PayPal ripoff lies dishonest stolen harassment INTERNET BANK Internet
PayPal froze my account for 2 weeks, and requested so much personal information I felt like I was being investigated by the Federal Government. I honored their every request, and was told on a daily basis when I called that they had received every thing they needed and my account would be reopen in 24 hours. However, once the 24 hours were up I would receive an email stating that they needed more information. It cost me over $15.00 in fax costs, some of the documents I faxed I had to refax several times because they lost the documents (with all my personal info) or they claimed that the document was unreadable. They also, cost me over $75.00 in finance fees from my credit card companies as they had my money frozen and I could not pay my bills. Their customer service agents knew very little about the process to unfreeze my account and would lie just to get me off the phone after I would spend 40-60 minutes on hold every single day for the 2 weeks. I also had a substantial loss of sales through eBay because I could not accept payments for Buy It Now auctions. I believe the total was approx $180.00 in lost sales, and over $50.00 in waisted listing fees that eBay will not refund. I was very kind and complied to all paypals requests, but apparently that was not enough. They even reversed money from my bank account that I had already written checks from. I asked for an explanation of why they "froze" my account, and would get a generic answer like "oh, it is a random service to help protect you and buyers". If it were random why was my neighbor ""Randomly Selected"" three days after I was? PayPal was not up front and hid what they really wanted from me. For instance they required proof of shipment, which I provided. Then they said that they wanted proof of delivery, I spoke with one of their customer service people about this. I cannot gurantee what happens to the package once I give it to the shipper, that is why I reccomend all my clients purchase shipping insurance. This ordeal was just absurd and ridiculous. It is just harassment as far as I am concerned, and I am researching alternatives to the great PayPal.
Eric
Maugansville, Maryland
U.S.A.
5 Updates & Rebuttals
John
Califon,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
Thanx for the info
#6Consumer Comment
Sun, December 31, 2006
Since I do use both in low volume, this is appreciated info.
Have you ever withdrawn any monies from your accounts before? I haven't tried myself as it is only 1-200 dollars but am curious as to whether or not people have.
This really stinks.
Eric
Maugansville,Maryland,
U.S.A.
Original Poster Comment
#6Author of original report
Sat, December 30, 2006
I called the phone number provided from the real paypal website, I too have been getting counterfit emails, but before I submitted any information I contacted PayPal corporate to ensure it was legit. So, it was PayPal who caused the problem.
-Eric
Jennifer
Battle Creek,Michigan,
U.S.A.
No, they weren't phishing
#6Consumer Comment
Sat, December 30, 2006
It happened to us too. They froze our account with over 600 dollars in it. They wanted everything but a blood sample from us to get it back open. We obliged them with everything and they still kept it frozen. Then they froze my Father in law's account because he was associated with us.
Paypal is awful and we don't deal with them or ebay anymore. I don't see how it is legal to freeze someone else's account simply because they are related to someone else who's account is frozen. They seem to only freeze people's account after they have a significant amount of money in it. If you have 10 bucks in it, they could care less.
John
Califon,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
I agree with Nikki.
#6Consumer Comment
Sat, December 30, 2006
I agree with Nikki. I get these emails all the time. And the incident with your neighbor makes it really suspicious.
Did you try to actually get into your real PayPal account before giving out any info?
Nikki
Coconut Creek,Florida,
U.S.A.
Are you sure it was paypal?
#6Consumer Suggestion
Sat, December 30, 2006
Someone has been sending emails pretending to be PayPal wanting updated info so they can get your personal info (phishing). The website they direct you do looks valid, but supposedly is not.
When you called PayPal, did you call the number you already have for them, or did you call the number in the email? I don't think any company requests personal info by email anymore because of all the phishing going on.
Please check this out ASAP!