Paypal froze my account just because I went to my credit card company for help

DeutscherGeist

Based on some earlier threads, including the recent one by fellow member RUTHFAN, I had to write my own piece on this topic. Paypal's buyer protection program is a joke according to the experiences of many collectors including the article that RuthFan set up a link to.

I bought a product from ebay that was supposedly factory sealed. I paid via paypal. When I received item, it was not sealed, but an open box. I contacted seller, but he ignored me. Not wanting to waste any time, I immediately contacted my visa card company and reported false advertising. They took my report and did a terrific job in helping me get the money back. I thought all was good until paypal sent me and email and basically said they did not appreciate what I did---that I should have gone through there steps to settle the dispute. Through their discretion, they could freeze my account where I could only receive funds and not make payments.

Months went by before I wanted to buy anything on ebay. When I finally won something on ebay (1984 Donruss Van Slyke rookie card) and wanted to pay via paypal to jtcards, it would not work. It would not work because of the chargeback I had done months ago. Luckily, jtcards accepts credit card payments directly.

Screw Paypal, what would they have done for me? They cannot be trusted. Their buyer protection would have never covered the complaint I had. They only cover stuff if it is not received and that's it. People can be sending me empty boxes all day long and Paypal would simply say that dispute of goods is not covered by them, only if item is not sent at all. I was well aware of this loop hole and did not want to be a victim by the scam artist seller or paypal itself. Now I can't use paypal anymore unless I do what they say. I am not going to even try that because I think they will just hose me. Let them keep my account frozen. Big deal. I refuse to be a victim of their loop hole, why can't anyone respect that.

Board members, this is an outrage. Paypal is basically giving a free pass to unscrupulous sellers. Well, the only bright spot is that I can still buy from jtcards using my credit card, so I am fine.

wolfbear

"Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid"

So you got burnt once with paypal.
Those of us that have been using eBay and paypal for years,
realize that not everyone is honest. Sometimes the crooks win.
Have you ever done business in real life ?

So bad things happen like .001 %, or whatever % of the time.
Deal with it, and move on ... the BENEFITS of eBay and paypal more than make up for the occasional bad transaction ...

Vargha

PayPal will eventually be sued for how they do business. Mark my words. Even Visa and MasterCard (as associations) have had to face the music for their heavy-handed actions.

bowlking

LOL, Ebay and Paypal have a monolpoly right now, they have some benefites, but it will only take ONE competitor to take a major dent out of Ebay's profits. Due to that monopoly, Ebay and Paypal's customer service SUCKS. They are the absolute worst I have ever seen in ANY business EVER. I, too, can't wait until someone has the marbles to sue both of them and see what happens.

packCollector

I have heard of people speak about paypal freezing accounts for doing a chargeback. There must be some other circumstances associated with it. I have had to do chargebacks twice when the seller never sent me anything on 2 large transactions and paypal got me like $20 through their buyer protection. Once for 2300 and most recently for over 10,000 to our friend crazy canuck. Paypal has not frozen my account and I would think if they were going to freeze anyone, it would be me based on the size of the transactions. Paypal is awful for buyer protection so if you do not know the seller, fund it with a credit card. I think paypal is great, I would not buy 1/2 the things I do if I had to write a check and go to the mailbox every time. and how does ebay sucks, everyone has access to the cards they want and it has facilitated the growth in graded cards and most likely the value of everyones collections. my 2 cents. Happy New Year

habs71

<< <i>PayPal will eventually be sued for how they do business. Mark my words. >>



Already happened a few times....no idea what the results were though.

Here's one....
PayPal Suit

A Google search will give you more.



Skip

pc

paypal seems to be nothing more than an electronic check.
if you desire credit card protection you should use your credit card.
if you desire u.s.postal protection use the us post office mail.
if you desire paypal "buyer protection" guess what to use?

helionaut

Ever since I got a credit card that gave me points for dollars I spend, I use that for my Paypal purchases. The only problem I've ever had with a seller on ebay was someone who sold me a card listed as a 1975 PSA 8 Aaron but was a g-vg raw card when it arrived. The seller said that his cousin had decided to keep the PSA holder, or some such nonsense, and he wished me good luck. I complained to Paypal and their response was that they would not intervene in a question over the condition of an item. I responded to them saying that a PSA card is essentially a unique item and I was not delivered the item I purchased. I never heard anything back from them. When I filed a fraud report with ebay, the seller refunded my money ASAP, though.

So for me, while I think Paypal is a great service and the hobby in general is better for it, their customer service when it comes to fair resolution of legitimate disputes is severely lacking.