PayPal, With a "Pal" like this, who needs enemies? Rip-off PayPal, the popular internet payment service owned by ebay, is one of the most nefarious anti-consumer schemes in place today. It operates with no regulation and an open license to steal at its own discretion. PayPal MUST be reined in and be accountable to some regulatory agency to allow consumers recourse in law when disputes arise. paypal.com Internet Worldwide
Due to the manner in which PayPal operates, it does not qualify as a bank and is not obligated to abide by the legislation that governs banks, which means that users do not have many of the legal safeguards they would with conventional banks. PayPal is not a merchant account. Nor is it a credit card company, so users do not have the same protections that credit cards offer. PayPal is considered a "money transmitter" in many states and is licensed as such where required.
PayPal itself controls all PayPal accounts and can close them or freeze them at its own discretion. PayPal can then hold these frozen funds for months or even possibly forever. Many allegations exist that monies taken in this way are gone for good. There is also the possibility that PayPal holds these funds for the purpose of gaining interest on them for a period of months. NONE of which is passed on to consumers. It is easy money earned for PayPal.
Customer disputes are rarely settled, as PayPal has a terrible record when it comes to answering these disputes. Email goes unanswered or a "form email" is received promising action which never seems to materialize. PayPal seems to offer no real protection to either buyers or sellers. Whether a user is on the shipping or receiving end of a transaction via PayPal the waters are dangerous and shark infested.
From PayPal's own Terms of Use: "Closing and Restricting Accounts. - PayPal, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to close an account at any time for any reason, including but not limited to a violation of this Agreement, upon notice to the User and payment to the User of any unrestricted funds held in custody".
However, many times PayPal sends THIS email to account holders: "Following an investigation, this account has been permanently locked due to violations of our Terms of Use. This decision may not be appealed."
A "permanently locked" account is not necessarily a closed account. It still exists in the PayPal database. Any funds in the account are still there. The account holder is the one locked out of the account. The funds go from being "unrestricted", which would cause them to have to be refunded, to "restricted" funds which do not have to be refunded according to the Terms of Use. A truly clever use of semantics by PayPal.
The PayPal Terms of Use is lengthy, but vaguely worded in many instances which allows PayPal to interpret them in different ways at different times. Quite often PayPal's interpretation is not favorable to its users, but to PayPal itself.
PayPal demands sensitive personal information from its users, such as social security numbers, bank account numbers, driver's license information, date of birth, among other things. Does anyone know how carefully that information is guarded? There are reports that some PayPal accounts have been hacked and used to engage in overseas money laundering schemes in the past.
PayPal MUST be reined in and be accountable to some regulatory agency to allow consumers recourse in law when disputes arise. It cannot be allowed to continue operating unchecked because, like all big businesses, PayPal will always favor itself over consumers according to its needs and wants.
Here are a few questions of interest for anyone with a PayPal complaint:
Has PayPal frozen or permanently locked your account without providing adequate explanation other than a claim of a vague violation of their Terms of Use or other ambiguous statement?
In the event of an account limitation, has PayPal disclosed the report form link to you? After filing your report, did PayPal respond adequately within five business days to your request for information concerning the account limitation?
Has PayPal refused to initiate or complete an investigation into a user reported error in your account?
Has PayPal frozen your entire account over a dispute concerning a lesser amount of money?
Has PayPal frozen or permanently locked your account for a length of time greater than 180 days?
Robert
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.
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