A customer has made my life hell I've lost everything!

[Worldlad]

Hi,

Really need your help or advice guys. Over the last few months I've been selling successfully 3 types of digital software on EBay. Customers have been happy and received 100% feedback on all purchases. Paypal have been holding my funds on average for 7 days but occasionally some transactions where been released almost immediately.

The Software I was selling was legal in terms of re-selling used digital software under European Law, I even contacted the enforcement company acting on behalf of the program owner who said everything was fine. Other items I sold was personal possessions that have been sent by recorded mail, even using the last few quid I had to pay for postage etc at the post office.

To cut a long story short yesterday I received the dreaded e-mail from Paypal stating my account was limited, due to one single complaint from a customer they provided me the transaction number and I retrieved the buyers name, address and with a little digging online his landline. Oddly no refund was issued to him and it seems he's using the software fine. PayPal are now holding onto my funds which run into several thousand, I can't explain just how much this has effected me in this short amount of time. Sitting here with a migraine and feeling just totally gutted is a understatement. I do not think the buyer is aware that I know it's him thats complained and that obviously I have all his information.

This was the email I received and the breaches in which Paypal had made against me without any evidence or proof:

----

Dear.........*

We are hereby notifying you that, after a recent review of your account
activity, it has been determined that you are in violation of PayPal's
Acceptable Use Policy regarding your sales / offers of **********, user ID: **** .

Please refer to:
- Transaction 1234 from September **, 2016 for the amount of
£*

Therefore, your account has been permanently limited.

Per the User Agreement, when PayPal permanently limits an account due to an
Acceptable Use Policy violation, we may hold your funds up to 180 days. We
will review your account at 30 days from the date of this email, we will
calculate our exposure and will release any excess funds to you for
withdrawal. If there are any funds remaining in your account at this time,
we will review your account every 30 days until either all your funds have
been made available to you for withdrawal, or a period of 180 days from the
date your account was limited is reached. Please log in to your PayPal
account and verify that your account information is accurate, as PayPal
cannot be held responsible for incorrect information provided by the
account holder.

You will need to remove all references to PayPal from your website/s and/or
auction/s. This includes not only removing PayPal as a payment option, but
also the PayPal logo and/or shopping cart.

The PayPal User Agreement states that PayPal, at its sole discretion,
reserves the right to limit an account for any violation of the User
Agreement, including the Acceptable Use Policy.

Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive
payments for items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right
of publicity or privacy, or any other proprietary right under the laws of
any jurisdiction. This includes transactions for counterfeit items or
unauthorized replicas or copies of items.

The complete Acceptable Use Policy can be found at the following URL:


To learn more about the Acceptable Use Policy, please refer to our Help
Centre page here:


We thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
please contact the PayPal Brand Risk Management Department at

-----

Been angry with the buyer is an understatement, he could have reported me to EBay or sent me a message or email asking questions or request a refund and I would have been happy to work with him on his concerns refunded or provided evidence I was able to sell. But no, he went straight to Paypal, this money meant so much from paying rent to food and a little holiday etc. I'm absolutely devastated.

I've issued a complaint not that it makes any difference with Paypal and will then contact the Ombudsman to try and get the money released earlier than the 180 days. I know for certain Paypal will not back down with this.

Moving On.... What do I do now, I want revenge on the buyer I want him to know how he's made me suffer and my family (we haven't had a holiday in years) my partner has a life threatening illness and the life expectancy is very low - Everything has been ruined because of one person.

Can anyone please offer advice on moving on, selling elsewhere, getting some kind of revenge on the buyer..Just anything really

P.S my E-Bay account is still fully active although I've removed all the products I'm selling.

 

[dennisvds]

Hi there, well you should look for a stealth ebay and paypal account.
Now if you will link any paypal to it, they will link it to the other paypal and will be limited...
So however ebay says it's fine, basicly your ebay account is not usable again

 

[Worldlad]

Hi there, well you should look for a stealth ebay and paypal account.
Now if you will link any paypal to it, they will link it to the other paypal and will be limited...
So however ebay says it's fine, basicly your ebay account is not usable again

Hi, I can't go for a Stealth account I'm completely skint now due to all this that's happened I don't have a penny to my name. The current Paypal account is completely useless I get that, but E-Bay thats a slightly different matter as E-Bay received written confirmation I could continue to sell the software from the developers themselves due to a previous concern E-Bay had, I've just logged into my E-Bay account and it's still operating normally and in excellent standing - Maybe just maybe they are waiting to hit me as well. Dunno

 

[dennisvds]

have you tried calling paypal because i'm not even sure what the exact problem is now?

 

[Hawkster]

If you believe you have been 100% legit on your part then call them up and have words with them. Some people do have success with paypal this way.

 

[W9go]

why you have 1000s on a paypal account and no penny left ?????
that is a little unbelievable. if this is your income why are you not transferring the money to your bank account ????

and they can't just take al the money because of 1 complaint. especially if you where allowed to sell the software ....

 

[Hawkster]

Read his post for fuck sake

why you have 1000 on a paypal account and no penny left ?????
that is a little unbelievable. if this is your income why are you not transferring the money to your bank account ????

 

[Zwielicht]

Not that it's much consolation, but perhaps you'd find this relatable.

 

[Worldlad]

have you tried calling paypal because i'm not even sure what the exact problem is now?

My funds are limited with Paypal for 6 months, I'm unable to appeal and the decision is final.

Calling Paypal doesn't achieve anything.

Slightly off topic, you always know when your in the sh** with Paypal when you get through to Ireland they are the ones that deal with complaints, limitations etc. The good guys at Paypal are the ones based in the call centre in Newcastle, general enquires are those taken from the rest of the world such as Asia

 

[W9go]

Read his post for fuck sake

i did read
- he said he was selling over the last view month ... so not in the last week.
- he said the account is holding several 1000 $ or Euro
- and in post 3 he said he has no penny left

so tell me .... you leave all the money on pp if this is your income ???

 

[Worldlad]

why you have 1000s on a paypal account and no penny left ?????
that is a little unbelievable. if this is your income why are you not transferring the money to your bank account ????

and they can't just take al the money because of 1 complaint. especially if you where allowed to sell the software ....

On average I was getting sales of between 3-15 per day, Paypal still deemed me as a new seller even after 8 months of selling with positive feedback, so therefore they held my money for 7 days UK sales and 21 days outside the UK. But everyday at certain times small amounts was available to withdraw then the money hit my bank within a second or two. So with increased sales my balance kept getting bigger but was not able to withdraw the full amount as it was in the pending balance section.

 

[Worldlad]

Not that it's much consolation, but perhaps you'd find this relatable.

Thanks I'll watch this in a mo when I get rid of this migraine and anger. I'm seriously thinking about calling the buyer and asking him why he did what he did and making false accusations and get him to effectively pay for what he has done.

 

[NovaflareFX]

Hey Mate,

I had exactly the same thing a few years back, I had £4k in my PayPal account when they 'permanently limited' my account. (Newbie Mistake)
I even spoke to some of the top EU managers of the company, called daily and they would not tell me why it was frozen.

Eventually an investigation was launched after 25 or so complaints and a constant social media barrage of hate, eventually they found that my account was frozen because an automated bot thought I was money laundering, which they concluded was not true. Even after finding this, they refused to un-freeze it. Your funds will -not- be given back to you for six months as they say.

I fought to hell and back for it, almost lost my home too, but there is nothing you can do about it, sorry.
Lesson I learnt: NEVER keep money in things like PayPal or Stripe etc. I started a new PayPal acc btw, that one is still locked.

Edit: Contacting the person will do nothing but lower your credibility and possibly get you done for harassment, he can't retract the ban anyway.

 

[Deleted member 720373]

Calling Paypal doesn't achieve anything.

How do you know? Have you tried?

Something about this story just doesn't stack up, you kept a large amount of money in PayPal while selling digital goods instead of transferring it to your bank account.

You state that calling PayPal doesn't help but if this is a brand new situation for you how the hell would you know?

Instead of being concerned with getting your account reinstated and the funds released you talk about revenge on the customer, surely if a customer did make a complaint and it resulted in your account being limited, calling PayPal and even agreeing to refund this customer would be a better option than seeking revenge. Unless of course there is something more to this story that you are not telling us!!

 

[Worldlad]

How do you know? Have you tried?

Something about this story just doesn't stack up, you kept a large amount of money in PayPal while selling digital goods instead of transferring it to your bank account.

You state that calling PayPal doesn't help but if this is a brand new situation for you how the hell would you know?

Instead of being concerned with getting your account reinstated and the funds released you talk about revenge on the customer, surely if a customer did make a complaint and it resulted in your account being limited, calling PayPal and even agreeing to refund this customer would be a better option than seeking revenge. Unless of course there is something more to this story that you are not telling us!!

Hi,

I did call Paypal yesterday 3 times and the second you put your account details into the phone system it recognises your account is limited and transferred directly to Ireland, although 2 where polite they said it's totally out of there hands and they cannot change the decision.

I have sent an email to the Paypal CEO/Directors and random senior management email addresses I found online yesterday. I called the Financial Ombudsman who will take on the case once I get a final response to my complaint.

I know that you should never keep any money locked inside Paypal, this is why as soon as funds became available to withdraw I would go onto the app and withdraw within seconds. When I sold an item the money was go into my Pending balance for 7 days until it could be realised, there was nothing I could do with this over the past few months and PayPal wouldn't change the system for instant withdrawals until I built a good enough reputation.

 

[Worldlad]

How do you know? Have you tried?

Something about this story just doesn't stack up, you kept a large amount of money in PayPal while selling digital goods instead of transferring it to your bank account.

You state that calling PayPal doesn't help but if this is a brand new situation for you how the hell would you know?

Instead of being concerned with getting your account reinstated and the funds released you talk about revenge on the customer, surely if a customer did make a complaint and it resulted in your account being limited, calling PayPal and even agreeing to refund this customer would be a better option than seeking revenge. Unless of course there is something more to this story that you are not telling us!!

The transaction was for a measly £22 giving the customer a refund makes no difference, I don't believe the customer wants a refund as no request has been put through, he simply contacted PayPal to advise them I was selling fake software and Paypal immediately limited my account.

 

[Deleted member 720373]

The transaction was for a measly £22 giving the customer a refund makes no difference, I don't believe the customer wants a refund as no request has been put through, he simply contacted PayPal to advise them I was selling fake software and Paypal immediately limited my account.

If the software is genuine and you can prove it then what is the problem with that? AFAIK They should at least give you a fair hearing and allow you to put your case forward.

I've been dealing with PayPal for years now and always found them willing to listen to my side when an issue has arose.

 

[Worldlad]

Hey Mate,

I had exactly the same thing a few years back, I had £4k in my PayPal account when they 'permanently limited' my account. (Newbie Mistake)
I even spoke to some of the top EU managers of the company, called daily and they would not tell me why it was frozen.

Eventually an investigation was launched after 25 or so complaints and a constant social media barrage of hate, eventually they found that my account was frozen because an automated bot thought I was money laundering, which they concluded was not true. Even after finding this, they refused to un-freeze it. Your funds will -not- be given back to you for six months as they say.

I fought to hell and back for it, almost lost my home too, but there is nothing you can do about it, sorry.
Lesson I learnt: NEVER keep money in things like PayPal or Stripe etc. I started a new PayPal acc btw, that one is still locked.

Edit: Contacting the person will do nothing but lower your credibility and possibly get you done for harassment, he can't retract the ban anyway.

Cheers mate. Sorry to hear this and I've known one woman a few years a go kill herself when £10k of her money was held by PayPal.

It's happened to my ex partner a few years a go, she contacted the Financial services Ombudsman and managed to get all the money released within 4 weeks they are pretty good.

I just want to call the buyer and explain through what he's done and making accusations and false claims how it's effected me. Maybe he's heartless but maybe he will show some remorse and think about his actions in the future.

 

[Worldlad]

If the software is genuine and you can prove it then what is the problem with that? AFAIK They should at least give you a fair hearing and allow you to put your case forward.

I've been dealing with PayPal for years now and always found them willing to listen to my side when an issue has arose.

Sorry mate I don't think for a moment you have any understanding as to the ways Paypal operate, they do nothing that's fair just Google to see 100'000's forums, discussions, websites on the way they operate. They are nothing but an evil company thats ruined lives of so many genuine people over the years.

 

[Deleted member 720373]

Sorry mate I don't think for a moment you have any understanding as to the ways Paypal operate, they do nothing that's fair just Google to see 100'000's forums, discussions, websites on the way they operate. They are nothing but an evil company thats ruined lives of so many genuine people over the years.

I have a very good idea about the way they operate, I have been using PayPal for about 15 years now without issues. Just because there are thousands of complaints does not make them a scam. Apple have thousands of complaints but they are not considered a scam company.

I have had my share of complaints through PayPal and always found them willing to listen to my side.