Paypal locked my account with $$ in it and asking for more info

[kin0kin]

-Have a normal account
-Sold an item
-Got the funds
-Paypal locked my accoutn the next day
-asking for credit card information

I'm screwed. I told them I don't have a credit card, and all they did was sent an automatic mail to ask me to follow the instruction, which is asking for the impossible.

I called canada anti fraud call center (phonebuster) and they say that they cannot do anything...I asked if this qualify as identity theft (focing me to give the cc info which is not mandatory for my account type) and they couldn't do jack. I need advice desperately....who should I contact next?

I've camped at paypal sucks for awhile but I still cannot figure out how to get my funds back.

 

[wakeride74]

phonebusters suck my ass... they redefine worthless!

Contact the buyer and see if you can workout another payment arrangement, if so tell Pay Pal to return the funds or "reject" the payment. Then you can get it another way. Only other option would be to contact the Pay Pal fraud dept. sounds like a really questionable action to me.

 

[ken36]

You poor guy. PP CS is just horrible too. I have no advice, just sympathy.

 

[chubbybunny]

I agree. This happened to me a few years back and nothing I did (including doing what they asked me to do) got my account back into normal status. Unfortunately, so many people use it online, I had to go back and create another account :/

 

[kin0kin]

I did contact the buyer to lauch a dispute so that I could issue a refund (I cannot reject the incoming $$, there's no option to). I had the buyer launched a dispute for item significantly not as described. This has been a "sure win" method for buyers to get funds back but pay pal replied saying that they only resolve shipping issues....What? I'm going to email them and tell them I hav resolved the issue with the seller and have agreed for a refund...or is there other things that I can do?

 

[guzziguy]

And some people still ask me why I refuse to get a Paypal account.

 

[braillediver]

"This has been a "sure win""

The only possible "Sure Win" is Non-delivery of item. Otherwise it's personal judgement.

99.9% of all PayPal transactions never have problems.


"I told them I don't have a credit card"

"(focing me to give the cc info which is not mandatory for my account type)"

So do you have a credit card or not? If you do and they know that and you claim you don't maybe they doubt your identity. The credit card is used to verify your identity.


Mitch

 

[spraggih]

This may sound like a dumb question because you have already tried it but have you tried to contact paypal via their contact us link?

Also is this a new paypal account? I read over the paypal policies since reading your post and so far in my reading credit cards are only look required to send money.

I will keep checking and let you know if I find anything to help.

Best wishes

 

[kin0kin]

I do have a credit card but the main reason why I created the personal account is NOT to provide them my credit card information. I have the rights to how much information about myself I would like to disclose and paypal cannot assume that I have a credit card, and even if I do, I do not have to give it to them. And EVEN if I do give it to them, the next thing they would do is ask for more information. This happened to a friend of mine in UK, and many many other people. Sorry, I don't know where the 99.9% figure came from.

I have contacted them numerous time and it is not going to do any good.

I have reported to BBB and here's my message:

Quote:

Consumer's Original Complaint : I have negotiated a sale for a headphone model # AKG K701, to a fellow gentleman through www.head-fi.com. We had negotiated payment of USD$250.20 which will be made through paypal. The sale was successdully completed and transaction of US$250.20 was done on Mar. 26, 2007, 08:25:41 PDT, under the paypal transaction ID #59S100319F293645D. On Wednesday, March 28, 2007 1:43 PM Atlantic standard time, I received an email notification from paypal stating that my account has been "limited", whereby I cannot withdraw funds from my account to my bank. The paypal case ID# is PP-267-913-009. Paypal requested for credit card information in order for the review team to review the case. The account that got limited was a Personal account and credit card was not a mandatory requirement to use the account. I have contacted paypal regarding the fact that I do not have a credit card to verify the information, and I received an automatically generated email shortly asking me to follow the instruction to release the limit on my account, which is to provide credit card information. I refused to provide this information as I did not intend to disclose any credit card information to paypal when I subscribed for this account, mainly due to personal and security reasons. While paypal did not allow me to withdraw the funds, I had requested the buyer to launch a paypal dispute in order for me to refund him the money so that I could receive my goods back. While the buyer opened a dispute, paypal denied the dispute and decided that it is not a problem and does not allow me to refund the buyer. As of now, I cannot refund the buyer because the funds are lock, and paypal is not disclosing the reasons for my account being limited, and neither is communication with paypal possible as most replies have been automated or not addressing the main question and/or concern. Paypal had mentioned in it's automated email that: "Recent account activity has made it necessary for us to collect additional verification information. For your protection, we have limited access to your account until additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." I had affirmed that there is no activity that may seem unauthorized as I have made sure that all activities and transactions have been done by myself. I had demanded that the limitations to be lifted yet only automated emails were sent. USERNAME: keanp@eastlink.ca

Please advice what other information I should send to BBB that may help them speed up the process.

 

[plainsong]

But you don't have to open a dispute to give someone a refund. Just click on the transaction details, and there's a little refund link...

I think this was a mistake and now Paypal has a good reason to review your account.

 

[kin0kin]

unfortunately there wasn't any link. I've seen links like "reject" on the transaction but there was nothing...it was "completed" and I cannot issue a refund. I was hoping to refund it under ine of the dispute options.

 

[uzziah]

i'll tell you my story: i sold a guy a laptop and he made a dispute right away cuz it didn't arrive asap. anyway, he got it, it's fine, but i can't get ahold of him for a month and so $1000 is still locked in my account, money that i needed. once he finally got to it, he had to cancel two times for some reason, and it still took paypal a week to unlock my money

all in all i lost my grand for about a month and a half. it was a massive pain. luckily i took a portion of it out before this.


not to mention the massive amounts i've payed in fees on numerous ebay sales



**** paypal

 

[uzziah]

i've been thinking, that there is a great little niche for someone to create a paypal like service, but free. call it "freepay" or whatever. just funded by subtle advertising A-LA google. no dealing with credit cards at all. only bank account-to bank account transfers, so no need to bother with CC fees. also, no seller/buyer protection. i find it often does more harm than good. just a simple, free, way to do bank account-to-bank account transfers.

thoughts?

 

[plainsong]

In the list of transactions, there's a link beside each one called "details". If you click on the details, and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a tiny link to refund a transaction. I can't imagine that Paypal would be so different from Paypal.

 

[spraggih]

I know your privacy is really key to you (as it is your private information) and this is about principle... but (again I am in problem solving mode with consideration for your interests)...

You could add a credit card account
Get your money
Then remove the credit card account

You could rationalize within yourself that paypal no longer has your information (you removed it) and that credit card information really is not your / my information, i.e., private - it is the bank's information who is loaning us the money.

Probably won't help but I am trying to help.