PayPal account closed!

[azdaboss]

Hello

I run an electronics distribution company. I have been using PayPal since we started trading in early January this year. We use PayPal to take membership payments of £8/month. We had 12 membership payments go through fine, then we had an order payment of £1724 by PayPal two weeks ago.

A few hours after the order payment we received an email from PayPal saying they have limited the account due to activities which could pose a potential risk. I thought, fair enough, a large payment on a new account, they're just being careful. I provided all the information they required: supplier invoices, delivery tracking number for the order related the large payment, proof of ID, proof of address, our certificate of incorporation and even sent them a cover letter explaining what we do as a business, and what we use PayPal for.
This was all faxed over to them last night.

Now today, we receive the following email:

=============
Dear XXXXX ,

We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk
involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least
disruptive to your business.

-----------------------------------
Disbursement options
-----------------------------------

Option 1. If you owe refunds to any of your buyers, you can use the money
in your PayPal account to refund them.

To refund your buyers:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.
3. Click "Contact Customer Service."
4. Under "Choose a Topic," select "Sending/Receiving Money."
5. Under "Choose a Subtopic," select "Refund/Cancel a Payment."
6. Click "Continue" and follow the instructions to refund payments.

Option 2. Money in your PayPal account will be held for 180 days. After 180
days, we'll email you information on how to receive your funds.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.


Sincerely,

Karen
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.
Société en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349
=============================

This is ridiculous! I have not done anything wrong, and have had my account with PayPal closed because they "excessive risk involved". Exactly where do they see the excessive risk???

Could anybody please advise on what I should do. Ideally I want to get PayPal back as a payment option and not have to worry about this. I shall be contacting PayPal and the FSA tomorrow as well.

Thanks in advance

Andy

 

I am aware of at least two other bona fide traders with big scale businesses whose accounts have been suspended in the last week - they are not just picking on you.

sadly, paypal can and do do what they want - not a sound foundation for a serious business.

 

[sysops]

Could anybody please advise on what I should do. Ideally I want to get PayPal back as a payment option and not have to worry about this.

Not going to happen. They don't want your business, end of story. If you open a new account and have similar transactions going through it, the same will happen again.

I shall be contacting PayPal and the FSA tomorrow as well.

Don't waste your time. Paypal's terms, which you agree to by using their service, entitle them to do this. The FSA have nothing to do with it, because Paypal are not regulated by the FSA.

Suck it up and move on. You will get your money in 6 months time. Find yourself a more suitable payment provider.

 

[Big Pete]

Hello

I run an electronics distribution company. I have been using PayPal since we started trading in early January this year. We use PayPal to take membership payments of £8/month. We had 12 membership payments go through fine, then we had an order payment of £1724 by PayPal two weeks ago.

A few hours after the order payment we received an email from PayPal saying they have limited the account due to activities which could pose a potential risk. I thought, fair enough, a large payment on a new account, they're just being careful. I provided all the information they required: supplier invoices, delivery tracking number for the order related the large payment, proof of ID, proof of address, our certificate of incorporation and even sent them a cover letter explaining what we do as a business, and what we use PayPal for.
This was all faxed over to them last night.

Now today, we receive the following email:

=============
Dear XXXXX ,

We have reviewed your PayPal Account, and due to the excessive risk
involved, we would like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least
disruptive to your business.

-----------------------------------
Disbursement options
-----------------------------------

Option 1. If you owe refunds to any of your buyers, you can use the money
in your PayPal account to refund them.

To refund your buyers:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.
3. Click "Contact Customer Service."
4. Under "Choose a Topic," select "Sending/Receiving Money."
5. Under "Choose a Subtopic," select "Refund/Cancel a Payment."
6. Click "Continue" and follow the instructions to refund payments.

Option 2. Money in your PayPal account will be held for 180 days. After 180
days, we'll email you information on how to receive your funds.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.


Sincerely,

Karen
PayPal Account Review Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.
Société en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349
=============================

This is ridiculous! I have not done anything wrong, and have had my account with PayPal closed because they "excessive risk involved". Exactly where do they see the excessive risk???

Could anybody please advise on what I should do. Ideally I want to get PayPal back as a payment option and not have to worry about this. I shall be contacting PayPal and the FSA tomorrow as well.

Thanks in advance

Andy

WOW thats ridiculous !! how are they at risk ??:|

 

[AndyP]

Yet another find example of the PayPal experience...and yet there is still thread after thread of people recommending PayPal as a suitable, and often only, payment processor.

OP....you can't win this. Suck it up and use your energy sourcing an alternative solution rather than wasting time arguing with PayPal and the FSA.

 

[Page]

Interesting.

At the moment paypal is good enough for my own situation but I could do with an insurance policy is there another payment processor that I could set up that is transaction only based fees. Which yes would be higher.

 

[Beachcomber]

I'd imagine the subscription element of the business is more prone (in paypal's eyes) to chargebacks / disputes etc. hence they can't be bothered with it.

Paypal, just like the parent company eBay, are prime examples of businesses that corner such a huge market share they can get away with incompetence and still make a profit.

 

[MH1]

Whilst I understand your predicament, Paypal are only doing what any other business does, ie looking after their own interests, they know what sort of businesses encourage fraud etc and have made a decision to avoid it whenever possible.

As mentioned waste of time arguing with them, FSA will not be interested, so your only other alternative is to find another payment provider.

Of course if you rely on ebay for sales this will be a huge problem.

 

btw - distribution of stuff like computers, is known to be a fraud hotspot, and it is that they may be judging on - if you go for a merchant a/c you may find they may want to hold your money for 60-90 days too.

 

[That Guy]

I have just switched a client over to Sagepay. They only used to accept paypal but now they offer paypal as a last resort

 

[dingbat]

If it's this kind of business:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=130862&highlight=topwholesaleshop

Then I'm not surprised Paypal want to close the account. That's not to say you're a scammer but that kind of business model is tainted with eau de ripoff.

 

[KateCB]

Wow - I read the thread Dingbaat - most enjoyable......don't know who to feel sorry for most, there are some humdinger arguments going on there!

 

[Orangerascal]

Have you tried using google checkout or setting up a merchant account?

 

[sanjiv]

Same thing happened to me. Depending on what works out cheaper, I would suggest either:
SecureTrading.com or SagePay.com

The 180 days for me just ended and I should have my money by next week (hopefully).

 

[Simply Business]

We use Paypoint, not only because they are our neigbours
Just find a descent payment provider.

 

[azdaboss]

Just thought I'd give an update on my situation. I called PayPal and they literally hung up on me when I gave my account details. Seems like they don't want my business anymore. I'll definitely not be dealing with them anymore! I'm looking into setting up an account with Sage Pay to accept card payments online.

 

[legaltemplates.eu]

Usually if you call up and ask to speak to a supervisor they have a bit more sense about them and issues get resolved, that's what we've done whenever we've had problems.

 

[taggingsupplies]

PayPal suck s . com

 

[taggingsupplies]

Yeah so did everyone else till they do one on you kid...

It happens to us all, You will learn Kid the hard way

 

[taggingsupplies]

Hi we use RBS Worldpay, PayPal and Google Checkout and with all 3 we have had fraud. You just cant avoid the bad guys there are like little rats going through the sewers,

 

[taggingsupplies]

You cant even trust a monkey, As when i was in Thailand a Monkey behind its reinforced cage tried to swing and grab the water i was drinking, needless to say i popped. he he

 

[serendipitybusiness]

A friend of mine had the same issue with paypal freezing her account due to a transaction of just over £500. She tried everything. I wrote them an email through the system, whilst she was there (logged into her account) stating for legal reasons we need paypal to clarify why the are witholding funds that legally belonged to her after all requests have been met, all procedures followed and no dispute has arisen over the initial payment.

It worked, a couple of days later her paypal account was magically in working order and she could withdraw her money. However, there are some true horror stories out there regarding paypal freezing accounts, people have lost their houses and businesses because of it. Moral of the story don't take any transactions for high value items through paypal. I always withdraw funds as soon as they enter my account as unfortunately I just can't trust them.

 

[Roz Roberts]

I may have to follow your foot steps and withdraw funds as soon as they enter my account all these horror stories are freaking me out.


Roz
BestVirtualPA.co.uk - Virtual Personal Assistant

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Only last night I was speaking to a friend of mine whose account got frozen with an order of over £500. This appears to be a trigger amount. They managed to sort it out, not sure how though as he didn't deal with the issue himself.

 

[That Guy]

I may have to follow your foot steps and withdraw funds as soon as they enter my account all these horror stories are freaking me out.


Roz
BestVirtualPA.co.uk - Virtual Personal Assistant

That does not make a difference. If your funds are showing 0 and they add a chargeback your account simply goes to minus numbers. If you don't bring your account back to 0 it will get suspended. Thats when the debt letters start coming.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

It does make a difference we are talking about accounts being frozen for no reason, not due to chargebacks. Both instances I mention where accounts were frozen were not due to charge backs just due to the large transaction amount. The sales went through without a hitch and in the first instance I mention my friend had proof as the buyer had left positive feedback on ebay saying the item was as described and had arrived.

Now the whole account can get frozen not just the amount on the transaction. So if you have £2000 in your account and then your account gets frozen because of a £500 transaction then the whole amount can be frozen not only this but they can also continue to accept payments although your account is frozen and you cannot withdraw funds. So withdrawing you funds often lessens the financial risk of significant cash flow limitations should this happen.

 

[nitish kunal]

Paypal track accounts on daily basis and also while going through each account they also take a look on the payments made to whome and from where. Currently due to many security reasons many banks from different countries stop these transactions for several policies issues.

Now for configuring those policies paypal itself gone through some modifications in its policies and conditions. This may also be the reason for your account disturbance.

 

[officexp]

Hi,

I work for a company who opened an ebay shop all verified ect with paypal/ebay uk ltd companyvat registered, and as a internation customer had not recieved an order due to delay in post they closed the acconut down after about 4000 went thru, most transactions were under £10. they also siad high security rist. theye r a joke. and not they have £ 600 for 180 days.

I was a seconary account user on the account and not they blocked my ersonal paypal account also.

The funny think is they let people like Simon Nagle (templar) commit fraud on paypal they paypal's charge back system , on the last count walking off with over £25,000 , and now having another acoount open on paypal.

My advise if you are owed any money by paypal report it to the police as theaftby paypal and alsothe the banking ombasman, as if you acocount was verified with ID ect i dont see what right they have to keep the money.

Anyway, on the other hand ebay / paypal was taking 15% in fees on sales so now in proces of settin own site and then hsbc online payment system, this wayless fees, although ebay was good way of sales such as life, hope one day they get shut down.