The Wholesale Forums

[djw49]

hi guys
I have a very big problem with paypal. I started selling wii consoles amongst other things about 2 months ago on ebay. Things were going great, I was selling loads and making a very decent profit, until last sunday. I was called by a paypal rep telling me my account was about to be limited, the info on my account was (quote)
Your account access has been limited for the following reason(s):

We have observed activity in this account that is unusual or potentially high risk.

They asked me to provide more detailed information on my business which I duly did within 24 hrs of them asking. After gaining no response I found their UK phone number through an anti paypal website. I explained my situation to them as clearly as possible and was assured that I would receive a response from them within 3 days because the matter had been passed over to their 'security' department. 4 days later I have had no response. When I call their UK number and enter details so they can identify my account before I am put through their absurdly long automated phone system, as soon as I get through to a real person they hang up before I can speak to them. (The stupid music stops and I can sometimes hear the background chatter of a call center before they hang up about 3 seconds later). They have frozen my account with over 7,000 pounds in, I am completely screwed, I was wondering if anyone knows of a phone number where you can actually reach a real person or their legal address so I can get a lawyer to try to get my money back?
Pleeeeeeeeeeeease help. thanks in advance.
Dan

[Beefy]

Originally Posted by djw49

... so I can get a lawyer to try to get my money back?

Dan

would be a good start to get your lawyer to make contact imo. as your aware, paypal are reknown for being well dodge.

ps. if you want someone to trade on your behalf until your paypal account is up and running again.....

[cjtls]

Unfortunately a well known paypal problem - You will wait around 6 months for reimbursement - As previously suggested, have your solicitor contact them on your behalf, it may move things along for you

[Saajan]

Whenever you get money into your PayPal account, transfer it straight away to your bank account especially high amounts.

[Pete]

Actually, this is a common practice with many card processors. My first online merchant account was going great for about 3 months, then suddenly around the 20th of the month sales just stopped. No notice, just no sales. Then an email from a potential customer telling me they could not complete the purchase.

I called the processor and was told I had a $ 2500 limit on my account and that it had been reached! Well, since some of my items were under $ 5, it showed I was doing some business, but I didn't want to just "be open" 3 weeks a month.

The gracious lady right then bumped it up to $ 3000 and since it was a weekend, told me to call Monday and talk to them about a higher limit, she was not authorized to go over the 3000.

So, Monday I called and they went to $ 4000 and I've never heard from them again, although my sales have been much greater than $ 4000 since then.

I have seen posts elsewhere where people talk of having two or more processors, simply because of this situation. The processors are protecting themselves, until you have a track record with them, they assume the worse. After a year of zero or few chargebacks, no bogus sales, etc. things will loosen up.

You must remember, that regardless of how diligent they are, you could have any number of accounts with them, with each one collecting good sums of money and you never shipping. Nothing personal, and I don't mean you specifically, but they have been scammed and want to hold it to a minimum.

When you open a new standard merchant account they ask you such things as average sale amount, monthly transactions, total monthly sales, etc. That not only lets them adjust the fees, but gives them a template to use when setting limits on your account.

I'm a founding member of PayPalSucks, but in this case, they are only doing what all processors do.

BTW - I have found that while it takes some searching to find it, using their email support is a great way to contact them. Quick responses, well written and correct in the information. I'd give their email support 10 thumbs up, if I had them.

[Beefy]

Originally Posted by djw49

I was wondering if anyone knows of a phone number where you can actually reach a real person
Dan

Help Centre


Customer Service Centre

For general PayPal account questions, please call:
08707 307 191

Our opening hours are:
06:00:00 to 22:00:00 Monday through Friday.
08:00 AM to 10:00 PM GMT Saturday.
09:00:00 to 10:00 PM GMT Saturday.
We will only discuss account information with the account holder.



just had this happen to me !

[greedyboy]

PayPal do not like sellers of high risk items such as Consoles and mobile phones. They are just finding excuses to kick these sellers off to reduce their exposure of fraud. Whether this is right or wrong is another matter.

If you are serious about selling, open a merchant account with any of the major banks or processing companies.

[JPB]

They done it too me loads of times and its impossible to talk to them as its always a foreigner on the phone

[IF DISTRIBUTION]

If you are looking at putting a lot of sales through Paypal you would benefit by upgrading to a business account, which is a simple procedure. Many sellers tend to leave their accounts as Premier because that is all that is required to receive payments but may still mean there are limits set on the account. Also ensure you have fully verified your account, address, credit cards and bank details because they will lift any sending and receiving limits once you have done this.

To check if you have any sending or receiving limits login to your account and on the overview page where your current balance is displayed you will also see any limits set on the account. If there are no limits shown you should be OK.

[djw49]

thanks for all the replies. I have now managed to speak to them on the phone several times without them hanging up, (they must have been having a busy couple of days lol .
I have ascertained that as greedyboy said, they obviously dont give a s*** about my business or strangely the thousands they receive in fees from me. After submitting a scan of my passport, my driving license, a utility bill and tracking numbers for successful transactions worth over 30,000 GBP in two months they still won't fix my account. Thankfully though I have recovered over 5000 quid that was in the account, about 1/15 th of my buyers have requested refunds which you are still allowed to make when your account is limited, so I refunded them from the balance I had which is now down to about 250 gbp .
They are absolute c**** they refuse to give me the phone number of a rep. in their 'security' department who can deal with my case, they claim that their security department can only be contacted by email! I told them if that was the case then they clearly breached the anti-discrimination laws that came into force in the UK recently, because it would discriminate against blind people. They then told me that if someone was blind they were not allowed/able to use paypal, I again pointed out that this was discriminatory and then they told me that it didn't affect them cause they were based in Luxembourg so they were not affected by UK laws. Every time I get put through to them now I immediately ask to speak to their supervisor/boss and they give me the same answer. On a couple of occasions they have even admitted that the paypal system is at best inefficient, but there is nothing they can do cause they are simply doing their job???!!!!!!
Also in response to IF distribution, I did have a business account and they still did it! I even updated my estimated monthly turnover but this clearly had no effect.
Luckily I have a family member who has a paypal account I can use, although that is going to get 'limited' ie. We're taking your thousands of pounds, keeping it for 6 months interest free to pocket lots of profit and their isn't s*** you can do about it cause we don't have a proper phone number.
I asked the supervisor/boss who do the police/credit card companies speak to when they have a problem related to paypal... surprise surprise they said that they could not reveal this phone number due to 'company policy'
I HATE PAYPAL
If anyone has a real number for their 'security' department please let me know.
thanks again
Dan