camera lens on eBbay. The buyer wrote and said that the item was "not as described" - he alleged a problem with the lens. Ebay checked into his complaint and closed the case having taken no action. A month and a half ago I received an e-mail from PayPal informing me that they had placed a "chargeback" against my account. Evidently his credit card company was requesting a return of funds because the item was "not as described".

I sent all pertinent information to PayPal, and asked many, many questions - to which I received no response except irrelevant form letters. I then received an e-mail from PayPal saying that they had my lens in their posession and they required a check from me for the amount of the refund due ($540.00). I have no assurances that the lens is in the shape it was in when I sent it to the buyer - over a year ago. I have no information as to how and why someone decided that the item was "not as described". I have no information about his credit card issuer's "chargeback" policy - which is usually about 30 days for most banks. A year and a half seems excessive.

I must tell you that the lens truly had been used by 2 professional photographers and they thought it to be in pristine condition. And I included many photographs of it when selling it. I suspect that the buyer did not pay attention to the descrption, and bought a "rangefinder" lens for a non rangefinder camera.

Damage Resulting: PayPal has charged me 544.00 - and has requested that I send them a check for that amount, at which time they will return the lens to me. The lens could be in pieces as far as I know.

Michael of Lawton OK (1/3/04):
I sold a computer on Ebay, about 2 months ago. The person was from California and said she/he had a nephew that lived in Illinois, and it was his birthday in 2 days. She/he asked if he/she could use PayPal to pay for the transaction, and if I minded sending the computer to the nephew in Illinois. I completed the transaction with him/her, and once I confirm that the package was delivered I left positive feedback on ebay for him/her.

A day after I left positive feedback I recieved a notification from paypal that A funds reversal has been initiated due to use of fradulant funds. I sent PayPal a copy of all emails, on the transaction, and they refused to give me any information, not even an IP address of the person that bought the computer off me, so I had no legal action that I could take on the person that took my money and my computer.

So far I have refused to pay PayPal because they have provided me with no proof that this transaction was not legitimate. I notified Ebay on the problem, and they did nothing to resolve the issue, I received no refund on the auction fees, and I even lost my registration because they claimed that I was the fraud.

Two months has passed and I just received an Email from a person in Pennsylvania, who has just had the same exact thing happen to him with the same ebay username! Now I notified ebay and paypal of the issue, and they did nothing to the person responsible, they didn't even suspend their account! And now someone else has fallen victum to the same person. I feel this is gross negligence on the part of Ebay and Paypal to alow this to happen twice by the same person with a 2 month time difference.

Toni of Frankfort IN (12/23/03):
Sold $14,000 worth of planters on Ebay. Buyer put $1,400 down through PayPal then came to Indiana to pick them up. Three months later the buyer stopped payment on his credit card and PayPal charged my account the $1,400. The buyer later returned the money to PayPal, but PayPal sat on the money and sent me to collections!

Now my credit report has a collections on it. To this day they have not credited my account but say the buyer has sent the money, so I do not know what else to do.

Brian of Urbanna VA (11/26/03):
Last week, Paypal sent a notice stating that my company was in violation of their acceptable usage policy for selling adult novelties, and as a result, my account would be restricted if it was not in compliance of their policies by 11/24/03, and would no longer be able to accept future payments. Upon receiving this notice, I altered approximately 600 pages of my website, in order to comply with their request, and adhere to their �user agreement�.

As of last week, well before their deadline, my website was 100% compliant with their policy and all of the stringent regulations they have set forth, per their email request. However, on November 26, 2003, I was shocked to learn that my account had been limited without any justification or warning, despite the fact that I had complied with their previous request. In addition, the funds from transactions prior to the date of their notice that my account was in violation were also locked. There was no fraud, or even the question of any activities such as that, or any other tangible reason for that account to be limited, other than non-compliance, which had already been taken care of days before the account was �limited�. Although my account is still �technically� open (their legal loophole I suppose).

I am not able to withdraw, or access any of the funds from my paypal account, nor am I able to spend those funds anywhere else. As of writing this, I still have $118.15 in my account, which paypal has adamantly refused to refund to me, giving no rhyme or reason. I understand that this is a relatively small of money, however that does not make it right. Regardless of whether or not my account, or any other account adheres to their policies, they have no legal claim to hold those funds without explanation or cause.

Delina of Moshannon PA (7/7/03):
I have been selling on ebay for about 2 years. I advertise Paypal as the online payment I prefer. On July 1, 2003 they reversed a credit card payment of 810.00 to a buyer that bought a mink coat on April 27, 2003 from me on eBay. Paypal just reversed the payment withput even contacting me first. I was shocked. As a seller I thought I was protected.

She said the item wasn't as described and wanted her money back. It was as described and I had the original sales receipt for the mink coat. Clearly written on the receipt is MINK and the original selling price. I also had a signature confirmation receipt from the post office. It was over 30 days since she paid me for it through paypal. She did not purchase the buyers protection insurance either. The previous money transaction on June 30, 2003 to my bank was cancelled and reversed back to paypal. My paypal account now is -810.00 as they reversed the payment for the mink, back to the buyer, just because she said wanted her money back because the item wasn't as described.

Now all the payments made to me by buyers of my auctions goes toward the -810.00. I don't receive any of the money that is being sent to me from the buyers, but I still have an obligation to my buyers to send the items they paid for. I had 5 days to contact paypal with the tracking numbers, which I did so, but nowhere was there a place to add any other information. The email I received from paypal said that they would make a decision within 5 days. I called paypal and asked about the sellers protection policy and about it being over 30 days. I also informed them that the buyer did not purchase buyers protection. I was informed that since the buyer paid by credit card, that none of the above applied.

The purchase showed that her payment was instant. Nowhere did it state that she paid by credit card. The seller is not protected when paid with a credit card, I was told by paypal. Then why doesn't paypal state that in their agreement up front? Paypal did tell me to fax them a copy of the original sales receipt that I had kept that was on the mink and a copy of the signature confirmation. I did that on July 1, 2003. I have still not heard anything from paypal and my account is still negative. I also informed paypal that I did refund to the buyer 13.00 in overpayment of shipping costs through paypal. Still no response on that either.

I am a very honest seller and try very hard to keep my good reputation. Paypal makes people believe that they can trust them. I want other sellers to know just what is in store for them if they use paypal.

"imarkit" of Woodland Hills CA (6/6/03):
Paypal which recently has been taken over by ebay.com, has simply allowed a large amount of my customers to commit credit card fraud, and did nothing about it. I started hearing rumors on the ebay bulletin that there is a loophole with paypal. Any customer who pays by credit card for any product may do a reversal after receiving the product and keep both the money and the product simply BY STATING THAT THE PRODUCT WAS NOT AS PROMISED. That is it.

If the customer put non delivery, we can defend ourselves. The problem here is the money is tied up for a couple of weeks! Even though we get the money back within a month or so, the customer then does a chargeback with their credit card company. HERES THE BAD PART. THEY ALWAYS GET THEIR MONEY BACK!

Paypal tries to send an email that says anything over $250 you must have a signature stating that the customer received the package for us to support you. If you look at my paypal disputes list, you will see some examples of me just getting ripped off! The worse part is paypal froze my account due to people wanting chargebacks because i couldnt get to the money that was frozen. just yesterday i sold some items and the money was negated from my account instead of being added to the account.

Susan of Bakersfield CA (4/7/03):
In January 2003, Paypal deducted $900.00 from my account for a fraudulent chargeback complaint. Even though I provided proof of delivery with signature, Paypal said it would take up to 75 days for the chargeback investigation to be completed. 75 days and many phone calls later, the funds were finally returned to my account. A second chargeback for over $915.00 was also deducted from my Paypal account. This time, however, even though I provided proof of shipping with a signature, the chargeback was finalized, and I will never see the money from this sale again. Paypal is unable and unwilling to provide their customers with any level of personalized service. They also can do little or nothing over the phone, aside from telling you your case has been stacked with the rest of them and will be handled in the order received.

Amy of North Vernon IN (1/30/03):
Effective today Paypal froze my account; their term Limited Access -- meaning I can do nothing with the money. I sold two Vulcan Griddles (a three burner and a four burner). The buyers paid using Paypal. I requested that $1200.00 oof the $1434.00 be transferred to my bank account. After waiting two days for the EFT, they reversed the transaction and requested more verification before I can regain access. Due to this fact I have placed a hold on the shipments for Monday and have faxed Paypal the requested information. They say 3-5 business days to resolve the matter. However, my account already shows that they have verified the account and my social security number.

It has already hurt my reputation with my buyers due to the fact that I felt obligated to inform them that their shipment may be delayed and why. If the buyer backs out I am out the sale and the fees, plus my reputation will be worthless and the equipment, purchased specifically to resell will be nothing more than a storage problem.

Joe of Seattle writes (3/7/02):
PayPal froze my account $100 because I added a second credit card and started transferring money there. PayPal told me I needed to veriy the account. I did, and sent proper documentation. This took a week.

Three business days later they told me I need to change my password and "secret questions" before I can withdraw money or unfreez the account. I did that. 10 min later they send me another letter saying the only way to release the hold on my account is to verify the account (which they had already checked) and send the documentation (they had already sent me an e-mail verifying that they had received the fax and reviewing it)

This may not seem like a major problem but I need that money to ship the items paid for. Also the amount in the account has tripled from auction's ending. My total time locked out is estimated at 3 weeks minimum. They have caused me considerable headache and financial grief without reason other than they are having unrelated security problems.

Isaac of Walnut CA (3/7/02):
I have been using Paypal on my Ebay auctions for so long. I clearly indicated on my auction page that I prefer this form of payment and a lot of customers use Paypal to pay for their merchandise. All the while I thought it was safe and secure to use them.

Out of the blue, on February 27, 2002, at 8:00 A.M., I received an email from Paypal saying that I have added another Paypal email address and that this change was my primary PayPal email address on my account with them. Nobody else knows my password on that account and no one at home uses hotmail.com, so I could only think that this has to be an inside job from Paypal who did this. I started to email Paypal to inform them about it, but I could not access to this email address anymore.

It has been very hard to contact them. All the emails that I sent them got the same response, to log into my account, which I could not of course because my account name was not valid anymore. Distressed and frustrated not able to get any resolution to this mess, I emailed them about this fraudulent act and finally on March 1, 2002, I was able to get hold of one of their employee named Doug, and told him the problem.

I have suffered harrassment from angry clients who thought that I just decided not to accept Paypal as mode of payment when in fact it was in my site that I accept payments through Paypal. Although I emailed my clients on the temporary suspension of Paypal until the problem is solved, some customers did not even read my note; they simply made payments to Paypal. I advised them to make a reversal of their payments to my old email address and some are having problems doing that and they are as frustrated and annoyed with the poor Paypal customer service. They are asking for help on how to get through to PayPal other than by email; and there is no phone number to reach them.

Kelly of Oxnard, CA (2/15/02):
They have frozen my account that I rely on for business, and have complyed with everything that they asked me to do, and they still have done nothing! I have been out alot of money, buyers can't send me payments nor can I withdrawl money from my paypal account that has $646.00 in it that I really need to use!

Valerie of Jackson, TN (10/20/01):
I work for myself on the Internet. I have a simple ezine with over 1000 subscribers. I also join many marketing and affiliate programs. One such program I joined is called "Pay Direct Pal Depot." It is an affiliate program in which monies are paid to members' accounts upon joining.

Pay Direct Pal Depot program has many products for the one time 20 dollars one pays to join. The list is so long of what you receive that it would be silly for me to place it all here. However shortly after Pay Direct Pal Depot entered the net, Pay Pal froze their account. I was making 200 dollars a day almost from that great program and many others were making money and utilizing their good products. Now I have lost my good name and reputation due to the fact Pay Pal shut them down for no true legitimate reason.

How? Because I informed my subscribers of what a good program it was and they paid their good money of 20 dollars of which some never were able to utilize the products because pay pal shut them down so quickly. I feel paypal does these things in order to receive interest off companies and peoples monies. I am beginning to believe that Pay Pal is ONE BIG SCAM itself. Although I have never had my little account froze my them, I have lost more than once due to them shutting down legitimate business on the net.

Maya of Los Angeles (8/9/01):
I have sold several items on Ebay and to make payment faster and easier, I recently created an account with PayPal, which accepts credit card payments from buyers and deposits the money into my account after taking a fee of almost 3%. I signed up for PayPal because Paypal is often used on and heavily advertised on Ebay as a type of "secure" payment that protects both buyers and sellers.

Unfortunately, I have discovered that PayPal is not what it advertised itself to be. I recently sent a bag (on or about July 20, 2001) to the winning bidder of one of my ebay auctions in the amount of $114.00. I received payment notification from PayPal, indicating the amount paid and the name and address of the person to whom I was to ship the bag to. Shortly after receiving payment, I sent the bag with insurance at the United States Post Office.

After a couple of weeks, I received an email from PayPal notifying me that I may have received the funds "fraudulently" and that they were currently investigating. I was also notified that as a result of the investigation, the $114 less PayPal's fees would be put on hold. In other words, they took that amount out of my account for no legitimate reason and without proper information.

I emailed PayPal back and provided them with all the information I had including, but not limited to, the name and address where I sent the bag, pictures of the bag I had taken, and the date when I shipped the bag and the "tracking number" on my post office receipt. When I never received a response from PayPal, I called their 888 number and was told no information could be given to me because it was currently under investigation. I also inquired as to why PayPal was so quick to withdraw the money from my account and expressed my concerns that this was quite unfair for there was no proof anything was "fraudulent" and that I indeed had proof that I had sent the bag to the address given to me by Paypal. In addition to wrongfully taking my money out of my account, they stopped paying me interest on the amount withheld despite the fact there was no clear and convincing evidence anything wrong had happened.

I then received ONE email from PayPal indicating that the tracking number I had provided was NOT valid and requested that I contact the post office. I immediately contacted the post office and was told that the Post Office cannot electronically track packages and that instead, the post office requires the recipient of the package to sign for the package and that signed card would then be sent to me. I then conveyed this information to PayPal that the post office did not in fact have an electronic tracking system. However, rather than respond, I recently received an email from PayPal indicating that they have "determined tha the funds I received were given to me fraudulently" and the payment of $114.00 less PayPal's fee was permanently withdrawn from my account.

As a last resort measure, I contacted the buyer to find out her side of the story. I received an email back from her today and she indicated that she had been out of the country and when she returned, she found out about the mess PayPal had created. She told me that she DID receive the bag and there was NO FRAUD that she complained about. Rather, she said PayPal told her that she used the wrong email address to make payment and as a result, PayPal erroneously concluded that the transaction was FRAUDULENT.

Based on the information PayPal provided me, it insinuated that the buyer had made a complaint, but I have since found this is NOT the case and instead, PayPal acted on its own to take money out of my account and prevent the buyer who has received my item, from paying me the money I am owed.

Ken of Southport, Queensland, Australia (4/27/01):
As a consistent seller from Australia on Ebay, I have considerable problems when items are sold to US customers. For those of us without credit card handling facilities (which covers pretty well all private citizens), movement of funds from US to Australia is extremely expensive and confusing to most Americans.

Ebay of course does not concern itself with these problems, but I feel they can hardly claim to be a global service when they provide so little information about how people can pay for goods sold. In an effort to overcome this, and acting on pressure from some buyers in USA, I joined PayPal late last year (2000).

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