Mods, you may feel inclined to move this from the general discussion forum to elsewhere, but I consider that this deserves the widest possible circulation for anyone considering buying or selling and considering using PayPal as a means to move money from A to B.
I am compelled to post my recent experience with PayPal because I consider myself one of those people who is law-abiding, honest and who believes in playing by the rules. In a nutshell, I value my integrity and have always believed that if you play fair, others will treat you accordingly.
I have bought and sold items on Ebay since 2003 and have a 100% positive feedback rating of 152. I have also maintained a Verified Premier PayPal account for the same length of time and regularly use this service to pay for items I buy online and as a means of receiving payment from buyers for kit sold on Ebay or elsewhere (cheques are not always reliable and not everyone wishes to travel and collect and pay in cash.
At the beginning of July 2008 I advertised an IsoTek GII MiniSub on the Hififorsale classified ads website and was contacted by a buyer from Edinburgh (I live in Hampshire).
We agreed a sale price of £325 and the buyer sent me an e-cheque via my PayPal account which appeared to be a secure medium and would allow me to send the item as soon as the buyer's payment cleared.
When I tried to transfer the funds to my bank account, PayPal sent me a message informing me that because I had received more than $1300 USD my account (I have recently sold some hi fi on Ebay for £500) access was limited and I would have to complete additional security steps to comply with European anti-money laundering laws!
On 12/07/08 at PayPal's insistance I confirmed my bank account details, linked and confirmed a credit card, changed my password, provided business information (I do not operate a business!) and changed my security questions & answers. The final hurdle was to verify my address by PayPal phoning me and asking for a security code. Well, the phone rang and promptly disconnected. As a result, PayPal state that I failed that security step and on 22/07/08 they sent me a letter containing a six-digit security code that I will have to enter on my account to comply with their checklist of tasks.
I contacted (with much difficulty) one of their 'customer services' agents who told me that they could not telephone my home address because the computer could not be overridden and I would have to wait for the letter to arrive. Not very helpful at all!
By 10/08/08, the letter had still not arrived and I made a complaint to PayPal. The response was that the letter was being processed in the USA???????? and could take up to three weeks to arrive. They acknowledged that I had been inconvenienced and as an alternative option, I could fax copies of my utility bills to PayPal as a means of satisfying them that I lived where I do!
I duly faxed all the required documentation on 11/08/08 and received an acknowledgment stating that the documents could take up to five days to process (for f**** sake!).
As of today (16/08/08) my PayPal account is still locked and neither my buyer or myself can acces the £325 that Paypal are no doubt earning interest on (together with thousands of pounds worldwide as I have since learned that this is a popular strategy of PayPal).
My buyer is frustrated because he has parted with his money and is waiting for his item. I am frustrated because I cannot access the funds and I am obligated to hold the item for my buyer, therefore not able to sell it to someone else.
After a bit of internet research I was horrified to learn of others who had fallen foul of this thoroughly disreputable company. Some links are here:-
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.paypalwarning.com/
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/
Having in the past, used PayPal to send £800 to Canada and £2500 to Italy for purchases via Audiogon, I thank my lucky stars that my sellers accounts were not frozen in the same way as mine is now! Imagine having that much money tied up for months on end with no hope of an early resolution!
So there it is, my tale of woe and a warning to anyone using PayPal that it could easily happen to you too!
Once I get this cleared up I shall cancel my account with these crooks.
Steve
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And I would point out that the security checks with pp are quite lax imo. Just about anyone can setup an account. When I set up with neteller back in my AVF poker days they actually rang me and I had a nice chat with a quite polite lady. No chance a 14 year old would get though like on pp
wouldnt want to complain about an upset stomach to the latter
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